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 Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Customer Review: Elegant design, easy to use, lovely images - an excellent camera, but there are a few things worth knowing before you buy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an exceptionally well-designed little camera that does everything you could possibly want for the amateur videographer, and would even be serviceable for smaller scale professional work. The HF10 has 16GB of memory onboard, which is enough to shoot for well over two hours at the highest quality, and you can add an extra SDHC card with up to 32GB additional memory. There are several automatic features for those who like it simple, but the camera allows for a good deal of manual tinkering. The joystick on the LCD panel can be used to quickly toggle between focus, mike, and exposure levels while shooting - or to select from several other more advanced functions. I like the ability to select between aperture priority, shutter priority and "cine mode" - which automatically sets things just right to give (in most situations) a range of shading that looks pretty close to cinema. I've tested with lots of different manual settings but the "cine mode" usually does give an image that is as nice as I could have chosen. You can add an external mike (either by buying Canon's mike that fits into their proprietary "mini advanced shoe", or by plugging any mike you like into the external mike mini plug), but except for outdoors in the wind the onboard mike does a pretty good job for most non-professional situations. All in all, a very fine camera, and one that fits so nicely in the hand it is a delight to work with.
So you can get very good video, but figuring out what to do with it may take a little bit of research. No matter what quality you select to shoot in, the video will be recorded in AVCHD format, which is an HD playback format. AVCHD allows you to record very high quality footage using a relatively small amount of memory, but the problem is that most editing programs can't do anything with this footage directly. Basically, AVCHD is highly compressed but still high quality video, which records only a few full frames of video per second and then records the differences between these frames, which forces the AVCHD player to "fill in" the bits that are left out to create a complete flowing image at, say 30 or 60 "frames" per second. With most editing programs (and here I'm speaking only of programs that I am familiar with on my Mac) you wouldn't be able to work with the AVCHD files until you convert them to an uncompressed format that includes 25 or 30 frames per second, allowing the editor to "cut" on any given frame.
There are three good options (right now, but certainly more on their way as AVCHD storage becomes more popular) I've found on Macs (note: AVCHD only works on Intel Macs) for converting the unusable .MTS (AVCHD) files that the camcorder records into files that are editable (and that, on Macs at least, have the extension .mov). The first is to open the files in iMovie '08 or '09. iMovie will convert the files to "Apple Intermediate Codec" files that can be edited with iMovie or Final Cut Pro or Express. Another option is to import the files using Final Cut Pro 6 or Final Cut Express 4 (I've tried FCE and it works beautifully with AVCHD files). If you don't have either of those programs or if you don't like how big the files get when you convert them that way, you can use Roxio Toast Titanium 9 or 10 to convert the files to something you can edit - the best setting is still Apple Intermediate Codec but when you convert using Toast for some reason the files only blow up about 3 times the size of the original, which is pretty manageable given how cheap external drives are these days. Every Mac user ought to get Roxio Toast anyways, since it is extremely useful for all kinds of video and data management.
Anyhow, I think it is worth knowing (I didn't know, but soon found out) that when you buy an AVCHD camcorder that the size and convenience of the camcorder come at the cost of compressed video files that will need to be uncompressed before they can be edited. I think it's a small price to pay and love this camcorder, but if you bought this and didn't have an Intel Mac and weren't willing or able to get the right software you'd have some very limited options for doing anything with your video. Judging from some other reviews, it has caused some other people difficulties. Before long this won't really be a big deal since the major editing programs will adapt to AVCHD, but for now in spite of the overall simplicity of this camera's design and usage there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to "postproduction" or the process of making something watchable with all that quality video that is so easy to shoot with this handy little camera.
(Note: there are other AVCHD conversion programs that can be found on the web. Most of these got their start when Apple's software couldn't handle the conversion, and they don't seem to have improved much over the past few years. I tried the trial copies of every such program I could find on the web, and as far as I can tell Roxio Toast's converted images meet or beat the quality of any others out there.)
Customer Review: Very nice camera. Be aware of AVCHD limitations.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fantastic camera but people need to have more realistic expectations of what to expect from AVCHD. It is a highly compressed format so using this camera in low-light conditions is going to produce pretty "grainy" results. In good lighting AVCHD output from this camera can produce some really great looking results in HD but don't kid yourself into thinking you're going to get professional HDTV quality. This is a point-and-shoot.
