Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Digital camera Review: Great Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I am definitely an amateur, but wanted to get a good, high definition camcorder at a reasonable price, and this Canon certainly fits the bill. I am pleased with how well it works in daylight, and surprised at how well the picture comes through with less than perfect light, even when saved to an HD-level output ratio. With the flash memory, it starts filming very quickly, especially when compared to older, MiniDV-based camcorders, and even quicker than hard drive camcorders since there are fewer moving parts.
Some say the internal memory isn't worth it, but I beg to differ, at the time I bought the camcorder, the price difference was $40 between the HF10 (16gb internal) and the HF100 (no internal memory), but the ease with which you can expand the memory on the HF10 is definitely worth it. With the HF10, you can set the camcorder to record your videos to the memory card and still pictures to the internal if you prefer, or you can set it the other way around, or save them all to either. Very handy, especially if you have a small card and you just want to put pictures on. Personally, I bought a 16gb card to put in, and with the Class 6 speed, it writes the video great.
Battery life is acceptable, but not long, a second battery is definitely recommended. A saving grace to that though is that charging times are pretty short, less than 2 hours from dead.
Overall, this is a very good camcorder at a great price, and the HD picture shows up great on TVs, especially when used with the component cables or an HDMI cable, I just wish the HDMI cable was included.
Digital camera Review: Great Camera, Little Quirks
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great camera for the price, no doubt. Recording at 1080p HD all the time is wonderful if you have the software to edit it. It's got great features on the camera, and it's no bigger than a regular soda can. Very lightweight. I haven't dropped it yet, so I don't know how well it holds up from drops.
A few quirks though. Manual Focus isn't the most powerful, so if you are wanting to buy a camera because of manual focus, you *may* want to look around. Getting to use the manual exposure is easy after you know how to enable it... navigate through the joystick menu, then hold the joystick in the UP position for a second or two, then it enables. I couldn't find anything in the manual, so I figured I'd let you know.
Other than that, it's a flawless camera.
Digital camera Review: Great Camera, Make sure your comp is equip right though!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a complete amateur review - I bought this camera used, but in pretty much brand new condition. It is an incredible camera! It takes amazing video. The sound on it is good/very good, not amazing, but maybe you would need to looking to the mic to boot on for that. It's as small as a coke can, has amazing capabilities, but my problem is that I didn't realize that my computer is not strong enough to handle this thing. I have an average laptop. So, for those of you that want an amazing HD camera, this is it for your, but make sure that you're comp is equip, or be ready to fork up the money to upgrade your comp to be able handle this machine (I'm guessing that I didn't look at the minimum comp requirements). At the moment, I am still learning how to import the video. If you're having the same trouble as I am, buy a Class 10 SD card (I bought one that's 32GB), which is also giving me trouble for this camera (I cannot record in FX mode with it), record straight onto the card (or transfer the video onto a card) and insert card into your comp directly. Anyways, I would totally recommend it to anyone that has the equipment to handle this thing! Have fun!!Digital camera Review: Great HD camcorder a few drawbacks
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned this camcorder now for 2 weeks and have loved it since I got it. The video quality is amazing. In full HD the the detail and color accuracy really shows. The camcorder also auto focuses incredibly fast even while zooming and panning. The quick record mode is very nice (especially if you have children). When the quick record mode is on the camcorder will come out of sleep mode and be ready to record in about a second. Literally by the time you flip the lcd open, it's ready to record. The still shots are ok, but I wouldn't get rid of my stand alone digital camera. The transfers of files to pc requires the use of the included software. There is a quick burn option with the software that can create either an AVCHD dvd or a standard definition dvd. I also tried using the software for editing and authoring but found it cumbersome for that usage. I personally use Nero 8 and it works perfectly with the files created by the Canon. The drawbacks to the camcorder are the battery and the awkward menu. The included battery barely last hour with normal recording. I'll be buying the BP-819 2.5 hour battery by summers end. The menu has a few awkward sections. For example, to fade in or out when recording you have to select the fade effect from the main menu. But to use the selected fade while recording, you have to use the joystick to activate the fade effect assigned before recording. Overall, this camcorder is very good. It has great video quality. The software package, though a little cumbersome, is pretty decent. I don't regret this purchase one bit. It seems pricey, but once you see the differnce on a HD tv compared to SD mini dv, you won't regret it.Digital camera Review: Great HD performance, be prepared to shell out money for editting software
Summary: 5 Stars
This camcorder really is quite fantastic. I previously had the HG10 and was disappointed by it mainly due to it's low light performance and it's tendency to produce smeared / ghosted images - fast moving objects seemed to leave a trail behind them, particularly in low light. Fast forward to the HF10 and I am a much happier person.
The HF10 has quite good low light performance and I have not noticed a problem with smearing or ghosting like the HG 10. The camera is very small and lightweight. Small enough to almost be completely unobtrusive, so much so that I've now got into the habit of just taking it along and putting it in the pocket of my cargo pants or cargo shorts. I could go on and on...
The only downfall of this camera is also a primary reason to get the camera - AVCHD. Put simply, AVCHD enables you to take full resolution HD video with a tiny camera using removable memory in a relatively small file size. However, support for editing AVCHD is spotty right now at the CONSUMER level:
- Canon does include a viewer app that can also export standard MPEG at 1280 * 720, but not 1920 * 1080. In other words, the software is good enough to create a version that most video editing programs can work with, but it can't do any editing with the AVCHD itself.
- Windows Movie Maker does not support it.
- iMovie on the Mac pseudo supports it. It can transcode the AVCHD to quicktime HD and work from there. This means a much, much larger file size and doing the transcoding is pretty painful on everything but a multiprocessor Mac Pro Workstation. I have a dual core 2GB macbook pro purchased in early 2008 and it works like a dream with everything BUT AVCHD... Then it turns to molasses.
- The major vendors - Pinnacle, Ulead, Sony (Vegas), etc all have offerings claiming support for AVCHD, but you'll need a super fast computer or a lot of patience. Besides that, they still seem to crash at times when working on HD projects. You can tell that their AVCHD support is still a serious work in progress. Adobe premiere elements doesn't support it at all as of this writing and when they do I would expect that it'll take a few patches to work through issues.
So, my final take at this moment in time is that the camera itself does a very good job capturing in AVCHD, but you will have to suffer the poor AVCHD support by video editing software vendors. However, if you want HD and don't want huge files or tapes, then this camera is definitely the camera for you.