Digital Camcorder Reviews

Articoli marcati con tag ‘Canon digital camcorder’

Features and Design

The Vixia HF200 is purely SDHC card based (no internal memory) so it’s extremely compact and light. You can record 80 minutes of best quality AVCHD video – more than enough for most events. For the record, the similar HF20 has 32GB of internal memory.

The AVCHD camcorder is no prize winner in the looks department. It looks fairly ordinary with a combination of silver, gray and black finishes. However, it’s very small, fits comfortably in your palm, and has a very comfy strap. It measures 2.8 x 2.4 x 4.9 (WHD in inches), and weighs 13.8 ounces with the battery. You’ll have no problems carrying it around all the time. Canon calls it their “smallest, lightest HD camcorder” available, but the recently reviewed card-based Sony HDR-CX100 is smaller, lighter and cheaper. It’s just not as good.

The front of the squat HF200 is dominated by the zoom, which has lens-shift optical image stabilization. Last year’s Canon Vixia HF100 was also an SDHC-based model with OIS, but it had a 12x optical zoom; the HF200’s 15x equates to 39.5-592.5mm. This wide focal length will handle everything from close-ups to extreme tele shots. The lens has a built-in cover. Also on the front is the instant AF sensor, a stereo mic, as well as a small LED light and flash. The last item is a welcome addition and a true plus for your stills.

On the right, you’ll find the adjustable strap, a compartment for the USB and mini-HDMI outputs, and a mode dial. With it, you can change between Dual Shot, camera and video. Dual Shot is Canon’s easy mode, allowing you to simply aim-and-forget for photos and videos. Unlike Sonys equivalent mode, you can record at highest video quality in this setting (MXP, 24 Mbps). You can only adjust the zoom, and cannot do any tweaking. The mode dial has to be turned to camera/video to do that.

The top has the power button, a zoom switch, shutter button, and hot shoe for optional mics and lights. On the back is the recessed slot for the battery, a record button, as well as compartments for DC-in to charge the battery, component out and mic in. As always, you’ll live on the left side with the swing-out LCD screen. It’s a 2.7-inch monitor rated 211K pixels – the same as the HF S10. In other words, it’s a very legible screen in most conditions, and if you hit the display button on the body, you can use it in direct sunlight. On the bezel is a four-way controller with center set button, a function key, and main controls such as record, wide/stop, tele/playlist, and playback. Like the HF S10, this camcorder has an excellent menu system. We only wish the main LCD adjustment wasn’t buried so deeply.

On the body is that vital display switch for boosting the LCD brightness, a video snap button, speaker, A/V out/headphone jack and the compartment for the SDHC card. As mentioned earlier, you need Class 4 or greater to record highest quality video (MXP, FXP), so make sure you have one. Or three, with prices so low. You’ll find a metal tripod mount and battery release on the bottom of the Made In Japan camcorder.

What’s in the Box

The carton contains the camcorder, battery, AC adaptor, remote, USB, A/V and component video cables. There’s also a hefty owners manual with 184 pages in English. One CD-ROM has Pixela ImageMixer 3 SE for saving and transferring videos, while the second has Video Tools for managing and editing movies. There’s also a digital video solution disk with ZoomBrowser EX for handling stills, along with a music data disk with tunes for background music used with the video snap feature.

With the battery charged, and a 6GB SDHC card in position, it was time to start recording.

Performance and Use

Vixia HF200 records 1920 x 1080 videos at 24 Mbps, similar to the HF S10. This is the best compression level available for the AVCHD format. However, it has a 3.89-megapixel CMOS sensor, rather than the 8.59-megapixel sensor of the more expensive model. The S10 dedicates 6 million pixels for video, versus 3 million for the HF200. Stills are similarly “challenged,” at 8MP for the S10, 3MP for HF200.

Using this compact camcorder is a lot of fun. It feels right, the controls are within easy reach, and the menu is drop-dead simple to operate. We started off in the Dual Shot mode, then moved into camera and video to use features such as aperture and shutter priority. Once done, we reviewed the material on a 50-inch HDTV, on a PC monitor, and made 8.5-by-11-inch full-bleed prints of the stills. Overall, the results were very good.

Although videos recorded with the HF S10 were much richer than the HF200, clips more than stood on their own. Colors were very accurate, with no noise, even with scenes of broad expanses of bright blue skies. Since it’s early spring in the northeast, bright yellow forsythia and pink weeping cherry blossoms made their presence known. The camcorder captured them beautifully. Zooming in on the tips of spiky evergreens showed excellent detail. Scenes taken indoors definitely had noise: more than the HF S10, but less than the Sony CX100. There’s a reason manufacturers suggest shooting at 100 lux (daylight) for best results.