I love the camera, especially how fast it focuses in good light, so I'm going to concentrate on what some of the other reviewers said to correct some misconceptions.
I use both Macs and PC and I have to tell you that you that PCs suck for AVCHD - you will waste a lot of time and pull your hair out. I'm sure PC video software vendors will address this eventually, but seriously folks if you want to do this the easy way get an Intel-based Mac (caveat: only Intel based machines using Leopard support AVCHD) and use either iMovie or Final Cut Express 4. Both of these programs (iMovie 08 and FCE4) just LOVE this camera (and two other Sony AVCHD cameras I've tried as well) and they work like a charm. Video making has never been this easy. FCE4 lets you mix AVHCD, HDV and SD video on the same timeline and save in whatever format you want so it's worth the $200 if you want to do that or have more exacting control over your videos. It is basically a (lightly) stripped-down version of Apple's excellent professional video software (Final Cut Pro) and it is very good. For most home videos iMovie 08 (which comes in iLife 08) will be just fine.
I've had no problem transferring the movies directly from the camera but, as mentioned earlier, you do need to have the camera plugged into the AC to do it. You can avoid plugging the camera into your Mac to transfer the files if you're only recording on SDHC cards, rather than internal memory on the HF10, but it works just fine. For this reason I would recommend buying the HF100 (over the HF10) and getting an extra 16Gb memory card or two. You will save money that way and have more flexibility. I bought the HF10 because I had to have it the next day and, at the time, the HF100s were delayed a bit. Transcend's excellent 16Gb SDHC Class 6 card comes with a nifty little card reader for only $78.98 here on Amazon, you can get two of them for less than the $200 difference in price between the HF10 and HF100 so you'll have 32gb to work with instead of 16gb for less money. I don't mind having the internal memory as a backup but you pay more than it is worth for it.
The video camera is just acting like a USB reader when you connect it to your Mac anyway - it is the file layouts that the software recognizes. When read in and converted to Apple Intermediate Codec at 1920x1080 they will balloon in size. If you want to store the raw video in a more compressed way you can simply copy the root directory of the card to another directory and copy it back again later. If you're working with AVCHD you need to buy the biggest hard drives you can afford. 60 minutes of video will use up something like 50Gb of storage on your Mac when converted to 1920x1080. If you just want great looking home video to show on your HDTV, but don't want to go broke on hard drives, Apple offers to import the movies at a slightly lower resolution (960x540) which takes up a LOT less space with very little drop in quality. I have been making home videos and showing them on an Apple TV at that resolution and they look stunning. The quality difference between that resolution and full HD isn't that big of a deal.
If want to try to get truly professional-quality video you should avoid AVCHD cameras and stick to the HDV format concentrating on cameras with larger sensors. But this is great camera for HD home videos at a great price.
The user interface on this camera is slow and clunky. Sony's AVCHD cameras have a better interface (using a touch screen) but you can still watch back the videos (which is the main thing you'll do) and it beats the heck out of a tape camera. I wish they had added a dial or button set for adjust exposure and/or backlighting control on the camera. The joystick works surprisingly well for this however in bright light the screen gets washed out enough that it is hard to tell if your exposure is really that great or not. This is where a viewfinder would really help. But these are minor nits because the camera does a good job at exposure control on its own.
As I said earlier this is a very compact point-and-shoot camera that shoots HD video and for that it's excellent.
Customer Review: Beautiful Video Saved to SDHC Cards & Standard DVDs
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Canon VIXIA HF10 a few days ago and wanted to mention a few things about it as well as some points about burning the video to standard DVDs in the highest quality possible using Video Studio 11.5.
What's hot: Amazing full 1080i video quality in good lighting; "easy mode" recording if you don't want to adjust the settings manually (seems to work pretty well); ability to save to cheap external SDHC flash drive cards for long-term storage (I use 8gb class 4 cards, which stores 1 hour of HD video and can be purchased on-line for about $10.00 each; just make sure you "initialize" (format) them before recording to them; the ability to watch the video recorded to SDHC cards on my PS3 - just plug in to the built in reader, pick the video in the menu, and play (note that not all versions of the PS3 have the SDHC readers built in and I don't know if a USB card reader will work, but I would think it should).
