Digital Trends

Canon Vixia HF10

April 4th, 2008 | by David Elrich

Testing and Use

I started off in the Easy mode to see how the camcorder handled typical footage then tried out the various scene and manual options. Optical image stabilization was engaged and digital zoom turned off.

As noted earlier, the HF10 outputs 1920 x 1080i video, just right for today’s HDTVs. The camcorder uses a 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that’s slightly smaller than the 3MP chips used in the HV20, a camcorder I really liked. Smaller chips can mean loads of digital noise but Canon upped the recording speed to 17 Mbps to help reduce them. Also cool is the fact the HF10 records in 24p and 30p frame rates rather than the typical 60i. 24p gives a more film-like feel and it’s worth trying out (which I did).

Once you hit the power key the HF10 is ready to record in a little over a second since there’s no tape or disc to “boot up.” I had it set to record onto flash and then started “filming”—about as an absurd a term you can think of for such a purely digital device! I also wanted to record video to the SD card and play it back on my HDTV with its handy SD card slot.

One thing readily apparent was the fact the HF10 eats batteries. The company states 50 minutes of recording in real world conditions and that was pretty close. Spares are a must if you but this one.

Once finished saving scenes and photos to the flash memory and SD card it was time to play them back on a 50-inch Panasonic plasma via HDMI and the SD card reader. Watching outdoor scenes was quite enjoyable—from flash memory and the card. The colors were spot on—especially a bright yellow forsythia bush—and there wasn’t a speck of noise in a vivid blue sky. Speaking of that word, I tended to like the basic 60i frame rate compared to 24p as it had more pop on the screen. I wasn’t too thrilled with the footage captured indoors as there loads of artifacts, particularly of scenes with shadows. This was much more noticeable than the HD6 which handled darker images much better (overall that camcorder had superior video quality than this one but it’s $300 USD more, outputs 1080p and has a much faster capture rate—26 Mbps vs. 17).

As for the 3-megapixel stills, they looked O.K. on the big screen and the HF10’s 9-point AF system did a fine job locking into focus.

Conclusion

I really liked using the HF10, once getting the hang of the menu system. Focusing was fast and crisp, ergonomics are terrific and it did an excellent job handling scenes taken outdoors. Unfortunately, like the JVC, it made wind sound like the exhaust of a jet engine, even with the noise reduction engaged. And this camcorder wasn’t as good in available light as the JVC, a recent Editor’s Choice pick. Good, not great is the bottom line for this one.



Pros:

• Takes beautiful 1920 x 1080i video outdoors
• Stills are good too
• Unbelievably light and compact 


Cons:

• Eats batteries quickly
• On screen menu not very intuitive
• Mic doesn’t handle wind noise well