Customer Reviews

Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer

5 star:		(102)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I have been using camcorders since 1985 and I've used almost every possible format available to consumers. As of Oct. 2007, I can firmly say that this is by far the best camcorder ever, in terms of the picture quality, convenience, and the price. Although there are some limitations in the AVCHD format (I don't want to repeat here again), the convenience of the hard drive made me choose the HG10 and I have absolutely no regret at all.

First of all, I would like to clarify other reviewer's information that might misguide some folks. The HG10 does include the software to transfer and to edit the video footage for a PC. It comes with Ulead DVD MovieFactory SE for editing and burning DVDs and AVCHD-DVDs (can be playable on some blu-ray players and Playstation 3. It's a dvd that has HD pictures). If other reviewers have only a Mac, their complaints are valid, since the HG10 only includes a picture browser to handle the still pictures, not video for a Mac.

For the most consumers like me, the DVD MovieFactory works pretty well. I just burned a standard DVD (yes, an MPEG2 DVD that you watch everyday) with the DVD MovieFactory and am very satisfied with the result. Converting HD pictures to the SD format does not degrade the original HD quality much and I was impressed by that. I added chapter marks, made menus, and did little editing. Editing the AVCHD format needs a ton of processing power. If you don't have a fast computer (dual core, 2 ghz or faster), it will be extremely slow. I was using a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, Windows Vista Business PC to make a DVD and it worked OK. Making an AVCHD-DVD is faster since it does not need to re-encode the video files. If you don't do a complicate editing job and want to merge video clips from the HG10 and burn a DVD, you could use a slower computer for that purpose. I have experience using Adobe Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, and iMovie (for Mac). Although DVD MovieFactory might not be the right tool for the professional work, it is quite good for a home use. I surprised my friends with the DVDs created from it. My only gripe is a complicated software activation process. You should read the software instructions carefully to avoid the hassle (specially the web link in the last page). I wasted 2 hours just to activate the software.

Yes, the HG10 does not have an IEEE1394 (or firewire, or iLink whatever you call it) port. However, it does not need one. All the footages are already stored in AVCHD format and you only need to transfer those files to your computer. If you have to capture the video and encode it to a file from the magnetic tape (MiniDV), you might need an IEEE1394 port. However, for the HG10, you don't need to do that. If you look at other hard drive based camcorders, they don't have it either (they mostly have a USB port). Right before the HG10, I used a Sony DCR-SR100 and it does not have a firewire port, either.

The HG10 has a mini HDMI (type C) port, so if you want to connect the HG10 via HDMI, you'll need to order a mini-HDMI to HDMI (type C to type A) cable. The HG10 only includes a composite A/V cable and a component video cable. My minor complaint is that it does not come with a shoulder strap. This toy costs $1,000, so a nice looking shoulder strap should be given (I am using one from an old Canon ZR camcorder).

I was told that the HG10 uses the same optical mechanism as Canon HV20, which is known to be the best consumer HD camcorder on the market (it records in HDV format on tapes, not AVCHD on the hard drive). So I expected that the picture quality would be pretty good and I was right. If you have a full 1080p HD display, you will be amazed. Personally, I use a 720p projector at home and am quite impressed by the quality of the picture. Unlike Sony AVCHD camcorders, the sound is recorded in 2 channel Dolby Digital format (Sony records in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital). The good thing about 2 channel recording is that it does not record my breath. With 5.1 channel recording, you can easily hear your breathing sound, since two of the mics are catching rear sound.

For the low light performance (like indoor shot), the HG10 is comparatively better than any other consumer level camcorder on the market that I have seen. However, don't expect too much. It cannot be compared to the low light quality of a $3,000 camcorder. My impression is that its low light picture quality is closest to a decent 3CCD high-priced consumer level camcorder.

I have been waiting for long to have an excellant hard drive based AVCHD camcorder. There are many hard drive based camcorders on the market now and none of these have caught my attention for some minor reasons, such as no external mic jack, no usb port on the camcorder, or the poor low light performance. Finally I found the right one and am so happy that I waited.

