I've owned this camcorder for over a year and I'm way overdue with a review of the HG10.
Let's start with the specs:
As usual, Canon falls back to its habit of nesting options in folders - one must carefully review the location of the feature in order to avoid screwing up a video - I speak from a mountain of experience. The flip out video screen is not a touch screen, you have a joystick controller to move through the options. The audio is what it is, however, you have the option to add a shotgun microphone to this camera. An option that will greatly improve the audio capture.
Kudos goes to the Canon warranty that comes with the camera. A week after I bought the camera, I accidentally broke the zoom control. After contacting Canon technical support to trouble shoot the problem, they were quick to refer me to a local Canon repair shop. All the paperwork was emailed to me with a stamped self addressed shipping label; within a few days, I was contacted by a repair technician who verified the problem and gave an estimate repair time. This repair was covered by the warranty - no out of pocket expenses were incurred. All repairs were completed in a timely fashion and to my satisfaction.
Overall, this is an easy to use HD camcorder that gives great value for the dollar. If you are in the market to move to a more sophisticated video camcorder, you cannot go wrong with the Canon HG10.
Let's start with the specs:
This is a palm sized camcorder that packs a punch! It shoots HD video with a decent zoom feature and consistently returns great video footage. I highly recommend this camera if you are considering spending extra money on a HD camcorder. It comes fully loaded with features that I can appreciate as a photographer - great focus and bokeh. I've captured a bit of that in the video created for this review:Standard Definition or High Definition: High Definition
Power Consumption: Approx. 3.6W-4.9W
Image Sensor: 1/2.7" CMOS Sensor, RGB Primary Color Filter
Total Pixels: Approx. 2.96 Megapixels
Effective Pixels: Movies (HDD): Approx 2.07 Megapixels (1920 x 1080); Still Images (Card): 4:3 mode: Approx 2.76 Megapixels (1920 x 1440); 16:9 mode: 2.07 Megapixels (1920 x 1080)
Still Recording Pixels: Approximately 3.1 Megapixels (2048 x 1536)
Maximum recording time:
XP+: 5 hours 30 minutes
XP: 9 hours 30 minutes
SP: 11 hours 30 minutes
LP: 15 hours.
Lens: Zoom Ratio 10x Optical/200x Digital
Focal Length: 6.1-61mm
Zoom Speed: Variable/3 Fixed Zoom Speeds
Max. F/Stop: f/1.8-3.0mm (HDD)
Filter Size: 43 mm
Focusing System: Instant AF, through the lens
Manual focusing possible
Manual Focus Assist Functions Magnifying, Peaking
Manual Exposure: Yes
Programmed AE: Auto, Program, Av, Tv, Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, Fireworks
Supported Playback Modes: 1080/60i, 1080/24F
As usual, Canon falls back to its habit of nesting options in folders - one must carefully review the location of the feature in order to avoid screwing up a video - I speak from a mountain of experience. The flip out video screen is not a touch screen, you have a joystick controller to move through the options. The audio is what it is, however, you have the option to add a shotgun microphone to this camera. An option that will greatly improve the audio capture.
Kudos goes to the Canon warranty that comes with the camera. A week after I bought the camera, I accidentally broke the zoom control. After contacting Canon technical support to trouble shoot the problem, they were quick to refer me to a local Canon repair shop. All the paperwork was emailed to me with a stamped self addressed shipping label; within a few days, I was contacted by a repair technician who verified the problem and gave an estimate repair time. This repair was covered by the warranty - no out of pocket expenses were incurred. All repairs were completed in a timely fashion and to my satisfaction.
Overall, this is an easy to use HD camcorder that gives great value for the dollar. If you are in the market to move to a more sophisticated video camcorder, you cannot go wrong with the Canon HG10.
|