A Wonderful HD Camcorder & Decent Still Camera...If You Catch A Sale

Approximately two years ago I wrote a review of one of what I thought was one of the better mini DVD camcorders out there by Sony.  It turns out I was pretty much right - it was just that the technology was a bit of a letdown.  The form factor in the Sony unit was great and everything about it was done right, as right as it could be.  But I was always bothered by the quality of the video and the fact that you had to "finalize" the discs before they could be used elsewhere. Even as I used the unit, I secretly hoped that something better would be out.

Well, that day finally came the day I strolled into a Best Buy store and saw the Canon Vixia HF10, an HD camcorder that was selling for a remarkable 30 percent off.  Since my birthday was approaching I decided to make it an early gift to myself, and it was a good decision.

I think just about any HD camcorder you buy these days - perhaps with the exception of those sub-$150 cheapies you buy just for the thrills - is going to be an amazing experience.  The difference between HD camcorders in the class of the HF10 and the cheapies is features, especially optical zoom - the HF10 has a very nice 12X magnification.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The form factor of the HF10 is very nice.  It's smaller than a soda can and fits the hand very well.  Because it doesn't require the space to conceal a 3" mini DVD, its profile can be lower, which allows it to fit in a (large) pants pocket comfortably.

The body is black with a shallow texture that mostly hides fingerprints (except for the back of the screen which is shiny plastic.  The hand strap is positioned on the right of the unit and, thankfully, doesn't get in the way of any of the controls, although you will have to move it to access the HDMI and mini USB jacks.  And those jacks, like many others on the HF10, have their own protective cover to prevent dust from getting in - the power jack, the mic jack (red RCA jack), and an AV jack (yellow RCA jack).

In the box is the HF10, the battery, the power cord, a remote control, software CD, user's guide, A/V cables, and warranty cards. 


FIRST CHARGING

It will take 75 to 90 minutes to charge the battery for first use.  There's a red LED that flashes while the battery is charging. 

You can actually check the progress of charging with Intelligent Li-Ion battery technology.  Flip open the LCD screen and press a button and in about three seconds, you'll be shown a percentage of charge on a colored bar graph and an estimated number of minutes recording time. 

Incidentally, recharging takes slightly less at about 75 minutes (extended life battery recharging times longer; more on extended life batteries below).


STORAGE & OPERATION

The HF10 has 16 GB of built-in drive space.  I can't say it's "hard drive" space because I'm not sure if it's a miniature mechanical drive or whether it's built-in memory; I suspect the former for reasons you'll find out soon enough. 

The wonderful thing about the HF10 is that it also uses SD HC (Secure Digital/High Capacity) media cards.  These cards have been dropping in prices very quickly the last few months.  I got an 8 GB card for about $17 including tax!  If you do decide to go the SD HC card route - and you'd be crazy not to, for convenience's sake - be sure the card is speed rated Class 4 or faster.  Not all SD HC cards are the same and if you get one with too slow a data rate, not only may you not be able to record at the resolution you want, you may not be able to record at all.

The power switch is on top of the camera and has a green pilot lamp to indicate the device is on.  This same lamp glows amber when the camera is in a stand-by state (screen closed but still powered on) - a helpful reminder that you may not have turned it off when you think you have.

Press the power button and swing out the 16:9 aspect LCD screen.  The quality of the LCD is quite good - not spectacular, but not horrid either.  Oh, and it is NOT a touch-screen (this isn't a Sony).  Controls are operated with a joystick off to the left of the screen which works reasonably well. 

There are a set of buttons (membrane-style) that line the underside of the screen.  The FUNC button lets you access settings menus - for video resolution, white balance, image effects, and digital effects.  You can choose from resolutions ranging from LP (long play, 5 MB/sec) all the way up to the killer FXP (the highest quality, 1920x1480, a whopping 17 MB/sec).  But ALL resolutions are HD; there are no standard definition (480 vertical lines resolution) on this device - hey, you bought it because you wanted high definition, right?

The button to shoot video is easily operated with the right thumb.  The LCD shows a red dot while recording.  Also appearing on screen while recording are the target (an icon showing whether you're recording to the built-in memory or to an SD HC card you insert), the video resolution mode, the number of the clip (starting at 1 and going up), the estimated recording time left (on either the built-in memory of the SD HC card, whichever you're switched to, but not both concurrently), and (most importantly) the estimated battery life remaining.  This is a very complete display and you should never not know what's happening.

