 |
Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer |
This light and easy to carry camcorder is amazing, and the price was unbeatable! The images are sharp and clean, and it's very easy to use, with very little help from the directions (which I keep handy in case I get stuck, because I'm constantly finding new things it will do - things I wouldn't miss if Canon hadn't thought of them, but which I'm really happy to discover. Truthfully, I'll probably never use all the features, because I'm an amateur, but it's nice to know they are there and that you don't have to learn all the technicalities of advanced use in order to get good service from this great camera. I love being able to store tons of stuff right on the hard drive so that I'm not pressured to process the videos to make room for more. That fits in with my busy, crazy life! The battery life is very satisfactory as well. I'm sure this video camera will give me years of great service!
1. AVDHD codec (.m2ts file extention)is not supported by the majority of popular players and editing software, including WMP and quicktime. Additoinally, the software included with the camera, which ostensibly provides basic viewing and editing/disc authoring functions, is terrible to the point of being virtually useless. If you buy one of these cameras you will need to buy some fairly expensive editing software if you plan on viewing your footage on anything besides the camera itself.
2. Some parts of the camera have a cheap feel, such as the pull-away dust covers over the aux microphone and output jacks - these do not fit snugly on my unit and will come out of position, exposing the jacks, just from shaking the camera. The selection dial next to the screen is too small for average man-size fingers and it's action has a loose, undapened (cheap) feel to it. Although I can't complain with the performance of the camera, it's dissapointing that a product that purports to be made in Japan has such a low-end feel to it.
3. Will not store still photos to the HDD!! What is that about? I don't understand why Canon not only forces you to use a serperate storage media for stills, but also chose the 'mini SD' format (halfway between standard SD and micro SD), which is arguably the rarest of card formats around. Even sony's proprietary 'memory sticks' are easier to find. The only way I could get a 'mini SD' card for my HG10 was to buy an adapter that accepts a 'micro SD' card.
Aside from these few complaints, this is a great camera and I have enjoyed using it to record hours of precious memories with nary a glitch in performance. Good battery life and brilliant picture quality in either HD mode. Considering it rivals some cameras in the $1000 range for performance and features, this is an excellent value. The OIS is possibly the best feature, and it quells the jitters from hand-held shooting even at the lense's longest focal lenth.
Posee un modo cine que te hará sentir el próximo Steven Spielberg, sin lugar a dudas esta cámara hará las delicias de cualquier usuario promedio y llegara a complacer a un semi-profesional.
Otro punto a favor es su disco duro, que según la calidad de la filmación que escojamos podremos guardar horas de video.
Las fotografías de esta cámara son muy aceptables, vamos es una filmadora, no una cámara digital, pero cumple con su cometido y de manera muy honrosa, puedes antes de encender la cámara seleccionar si la usaras en modo cámara digital o como filmadora, algo que me ha parecido interesante, eso sí a la hora de usarla como cámara será necesario una tarjeta de memoria miniSD para poder almacenar las fotografías en ella, algo sin problemas debido al bajo precio en el que puedes encontrar estas tarjetas en este momento en el mercado.
Como nada es perfecto lo único a lo que realmente se le debe prestar atención es al formato de grabación que es AVCHD un formato no muy extendido y que te puede dar dolores de cabeza a la hora de editar.
Si piensas reproducir los videos en la computadora puedes hacerlo con los programas que incluye pero si tu idea es hacerlo en windows media player no te reconocerá el formato de video, inconveniente que se soluciona instalando un codec.
Sin más que agregar, muy recomendable, fue mi elección luego de un pequeño pero exhaustivo estudio de las filmadoras disponibles al momento, en cuanto a relación calidad y precio para el público al que va dirigida.
It also takes 350 mb of space to store just 15 minutes of video. So I have decided to buy tape based camcorder and have ordered Canon HV 30.
First is ease of use. While it took me a while to browse through the instruction manual, when I actually started trying out the various functions, I found it surprisingly easy to set up modes/lighting conditions/resolutions/switch between still and movie/etc. The function button/+ key navigation took only a few minutes to get used to, and the on screen descriptions of what you're selecting have enough detail that you don't have to be a veteran user familiar with all the acronyms associated with picture taking to figure out what each item is. The camera is quite light and easy to hold, even for extended time periods, and the LCD display was quite visible even in bright sunlight. The zoom control is conveniently available to your fingers while holding it, and the zoom control itself is neither too sensitive nor too slow to react, and the zoom speed mode adjust is great for certain special situations.
I note that many have complained about shooting in low-light conditions causing excessive graininess in the results, but I have not observed this yet, shooting indoors with what I consider quite low light. The camera also seems to handle large light differentials quite easily: I had my wife take some shots of me while bowling (a feat in itself, as she is definitely not a camera person, so being able to do this is testimony to its ease of use). Bowling alleys have quite bright lighting on the alley itself, while the area behind the alleys is usually very dimly lit. The resulting videos that swing between both the dark/light areas and those taken from dark to light and vice versa show no flaring/glare marks or loss of focus. And the videos had more than enough resolution for me to be able to discern some mistakes I was making in my approach and ball delivery, which is very good as the critical items in bowling happen very quickly and in a very small area (wrist and fingers).
I was very pleased with the camera's close in focusing capability, finding it possible to film a beetle crawling on my rose bushes from just a couple of inches away. The 10x telephoto not only works well, it remains quite steady with the auto stabilizer on. Still picture resolution is more than adequate for anything except high-detail professional portraits, and compares well with shots taken with my 5 megapixel still camera.
