Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash…

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So I am a dad taking video of my family. I wanted the best HD camcorded possible. I originally purchased the Panasonic HDC-SD5. It has beautiful color AS LONG AS YOU ARE OUTSIDE WITH GOOD LIGHTING. Any video shot indoors are pixelated. In fact, even outside shadows pixelate - like if somebody is wearing a hat and their face is shaded. So I spent the money and purchased the Vixia HF10, then shot side-by-side video inside and outside for comparison. Figured I'd return the HF10 if it didn't give the results I wanted. Results: the HF10 is MUCH MUCH better quality in low light conditions like indoors. The Panasonic SD5 has slightly (but noticeable) more vibrant colors in well lit outdoor conditions. For me, the low light advantages of the HF10 far outweigh the perfect/vibrant colors of the SD5 outside. In fact, if I wasn't comparing two videos side-by-side I would not notice the more vibrant colors of the SD5.

I've benefited from the great user reviews here at amazon so wanted to give back. Hope it helps others when making their purchase decision. Now I have an $800 Panasonic "stand-by" video camera I guess :)

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also from this reviewer 4.0 A great overall zoom

4.0 Owned since Nov 2005

4.0 Solid isolation (keeps the sound out), okay Bass

5.0 Excellent Product

5.0 THE BEST OF ALL AOE SERIES GAMES!!!!

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I've had this camera for about a month and have shot numerous short videos in a variety of situations using the Easy mode. I'm very pleased with the results thus far.

The good:
Video quality - I couldn't be happier with the overall results
Image stabilization works well
Zoom is smooth and can be done very slowly or very quickly
Handles low light really well (I was able to get the fireworks the neighbors were setting off at 10:30 at night)
Start up time - you're shooting after only 5 or 6 seconds when booting up cold, faster if it's in suspend mode (which ends after 10 minutes or so of disuse)
The camera's weight and size are remarkable
Solid construction

The okay:
Still images
Audio quality with built-in mic
Software support (I use Premiere Elements 4.0 which to date doesn't support the native AVCHD files - I have to downsample to DV-AVIs... but I'll still have the originals for when the software catches up)

The bad:
Battery life (with the default battery, though isn't a problem with the highly recommended extended-life battery)
Once card or internal capacity is reached, you have to manually switch the camera over to the other through the settings

Overall - totally worth the money (even with the bigger battery and a fat SDHC card). I know that I'm going to be able to enjoy the quality of the video I'm shooting for years to come.

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also from this reviewer 5.0 Worth the price

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After a nightmare with Sony cameras, I've decided to go with Canon and I was very right. This camera is amazingly easy to understand. Canon did a great job with user interface. (If you ever had any Canon product, they all very consistent in term of user interface).

Quality is just outstanding. Having 16Gb build in and Flash makes it 32GB. I love the option of moving files back and forth between those two memories. Flash drive is definitely better and faster.

I have a mac and this camera couldn't be any friendlier than it is. Mac recognizes two Flash Drives as one for Photos and one for Videos so you not gonna import all in one mix media. All software works great with this camera.

If you been looking for simple, yet great camera, this is the one. Thank you Canon, you just earned yourself a loyal user.

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also from this reviewer 5.0 better than ever

5.0 Another great iPod

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This is a marvelous camcorder. Rather than repeat what some of the other reviews have mentioned, I thought I'd explain how to import video on the Mac, because it wasn't obvious to me. First, you must have an Intel based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). You also need iMovie '08, which comes with new Macs. If you're running an older version of Mac OS X (such as Tiger) or have an older version of iMovie, or have a PowerPC based Mac, you won't be able to import video from this camera.

To import video, attach the camcorder to the Mac with the USB cable that's included with the camcorder. Make sure you plug your camcorder into AC power, running from the battery won't work. Set the mode dial on the camera to video playback (the little blue camcorder icon). Turn on the camcorder. Now open the LCD display on the camcorder, and you'll see it's asking you a question: use the joystick to choose "computer" for where you're connecting the USB cable. I spent some time the first time I wanted to import wondering why iMovie couldn't see the camcorder until I finally tried opening the LCD screen and noticed this question. Once you've made this choice, iMovie will detect the camcorder and will be able to import video, and you can do the rest from iMovie.

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First of all I'm quite sure that image-quality-wise it's the best camcorder one can buy below 2K. It is also probably the best compact camcorder and a great value.
Downloading videos from internal memory is more painful than it should be and the included decoder cannot run smoothly enough on my new dual-core desktop. Also some of the controls are poorly designed and a bit sluggish ... but these are fairly minor drawbacks.
One serious problem with it is the lens. It is very narrow. Horizontally is it's about 42mm equivalent at its widest end. This is bad in itself but is particularly problematic for a 16:9 camera. Basically you need to be about 20 feet away to be able to film a 5 foot person in full height.
I imagine that's the price for a fairly useless 12x zoom.
A wide-angle lens is a must. It does improve things a bit (by 0.7 factor) but at the price of significant distortion, loss of (so precious) light, extra bulk, about $150. It also ruins the nice look of the camera.
One more necessary accessory is 2 hour battery. I can't see why Canon is charging $100 for a less than 10$ battery. Do yourself a favor and buy a noname alternative for a fraction of a cost.