Thanks to Canon for introducing good equipment at the right price (under a grand). I hope this review helps some people who have waited like me.

== Update, as of Feb. 12, 2008

As of today, I have been using the HG10 for more than 4 months. I have taken so many precious moments and this camcorder never disappoints me. The best moment I had was the day I brought this camcorder to my friend's home for a party. I connected it to Samsung LNT4065F 40" 1080p LCD HDTV and showed a junior high soccer tournament game. Everyone, I mean everyone, in that house said "Wow." The picture quality coming out of this combination was AMAZING !! I felt like I was watching an HD documentary from BBC or National Geographic. As I said in the review, I use an HG10 with a 1080i/720p projector (Epson Cinema 400, 3 LCD projector), but the HG10 picture coming out from the Samsung LCD TV was truly exceptional and far superior (very bright and way more crisp). I have never seen such a good picture coming from any other consumer level camcorder. Although the indoor shots have some grainy pictures (I tested some indoor video shots, too), the outdoor shots are flawless. Most of my friends who saw it wanted to buy the HG10 and I started to dream about having the Samsung LNT4065F LCD TV ever since. :)

The only drawback that I have found new from the HG10 is that if you want to transfer video files from the HG10 to a computer, you must have an AC adapter (correct me, if I am wrong). Sometimes, I want to transfer video to a friend's computer right after I take it. However, if I don't have the AC adapter for the HG10, it simply refuses to do it (it asks me to hook it up). This is very cumbersome to me.

I just heard that the new Sony hard drive camcorder has a 120GB hard drive. However, the 5 hr 30 mins of video in highest quality that I can take from the HG10 is still pretty good.

If I had to choose a camcorder today, I would choose the HG10 again. I can't wait to see what the next version of the HG10 can do.

== Update, for the Mac users, as of Mar. 29, 2008

I recently bought a MacBook and found out one thing that I want to share with other Mac users. First of all, the HG10 does work with iMovie '08 and Leopard OS (10.5) on intel Macs. If you connect the HG10 to the Mac, all the importing process will go very smoothly. You should be patient, since the Mac converts AVCHD files from the HG10 to their propriety format (it increase the size of the original files to 7-10 times). However, iMovie '08 does not import .mts or .m2ts files directly. iMovie can only import AVCHD files from the HG10 or the storage space (external hard drive) that exactly has the same directory structure like the HG10. I mean, it does not import individual .mts (.m2ts) files. I have searched through many apple discussion forums and have not found solutions for it.

If someone only saves .mts or .m2ts files without having the original directory structure (it means, no meta data, video files only) like me, he/she has to use the conversion utility like Voltaic to convert .mts or .m2ts files. If you have a non-Intel Mac, you can import AVCHD files this way (converting through the utility like Voltaic) only, though. This conversion process takes significant amount of time and the storage space.

I wish iMovie can directly handle .mts (.m2ts) files soon. Until then, I should stick with the bundled Ulead software on PC for my old video backups. Disappointed...

== Update, for the YouTube lovers, as of May. 22, 2009

I still love the HG10. It is the best. Probably you already know about this. YouTube allows to upload the .mts or .m2ts files created by AVCHD camcorders. So, you can upload the file directly without any conversion process on YouTube and it is HD. I cannot thank YouTube enough about it.

Import works great with the latest version of iMovie on a Mac. Transfers are fast thanks the hard drive. Editing and transfer to other formats (AppleTV) are very convenient but then my Mac is very fast. I was nervous going with the hard drive over tape but the convenience of it easily offsets any quality loss for the type of recording I'm doing (family and personal). Menus are intuitive and the scroll wheel approach works pretty well (it could be better, but I do prefer it over a joystick). USB 2.0 seems plenty snappy - not missing the firewire.

The hard drive makes it very easy to get out and shoot - no worry about if you are overwriting a keeper tape or if you are going to run out of tape. Its also extremely easy to delete unwanted footage in the field right when you've captured it. This is such a pain on tape that I never do it which results in a lot of wasted time later.