Still photos were pretty impressive for 3-megapixel files. The HF200 uses nine autofocus points, which practically ensures sharp focus, and overall exposure was right on the money. Again, this is a Canon, and if they can’t figure out how to capture decent photos, something is really off in the world.

Interface and Menus

Since the Canon Vixia HF200 is devoid of a viewfinder, as most consumer camcorders are these days, the 2.7-inch 211,000-pixel LCD is the sole monitor on Megatron. The screen flips out 90 degrees and rotates just like nearly every other LCD on the market, but Canon made sure to include a handy strip of Camera and Playback controls along the bottom pane. In addition to Play/Pause, Stop and Playlist, we could Record and Zoom In and Out. We were impressed with the sharpness and picture clarity of the Vixia HF200′s LCD, and it even resisted solarization at steep angles. The lack of the viewfinder was a real encumbrance when the sun was tracing its fiery fingers along the backs of our necks and engulfing the LCD with extreme glare, but the Vixia HF200′s screen did a valiant job deflecting most of it. Buttons and controls on the whole were minimal and the LCD Joystick was in charge of most of the action. The Canon Vixia HF S10 and Vixia HF S100 both offer more external controls and advanced options for the shooter who needs additional features on the control panel to fiddle with.

You can’t beat Canon when it comes to menus, and the Vixia HF200 was equipped with the same menu system as all of its Vixia family members. We loved the swanky, sexy graphics and rapid menu response, in addition to the fact that Canon has retained the x-axis/y-axis Function menu. The Function menu was one of the easiest layouts we’ve tinkered with in the camcorder world, and it made manual adjustment fly by. We do have a few suggestions, however. We want the Frame Rates options to be welded into the Function menu as a permanent fixture since we spent a lot of time with that particular control. In addition, we want Image Stabilization tacked onto the Function or Joystick menu, so hopefully these changes will take place for the next batch of Vixias. Nevertheless, the Main menu was highly intuitive and grouped options in a logical, accessible configuration. The Joystick menu was a nice little add-on as well, containing useful options like Video Light, Exposure Compensation, Focus control and Flash settings. When it comes to interface, you can’t beat the Canon Vixia HF200.

Shooting Features

Although the Canon Vixia HF200 is slated as the “Tourist” version of the Vixia HF S100, this little warrior packs in plenty of features for the average shooter and is certainly a camcorder to grow into if you’re a beginner. The Vixia HF200 has excellent Auto controls, including Focus and Exposure, so we didn’t feel the need to leave Program AE mode most of the time. However, the Vixia HF200 offered Shutter Priority for fast action and Aperture Priority for advanced depth of field. Tack on Exposure Compensation and a White Balance fleet containing several presets and the Vixia HF200 is one of the top manual machines in its class. Of course, if you feel like coasting in autopilot, the Vixia HF200 has an Auto mode, which is really called Dual Shot mode, allowing shooters to capture video and still images without the need to shift modes.

The Canon Vixia HF200′s multiple frame rates were one of its primary highlights. However, these were not native frame rates. The Vixia HF200 shoots 60i, and simulates the 30fps and 24fps modes. The HV40, Canon’s latest HDV addition, is the only Vixia capable of recording true 24p video. However, the Vixia HF200′s frame rates looked awesome, and our favorite setup was 24F with Cine Mode. Canon is the only manufacturer to offer such an extensive toolbelt when it comes to enhancing or altering footage. The Vixia HF200′s numerous Digital Filters were fairly standard, but Art mode was and will continue to be our favorite until Canon can top it. In addition to a Shutter Speed with a 1/6-second minimum and an Aperture with an f/1.8 – f/8.0 range, the Vixia HF200 had an excellent Manual Focus system that utilized a Focus Assist function that magnified the image, though there was no distance meter.

The Canon Vixia HF200 captured 3.3-megapixel still images, but have no fear. The image quality was right in line with the Canon Vixia HF S10 and Vixia HFS100′s, so you’ll just have to deal with the fact that the images are puny for today’s standards. Canon’s color options were bountiful, including presets like Vivid and Soft Skin Detail, as well as a custom color slider bar that dictated Sharpness, Brightness, Color Depth and Contrast. The Vixia HF200′s Pre-Record performed just as admirably as the other Vixias we’ve looked at this year, though the Video Snapshot feature transported us into Lameville with its tacky soundtrack and overdramatic transitions—perfect for Grandma. The Vixia HF200′s Playback mode was easy to navigate via the Joystick and LCD controls, and the Vixia HF200 featured a few basic in-camera editing functions for those who don’t ride the Final Cut train. In this market, the Canon Vixia HF200 offers a hell of a lot of features compared to its competition.