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also from this reviewer 4.0 Very sharp and contrasty but strong CA

5.0 Big and heavy ... but the best you can get for cropped sensors

4.0 A unique lens

4.0 Nice for cheap headphones

5.0 A real gem of a camera ... but don't expect image quality miracles

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I have quite a selection of HD camcorders from Sony, JVC, and Panasonic. I also have the Canon HV10 and HV20 HDV camcorders, which are as amazing as that sounds incompatible in HD mode. HD has creates the most amazing confusion on the format front. Also capturing became very painful with this mess. Enter AVCHD. After tremendous disappointment over the last year with AVCHD compatibility for video editing - particularly on the Mac - this has finally been resolved. I use now Final Cut Pro 6.04 and iMovie to directly import the AVCHD files into the editing software. The winner in quality, handling and usability is for me the Canon HF10. The picture quality in FXP mode - the highest quality setting - is excellent and beats both HV10 and HV20. Compared to the Pro-Camera Panasonic HVX-200 I see very little difference. The biggest distinction is low-light noise. But also here the HF10 beats all other AVCHD camcorders.

A bit unpleasant is the requirement to have the power cable connected while USB use, but that must be related to problems with potential file corruption should the battery fail. I would recommend the HF10 over the HF100 because of its internal memory.

Finally AVCHD has reached the mainstream. I wonder for how long until another format makes it obsolete ...

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also from this reviewer 5.0 This is one of the best non-PRO cameras!

5.0 The future of video with consequences.

5.0 Good machine - in comparison - still lacking usability!

5.0 Accurate, fast and small

5.0 If you don't want to limit your creativity ... this is it.

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I am amazed with this product. Clear and very sharp images, lighweight and with a superb design. I'm glad I have bought this camera. Canon, once again, exceeded expectations.
I also bought, together with the camera, the SanDisk Ultra II 16GB/15MB SDHC Card and the Canon BP-819 Lithium Ion Battery, which I higly recommend.
Points for attention:
1. Focal Length: from my perspective, the camera should have a shorter focal length. 40mm is too limited. I'm considering buying the wide angle converter.
2. Video editing sofware: since this camera shoots in AVCHD, pay attention on the software you'll have to buy in order to edit your films. The one that comes with the camera is just ok. For Mac users it's a no brainer, but for PC user, like me, be aware that Adobe Premier does not edit AVCHD files. You'll have to chose either Sony Vegas Platinum or Pinnacle to do so. An upgrade in your computer may be also needed, especially for Pinnacle.
Bottom line? Buy it! But also order an extra battery and SD card to guarantee you don't miss anything!

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I've had this camera for about a month now and have really enjoyed using it. It is light weight and turns on pretty quickly. Here is my quick review:

Pros: Small, lightweight, nice view screen, lens gets covered automatically, internal memory holds 2 hours of footage but you can add another card, quality is really good. Pretty good in low light situations. Steady shot is okay.

Cons: Had to upgrade the battery because one hour of power is not enough with the standard battery. The auto color balance doesn't always do a good job, especially when in nature. On one of my shoots people looked a little purple. I took care of this by setting the white balance manually when I'm outside.

Overall: I'm very glad I bought it and I would recommend it with the above understanding.

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also from this reviewer 5.0 Amazing simplicity!

5.0 Awesome

5.0 great product

5.0 Good For Travel

5.0 AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cons:

 

So I've had my HF10 for about a month now. I'm extremely impressed with video and audio quality. Provided you are shooting with enough light, playback in full 1080P is amazing. Low light performance leaves a little to be desired. Autofocus hunts a little too much, again mostly in low light. The onboard light casts a strange blue glow that my wife calls "The Alien Abduction Cam".

The camera is extremely light (other reviews have said the HF10 is about the size of a beer can - true that). Both my wife and I have no issues with the size. She has small hands, mine are a little ogrish.

The fact that the PS3 directly supports playback from the SDHC cards is a major bonus (I'm assuming other Blu-Ray players with SDHC slots will do the same). No need to burn off to a DVD just to check out something you've just shot.

As for the AVCHD codec. Argh, what a pain it is to try and edit this stuff. The codec requires lots of horsepower to edit natively and converting to HDV or WMV/AVI either takes too much time or lots of HD space. There are plenty of solutions out there that will edit AVCHD natively, but most of them are just plain garbage. I've tried several suites - Vegas, ULead, Studio Plus - but have found them to be unstable or user-unfriendly. I typically use Premiere Elements 4 on my PC for this stuff, but Adobe doesn't yet support AVCHD.

For now, I've been backing up the raw M2TS files to a couple of mirrored external back-up drives on my PC, then using iMovie 2008 on a MacBookPro to convert to Apple's Intermediate Code (dropping from 1920x1080 to 960x540 in the process - yes, you WILL notice). From there, its all easy editing but its still a painful workaround. Hopefully, Apple and Adobe will add direct support for AVCHD in the future, but then...I was thinking the same thing last year.

If you can overlook those issues (I almost couldn't, which is why I didn't get an AVCHD 'corder last year), you'll be rewarded with some spectacular video.

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also from this reviewer 4.0 Good and fast memory, poor build quality

4.0 Wonderful external storage device, with room for expansion

4.0 Hard Drive crashes happen, so lets be realistic

4.0 Super easy installation but don't expect much speed

5.0 Best Router I've ever owned