What's not hot: Although you can take still pics while videotaping, they are lower resolution shots; you can only take high resolution pics by switching the HF10 to camera mode (not a big deal for me as I bought this for videos - not still pics). From what some others have written (consumers and pros), HF10 video recorded in low lighting is superior to video recorded in low lighting by many other HD camcorders, though you will still notice a significant reduction in quality when shooting in low lighting situations (however, I have not tried making manual adjustments that undoubtedly will improve the quality of the video). The HF10 does not recorded in 5.1 surround sound like some of its competitors, though the quality of the stereo audio is excellent. Expensive proprietary batteries (but see this e-bay deal for an excellent price for a high-capacity battery and charger: [....] which was still available as of 12-26-08).
Notes on Burning AVCHD High Def Video from the HF10 to Standard DVDs:
Although I plan on storing my videos on 8gb SDHC flash drive cards (which reportedly hold 1 hour of 1080 HD video) and then burning them to Blu-ray disks in a year or two (after the disks and burner prices come down), I wanted to test burning AVCHD video produced by the Canon VIXIA HF10 at its highest setting (FXP mode) onto to a standard DVD. I haven't tried the bundled burning software yet (I've seen lots of complaints about it) but I have Video Studio 11.5, which handles AVCHD video recorded by the HF10. I noticed some people have stated that the quality of AVCHD video burned by Nero 8 is slightly superior to that burned by Video Studio 11.5 Although I don't have Nero 8 and thus can't make that comparison, my guess is that people who have compared the video quality produced by the two programs did not manually adjut the settings for Video Studio 11.5 to output the highest quality video possible (the default quality setting is 720 instead of full 1080). Unlike when burning standard video disks, the menus for making the adjustments in Video Studio are only available at the very last disk-burning step. They are located on the bottom left of the disk-burning window, on the same "row" as the Back and Close buttons (you can see some screenshots: [...]. Click on the Settings & Options tab, and then the Disk Template Options tab. Under Compression, set the Video Data Rate to Constant / 18000 and set the Compression value to 100. Under the General tab, change the Frame Size from 1440x1880 to 1920x1080. Then before burning click on the Project Settings tab and click on Change to make sure you see the new settings. That's it! I compared the video on the DVD to the video stored on the SDHC card on my PS3 and I am happy to report that I was unable to detect any difference in quality between the original video on the SDHC flash drive card and the video I burned to a standard DVD using Video Studio 11.5. Note that I rendered the video using Video Studio on a HP Pavillion m8000n PC with 2 gigs of memory, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core Processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS graphics card. The size of the video was a little more than a gigabyte and it took several hours to render and burn it (unfortunately, I cannot say exactly how long it took as my PC went into sleep mode, probably for about 45 minutes before I realized it, so it probably took around 3 hours to render).
Customer Review: Surprisingly high quality
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't expect to be able to buy a top-notch video camera for under $650 this year, but this camera has everything I want. I was originally going to stick with Panasonic, JVC, or Sony because they are well-respected names in video, but the Amazon reviews swayed me toward Canon. I'm very glad they did.
The 16GB onboard memory turned out to be more useful than I expected. After all the horror stories I've read here about SD cards failing and taking important videos with them, now if I'm recording something important, I record it onto the onboard first, then copy it to the SD card (which the HF10 makes very easy), test the copy real quick, and then erase the onboard.
The microphone input is an important addition that you only find on the very expensive models with other brands. A family member of mine has a Panasonic that he has been using to record the life stories of the older generation, and the lack of a microphone input on his camera has made some of the recordings almost unusable because of background noise.
All high-end cameras take high quality videos in well-lit conditions, but the HF10 does a very good job in low light as well. Running the component cable directly to a 52-inch HDTV, I was able to detect a small amount of monochromatic noise, but you have to know what you're looking for. Unless you're turning your video into a feature film, you won't be bothered.
And yes, the color quality is impressive, particularly in well-lit conditions. If you're used to video cameras from 5 to 10 years ago, you will be amazed. Canon has sample videos on their site if you want to check it out; vimeo.com is another site where camera owners and reviewers commonly post their sample videos because the site hosts high-definition content. Just search for the camera's model number.
Also, if you're worried about noise, this camera has the same "spotlight" (i.e. zero-gain) mode that HV20 users have been raving about, and comparisons say that this feature on the HF10 works just just as well as the HV20. By turning off gain, the camera doesn't add any noise. Then, in post-production with software such as Sony Vegas, you can use filters that increase the brightness without introducing noise.