Drive is completely silent. Shoe provides for a shotgun mic which I'll be trying out shortly. Headphone jacks for monitoring sound are there and I've found that to be very important on past units. Construction is solid. Automatic lens cover much easier than having one on a lanyard that you always have to stow. Stand by mode gets you shooting in 1 second which is very nice.

Looking forward to trying the still capability. While the resolution can't match my pocket cam the 10x optical zoom is very nice to have.

On a Mac with the latest iLife and Leopard no software is needed. Drive mounts on the desktop. Movies automatically import into the new iMovie. Absolutely wonderful.

The Canon HG-10 is a superb follow-on to the top rated and highly acclaimed Canon HV-20.
We could not be happier. This is a gem of a camcorder. Obviously each reviewer has their own specific reasons for purchasing such an advanced camcorder.
This is our third camcorder and we have been shooting family events, vacations and even hurricanes for close to 20 years. We burn our captured footage on a number of DVD's and share with family members (many who live a great distance away). We have two HDTV's and are about to buy a Blu-ray player. Our Sony camcorder died in The UK this summer and instead of buying another SD camcorder, we decided it is time to step up.
Why now?? Although SIMPLE HD capture and burning software and inexpensive High Def DVD burners are behind the curve at the present time, they are going to happen. Sony, Panasonic, Canon and all the rest...will make it happen. This is too big a potential market to ignore -so we decided to shoot in High Def now, save the backed up video on our hard drive and/or off- line storage, and burn in Standard Definition now. When the software makers and DVD burner makers decide to catch up and make it easy to burn family movies, we will have our (saved) high def files ready to convert to Blu Ray or HDDVD or both.
There are a ton of very technical reviews on the HG-10 on this and other websites. CNET and Amazon provide a great deal of information, Camcorderinfo.com and smartguider.com are just two of the many others. We think any buyer should review them all and also do a web search on
"Canon HG-10 reviews"

After days of reading reviews virtually every web review and visiting at least 7 retail stores we came away with some interesting observations. You are not going to get much technical help at the major retail outlets. You can get hands on and see what works for you. When comparing the HG-10 to the CanonHV-20, there was no comparison as to the ergonomic superiority of the HG-10.
For the technical data you will have to hit the web as the folks in the stores just do not have the depth you need to help you make this kind of buying decision.
We found a few very helpful "gems" in selecting this camcorder.
1) We went to the Canon website.... www.usa.canon.com and downloaded the HG-10 manual in .pdf format (yes it is 118 pages) but if you print the pages in short batches, you will have an excellent and VERY readable document to review BEFORE and after you purchase the HG-10. The manual that comes in the box is very small and hard to read. It would also be a VERY wise idea to also download the .pdf file for the Corel Application Disc Version two.
2) This Corel Guide is a much shorter manual -just 16 pages long. You really want to read this one cover to cover before you buy, and particularly Page 3, where they discuss needed PC systems requirements. You may want to talk (or email) with Canon and/or Corel regarding your PC versus their "recommended size of the PC system". We have a Core 2 Duo Dell so the Corel software posed no problems.
3) We called Cannon Tech support while reviewing the manual. You will be delighted to find out their 800 number ( 1-800-828-4040) is located Virginia, they are very well trained and if you have a problem..they can immediately lay their hands on an HG-10 and go thru a process step-by-step with you. They were even available on a Saturday afternoon.
4) We cannot say enough good things about Canon support. Having spent untold hours since the early days of the IBM PC, on support lines, trying to get help with hardware and software, we think Canon really got it right. A couple short calls to Canon to clarify some questions made it easy for us to choose the HG-10.
On the HG-10 --all the controls were when we really liked them. The HG-10 borrows a lot of its technology from its tape driven HV-20 sister but after living with internal tape transports in many worldwide (hot, cold and dusty) climates and situations over the years, the hard drive was a very logical choice. The 5 and ˝ hours of HXP (full 1080) - highest format is plenty for any vacation. Realistically, how many folks want to sit through even a three hour home movie? We have learned from Hollywood.. Keep it short..Keep it snappy..Keep it interesting. Five and ˝ hours of High Def video gives you a ton of material to work with from any vacation. When you get home, the Corel software that comes with the Canon allows you to immediately back up your video files and you are ready to initialize (format) the Hard Drive and you are ready to go with a fresh 5 ˝ hours of HXP.
Going through the HG-10 manual provides many happy surprises - the camcorder has more features than you can believe and most reviewers do not have the time or space to address all of the abilities of this camcorder. This camcorder takes better still photos than our Sony Cybershot H-5 (which suffers from chromatic aberration in certain situations).
We purchased a 1 GB (Canon recommends no bigger than 2GB) Sandisk mini-SD card that also comes with an SD adapter. If you already have Still Photo capture and edit software, you may not need to load the entire very voluminous still photo (Digital Video Solution Version 27.0) software that comes on a CD with the HG-10. We went through the manual for that disc and it was all about STILL photos. Having more still photo software than we can ever use already on our PC, we skipped that installation.
Why not get a USB-based Media card reader for your PC (if it does not have one) for under $25. When you take still photos just remove the card from the HG-10 and insert it into a USB media card reader. While, we did not by this camcorder for still photos we are more than delighted with the stills that we can capture in Camera mode.

