Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer
by Canon
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Our Price: $1,799.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $350.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer
Customer Review: Fantastic Hard Drive Camcorder
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this camcorder for about 2 years. It captured the births of both my children and countless pictures and home movies of them both. I've taken my HG10 on a trip to Africa where it went on two safaris, photographed waterfalls, wildlife, & remote villages. I've taken it to Europe and Mexico. So, I think I've established I have lot of experience with the camera.
I have never had a problem either recording movies or taking pictures. It's never failed me. The battery life is long. I can get about two days or so of heavy use without a recharge. The video quality is fantastic high definition. One surprise for me is the high quality still pictures it takes. It's taken the place of my digital still camera ever since I bought it. The 40 GB hard drive is great. Since I've had the camera, I've never needed to clean off my videos. I do back them up regularly, though.
It's also quite compact and light. Easy to travel with.
Really, there are only a few downsides:
1) The camera records to AVCHD files. While software support is better than when I first bought the camera, these files are still not supported by some editing software. And since it's HD, the files get large fast. So, you need a fairly powerful computer to work easily with the files. One good thing is that YouTube accepts AVCHD (.mts) files directly now. I used to have to convert them.
2) Still photos are only saved on a microSD card. They aren't saved on the hard drive. It's not a huge issue. It's just weird that I have this huge hard drive, but can't save still pictures on it.
Bottom line. Great camera. I'm very happy with it. If this one ever dies, I'd by another one or the next version.
Customer Review: Best HD Hard Drive Camcorder, Overall Better Than Sony SR7
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this one from one of the Brooklyn Stores. These stores follow bad business practices. But luckily for me I had no issues , the product was shipped ontime. It was original and everything worked fine.
I was shopping for hard drive based HD camcorder for last few months. I almost made my mind on Sony SR7 after a using my friend's camcorder. Sony is excellent in bright light and outdoors , but its grainy and below par sharpness when shooting indoors.
I would give my points as below
Outdoors
Sony SR7 is about 9 /10
Canon HG10 is 8/10
Indors
Sony SR7 4/10
Canon HG10 6/10.
One feature that I found very useful in Canon is that the camcorder has indoor light ( not flash). The light helps to shoot in low light conditions. The range is about 5 ft for this idoor light. Though I bought that external Canon video light , I think this inbuilt light is adaquate for my needs. I has a flash light for taking pictures.
Sony SR7s colors are manipulated , Sony tinkers with the image processing to make the vidoe brighter, but true colors are lost during the process. For HG10 , the colors are exactly the same as seen with naked eye. A light green is a light green in Canon HG10. Where as in SONY SR7 the same light color becomes a brighter thick green. If you want to shoot ONLY bright outdoors then SR7 should be on your list your choice. But having used both, I can say overall ( indoor and outdoor) Canon does a better job.
For me the three things that are important in buying this camcorder over SONY SR7 are
Price ( at least 400 cheaper than SR7)
Inbuilt Video Light.
Indoor Picture quality.
Customer Review: The highest definition you can get. Dazzling!! Simply amazing.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not going to tell you about the specifications and capabilities of this JEWEL. You can find plenty of other places for that. What I will tell you is this.
First, if you want to see broadcasting quality video with images you actually shot, you do not need to look any further. The HG10 is solidly and beautifully built. Very easy to use, but, most importantly, it records the most eye-popping images previously unknown to the amateur user. I tell you about the video quality simply because that is the single most important reason you want to capture video ultimately. When you look at video memories you do not think about the camera you used to capture it. It is the quality of the video that stays and makes you remember, not whether the camera that took it came with shoulder strap or not (I can not believe someone made a point about that!)
Second, you can view the video files you capture as soon as you stop recording. No need to rewind anything. If you like it, keep it; if you don't, then delete it on the spot--just like you do with digital cameras, except with video.
Third, to make movies, the camera is bundled with software which will allow you to download the videos to your computer for editing and burning your videos in DVD's for computer or DVD player, or AVCHD disks (you need an AVCHD player to play it though). To get started, all you have to do is to plug the camera to your computer with the USB cable provided. However, if you want to burn HD DVD home movies, you have to purchase software separately. I recommend Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus (you can read my separate review). AVCHD is not a problem at all.
I absolutely love this camera.
Customer Review: HD camcorder with great picture
Summary: 5 Stars
I am by no means a camcorder expert, but I am a videophile and a Canon fan, so that's why I chose this camera. It does not disappoint! While 1080p would have been great, the birth of my son wasn't going to wait for technology to catch up to the top format.
It has been great capturing all of the big "firsts" in high-def! I rest easy knowing that it won't end up like my honeymoon footage that is grainy, lacks definition and, *gasp*, is in analog format on tapes! I love the hard drive...it seemed the obvious choice over straight-to-dvd or memory card recording for so many reasons--no media to keep up with, speed and flexibility, and unmatched storage capacity...
The 'usability' of the camera is good, but not great. The menus are easy to understand like my Canon digital camera. However, the scrolling wheel can be tough to control. It is easy to get stuck in ff or rewind mode by accident. After not using the camcorder for a while, I forgot how to turn on the light, so it would be nice to have a few more dedicated buttons. It's not like there isn't room, even on the tiny device. None of this would be a problem if I used it more often.
Anyways, people have talked about the software ad nauseam...so I won't get into that, except to say that the lack of available software to watch AVCHD files is frustrating, at best.
The bottom line is that the HG10 excels at what a budget HD camcorder should--great video quality and (virtually) unlimited storage. Where it lacks (usability, adjustments, etc) it more than makes up for it in the video quality department--and that's what matters most, right?
Customer Review: Works well with Leopard
Summary: 5 Stars
Import works great with the latest version of iMovie on a Mac. Transfers are fast thanks the hard drive. Editing and transfer to other formats (AppleTV) are very convenient but then my Mac is very fast. I was nervous going with the hard drive over tape but the convenience of it easily offsets any quality loss for the type of recording I'm doing (family and personal). Menus are intuitive and the scroll wheel approach works pretty well (it could be better, but I do prefer it over a joystick). USB 2.0 seems plenty snappy - not missing the firewire.
The hard drive makes it very easy to get out and shoot - no worry about if you are overwriting a keeper tape or if you are going to run out of tape. Its also extremely easy to delete unwanted footage in the field right when you've captured it. This is such a pain on tape that I never do it which results in a lot of wasted time later.
Drive is completely silent. Shoe provides for a shotgun mic which I'll be trying out shortly. Headphone jacks for monitoring sound are there and I've found that to be very important on past units. Construction is solid. Automatic lens cover much easier than having one on a lanyard that you always have to stow. Stand by mode gets you shooting in 1 second which is very nice.
Looking forward to trying the still capability. While the resolution can't match my pocket cam the 10x optical zoom is very nice to have.
On a Mac with the latest iLife and Leopard no software is needed. Drive mounts on the desktop. Movies automatically import into the new iMovie. Absolutely wonderful.