I was a little unhappy with the audio quality using the built in microphone, as it seemed a little muffled and indistinct for any sounds more than about 5 feet away, while close sounds (i.e., me talking while filming) could be overly loud.
Battery life is a definite problem. The advertised approximate 1 hour on the provided battery is perhaps a little optimistic, and for any extended day trip where you expect to use the camera throughout the day I'd recommend carrying at least one and preferably two spare batteries.
Transferring videos from the camera to my computer was quite easy, and did not seem to take an excessively long time for the given file sizes, but I was not happy with the provided Corel software requiring an online registration to use it at all. Are they really so concerned about piracy that this step is necessary? The functionality of this software is ok, though it probably won't win prizes, but it does provide enough features to do most of commonly required editing and archiving tasks.
For a camera costing this much, I wish that they had included three very vital accessories: a miniSD card for still photos, a miniHDMI-HDMI cable, and a carrying strap. The cable is almost unfindable in stores, you'll need to order it on-line, but once you have it and hook up the camera to an HD TV, the results are truly amazing, looking like the demo shots you often see on the HDTV's in-store displays.
Overall, this is an excellent camcorder, with great ease-of-use and video results that are outstanding. It makes earlier technology camcorders seem positively ancient.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
a) Did both still images and video reasonably well
b) Gave me the ability to walk into any event with only one device to carry (kids soccer games to parties to a 2 week vacation)
c) Easy to use, with good picture quality
d) Minimal hassles all the way from shooting the video/stills to downloading and modifying the video/stills.
d) Wasn't bleeding edge! So, I was paying through my nose.
e) Wouldn't be outdated in a matter of a year.
This lead me to the Canon HG10. It is an excellent Camcorder with really good video capture. The optics on this camera are great. The 10X optical zoom was just at the edge of recording steady video while holding it.
Highlights:
1) Stunning video
2) Still images look very good (not great)
3) Zoom serves our needs for most indoor shooting. Not great for outdoor but adequate and we have not run into a need where the action was not captured in detail.
4) Video compression using AVCHD makes for ample recording time on the 40 GB hard drive.
5) Image stabilizer works well and removes any shaking (trembling)
6) Easy to use menu system that did not require me to consult a manual
7) Basic connectors to laptop, TV part of package
8) Charges with both 220V and 110V power source (important for vacations)
9) Price is lesser than most comparable quality cameras
Lowlights:
1) Feels a bit combersome to use if you have bigger hands
2) Not as small or light as the other newer camcorders that have hard drives
3) Video software is unintuitive
4) Zoombrowser is not as good as Picasa (freeware from Google) for most still image tasks.
5) The AVCHD video is unrecognized by Windows Media but plays on it once you manually configure it.
6) Not a lot of editing capabilities for HD video
7) This is not true 1080P (I was not looking for it though)
8) There are very few functions that are available in still mode (so it does not do more than Aim, Zoom and Shoot)
9) You have to splurge on a MiniSD card (additional $40) for still images (otherwise that mode is disabled)
10) HDMI cables are extra and cost a pretty penny (true for most camcorders)
This camcorder served most of our requirements but for good still images, I will still have to reach for a camera. For most casual shooting, this is a perfect camcorder/camera and we are loving it!
I had a JVC miniDV that worked great but wanted to upgrade to HDD. I don't own HDTV or blue ray player any of those fancy stuff. Still I bought this (as who knows when I'll win a lottery and suddenly own all these :) . I was also scared that this thing will never work on my Laptop which has 1.66 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM.
Well results are amazing. I tested both video and photo. Tried all the modes like Cine with 24fps, night mode. Tried effects like Sepia . I was able to use the software provided by COrel to transfer the video to my Laptop without any issue. I even burnt a DVD thats playing on my normal DVD player and the quality is great ...
Moral of the story you don't need to be a rocket scientist or pro to use this or burn DVD's. Make sure you read the manual carefully before using
cheers
Jag
From 1 to 10 I will rate 9.8!!!
Video quality is absolutly beautiful, even in the LP mode.
Batery life is pretty good.
Plenty of record time on the 40GB HD.
It takes great still pics in picture mode.
It takes great pics while simultainiously taking video footage.
The size of the camera is pretty good for my large hands.
Transfering the files to my PC is very easy using the Canon Backup Utility.
The rest of the supplied software is useless. It wont run on my PC.
As for editing the AVCHD files I've found two programs that handle it very well. Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0 ($69.99 on Amazon) and Ulead Video Studio 11.5 Plus ($69.99 on Amazon). Depending on you PC configuration you may get some jerky playback while editing. But the finished video will be fine. If you set the preview quality in Vegas to "Preview Auto" it will do away with most if not all of it.
The Sony program is envolved and very powerful but will take some time to learn. The Ulead program is much more user friendly for the novice. You can download a trial version of each one www.sonycreativesoftware.com and www.ulead.com.
I've also found that having a nice big external drive, I use a 1TB My Book, will speed up processing or compression times when reading from one drive and writing the finished video to another drive.
Useful additions to you HG10:
Canon BP-2L24H extended run battery
Canon CB-2LW battery charger
Canon hot shoe video light
A good fluid head tripod
A large external hard drive to store the raw files.