Switching between the recording and playback modes is done with a color-coded sort of thumbwheel/dial control.  Red symbols indicate recording modes, blue symbols indicate playback.  I use the term symbols in the plural because the HF10 doubles as a point-and-shoot camera (more on that later).  Simply rotate the dial to choose your mode.  Thankfully Canon made this control good and firm, and not cheap feeling.  It shouldn't wear out very soon.

Playback is fairly simple - switch to the video playback mode and the screen shows up to six thumbnails.  You can choose which video to play by using the joystick; the selected video has an orange border around it.  Press the joystick (it is also a button) and playback starts immediately.  For those of you coming from mini DV or tape-based video camcorders, you'll love this change.  It's a time saver.

Determining which video plays is a little trickier.  Rocking the joystick left and right takes you through all the videos on your selected media card - whether the built-in memory or an inserted SD HC card.  Rocking the joystick up and down lets you choose between which media to use.  It's a little clumsy and made me wish that a touch screen had been implemented.  For one thing, if you have dozens of video clips - as you're sure to have once you start using this - you'll want to be able to scroll through entire pages of clips at a time.  If there's a way to do this, I haven't figured it out yet.  Perhaps a page up and page down button would have been helpful.

If you're having a hard time finding a video, you can use the Wide/Telephoto control to bring up a calendar from which you can choose videos recordings by date (active dates show in white).  I suppose this is to make up for the lack of a scrolling function but some folks aren't going to like this.


ZOOM & VIDEO STABILIZATION

Speaking of the Wide/Telephoto control, it works very well.  There are four speed settings for it, ranging from slow to variable.  I would suggest keeping it set to variable; the three other speeds are constant and may move too slowly for you to get your shot.  Just learn how to flick the Wide/Telephoto switch the right way and you'll be fine.

As mentioned earlier, the HF10 has 12X magnification, and it is magnificent.  The body says it has Optical Image Stabilization and I believe Canon, but the stabilization could be better.  Looking at video I shot outdoors on a couple of occasions it seemed to be a bit jerky.  It's not the worst I've seen but you'll want a somewhat steady hand to use this (just not a surgeon's hand). 

Or, you can use the tripod mount on the underside of the camera, which appears to be either metal or a metal alloy - smart choice, Canon.  Users won't wear the threads out.


MORE ON THE JOYSTICK

One time when I was using the HF10 I wanted to use the built-in white LED light.  It took some poking around to figure out (yeah, I'm one of those egotists that don't read the manual first; I like intuitive design) that the joystick has additional functionality in recording mode.  When you press the joystick like a button, it brings up a special diagram on the LCD and the operation here is complicated. 

Again, up, down, left and right have different meanings.  Flicking right turns the light on and off.  Flicking left lets you review the last clip you shot.  Flicking down takes you to other options for exposure, focus, and mic volume level.  Pressing the joystick button turns off the diagram again.  Bizarre, and takes some getting used to.

The joystick operates similarly in still picture mode.


VIDEO & IMAGE QUALITY

The video quality is marvelous!  You won't believe you have the kind of quality that rivals professional camera rigs in having the HF10.  Blooming video makers will have a field day with this device.  Colors are vibrant and, of course, with HD resolution, everything is amazingly sharp.

The still camera produces reasonably good photos, but you won't mistake them for photos from a digital SLR.  Still, on those occasions you may not want to carry around a camcorder and a point-and-shoot, the HF10 will do very well.  One caution - the fastest shutter speed is only 1/100 of a second - not that fast.  So if you plan on doing sports photography with it, don't expect too much unless you like motion blurs.

If you're planning on shooting in low light, expect to see some noise - a hazy pattern of speckles that overlays the image and makes it a bit muddy.  It's not pretty but it's not unbearable either.  I primarily got the HF10 for outdoor events so I'm not that concerned about that.