Hardware and Connectivity

We’re not entirely sure what magic spells Canon possessed the Vixia HF200 with, for the camcorder featured a smaller 3.89-megapixel 1/4-inch CMOS this time around, yet image quality was even better than the previous generation Vixia HF10. It could be the latest Digic III processing or the 24Mbs max bitrate, but the Vixia HG21 could reach that date transfer plateau as well. Whatever the case, the Canon Vixia HF200 kicked some digital imaging behind and we were left with minimal complaints. We’re seeing manufactures cut down on sensor size in favor of enhanced processing and boosted bitrates, but the beastly Canon Vixia HF S100 features a whopping 8.59-megapixel 1/2.6-inch CMOS chip. It’s all about the equation, but either route you choose to go, Canon will pave the road with killer image quality whether it’s with the advanced Vixia HF S100 or portable Vixia HF200.

The primary difference between the Canon Vixia HF200 comes down to storage. The Vixia HF200 records 1920 x 1080 Full HD video to SDHC cards while the Vixia HF20 had the added 32GB of internal flash memory. So, if you happen to have a few large SDHC cards lying around, the Vixia HF200 is the obvious bang for the buck. Recorded video is interlaced, meaning a different set of horizontal lines is recorded every other frame and then blended together to make a total of 60. We noticed the stringy effects of interlacing while editing with the Vixia HF200′s footage, but nearly every camcorder exhibits this characteristic. The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 is the only Full HD consumer camcorder capable of recording 60p, but it can only be played back on a monitor.

The Vixia HF200′s 15x optical zoom was fairly impressive, given its size, though the tiny JVC Everio GZ-HD320 is capable of a substantial 20x optical zoom. However, comparing the GZ-HD320′s and Vixia HF200′s video qualities would be like comparing a 50cc scooter to a 1200cc Kawasaki ZRX sportbike. The Canon has the ponies. But the holeshot goes to the Sony HDR-XR520V when it comes to the low light circuit, as no camcorder has even touched its killer performance all year. The Vixia HF200′s Optical Image Stabilization was highly impressive, combating our twitchy macchiato-fueled hands.

Connectivity on the Vixia HF200 consisted of Mini HDMI, Component, USB, AV/Headphones and Mic jacks and a proprietary Mini Advanced hot shoe. No consumer camcorder’s built-in mic is anywhere near the boundaries of acceptable for semi-professional applications, so we recommend slapping an external boom mic on top of the Vixia HF200 and taking advantage of its generous inputs. Just make sure the AV/Headphones jack is set to Headphones or a malicious chorus of rabid queen bees will greet your ears with vengeance. The Vixia HF200 featured mic level control with a single bar sound level meter, a Wind Screen and Mic Attenuator, which was a fairly useful set of controls. Panasonic still leads the pack with its 5-channel independently controlled mic configuration. Overall, the Vixia HF200 rocks the goods under the hood when it comes to hardware.

Image Quality

Since the Canon Vixia HF200 shares identical imaging guts with the HF20, we were reminded of the stellar performance exhibited by the latter when we reviewed our test footage this time around. Image quality was excellent for a consumer camcorder, and we did not detect even the slightest differentiation between the Vixia HF200 and the dual-memory Vixia HF20 when it came time to review our video clips. Sharpness, detail, depth and color were the primary attributes, and the Vixia HF200 even produced an impressive low light performance. Of course we encountered giant clouds of noise in certain low light conditions, just like the massive Canon Vixia HF S10 and Vixia HF S100. However, there were times when the Vixia HF200 randomly jumped out of the nearest bush with an excellent showing at night. If you want the pinnacle, Sony has you covered with the Sony HDR-XR520V, which kicked digital butt this year with the best low light performance we’ve seen all year.

Conclusion

The HF200 is probably the best HD camcorder you can buy at this price range. The video is very good, stills are better than decent, it reacts quickly, has OIS, and feels just right. While it’s more expensive than its competitors, the Canon Vixia HF20 and Vixia HF200 deliver a more extensive feature set for the extra money. The HF200, which lacks internal memory, is probably a better buy than the HF20, though the HF20′s all-black body is a bit classier looking.

Good: Broad manual feature set unusual in a camcorder its size; excellent video quality; attractive, functional design.

Bad:  Relatively expensive.

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