UPDATE: 7/14/08
Still love the my HG10. My comment is on saftware. I recently have to upgrade my computer and purchase an HP quad core, 1TB HD, 4gb of ram running Vista Home Premium 64bit. Sony Vegas does not support 64bit Vista yet but Ulead 11.5 does and it is utilizes the quad core processor as well. Ulead is not as advanced as Sony but until Sony gets it together Ulead is it for me. I converted a 4.5 minute HD video to a hd 1280x720 wmv in about 8-9 minutes. On my old dual core machine that would have taken at least a good hour.
In general I like the camcorder specially the video quality. So far I love it.
He loved it. The high definition quality is great and we captured our anniversary as though we were still there. We have been completely happy with the camcorder. We have played it back on high definition TVs and it compares with the travel channel.
Pros:
Compact
Amazingly crisp outdoor quality
Easy menus
East to dump files to computer
Quick Start feature is a plus
Decent quality on still shots
Accessory shoe on top is nice for light and mic attachments
Has a little LED light for low-light situations (not very strong though)
Cons:
Editing software is VERY basic.
Low light situations make grainy vid quality (To do better you need to spend at least $3000 on a camcorder).
When dumping to computer, the camcorder needs to be connected to power source which is a pain.
24p Cinematic mode is useless, panning is very jerky and choppy when turned on.
Over-all great camcorder. Would definately recommend
The build in camera with high def images is an added plus. No need to carry both a camera and camcorder any longer. Just got back from a week at Disneyland with the family and had the opportunity to use the software. If you follow the instructions you will be just fine. Plan on buying an external hard drive and using it just for conversion unless you have a high end machine. I went with a 180 gig external and set up the editing. Let it convert over night and ready to burn. Then just dup the DVD's as needed.
I would highly recommend this product... Have fun...
Todd Weeden
Allow me to share my experience using the software that came with the HG10.
The only problem I had installing it was registering it with Ulead because I already was a registered user who hadn't used my account for ages. I tried creating a new account and it was rejected because my email address was already in their data bank. Took me 15 minutes to straighten myself out.
Uploading data from camcorder to PC is easy but cumbersome because you need to use the external power supply. Cardinal rule #1: Go nowhere without ALL the supplied cables and power supply. The warning message about disconnecting cables displayed on the camcorder's display during upload is confusing.
My first DVD produced was a HS LaCrosse game (the battery had life after recording the game for over an hour). I just selected the PC folder with the proper date and selected all the scenes. The software placed the scenes on the DVD in reverse chronological order because my XP machine listed them in its folder as latest first. I reversed the order on the HD by sorting on creation time but it didn't aid production sequencing, I still had to order the scenes manually by selecting them in the proper sequence. With 72 scenes, it was tedious.
This first DVD was in hi-def and took about 90 minutes, start of rendering to finished disk, to make. The picture off the DVD was as good as that straight off the camcorder. I'm using a PS3 for playing hi-def DVD's. HDMI cables in both cases.
Next I made a standard DVD to pass around. Rendering time was over 4 1/2 hours. You need lots of patience. Users with limited computer experience beware you will probably give up and kill the operation. The disk produced is good, I was impressed, even though there are noticeable flaws and picture quality is less than the hi-def version but it is playable on standard DVD players in addition to the PS3 (Ichecked it on a Samsung).
The DVD disk produced has a format that is foreign to XP, you'll need to use the manufacturer's software to play and copy them on a PC. Its taking me 20 minutes to make a copy, disk to disk.
DO NOT FORGET CARDINAL RULE #1, mentioned in the beginning.
And I gave it 3 stars because I wanted to be dead center neutral. You know what you are getting, an inexpensive no frills camcorder that takes good videos.
Where is there a user group for HG10?
All the best with your HG10,
J e r
The camera can record up to 15mbps, which is twice the visual data that DVDs push. I recorded a metal band in a dimly lit nightclub and picture quality was great (audio was alright). When the video was downgraded to DVD quality, it still looked great (better to work with a high quality source).
I have two problems with it:
Bulky-sure it's small, but it's bulky.
Long videos are split into smaller clips. Be mindful when shooting long clips that the camera will split the video into smaller chunks.
Much smaller than my old Canon Optura Xi
Fantastic 1080i HD @ 60 frames per second
Can convert to 1080p @ 30 frames per second (with help...)
Image stabilization works well at maximum zoom
Uncompressed AVCHD has much better quality than flash based MPEG4 cameras
Good low-light performance
Cons:
Stills are useless (just frame-grab from video - same quality)
Much bigger than my friends new Panasonic (it is only SD though)
Wish the camera did 1080p natively :(
24p mode is useless.
Notes:
I also bought a Sanyo Xacti 720p - the Canon is *way* better. The Sanyo has pretty bad compression artifacts including jaggies and macroblocking. On the other hand, the Sanyo takes much better still pictures.
Also, I tried using Apple iMovie '08 to edit - would not de-interlace at 1080p, only 720p. So if you want to convert to 1080p, you will need another video editor (I bought Final Cut Express 4, but have not tried it yet...)
1. use an external mic if you really care about sound quality. the internal mic is ok, but it picks up the (very quiet) lens sounds during focusing and zooming, and it is located on top of the camera instead of the front... so you get the sound of your own breathing instead of what you really want to hear, the stuff in front of the lens.
2. invest in Sony Vegas Movie Studio for editing this footage. totally solid software and works great with the AVCHD footage.
