Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer
Digital camera Review: As good as it gets for AVCHD (at present)...
Summary: 4 Stars
I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong they are allowed to call this High Definition. First, most of these camcorders down-res to something like 1440 x 1080, even though they advertise meeting the full-HD spec of 1920 x 1080. Second, the compression used to accomplish this is fierce, and has very visible artifacting.
So, in essence you have a class of camcorders, advertised as HD-quality, that can ONLY produce true HD in very good lighting with almost no motion. Think test patterns here, or landscapes. Poor lighting and motion in the picture give most of these camcorders fits, as the AVCHD codec just can't handle the extra work imposed by video noise from low light situations or any motion-induced artifacting.
What to do? Well, in typical Canon fashion they sat back, waited to see what everyone else produced, and then released a product that is the best of the genre. Sure, you can get larger drives on the Sony -- up to 80GB. The Sanyo may tout it's tiny form factor, and make exaggerated claims about its' image quality. I owned the Sanyo HD1000 and promptly sent it back; both the quality of the device itself AND the quality of the images it produced were lacking.
The Canon gives the best image I've seen on an AVCHD product. Though not perfect and nowhere close to their own HDV-based HV20, I wanted something non-linear to make working with video a little simpler on my Macs. The HG10 has great image stabilization, wonderful optics, intuitive controls (I especially love the multi-speed zoom control), superb colors, and less of the AVCHD nasties than any other AVCHD camcorder I've seen. It also works superbly on my Mac with both iMovie and Final Cut Express 4. It is phenomenally easy to work with non-linear video; in my case this probably overrides the loss in quality to HDV.
So, if you must own a camcorder that uses AVCHD, this is the one to have! On absolute terms I'd give it three stars, but compared to other AVCHD camcorders it's a five, so four stars overall felt about right...
[UPDATE ONE: Canon has just released new AVCHD camcorders -- the HF10 and HF100 -- that record at the full HD 1920 x 1080 spec. They will offer improved quality, but the bitrate is less than the comparable Canon HDV units, so there will be some losses to compression.]
[UPDATE TWO: one issue with the HG10 regards the use of external microphones. I just recorded three hours of interviews with an external mike mounted to the camera's "flash shoe" accessory attachment point. There is a a low level noise present, which is caused by the microphone picking up the noise from the hard drive. I can probably minimize this in editing, but be careful about your choice of external microphone -- and mount it off-camera if possible!]
Digital camera Review: Avoid if you are a beginner
Summary: 2 Stars
I am new to camcorders, but an expert with digital photography. I purchased the HG10 after reading great reviews. I took a few videos and uploaded to my XP pc without problem. However, the playback was jerky and made me motion sick watching. The playback on the camera is fine. I spent thee days reading numerous blogs on issues people have with the included software and issues such as mine. This is contrary to the rave reviews you see on Amazon and CNet. I would love to keep this camera, but the fact that after days of research and trials, I still can not playback my videos on my XP pc is totally unacceptable. I have always been a big fan of Canon but they shipped a product without the expected software support.Digital camera Review: Avoid this awful camera like the plague!!
Summary: 1 Stars
First of all, Canon is telling a big fat lie about being a Hi-Def Camera. It does not shoot and capture video in true 1920 x 1080 hi def...it uses a 1440 x 1080 format and then stretches it out to fill the screen. LIARS.
Next, when you shoot video, don't try to pan, zoom or move the camera even a tiny bit. Your video will blur terribly. Forget trying to shoot things that are moving fast.
And make sure you are in bright sunlight...indoors scenes, even with all the lights on, are very very dark. Plus, it looks like you are viewing through a veil. Just horrible picture quality.
Also, if you are like me and have a home theater PC set up and want to watch your videos from a computer, prepare to spend another $35 on a third party codec to do that.
And the software they give you is a joke, and in most cases won't even install properly because the digital rights management requires you to jump through several annoying hoops before it will let you install it.
The editor they give you is a joke. There ARE editing programs that will handle the proprietary video format they use, but we're talking Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier and those programs are hella expensive.
So all you can do is download to your computer, edit (if you can get their software to work) and then reload the clips back into the camera to watch them, unless you have a Blu-Ray burner.
I have owned three Sony camcorders that worked like a champ and only bought this piece of junk because they were temporarily out of the Sony I wanted. I will never buy another Canon product again...I also bought a pretty high end Canon camera and it's a piece of junk too. Never again.
Digital camera Review: Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
Really great product. I have an LCD projector with a 10' screen and instead of looking grainy like the standard video camcorder this HD camcorder looks perfect on it. Only problem is that most of the editing software doesn't support AVCHD yet and most people don't have HD players so the only practical way to show final videos (for now) is by hooking the HG10 directly into your TV or projector.Digital camera Review: Awesome Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I had a Canon miniDV camera for a while, and while it was ok, I really hated the poor quality of the video. I loved that this camera was Full HD. It takes beautiful video, even in low light. It's a great consumer camera. If you take video for special occasions (like Xmas, Birthday, etc), this is a great camera.
Also, I have a Mac and I've had no problems importing or editing on iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Everything has turned out great. I love that I no longer need to buy tapes. I do like miniDV tape quality, but for the amount that I use my camera, I'd say skip it and by the hard drive version. Love it.