Canon HG10
Starting at: $1,799.00
CNET Editors' Review
CNET Editors' Rating
- Reviewed by: Lori Grunin
- Reviewed on:
The good: The Canon HG10 camcorder has excellent image stabilization and generally great video quality.
The bad: Poor audio control; smallish EVF; some annoying ergonomics; no manual focus dial.
The bottom line: A solid hard-drive based HD camcorder, the Canon HG10 nevertheless has its share of annoying quirks.
The HG10 is significantly smaller than the HV20, though at 1 pound, 4 ounces, it's not a whole lot lighter. And though it weighs a tad less than its main competitor, the Sony Handycam HDR-SR7, it's also a bit taller; the silver-and-dark gray body doesn't
... Expand full reviewThe HG10 is significantly smaller than the HV20, though at 1 pound, 4 ounces, it's not a whole lot lighter. And though it weighs a tad less than its main competitor, the Sony Handycam HDR-SR7, it's also a bit taller; the silver-and-dark gray body doesn't look quite as snazzy as the SR7's mostly-black chassis, though. The taller body does, however, make it easier and more comfortable to grip.
To squeeze the body, Canon moved and reshaped a lot of the controls. In some cases, as with the large, extremely smooth and comfortable zoom rocker switch and the extendable eye-level viewfinder, the changes work for the better. Some things, such as the nontethered accessory-shoe cover--you might as well toss it now, it's bound to get lost eventually--should have been changed but weren't. And others simply disappointed me. Take, for instance, the new four-way-plus-Set switch with the concentric scroll wheel. On one hand, it's far better than a touch screen. But it's very hard to use the directional switch without moving the scroll wheel, which ultimately makes navigation and manual focus difficult. (Canon also dropped the manual focus dial from the lens barrel.)
Furthermore, the joystick on the HV20 is also better located. It sits on the body of the camcorder rather than the LCD bezel. So with the HG10, you're forced to shoot using the LCD far more than necessary; that's not just annoying and harder to hold steady, but you end up wasting a lot of battery power.
For the money, though, the HG10 delivers a pretty well-rounded set of features. The 3-megapixel CMOS chip shoots native 1,920x1,080 HD video, which then gets downconverted and interlaced to 1,440x1,080 AVCHD. It can also shoot 1,440x1,080/24p, although support for this flavor of the format is even more limited than that of vanilla AVCHD). Its 40GB hard drive stores between 5.5 hours of video at 15Mbps to as much as 15 hours of video at 5Mbps. As usual, however, I don't recommend dropping below the highest quality level, unless you're absolutely certain you will never want to edit the footage. You can snap 3-megapixel stills in photo mode or take 1,920x1,080 grabs while shooting in movie mode. But I find it utterly ridiculous that stills can't be captured to the hard drive, only to a MiniSD card.
The Set button on the LCD bezel calls up shooting controls for backlight, exposure compensation, focus, and quick review; in camera mode you also get flash controls. In video mode, a membrane Function button accesses the choice of program, shutter-priority, aperture-priority, Cine mode (for a film look, to go with 24fps shooting), and slow-shutter Night mode; a handful of white-balance options; various image effects presets, plus customizable color depth (for a posterized look), sharpness, contrast and brightness; a few digital effects; video quality; and still grab size. For still photos, you can also select from evaluative, center-weighted average, and spot-metering modes; continuous-shooting and bracketing; and photo size.
I'd prefer it if a couple of the features, specifically Focus Priority (the choice between Canon's AiAF and center focus), AF mode (Instant AF and normal), and zoom speed (variable plus three constant options) were closer to the surface. They're a little too frequently used to be buried in the menus, and unless you know they exist--and how they're named--you may miss them entirely. And, as with the HV20, you can't change the white balance while shooting, which is a pain in scenes with multiple light sources.
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Compare selected Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging and all types of tech for two decades and photographing for four, but the stat she's proudest of is the approximately 5,000 photos she's taken of cats (and some dogs) for the animal rescue where she volunteers.
User Reviews
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Most Helpful User Review
stars 46 of 46 users found this review helpful
"Love the Canon HG10" By Claude77
Pros Hard drive, Tech support, Zoom, LCD, Image Stability, Menus
Cons Battery takes a long time to recharge
Summary The Canon HG-10 is a superb follow-on to the top rated and highly acclaimed Canon HV-20.
We could not be happier. We thank Lori Grunin for her insightful review. We purchased the camcorder from one of CNET's partners.
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Specifications
See full specsQuick Specs
- Optical sensor type: CMOS
- Effective sensor resolution: 2.07 megapixels
- Flash type: Built-in flash
