Well. I'm posting this to warn prospective buyers and to see if anyone has a suggestion that may solve the problem I'm having with this camera. The video clips recorded by the camera in 4:3 mode (widescreen off) have black bars on either side when seen with any other program besides the ImageMixer editor included with the camcorder. ImageMixer is a VERY limited NLE so if I'm trying to bring the clips into my Adobe Premier (v7.0), I do a conversion to an avi using Prism but when I look at the clip in Premier, it has these black bars on each side of the frame.
I have spoken with Canon tech support who inform me that this camera records native video in 16:9 (720 x 480) and that its 4:3 is a "chopped off" version, so the black bars are part of the deal. Tech support suggested a "third party" software but gave no suggestions.
Any thoughts on how to get around this?? I have been trying just about everything but nothing seems to work.

Just quickly without thinking too much about it, I would shoot in 16:9 but make sure the framing suites 4:3 (don't let things get too close to the edges). Then edit it in Premier as 16:9, but export it as 4:3 as the final stage.

Or import the 16:9 footage into a 4:3 canvas/project, so you can see how it will look when exported, as you're working on it.