3. make a lot of backups! we've all been using various magnetic tapes (and even film) for years and years, many of them still sitting on shelves and ready to be pulled and played in some ancient system if you wanted to relive some old memories... DVD-Rs are not permanent! if you only backup to them, you'll try to play/copy/read them a few years in the future and they won't work. That fantastic video you got of your new baby will be gone when the kid gets old enough to want to watch it. Get those video files on to some form of magnetic media (harddrives are cheap) and archive, archive, archive.
- doesn't record in multiple resolutions. I can live with that.
- "mode" button looks like a zoom button. You get used to it.
- wider angle lens would be nice.
Otherwise, it's a great camera. The Panasonic/Sony cameras have better lenses, but they also cost more. This is a great camera for the feature set: Hard drive, good lens, good video processor, good sensor, all for $721. Without sales tax, it makes the camera 8.25% sweeter than it would otherwise be.
Here's my post on the DVi forum (http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=867117#post867117):
I found this discussion yesterday after searching the web for info on the 2GB size-limited files produced by the Canon HG10. After reading the entire thread, I was happy to see that you had found a work-around solution that didn't corrupt the splice-points of the files. That got me to thinking about writing a Windows-base program to do the same thing. So... I did just that! It's not as slick and robust as it could be, but it does the job. Here's some info...
The program's first dialog allows you to select multiple files from the same directory. These are the pieces that the HG10 broke your files into. You select the files by clicking on the first one to highlight it and the depressing the "shift" key and click on the last one in the list. All of your files should then be highlighted. (this is just standard Windows file-selection stuff here, but in case there's someone that's not familiar...) Alternately, you can press the "Ctrl" key and select individual files until you've highlighted all that are in the sequence.
The program DOES NOT try to figure out if two video files actually belong in the same resultant file. I trust you to identify only the files that made up the original sequence. With that said, my program DOES make sure that the files that you select are processed in the right order. That is, in the numbering sequence as produced by the HG10. For instance, file "00055.MTS" comes before file "00056.MTS".
The second file-selection dialog allows you to specify a directory and file name for the resultant, contiguous file.
Once you've identified all files, the program goes about building the contiguous file. I currently use 10MB buffers for reading and writing data. This allows pretty fast operation. For a couple of segments, this amounts to about 3 minutes 11.5 seconds on my 2.3Ghz Core 2 Duo. It's single-threaded so it ties up one processor. If folks want a more robust operation, I'll try to find time to work on it and smooth it out. I just thought you'd want to get it ASAP...
There are 2 files to this program... the "MTS_FileJoinerProj.exe" file which is the executable and weighs in at about 30KB, and the "borlndmm.dll" file which is only another 24KB. Put them in a folder called "FileJoiner" and hook them up to your "Start" button by moving the folder to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs". Start the program by clicking "Start->Programs->FileJoiner->MTS_FileJoiner.exe"
I haven't had any problems with it, but cannot guarantee its operation. Test it on copies of your files, just to gain confidence that it's working properly.
If you like it and it helps you, please consider throwing a couple of bucks in my Paypal account (thesuperstitions@gmail.com). Anything collected will be donated to my son's Cub Scout Pack (Pack 618).
Thanks!
Once I received the HG10 I shot sample videos at night and had someone shoot video of the outdoors while I drove to gauge high speed recording.
Night Recording - Recording at night is probably the weakest feature of the camcorder because the video quality is kinda crappy in low light situations. The HG10 does feature a night mode for shooting at this time but I still wouldn't recommend the HG10 if you plan to record in low light/night situations often.
High Speed Recording - After shooting the first videos at a high speed (60 mph) it occurred to me that most consumer camcorders aren't going to be capable of capturing quality video at high speeds. That being said, the video quality was decent enough given the price. If you plan to use the HG10 to record cityscapes or anything that requires driving, I'd recommend the HG10 only up to about 30 mph.
When I tried to download these clips to my Macbook Pro via iMovie '08 the software wouldn't recognize the camera AT ALL despite the Mac recognizing the HG10 as a hard drive. I eventually figured out (after reading the manual, of course) that you need to initialize the camcorder hard drive before it will be recognized by the computer. In fact, if you fail to do so you will have to erase the entire hard drive (and any videos on it) to initialize it so it is recognizable.
After doing this iMovie '08 recognized the camera but it took iMovie '08 about 15 minutes to see that the HG10 was connected. Every time I connect it iMovie '08 takes about 5-15 minutes to recognize the HG10 and bring up the import window.
Now for some general observations of the HG10 since I've only had it for about two weeks:
1) It's USB only to the computer so transferring video files can take a LONG time if you film in HD and use the 5 hours or so that the camcorder is capable of holding.
2) Buy an external drive to store the videos after working with them. The HG10 is addicting and lightweight so you'll be taking lots of videos in no time and will need a place to store them. I bought a Lacie 750GB external drive to store the movie files and so far it's exceeded my expectations (firewire, USB connections make for easy transfers).
3) Buy a tripod! I bought a Sunpak tripod from Best Buy for $35 and it serves as an excellent tripod for the HG10. I also use it for my Canon SD800 IS and soon will use it for my Rebel XTi. The HG10 is terrific at offsetting camera shake but no technology will ever compensate 100% for human error.
