Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Good in Low Light; Great Picture Quality; Great Sound; Great Zoom; Zoom range/performance

Complicated To Operate; Not for Beginners; Poor Still Image

Everyday Use, Travel, Home Movies, Special Events

Easy to Use; Compact; Good Value; Great Design; Quality Construction

Heavy

In the burgeoning market of hand-held pro camcorders, the tape-based Canon XH A1S isn't anything close to ground-breaking. Still, with a $4000 price tag, it is a reasonably-priced model that's loaded with features and did quite well in our performance testing.

We like the Canon XH A1S, but its tape-based recording system is a bit outdated in our increasingly non-linear world. Many pro camcorders are beginning to include the ability to record video to memory cards, just like the bulk of the consumer camcorder market, thus making it much easier to get...

Perfect picture and sound! SD picture look awsome too. The 1080 picture is what you would expect from High Def. I love this camera I have 2 of them and I want 2 more! For the most part there are no problems with this camera.

Comfortable to Operate; Durable; Great Features; Great Picture Quality; Great Sound; Simple Controls

No live Letterbox output; No WB Tansfer

XH A1 by Canon is a relatively lightweight HD camcorder loaded with impressive feature set. It's a great choice for users ranging from film students to professionals.

I have owned this camera for over 4 months and have loved it. I havent been able to do much work with it but in the little I have done it has served me well. I suggest that you buy a shot gun mike with it, nothing to fancy about 200$ is fine, also get a polarizing filter and a clear UV filter that...

Great HD image quality; lot of features for a modest price; down-converts to SD 16:9 and 4:3; for the price amazing low light!; XLR imputs; Phantom power

The lens is non remove able; no 720p but i have never needed it; built in mike is low quality and is very loose

This model was reviewed as part of our group test of HD camcorders . Last year, Canon's XH-A1 bowled us over with its keen price and exceptional capabilities in low light. But the market has moved forward – particularly Sony's offerings.

The Filmmakers' Camcorder – Canon XH A1 Deigned for the digital filmmaker, the Canon XH A1 HDV camcorder delivers full manual control and a range of advanced functions into a compact design.

I've had this camcorder for only 2 months but the quality of the recordings are truly impressive. I've used Sony, Canon and Panasonic in the past including 3 CCD models and this is easily the best in terms of picture and sound quality (although an external microphone helps as usual).