Canon Vixia HG21 review

The lens performs surprisingly well. Not only does the SuperRange optical image stabilization system work satisfactorily all the way out to the end, but the lens focuses quickly and holds the lock in both dim and bright conditions. Images look sharp, too. On the downside, high-contrast edges show more fringing than usual. The stereo microphone sits beneath the lens and generally delivers good audio quality. However, in recent models, Canon changed the wind-filter option from a forced-on to automatic, and ever since we've found it far less effective. The microphone attenuation (zoom mic) works pretty well, too.

Video overall looks quite good despite the use of a small, 1/3.2-inch 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor. Recordings were properly exposed, nicely saturated, and sharp. As expected, in low light the video displays a good deal of noise and a somewhat compressed tonal range, but retains a significant amount of detail and fares above average compared with the rest of its class.

For the most part, the 24Mbps video is indistinguishable from the 17Mbps except in low light; when viewed on a large-screen plasma TV, the higher-bit-rate video displayed significantly more luminance noise than the lower bit rate. The lower-bit-rate video looked slightly softer, however. The difference between the two was still noticeable, but not as pronounced, when viewed on my calibrated CRT display. Even when extracting individual frames, I didn't really see any fewer artifacts that would affect video editing. On the upside, there were no software incompatibility issues with the 24Mbps files.

An excellent choice for hard-disk-based HD recording, the HG21 gives the Sony HDR-SR11 a close run for the money and is a clear champion if you don't like the Sony's touch-screen interface. However, the real question is do you want more storage at a lower price or give up some storage space and extra cash for the smaller, lighter HF11? The HG21 gets my vote in that scenario.

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