4) Sports Mode is my favorite mode. I like Portrait mode but I feel its too soft for most things that I do. Sports mode is designed to capture fast movement with as little ghosting and blur as possible.
5) I have relatively medium to large hands and I find the zoom buttons to be too far back on the camera to really be useful while the camera is in your hand. Fantastic positioning for tripod use though.
I hope to update this review as I use the camcorder more. I haven't used the still mode yet but as a rule of thumb I would suggest getting a good still camera (SD IS line or Rebel series) instead because I can see the HG10 being a bit awkward to use primarily as a point and shoot camera.
1) The software implementation when hooking it up to Windows PC is pretty horrid. You're basically forced to use the bundled software. I'm never happy being forced to use bundled software, but it does work... I have also heard that it works with PC software like Sony Vegas Studio, or mac software (iMovie) which I will try when I get a chance. The file format is .m2ts and run of the mill software, etc does not typically support this format. You wont be able to just give someone the raw file and expect them to be able to read it without incurring some pain.
2) Its small, so some of the buttons can be hard to use if you have big hands.
3) I think the quality goes down somewhat in low-light conditions.. Outdoor in daylight looks amazing though.
One other note... I bought the Tripp-lite HDMI to mini HDMI cable to connect this to my tv. I went through two of them... One of them worked but with a lot of grainy or miscolored picture. The other didn't work at all. Go with a better quality cable (not tripp-lite). I just ran to a brick and mortar store and got one off the shelf... It worked great.
Very happy with this purchase!
First time the lens shutter stopped opening when I turned the camera on. Called Canon technical support. They had no idea why it was doing it. They suggested draining the battery down all the way (?) and recharging and trying it again. Did that. The shutter opened half way and that was it. Shipped it back to Amazon thinking defective unit, it happens.
Read several reviews - and everybody seems to agree that HG-10 is the best overall HD-High Def camera around. The videos were pretty good actually, even in the low light and I really could not bring myself to buy a JVC or a Sanyo.
So bite the bullet and buy another HG-10 from Amazon. That unit, believe it or not, worked for exactly two weeks and one morning at work after I had shot 7 episodes of my video blog - it gave me a message - Hard Drive Not Accessible. I sat there for at least 4 minutes, staring at the screen, thinking to myself - this could not be happening to me.
Again.
Called Canon again - lovely bunch of people by the way - and they said, "Well once in a while the hard drives do blow up. Are you sure you got a new unit?" Yes I am sure. "Well you need to ship it back."
And so that camera, with 7 of my videos, went back to Amazon.
I don't know what to say - I like the camera, like the videos, like the easy menus but to see a $800 camera blow up, twice in my hands AND I am paranoid careful about my equipment. I don't know what to say. If you do buy this camera - keep the box, manuals, everything that comes with it - in a safe place for at least 30 days just in case something like this happen to you.
You have been warned!
HOWEVER...
AVCHD format is not widely used yet. the .m2v files are a nightmare to edit on any consumer or professional editing system. I have over 10 years of video production experience so I figured out different ways to edit the files, however if you are a novice it will be extremey difficult for you to figure out the editing. Canon bundles with a DVD burn software that is okay for getting the raw footage to DVD, but it is not great to edit any of the footage or do anything creative.
The interface though for editing is still very clunky, need to convert files to a PC compatible format with Canon bundled software in order to edit on MovieMaker.
VOLTAIC HD...
Importing into Final Cut pro is another story, BUT with a program created by shareware Voltaic it has become a piece of cake. The download is $30, but the best 30 bucks I ever spent. I simply move the .m2v files from the camcorder on my PC (I wouldn't plug the camera into a mac)onto a flash thumb drive, open them on my mac and drop them into the Votaic program, it comverts them to .mov and then I can import into FCP. I am REALLY hoping that FCP will come with the AVCHD codec soon, but in the meantime this $30 solution is workable.
Overall, the camcorder is pretty good for it's generation. It's easy to use and has all the adequate features and functions that an average person needs to capture memories. It's small, compact, nicely designed, and you don't have to buy media! The photo feature is also neat to have so you don't have to switch back and forth between a camera. I still like to add pictures to the photo album.
Pros
Very good image quality, color and saturation.
Love that Cine mode!
Very good ergonomics (love the zoom button).
Zippy "Quick Start"
Actually comes with a hot shoe adapter (many cams these days are missing it).
IS works very well.
Cons
Good luck finding support for the AVCHD codec (READ BELOW)
Would like to work with the RAW AVCHD files vs them getting cut down in size for PC
The Joystick/Wheel in idea was great (like EOS 40D) but it sux on this cam.
When is Canon doing to dump that stupid "Print Button" and give us a `new' feature?
AVCHD is not well liked or supported by Adobe at the moment and have no current (advertised) plans on getting up to speed anytime soon. I hated the provided software (it's a joke) and really need the tools available in Adobe Premier Pro CS3 so I broke down and purchased Sony Vegas Movie Studio Pro 8 so I can convert the AVCHD files if needed and work directly with the files if need be. This of course degrades the movies a little more.
For those that use 24p, you better have a pretty powerful computer and have IS turned off in Cam. AVCHD is very processor intensive and will kill most weaker PCs with jerky video. Having a powerful video card with hardware decoding will help a little but AVCHD isn't MPEG-2 and won't get much benefit from these cards. In the future that will likely change.
I'm slightly disappointed in low light footage, but very few consumer grade cameras do low light very well, so it's certainly not a surprise nor is it a deal breaker.