Regarding connections (page 83 in the HG-10 manual) we love displaying the HXP High Def. video footage on our HDTV. We connect the HG-10 to the HDTV via the (optional) mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. The Canon manual calls this an optional HTC-100 HDMI cable. Sony sells a VMC-15MHD HDMI Mini to HDMI that works very well. Canon does not provide this and you will not find these cables in most stores at the present so you may have to order one over the web.
As many highly regarded reviewers have noted, use the HDMI connection whenever you can for the best quality.
Our HDTV had only one HDMI input (already being used) so we purchased a Belkin HDMI 3 to 1 Switch box that allows us to now plug in HD Cable, the HG-10 and a future Blue ray player. We keep the HG-10 HDMI cable always plugged into the home system and by attaching the mini HDMI to the camcorder we can see 1080 HD home movies in an instant.
A couple of user plusses on the HG-10 are the LCD display and the image stabilization. Both are excellent. The size of the HG-10 is amazingly small and it is incredibly light. We cannot believe they pack that much technology into such a small package. The electronic reminder messages on the screen are quite helpful as we all make mistakes. We like the quick start and the Instant auto focus features. We would suggest buying the optional carrying strap and also a second battery when you order an HG-10.
We plan to add more information to this review regarding burning video and creating AVCHD discs but at this time we think this is the perfect camcorder for our needs.

I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong they are allowed to call this High Definition. First, most of these camcorders down-res to something like 1440 x 1080, even though they advertise meeting the full-HD spec of 1920 x 1080. Second, the compression used to accomplish this is fierce, and has very visible artifacting.

So, in essence you have a class of camcorders, advertised as HD-quality, that can ONLY produce true HD in very good lighting with almost no motion. Think test patterns here, or landscapes. Poor lighting and motion in the picture give most of these camcorders fits, as the AVCHD codec just can't handle the extra work imposed by video noise from low light situations or any motion-induced artifacting.

What to do? Well, in typical Canon fashion they sat back, waited to see what everyone else produced, and then released a product that is the best of the genre. Sure, you can get larger drives on the Sony -- up to 80GB. The Sanyo may tout it's tiny form factor, and make exaggerated claims about its' image quality. I owned the Sanyo HD1000 and promptly sent it back; both the quality of the device itself AND the quality of the images it produced were lacking.

