Lori Grunin,
Senior Editor
April 10, 2009
"Budget" HD camcorders don't dip into the most popular price range for camcorders--at least on CNET, everyone's looking for a sub-$300 bargain--but you can now get a good model for less than about $600. Here's a roundup of some of the least-expensive, top-of-the-line models we've looked at thus far.
- More Resources
- Best HD camcorders,
- Quick Guide to HD camcorders
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| Price | $599.00 to $899.99 | $399.99 to $999.00 | $499.99 to $939.99 | $445.00 to $599.99 | $599.95 | $499.99 to $849.95 |
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| Review date | September 29, 2008 | August 10, 2007 | April 16, 2008 | March 30, 2009 | April 10, 2009 | February 25, 2008 |
| The Bottom Line | Like its cousin, the flash-based HF11, Canon's Vixia HG20 delivers excellent HD video quality and performance albeit in a slightly larger, heavier package. However, you do get more storage space and a lower price. | A solid hard-drive based HD camcorder, the Canon HG10 nevertheless has its share of annoying quirks. | One of a pair of Canon's first flash-based camcorders, the Canon Vixia HF100, delivers excellent HD video quality and performance in a tiny package. | You can tell where Sony cut corners on this compact, flash-based HD camcorder. While it's decent, there are better options for the money than the Sony Handycam HDR-CX100. | Though it has a nice feature set for the price, the Panasonic HDC-HS100 doesn't deliver the quality of video you expect from an HD camcorder in its price segment. | An extremely minor upgrade from the HV20, the Canon Vixia HV30 remains a quality HDV camcorder with a couple of performance issues. |
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| Features | ||||||
| Lens aperture | F/1.8-3.0 | F/1.8-3.0 | F/1.8-3.0 | F/1.8-2.2 | F/1.8-2.8 | F/1.8-3.0 |
| Media type | Flash card Hard disk drive | Hard disk drive | Flash card | Flash card | Hard disk drive | Mini DV (HDV) |
| Optical zoom | 12 x | 10 x | 12 x | 10 x | 12 x | 10 x |
| Optical sensor type | CMOS | CMOS | CMOS | ClearVid CMOS | 3MOS | CMOS |
| Video input type | Camcorder | Camcorder | Camcorder | Camcorder | Camcorder | Camcorder |
| Digital zoom | 200 x | 200 x | 200 x | 120 x | 700 x | 200 x |
| Weight | 16.4 oz | 17.8 oz | 13.4 oz | Info unavailable | 14.8 oz | 1.2 lbs |
| Image stabilizer | Optical (SuperRange) | Optical (SuperRange) | Optical (SuperRange) | Optical (Steady Shot) | Optical (Advanced O.I.S.) | Optical (SuperRange) |
| Optical sensor size | 1/3.2" | 1/2.7" | 1/3.2" | 1/5" | 1/6" | 1/2.7" |
| Manual focus | Manual Automatic | Manual Automatic | Manual Automatic | Manual Automatic | Manual Automatic | Manual Automatic |
| Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications |
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