Casio FS200

[beefeater]

Hi

I have paid 200GBP for what I have discovered is a god awful camcorder. I used to have a JVC DV camcorder that had really good quality video output, then I got the dreaded 'lens cap' error one day. Because of the way JVC UK treated me over this problem I vowed I would never purchase another JVC product, so when the time came to purchase a replacement I decided to buy the Canon Legria FS200.

Firstly I have to say the camera build quality is OK, but the video file format used and the resulting quality of the video is appalling. I don't think I've got a rogue machine, I think that other FS200 users are very tolerant. The software and mini USB cable supplied are worse than useless.

My computer doesn't even recognise the camcorder when it's connected!

I have tried numerous items of software suggested on various sites to download the .MOD files from my SD card and none have succeeded in transferring the video in widescreen format except AnyVideoConverter converting to Mpeg 2 with the output frame size set to 720x480 as opposed the native MOD size of 720x576 (this is because the widescreen information is in an additional .moi file).

Apparently there are other manufacturers like JVC who are supplying camcorders using the same format. All I've got to say to that is god help us all.

Can you tell me if you believe the quality of output you have received from this type of camcorder is value for money?