The Canon gives the best image I've seen on an AVCHD product. Though not perfect and nowhere close to their own HDV-based HV20, I wanted something non-linear to make working with video a little simpler on my Macs. The HG10 has great image stabilization, wonderful optics, intuitive controls (I especially love the multi-speed zoom control), superb colors, and less of the AVCHD nasties than any other AVCHD camcorder I've seen. It also works superbly on my Mac with both iMovie and Final Cut Express 4. It is phenomenally easy to work with non-linear video; in my case this probably overrides the loss in quality to HDV.

So, if you must own a camcorder that uses AVCHD, this is the one to have! On absolute terms I'd give it three stars, but compared to other AVCHD camcorders it's a five, so four stars overall felt about right...

[UPDATE ONE: Canon has just released new AVCHD camcorders -- the HF10 and HF100 -- that record at the full HD 1920 x 1080 spec. They will offer improved quality, but the bitrate is less than the comparable Canon HDV units, so there will be some losses to compression.]

[UPDATE TWO: one issue with the HG10 regards the use of external microphones. I just recorded three hours of interviews with an external mike mounted to the camera's "flash shoe" accessory attachment point. There is a a low level noise present, which is caused by the microphone picking up the noise from the hard drive. I can probably minimize this in editing, but be careful about your choice of external microphone -- and mount it off-camera if possible!]

I've had this camera for a couple of weeks, I've tried it indoors, at night, outdoors under bright sun. The image quality is superb. I was using it to shoot some scenes at an amusement part, and the videos are good, I was worried about the motion artifacts in AVCHD encoding, but it's not as bad as I had imagined. The low light performance is good, nothing to write home about. Things start get a little grainy indoors in the morning if I go to the shady part of the room.

The controls are pretty easy to use, I didn't read the manual, and it took me maybe 30 min to go through all the menu's including all the manual controlls and figured out what they did.

The software that came with the camcorder is nothing to write home about. I only installed the Ulead software, and didn't bother with the backup utility disc, or the photo software. The installation process may be a little too complex. The Ulead software needed an activation code, which I had to obtain from their website, by creating an account and entering the serial number of the camcorder. The information was available in the manuals, but it wasn't obvious where to find it. Without knowing that creating the account on Ulead website was necessary, and if I had felt suspicious about going to some software company's website and creating a user account, I would've hit a dead end with the activation process.

After that, he 1st thing I wanted to do is to get the AVCHD files off the camcorder. With a PC, and the Ulead software, it was very easy, just plug in the USB cable, a few clicks to select videos segment to download, and directory on the PC to put them, and it was done. The USB cable is a standard mini-USB cable, so I just plugged it into the mini USB cable that I already had connected to the PC for my digital camera. I transfered ~1 GB of video (7-8 minutes long). It was done quickly, in just seconds, it was definitely quicker than I expected, so I didn't really time it.

Once the video is transfered, I could use the Ulead software to make a standard definition DVD, which I tried, it's just like any simple DVD authoring tool, nothing fancy. The encoding was pretty quick, but I have a new quad CPU machine, so YMMV. The encoded DVD looks OK on my 42" HDTV, but I can definitely see the difference between that and the original HD content, which I also played on the same TV through the component and AV cables (2 separate cables, both are included), and a mini-HDMI cable (not included). Both worked fine. The hookup using the mini-HDMI is a lot easier. The included remote came in pretty handy in playing the video on the TV.

I also tried to burn AVCHD on a DVD, but I don't have a player that can handle it. My Xbox 360's HDDVD add-on does not play it. But it does read it, and the disc was labeled BD****, so I figured it's a Blue-Ray format disc. The Xbox can see some directories and files on the DVD, but can't play it. I'm thinking about getting Ulead's Video Studio plus so I can write it to HD-DVD, that still costs ~$100 now, and I can't seem to get the upgrade price ($60) with the software that came with the camcorder.

I bought this camera twice from Amazon. Returned it both times.

First time the lens shutter stopped opening when I turned the camera on. Called Canon technical support. They had no idea why it was doing it. They suggested draining the battery down all the way (?) and recharging and trying it again. Did that. The shutter opened half way and that was it. Shipped it back to Amazon thinking defective unit, it happens.