BATTERY LIFE

Ah, yes - that ol' debbil -battery life.  The Canon HF10 includes a BP-808 Canon battery pack rated 890 mAH (mAH = milliamps per hour).  At full charge, the battery lasts about 80 minutes.  However - and this is big - you can spring about $129 and get the BP-819 extended battery pack (I got one at Best Buy; it's rated at about 1700 mAH) and this will boost your recording time to well over 2 and 1/2 hours.  If you really want to shoot the works you can order the BP-827 extended battery pack which is rated at over 2400 mAH - I'll let you do the math on how much recording time that probably works out to be. 

So if you plan on doing lots of recording with the HF10, you'd be well served to spend a little extra and get one of the extended life batteries.

The extended life battery juts out in back a little more, but not so much as to be in the way.


DOWNLOADING VIDEO

I had hoped that at last, it would be possible to copy an MPEG-2 video file directly from the HF10 to my computer.  Almost, but not quite.  It needs to be imported because the camcorder uses Sony's AVCHD technology for HD video compression (this allows more video to fit in the same space on a card).  If you have a good program like Ulead's VideoStudio 11.5 - which I highly recommend, by the way - you probably won't have many problems importing. 

If, however, you depend on the bundled video management software included with the HF10, you may be disappointed.  You get a program from Pixela called ImageMixer 3 SE.  I just couldn't get that software to work, even though it claims it will run on Vista (which I have on my notebook and desktop systems).  Attempts to download updates to ImageMixer 3 were fruitless; I'm just glad I had something I could use.  I would imagine Adobe's Premiere Elements can probably import AVCHD video also but I won't swear to it; check Adobe's web site first.

Copying video files directly off the SD HC card - using a media card reader - is discouraged by the documentation, and I can see why.  For one thing, the actual video files are hidden in a multi-level hierarchy under a folder called "Private" (for good reason).  You have to drill down in Windows to find the "AVCHD" folder, and that's where the video clip files are.  Do yourself a favor and delete video clips from the camcorder, "initialize" (format) the card in the camcorder, or format the card in Windows completely then initialize the card in the camcorder (to get rid of absolutely everything). 

Copying video files off the built-in drive, for some mysterious reason, requires you to have the HF10 plugged in.  I suppose this is to ensure the data integrity of the video, but wouldn't that apply to the SD HC media card also?


VIDEO PLAYBACK

There are several options for playing back the video you shot.  Obviously, if you have video editing software, you can not only play it back in sparkling color and detail, but you can make your own video creations as well.  Just remember that unless you have Blu-Ray capabilities in your software, the most you'll get is DVD quality (720x480).  And that will be clean, but not HD.  If you're one of the lucky folk with a Blu-Ray burner (which will set you back at least $300) you can make HD discs - if you can afford the $15 blank discs.

If you have a media center PC, you can just play back the files, but you have to have a player that can play back the AVCHD files directly; a search with Google should turn something up.  If you have more time, you can use your video editing software to convert to a more common format such as WMV (Windows Media) or MPEG-2 and watch your video in more players like Windows Media Player or Real Player.

Or for instant gratification, you can play the video right back from the HF10!  The device has composite output jacks as well as an HDMI jack.  If you plan on going the HDMI route, though, it won't be cheap - the HDMI terminal on the camera is half-sized, meaning you have to get a full-to-half converter to plug on one end of your HDMI cable.  Total expected additional cost for both - over $60.


IMAGE PLAYBACK AND USAGE

You can also view your photos in the same manner as video, once you've connected the HF10 to your HD TV.  Just remember what I said about the video quality - good, but not digital SLR quality.

Like many standard cameras, when you take photos, the HF10 will create a DCIM folder in which your photos are placed.  You can manipulate or delete photos in this folder without worry. 


FINAL VERDICT

I was extremely fortunate to snap up the Canon HF10 HD camcorder at $699, a full $300 off the normal $999 asking price.  If you have the money to spare in these recessionary days, you may be able to catch this amazing device on sale at Best Buy as I did.

The Canon HF10 is a great buy if you can get it on sale.  If you're a die-hard HD enthusiast you'll still like it but you'll be stinging a little bit from handing over a grand.  But regardless of how you come by this device, you'll like it a lot.  It's easy enough to use (although it could be easier) and while the included battery isn't so hot, you can get extended life batteries that make the camera much more useful for longer trips or outdoor events.

I haven't enjoyed a camcorder this much since...well, ever!