Canon may not have been first out of the gate with a flash-based camcorder--or second, or third--but its debut model, the high-definition Vixia
HF10, gets it right the first time. A sleek, black compact model
with a well-rounded feature set, great video, and excellent
performance, the HF10 definitely deserves a spot on your short list
of potential home-movie camcorders.
Camcorder Guru's rating:
5 out of 10
Pros
-
Excellent video quality
- Fast focus
compact & attractive
- Comfortable design.
Cons
- There is no eyepiece, so one should rely solely on LCD
- Wind filter not as dependable as previous Canon models
- Manual focus pretty useless
- - AVCHD format is still yet to catch up
- - Proprietary shoe? Now you cannot use standard third-party mics or lights, at least not without shoe converter.
- Memory is extra cost apart from price of
camcorder
-
Slippery when holding in hand
- No option to record to SD
Features
- Digital Effects - For those who want to have a little bit of fun with their video before you get it to an editor you can add fade-t and wipe transitions and Black & White, Sepia and Art (or solarization) effects.
- Backlight Compensation - This feature adjusts the light to expose the foreground better, so if you have a subject standing in the shade with a lot of light behind them BLC will allow you to bring out the details in your subject better.
- Quick Start - This places the Canon Vixia HF10 in a low-power standby mode that consumes less power but lets you start the camcorder up more quickly as opposed to turning it off completely
Commentary
The Canon Vixia HF10 is the first Canon
camcorder to catch the wave of the future
with recording to flash media. There are
several benefits to flash media, including
the speed, not worrying about damaging it
with a drop, and the ease of popping out a
memory card and transferring your clips to
other devices. Also, the on-camera playback
mode is mush faster and the battery time is
increased. We’re happy to see that Canon
isn’t forcing you to go out and purchase an
SDHC card, as the Canon Vixia HF10 has 16GB
of internal memory to get you started. Of
course the problem with flash compared to an
HDD device like the Canon Vixia HG10 is that
storage is more limited. However, card
capacities are growing quickly and at a
certain point you will have “enough”
storage.
Apart from the support for flash media the
Canon Vixia HF10 also add support for full
1920 x 1080 video capture at 17Mbps. This is
a slightly higher bitrate than the Sony
HDR-HR12, which tops out at 16Mbps with the
same resolution. The Canon Vixia HF10 also
adds 30P recording, which will aid in the
quality when downcoverting to a web-friendly
15fps, and provides yet another look for
your video besides 60i and 24P. The Canon
Vixia HF10 also shed some weight and size,
making it one of the smaller HD camcorders
on the market. This comes at a cost,
however, as the Canon Vixia HF10 has
contracted the “mini” disease with both mini
HDMI and a Mini Advanced Shoe. Be prepared
to shell out for some new accessories.
Canon may not have been first out of the gate with a flash-based camcorder--or second, or third--but its debut model, the high-definition Vixia
HF10, gets it right the first time. A sleek, black compact model
with a well-rounded feature set, great video, and excellent
performance, the HF10 definitely deserves a spot on your short list
of potential home-movie camcorders.
5 out of 10