It is fair to say that Canon has been pumping out the camcorder models of late - no less than five new ones have crossed my desk in the last 3 weeks and I believe there are more to come. Of these, probably the tiniest is the Legria FS36, weighing in at a lowly 225 g and sittingvery comfortably in the palm of the hand.

Canon claim it is so small, you can take it anywhere, but seriously, who'd want it in their trouser pocket? And penny pinching by not providing neck straps means carrying it by hand all the time can be a little awkward. Driving for example.

Seriously though, the FS36 has a lot going for it. It is Flash memory based with 8GB inbuilt and with another 32GB card added (sold separately), you should get around 26 hours of video squeezed in. And that's a lot!

The FS36 sports a proper Canon lens as well, not an el cheapo plastic one, and the zoom is a very respectable 41x. Excellent for sports, but not too long that pixilation would occur. Stabilisation however is the lesser effective electronic type (not optical in other words). Oh and you can snap off stills while still rolling on video capture too and to (hopefully) make sure you don't miss anything a Quick Start mode is provided as is a 3 second pre-record function.

Especially impressive is the flip out LCD that has a brightness control and backlighting. In glaring afternoon sun with my back to it and the light full on the LCD, it was still quite easy to frame shots.  Of course, as is the norm these days, there is no viewfinder (or external mic port).

There is an AV port however for connecting to a TV (or headphone out) and a USB port for downloading footage for computer based editing.

One other thing is the quick charge facility. On a quick 10min charge, you'll get 30mins of shooting time. Impressive.

On board controls are all pretty standard these days and the layout seems to have ordered itself into a de facto standard around a rear mounted circular fashion, top mounted rocker tele/wide and under-the-LCD for lesser used switches such as battery level and a secondary snap shot button. Some controls are also repeated on the bezel of the LCD for convenience, depending upon how you hold the camera. Menus are accessed and set using a small joystick also on the bezel.

And apart from a self closing lens cover, that's about it. There is nothing especially remarkable about the FS36, but it isn't that sort of camera either. Its market at $449 is the a-bit-more-than-a-beginner but not quite almost-an-enthusiast if that makes sense. And it is ideally suited.

www.canon.com.au

Price: $449

We liked...

• No frills
• 3 sec pre-record
• Auto lens protection
• LCD
• Dual shot
• Lightweight  at only 225 grams
• Quick charge

We didn't like...

• No viewfinder

Auscam Scoreboard

Performance                      8

Documentation                   8

Features                           7

Setup                               7

Value for Money                  8

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com