You might have seen my piece on Wednesday on how to approach those things that create an expensive life. In that piece, I used my brand new “Pilgrim-cam” – a Canon FS20. I absolutely love the camera, but I will never buy a Canon product as long as I can draw a breath. I normally don’t like to unleash the wrath of Pilgrim if I can help it, but in this case I’m going to make an exception.
Let me explain the cause of my consternation. As I mentioned in the video, I had been using a Flip Cam, which is great – small, light, good quality and really easy to use. You just record and connect to your computer. The camera does the rest. The only problem is that it’s so small, I can’t find it at home! I went out to replace the Flip cam.
photo by Jessicafm, FlikrI did a little research, but apparently not as much as I should have. I explained exactly what my needs were to the nice young man at Best Buy and after spending about 45 minutes with me, he suggested the Canon. Mind you, I explained to my Best Buy Buddy that I am 100% non-techie. (Those of you who know me in the PF blogging world are rolling your eyes with the magnitude of understatement in that…but I digress.) He assured me the Canon would do the trick. I asked him three times about the ease of editing and downloading videos to the internet.
My Best Buy Boy reassured me, so I released my credit card from its usual lockdown and bought my Canon. I got the camera home, and indeed its recording features were impressive. But then it came time to edit my videos, and that’s when I started getting frustrated. The camera comes with editing software but absolutely no editing features. I mean nothing. It was completely useless. I tried to use Windows Movie Maker to edit, but that didn’t work. I called my pal at Best Buy, who told me that Movie Maker doesn’t work with XP (my operating system).
This is strange because I edited all the Flip cam videos with Movie Maker on my XP machine. To his credit, the lad at Best Buy really did work hard to try to help me. In fact he gets an A for effort, but he just didn’t have enough background to solve my problem. In the end, I had to rely on the luck of the Pilgrim – which always seems to come through. I stumbled upon a great program that edits the Canon videos with no problem – it’s called Video Pad (not an affiliate link). Mind you, this was after five frustrating hours in which I drove my middle daughter and everyone else in my home completely crazy.
So…here is my question to you: Does all the responsibility lie with me – the consumer? Or do the retailer and manufacturer bear the weight? All in all, I have no real issue with Best Buy. They have so many products that it wouldn’t be fair to expect them to know all the ins and outs of every product they have. I have a huge problem with Canon. I can absolutely guarantee that nobody in the Canon factory ever tried to actually edit a video using the software they provide. So, am I off on this? Are my tech skills so poor that it’s my fault? Was it my fault for not doing enough research? Is it OK for Canon to assume I’m an electrical engineer? Have you ever encountered such a problem? I’m out of the loop for a few days and won’t be able to respond to your comments right away, but I will later…so please let me know your thoughts.
Loretta says
You can download Google’s free photo/video editing program called Picasa from their website. Try it and see if it has the features you want for editing. The price is right—FREE!!! I have been using it for years with XP without a problem.
Neal says
Thanks! I check into that!
Justin says
I think cannon makes some great products, but i agree, i wouldn’t use their software, or any bundled software for that manner. Movie Maker for windows has changed a lot since XP, and while XP is considered “better” than vista, you gotta remember that XP is OLD in terms of computers and software.
There is nothing else on the market that is going to replace the flip. If the flip was so great, and the problem is simply you misplaced it, perhaps you should get another flip and a large case which is hard to misplace!
Oh, and working with salespeople on a daily basis, I do think that they should be responsible for knowing the product, so I do put some fault on the best Buy buddy, however I would also put some fault on you for not looking into the product more before purchasing.
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Neal says
Right Justin….that might have been the way to go!
Jeremy says
Well, personally the only cameras (video or still) I own and will ever buy are Canon. They are fantastic.
I will say one thing, and it’s that I NEVER go into Best Buy or any electronics retail store without already knowing exactly what I want by researching online. I’ve also learned the hard way in the past that you can’t rely on the salespeople in those stores.
Chris Stoll says
If I read correctly there were two parts to your intention: to 1) take movies with the camera and to 2) edit them on your computer.
I don’t see why you would never buy a Canon again, you said that the camera worked perfectly. The tool you purchased to accomplish task 1 performed its function. When I look at the Amazon product page for this camera I see no mention of editing software, so I assume Canon doesn’t feel this is one of the products strengths.
It would seem logical to be angry with the guy from Best Buy for suggesting that the free software bundled with the camera would work easily for editing, or to be angry with Microsoft for leaving features out of Windows Movie Maker. Canon makes cameras, not software, so I am personally inclined to give them a pass here.
I enjoy reading personal finance sites like yours, but sometimes frugal choices have these seemingly unrelated consequences latter on, especially with technology. (Bear with me, I know this is slightly tangential) Sometimes when a non-technical person asks me what computer to buy, depending upon their intended use, I recommend Apple products. Most times the higher price of Apple products is sited, then I’m chastised for suggesting expensive “name brand” or “designer” computer equipment, and the person buys a cheap commodity PC. These people also frequently come back to me when they are having problems such as with the inability to edit movies, which is what this post reminded me of (I’m not chastising you, that’s just the bit of association that went on in my head).
I feel that you get what you pay for (though I hate paying for useless and unneeded features), and the reason for the cheaper price is not always be immediately evident.
Neal says
Fair. In all honesty, I didn’t buy the Canon to save money – I was interested in saving time.
I made that pretty clear to the sales person. I agree with many of the comments that the camera does it’s job – but editing is a big part of the functionality in my opinion. That’s what I was shopping for. In the future, I’d probably ask many more questions and look for some reviews on editing. Maybe even insist on a demonstration.
Charles says
I would say responsibilty is between you and salesman: he sold and you bought something you did not want.
Do you trust your BestBuy salesman? I dont.
I spend a lot of time researching, enquiring anything I buy above $100.
It makes sense.
Due diligence?