Read several reviews - and everybody seems to agree that HG-10 is the best overall HD-High Def camera around. The videos were pretty good actually, even in the low light and I really could not bring myself to buy a JVC or a Sanyo.

So bite the bullet and buy another HG-10 from Amazon. That unit, believe it or not, worked for exactly two weeks and one morning at work after I had shot 7 episodes of my video blog - it gave me a message - Hard Drive Not Accessible. I sat there for at least 4 minutes, staring at the screen, thinking to myself - this could not be happening to me.

Again.

Called Canon again - lovely bunch of people by the way - and they said, "Well once in a while the hard drives do blow up. Are you sure you got a new unit?" Yes I am sure. "Well you need to ship it back."

And so that camera, with 7 of my videos, went back to Amazon.

I don't know what to say - I like the camera, like the videos, like the easy menus but to see a $800 camera blow up, twice in my hands AND I am paranoid careful about my equipment. I don't know what to say. If you do buy this camera - keep the box, manuals, everything that comes with it - in a safe place for at least 30 days just in case something like this happen to you.

You have been warned!

The camcorder arrived about a week ago and I have played with it a little bit.

I agree that the video quality is very good - but I have to disagree that it is as good as off-the-air HD TV. I wasn't expecting it to be that good and it is not. I have used only component cables (supplied) to play the video on my HD TV (since I am yet to purchase the mini HDMI cable).

HG10 takes excellent still pictures in good light. It takes very good pictures in low light if the subject is within the reach of the flash and if the camcorder is able to focus well. Yes, you can leave your camera home if you are taking the HG10 with you. Please see the first comment to this review.

I am having problems with the supplied Corel (Ulead) Software for video processing. I have tried multiple times, but I can't successfully install the software on my desktop computer. (It installed fine on my less powerful and older laptop computer). Corel refused phone support (because it was bundled software). I did get a response to my email, but basically the same story. There is no free email support either. I haven't called Canon yet. I was able to download the clips into my laptop and convert them into standard definition MPEG files with ease. I could select several clips (totaling 1 GB) and convert them all to MPEG in one shot. Computer took about 2 hours for conversion. Interesting thing is that standard definition MPEG files are only slightly smaller than the high definition AVCHD files.

You may know that the camcorder sports a video light. It is a tiny white LED and can light up objects up to 5 feet away. I was able to record a decent video in pitch dark (of course with tons of grain) that showed all the colors and details of objects. This was something that is more than what I was expecting. (LED video light itself is very bright to look at.)

I am happy with the product so far.

Update 1:
MPG file that was generated from AVCHD file seems to require a special codec. I had given a short clip to a friend and he said he couldn't play the video on his computer. I tried a couple of videos on my work computer, and sure enough, Windows media player says "failed to download the codec." Other mpg files downloaded from the Internet play fine.

Update 2:
Camcorder sports a safety feature called drop sensor which detects accelaration and stops recording and tries to protect the hard disc.

You can take a snapshot of a scene within the camera while playing a video clip.

A neck strap isn't supplied.

I'll be blunt, this is a long review, cause that's the type of review I would like to read myself, just a simple THIS CAMERA IS GREAT A+++ doesn't tell me much... Anyways, I chose this camera over the cheaper HV20 because it looked prettier, and because it had better imagery and manual controls over sony's sr5 at the same price. I also like the large lens, just simple math can tell you a larger lens allows more light to enter.

For those of you pitting this HG-10 vs. SR5, the adv is many...:
1) mic in (essential for good mics out there, accessory shoe is gimmick really, only good for mounting the mic
2) Manual controls = awesome interview, high shutter slow-motion, special effects footage
3) viewfinder (though i think it's a pretty bad one)
4) OPTICAL image stabilization
5) Head-phone out which is really essential for monitoring your audio during shooting
5) 2.1 megapixel effective vs. 1.4 MP sensor, don't even talk about the JVC or Panasonic 3 CCD sensors with about 0.5 MP each, and pixel-shifting.