Beware of limited support for the AVCHD format amongst editing applications. Luckily I use Final Cut Pro 6 which has support for the format, but other popular applications either have limited support or no support for AVCHD.
If you're looking for a great HD camera to capture kid's events, etc. this is definitely it.
This bad rating isn't against the merchant that sold me the faulty product, but rather it's against CANON !!!
One word of advice: If you get this, spend $129 for the Canon iP4500. The pictures are amazing.
Please ignore the "megapixel myth" about cameras. This camera does more with 3, than any of my prior 8MP, 10 MP cameras have ever done.!
The one area where this camcorder shines is in low light conditions. The footage is still very good even under very dark conditions. Indoors is not a problem.
I brought my Mac Book Pro with me and downloaded the video onto an external drive. It normally took about an hour to download each night but it didn't require any outside intervention so I could just start it and do something else for a while. The workflow was great even on vacation.
Two downsides to this camcorder is that the lens is not very wide and the body is made of an easily scratched plastic. You need a good amount of space between you and the subject. I'm contemplating purchasing the wide angle converter but the mixed reviews and the general consensus of its weight is holding me back. Even though I got this camcorder back in December 07, after this trip, it is completely scratched and horrible looking. I am generally careful with my electronic equipment but the scratches were unavoidable with this camcorder.
All-in-all, this is a great camcorder and I am very satisfied with it.
Overall, a very good buy. Works well for a family needing a good point and shoot camcorder with user friendly features and HD quality. Paid $ 639 for it. Bought it from Marcus Audio Video - order arrived in time and was packaged well.
Here are the features and characteristics I really like:
First and foremost, color saturation and accuracy. Even if this wasn't high definition, I'd be pleased with it for the realistic color rendition alone.
It has very good low light shooting capability. Don't expect the crisp, smooth, colorful images you get under bright lighting, but this will pick up viewable images (albeit very grainy and low contrast) under candlelight and outside images at night under a bright moon. It works well under normal indoor lighting at night which is where I shoot a lot of video.
The auto focus is lightning fast. You won't see a lot of "hunting" to focus. The image stabilization works amazingly well. My videos haven't looked this steady since I was using my big, heavy 8mm camcorder years ago. The automatic white balance is very fast and accurate too.
The hard drive is quick, quiet, and a real convenience after dealing with tapes for years. All of the important data is embedded in the video. No more writing time and date information on tiny cassette labels. Finding a particular clip by viewing thumbnails is a huge improvement over winding a tape back and forth.
The controls are well placed and easy to use. The variable speed zoom is excellent and I really like having the option of using a viewfinder or LCD screen when shooting.
There are many more manual options than I'm used to seeing in a compact camcorder. You can control focus, aperture, frame rate, shutter speed, and more. If you've ever used a Canon digital still camera, you'll be in familiar territory with the menus, manual settings and effects. Check out cinema mode. It looks great but it does reduce the contrast and brightness slightly.
The still photo mode produces very good pictures. At about 2.7 megapixels, it won't compete with current dedicated digital still cameras for resolution, but the results are fine if you don't blow the pictures up too big. The excellent optics and image sensor really help here.
A few things I don't like:
Having to plug in the AC adapter to transfer video files to a computer. I know this is to protect the hard drive, but it is a nuisance. Still images can be transfered under battery power.
Mini SD card for storing still images. Storing still images on the hard drive would be convenient but would probably complicate playback. My gripe is that you have to use a mini and not a regular SD card. Regular SD cards are generally cheaper and easier to find. The memory card was not included. Including a small capacity card wouldn't add much to the cost of the camera and would mean the still photo mode will work right out of the box. I had to order a card and wait an extra week before I could use the still photo mode. Not a big deal, but I think everything should be ready to go right away.
Specialized connections for HDMI and component video. For HDMI, it uses a Mini to standard HDMI cable which is not included. Mini to standard HDMI cables are more expensive and harder to find than standard to standard HDMI cables. Component video is accessed by a special type of mini plug for the camera. The cable is included, but if it's lost or damaged, it could be difficult to find a replacement. Using the composite video output downconverts the resolution from 1080i to 480p. Even at 480p, the video still looks very good. The composite A/V cable is also included.
I consider these minor drawbacks; not quite enough for me to dock the rating by a star.
A couple of things I'm neutral on are the flash and the built in microphone. The built in microphone I would consider good, but average. The flash works well for still images but seems to have a somewhat shorter useful range than the built in flash on a lot of dedicated digital still cameras. It won't help much beyond eight to ten feet. You can attach a stronger flash to the hot shoe.
To sum everything up;
Stunning video quality. Good still images are a bonus (see customer images).
Good sound. Can be improved by using an external microphone.
Easy to use. Good control layout. You can hold and operate it with one hand. Image stabilization really helps with one handed operation.
Automatic mode works really well and there are lots of manual control options if you want to tweak them.
For the first time, I'm getting video that looks as good or better than anything I see on broadcast television!