The color correction is great if you know what you're doing -- as with all Canon cameras, you can do "custom" or "evaluative" white balance. It's the icon with a circle between two wedges. Just point the thing at something white and it calculates the right color correction, giving you true colors in any lighting conditions (assuming you bring along something white to calibrate it against).
Another useful feature that has gotten little attention is the recording light. This light does add a bit of a blue tint, but the effect can be neutralized using the white balance setting as mentioned above. The light doesn't seem to significantly reduce battery life; the blue tint leads me to believe that it's an LED. In absolute darkness, the light is sufficient for subjects from 3 to 6 feet away from the recorder, and passable up to 10 or maybe even 20 feet -- better than nothing at least.
Cons:
The recorder doesn't (but should have) come with:
* An HDMI Cable -- read the reviews before you buy one, some of them cause poor picture quality.
* An stand-alone battery charger. Canon makes one, but you have to buy it separately.
The battery is absurdly expensive--on par with laptop batteries. If you use an after-market (non Canon) battery you won't be able to see the estimated remaining battery time. The extended-life battery is considered non-optional if you need to record more than an hour or two between charges. Charging time is significant -- don't expect to simply charge between shots.
Altogether ---
Highly recommended if you're in the market for a video camera. This model compares favorably to the [...] price point models from other brands.
Customer Review: Excellent HD camcorder...I hope you have a good computer...
Summary: 5 Stars
Like others here, I was also in the market for an HD camcorder to take advantage of my HDTV, and because I didn't want to spend $300 for a standard-def camcorder now, only to have to upgrade a year or two later...so I took the plunge.
I actually originally purchased the Canon HG-10, because it received excellent reviews. Within a couple of days of playing around with that camera (which had a HDD rather than Flash memory), I was less than blown away by the quality. It was GOOD mind you...just not GREAT.
Amazon was EXCELLENT with their return policy, and I shipped it back and ordered the Canon HF-10.
As is ALWAYS the case with Amazon, not only did they give me ZERO hassles with my return, I also received my new camcorder fast and in perfect condition. Seriously, KUDOS to Amazon. They are my most trusted online purchasing site...hands down.
Anyway, I went with the HF-10, because I truly believe that Flash memory is the way to go. I've noticed recently in stores like 6th Avenue, the salespeople really are pushing the HDD camcorders, and their reasoning is recording time. That you can get X amount of hours on a 60GB HDD, whereas you only get X amount on a 16GB Flash.
Big deal. First, the battery is only going to last around an hour to an hour and a half. Second, most of my filming is done in about 1 to 5 minute clips. Thirdly, and the part they really don't like to mention in the stores, is that Flash memory is completely expandable. The cost of cards has come WAY down. So, if you're on vacation, and you don't have a computer to transfer your video to...just pack a couple of extra memory cards. With an HDD camcorder...if you fill it, you're screwed.
Of course, I don't mean to say HDD camcorders are not good, they're great. I just prefer the Flash. It's more versatile.
Another reason I went with Flash memory, is its resistance to damage.
We've all had computers whose HDDs have crashed at some point, or gotten corrupt.
I wouldn't feel too good spending $600 bones only to have my HDD fail on me. If that goes, the camera is useless.
If your Flash memory goes...pop another card in.
Less moving parts = less chance of failure or damage. Pretty simple.
Now as for the HF-10 itself, it's a small, comfortable, elegant design.
The built-in 16GB of internal Flash is PLENTY of space for day-to-day use.
If you go on vacation, you will probably want to pack 1 or 2 more cards with you...but honestly, how many hours of tourist movies are you going to make?
The video quality is SUPERB. Beautiful colors, but best taken in adequate lighting. Low-light quality is not that great...but it's really not that great on ANY consumer-level camcorder. At least I haven't found one.
AVCHD. This is the real issue with HD recording. The new ULTRA-compressed video format.
The one that wreaks utter HAVOK on most computers. In fact, I had to buy a new computer just to edit my video. I was using a 4 year old, single core Emachines computer that just wasn't up to the task of editing my HD video.
But the HDD was going anyway, so I had to buy a new computer recently.
I picked up an HP Pavillion Elite Quad-Core with a 750GB HDD.
Now, I can edit AVCHD EFFORTLESSLY.
So, bottom line...if you want to take HD movies, the Canon HF-10 is a beautiful, elegant and powerful camcorder for the average consumer.
But make sure your PC is up to the task. Believe me...it makes a HUGE difference.
You WILL be frustrated with an older computer.
If you have the PC...this is a MUST BUY.