After much reviewing and evaluating we ([...]) found the HG10 to be the best offering on the market. Managed to get the camera here on Amazon for $[...] at the time which is a complete STEAL for what this piece of technology offers. Like all of my other Canon cameras (EOS 30D, SD20, SD870IS, EOS 650) I got the quality and performance I expect from Canon. The camera is compact and light and has a quick startup for power on and shooting quickly. The optics in the camera are stunningly clear and for those that love a big optical zoom look no further. The HG10's zoom is *massive* and to the point where I felt like I was spying on people while shooting clips of the highest residential building West of the Mississippi. Definitely make sure you pick up a decent tripod if you plan to use that zoom or you're going to make your viewers sick. Yes, the camera does have image stabilization but that only goes so far and is rendered pretty much useless in a fully zoomed in shot. When it comes to a full wide shot the image stabilization does a pretty good job of smoothing things out unless you get into a constant vibration//bumpy situation. I had the camera on a tripod shooting video of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA with a strong wind causing some shake that had the stabilization struggling to compensate for. Color accuracy is quite good as all Canons tend to be. Sony cameras typically over saturate color to make it more "punchy" which isn't accurate and rather obnoxious. Even when using a color mode like Vivid on the HG10 you still don't end up with blown out punchy color. If that's your thing - do it in post or buy a Sony. If you're looking for a consumer camera that behaves more like a professional camera the HG10 is your choice.
:: Playback
I'm on a 15" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Santa Rosa with 4GB of RAM. RAM is cheap folks and I highly suggest making sure you have at least 2GB and 30GB+ of HDD space free on your machine. Ideally you'll have a backup drive because HD files are quite large and eat up disk space quickly. That said let's get into playback and acquisition of the clips from the camera. I used iMovie 08. I have Final Cut Studio 2, but since Viddyou is a consumer//pro-sumer focused company it was important to make sure I used the tools available to the majority of our users. It's straight forward getting the clips off the camera via USB over a standard USB to mini-USB cable. Launch iMovie 08 with the HG10 connected and set to playback mode AND *plugged into power* as Canon REQUIRES you to be plugged into power in order to transfer. It's the only highly annoying aspect to this camera, but once you grumble and grown a bit you get over it. The camera will appear in iMovie and when selected iMovie will pull thumbnail versions of all your clips for quick preview and selection of what you want to bring into iMovie. Select your clips and importing will take a few min depending on how much you shot. If you plan on working in Full HD (1080) then you need to make sure you tell iMovie to import the clips at Full HD 1080. I suggest doing that so you have the most data available when it comes time to export the video later. Make your movie as you would with SD footage. Again you're going to need a computer that's a year old or so to work with Full HD as it's a resource hog. Don't expect your slightly older machine to handle it because you'll be sorely disappointed. This is emerging technology and it requires the latest computer hardware to really make use of it. Once you have clips into iMovie you'll see just how stunningly clear, sharp and color accurate the camera is. Really, this is something you have to see to believe and since Viddyou is the first personal video site to launch Full HD 1080p online I can share some footage with you all here. Again you'll need a modern machine that's got some good amount of processing power and at least a standard cable modem connection. HD will get better as hardware and home internet connections get faster...
[...]
:: Encoding (Transcoding)
iMovie converts all of your content from AVCHD to the Apple Intermediate Codec which results in large files that can be edited. To the common user you don't ever see these converted files and probably would never need to know this except for the fact this camera shoots in 1080i - interlaced. If you don't deinterlace your video you will end up with "jaggies" in the output. This is where things get a bit tricky and it's an issue with iMovie//QuickTime. If you export Full HD 1080p (non-interlaced) and tell QuickTime to deinterlace the video there's a slight issue where QuickTime thinks the video is already deinterlaced and ignores the deinterlacing option. I can't tell you how many times I tried a variety of settings to make this work. It was only after scouring the web that I got some answers and it adds quite a bit of time to the process. You need to export from iMovie using QuickTime still, but set your output to a different codec that supports scan lines. I export using Apple ProRes422 HQ which results in a 1.61GB file for 2min of content. I then bring that into Final Cut Studio's Compressor and export to H.264 1080x1920 HD with a deinterlacing filter. Compressor isn't available as a stand alone application however so this really isn't an option to most users, but sadly this was the only way I've been able to get perfect deinterlacing of the 1080i video. In theory you should be able to take the 1.61GB file and check the deinterlace box in QuickTime and export to H.264 there, but for some reason QuickTime STILL ignores the deinterlacing command. Frustrating, but it's new tech and consumer software so it's an issue with the video tools and not the camera itself. There's another gotcha here too. You MUST have QuickTime Pro which is $[...]. Honestly if you're going to be doing any kind of video work on Mac or PC you *should* buy QuickTime Pro period. It's a $[...] investment that will last you for years and is completely worth it. Included below is an example of what interlaced footage looks like and why it's a problem. Oddly when exporting to 720x1280 (720p) QuickTime DOES deinterlace. Yeah - figure that one out...
1080i ::
:: Online Hosting of Full HD Video
Full disclaimer - I'm one of the founders of [...]. Aaron and I have put an astonishing amount of time into bringing Full HD to the consumer//pro-sumer market with the best balance of playback quality and download speed. It's been quite a challenge making this happen yet the results have been more than worth it. If you're looking for a place to host and share Full HD 1080p video Viddyou is your only option as no one else offers Full HD services on the consumer level. Even if you're looking for only 720p hosting or top quality SD (standard definition) you'll find us hard to beat. Putting the video quality aside for a moment its our privacy controls that let you specify exactly who gets to view and even download your original video file that make Viddyou the standout choice. Personal video is just that - personal and privacy is as critical to Aaron and myself as it is to many of you. Your uploads are archived to Amazon's own S3 storage system which powers the site we all love so much here. The Canon HG10 was our test camera during development and remains our best answer to anyone wanting to get into HD. If you have any questions about HD and Viddyou feel free to contact me on [...]and I'll happily help.
The software is adequate and we have no problem converting them into DVDs.
Things that can be improved.
1) Lack of neck strap
2) Lack of carrying case
3) Battery life is a bit short. Should provide a 2400 mAh one.
4) Lack of mini HDMI to HDMI cable
5) Useless 200x digital zoom - I turned that off.
6) Lack of memory to test out the camera feature. Should provide a 1GB memory card. That is cheap.
7) The placement of record button seems strange.
It could be a better camcorder if the above issues are addressed by Canon somehow. We pay $650 to $799 to buy this unit but we end up paying $200 or so on accessories. Why don't they just package a deal that would give customer everything that we dream of at a decent price? It would be a steal then!
Issues: There is limited software that is available to do decent editing for the HD mode. This isn't a huge problem for me at the moment, because currently Bluray burners and media are a little too $$$ for my tastes, so hopefully, when the prices go down (hopefully by football season), more software will be available. I downloaded a 30 day free trial of ULEAD 11, but it is a bit awkward to work with. I also have Vegas Studio 8, which I am very happy with for SD video, but Sony hasn't released a version to work with Canon HD video. It does work with Sony HD Camcorders, but they (the HDD versions)cost around $400 more than this one. Also, I agree with those who are unhappy with the microphone. The wind noise on a breezy day is horrible.
Overall, it seems like a nice camcorder at a great price.
7 months later.......After taping several pee-wee football games, I can't get over how great the picture is. I always use a monopod, because despite the image stabilization, extra stability is needed for zoom action shots. I can watch the video at 1/4 speed and break down the plays because the picture shows zero blur. It really is an incredible camera.
As was stated in the Wired magazine review which compelled me to buy this camera, the sound recording is poor in windy conditions. Even a strong breeze will cause a racket in any recorded piece.
Windows users, be forewarned: I bought a MacBook which I was wishing for a long time because of the bad Corel software include with the camera. The software is a dog, and a dead dog on an older PC. It requires a very new computer to work in my estimation. You need a better computer than the HP Pavilion 512MB with Athlon I tried it on, but the new MacBook required nothing to work.
Try to find this camera online, as I did at J&R, if you know even a little about video recording you will appreciate the lower prices of a "sight unseen" purchase.
Pros: 40GB Hard Drive, HiDef Recording without huge bulky files (AVCHD format), Good in low light recording, Advanced accessory shoe makes adding accessories a snap, Amazing color (RGB engine from canon), Easily accessible menus, Decent software to convert and limitedly edit video, Durable Construction, Attractive Design, Good Battery Life, Built in flash for still pictures, Canon reliability and trust.
Cons: Inability to edit video on Camcorder, Slightly heavier and larger than other HDD camcorders, Could include better software for video editing.
1) [From United States Patent 5313280 Description] A typical television signal, when digitized, produces a data stream of about 100 to 150 megabits per second (Mbps) before compression. Compressed video data streams usually range from 56 kilobits per second (kbps) to 45 Mbps. The receiving codec expands or decompresses the digital signal, then converts it back to an analog video format for display.
The process of compressing and decompressing the signal introduces defects, called motion artifacts in the received video image. These artifacts are readily observable when the video signals are displayed. Such well known motion artifacts include (1) blocking, where the received video image has rectangular or checkerboard patterns not present in the original image; (2) blurring or smearing, where the received video image has lost edge detail present in the original; (3) image persistence, where an old or previous image remains on the monitor; (4) jerkiness, where the original smooth continuous motion is perceived as a series of snapshots.
For a given codec, higher compression ratios (lower transmission rates) will generally produce more noticeable motion artifacts. For example, when a signal is compressed to 56 kbps (a compression ratio of over 1000:1), the resulting motion artifacts are obvious to observers. At the lower compression ratio (about 3:1) that produces 45 Mbps transmission, most observers cannot detect the motion artifacts.
2) Canon HG10 is capable of 24 Mbps transmission, but for some reason limits it to 15 Mbps transmission. This requires a higher compression ratio, resulting in more motion artifacts.
3) When will Canon a) Increase transmission to 24 Mbps, or b) invent a better AVCHD Codec to be less lossy?
My main considerations were:
- high definition standard (1080i)
- type of media used by the camera
- low-light performance
- price
- size
There are several HD camera models from different manufacturers available on the market which utilize different media: mini-DV cassette, hard disc [HDD], flash memory, mini DVD disc, even Blue Ray disc. The reality is, that only two of them are practical at this point - HDD and flash memory ones. From those two the HDD camcorders are cheaper, but they have movable parts and are rather gentle devices (in the sense that you should not drop your camcorder on the ground whilst the HDD is still spinning).
The flash memory camcorders do not have movable parts (apart from eventual optical image stabilizer [O.I.S.]) and are (in theory) more reliable. The cost of memory is going down, so one day "flash" camcorders of similar specs will cost about the same as the HDD-based ones.
I did not consider mini-DV because of time requred for capturing recorded video and transfering it on DVD for archiving (in many cases you will need to save the video stream in large .avi files first, then render them into .mpg).
HD on mini-DVD is a laugh - less than 15 minutes of record