For those of you deciding between HG-10 vs. HV-20:
1) It looks much less el cheapo at the same price, which is oddly very important to me
2) HARD DRIVE! I shot an hour of interviews and I still have about 5 hours left, without worrying about changing tapes, NICE!
3) Handling is awesome, hands and fingers go where they should go and zoom rocker is good for doing fixed zooms
4) Shorter; scroll wheel is good concept
5) ingesting an hour of raw footage to external hard drive took *correction ~5 minutes and took up 4.3 gb, NICE, try doing that with miniDV

Common Issues/FAQ:
1) Isn't MiniDV recording easier to archive?
Answer: I'm going to take someone's excellent argument for this, look at it this way, my 1 hour of footage takes up 4.3 GB of hard drive space in raw AVCHD format, let's say I have a 500 GB external that I got for $80, that external can then hold ideally 116 hours of video. So at the going price of $3 per miniDV tape and an hour per tape, you would be looking at ~$350 to match what the $80 External can do, and... hard drive space is only going to get cheaper. Plus the advantages of random access to 116 hours of high def video is clear vs. who in their right minds will look through 116 miniDV tapes, digital camera vs. film camera argument anyone?
2) AVCHD is too compressed to be good quality = not so. I think this footage is comparable to the Panasonic HVX200 and that's record to DVCPRO, not in low light though, but in adequate lighting it's pretty damn good.
3) I'm going to run out of footage space because I can't get another hard drive!
Answer: Well this is like the chicken and egg argument, sure you may only have 6 hours of footage at highest quality mode and "only" 10 hours the next step down, but you're still ultimately limited by the 1 hour battery life, so you're well on your way home to recharge and to backup your footage by the time you hit that one hour mark. Those on vacation with this camera should already know its limitations and bring along a laptop, copying and pasting the raw AVCHD files is lightening fast.
4) Canon Camcorders Suck! : Herm, don't quite know what to say here, get a Sony then and all the power to ya

Pros from use:
1) automated lens cover is handy, especially when you playback video, at least it reduces my paranoia a tad bit: it automatically closes.
2) Hard Drive Capacity: 6 hours at highest quality is a dream, 15 hours at lowest is also awesome, I may never have to buy media for this camcorder (yeah i know, technically I can't haha), or log and capture from miniDV... ugh
3) I may be repeating myself, but this camcorder is beautiful, the gray areas are kind of a dirty gradient of colors that looks like a slab of marble, and the mode toggle has concentric aluminum ridges, the zoom toggle is beautiful and the dimensions are trim.
4) Batteries are the same as many other canon camcorders, so after market ones are very inexpensive
5) After market mics are really inexpensive also, I saw an Audio Technica stereo one going for $35
6) Monitoring audio with the headphone out is VERY useful in any situation, especially interviews or anything shot outdoors
7) I must say, low light performance is only good if you use a tripod and under controlled lighting conditions. Want to know how good? For an interview, I had a single 60W table lamp shining on my subject and I was zoomed in with an aperture of f2.8, very sharp image and background is appropriately blurred, who needs lens adapters! (http://thaid.bol.ucla.edu/Dad.png or http://thaid.bol.ucla.edu/Neighbor.png - I was going for that Band of Brothers effect).
8) LCD is pretty sharp, so focusing is easy, color accuracy could be improved though
9) Backup Ingesting is fast!
10) Each start/stop scene automatically becomes its own file, vs. manually logging a scene to capture it with miniDV

Cons off the top of my head:
1) camera should be able to also record pictures on the hard drive, instead of just the miniSD (which I DON'T have!)
2) There should be more mac software bundled in than just the image downloading one. HOWEVER, on macs and possibly pcs, you can backup and ingest the footage by copying and pasting the entire content of the camera hard drive over to your computer. Then open the directory using Final Cut Express 4 or Final Cut Pro 6.0.1+ to let it encode to something editable. Updating this backup is simple, just overwrite everything... or if you want to make things faster, overwrite everything except the AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM folder. Then copy over the new STREAM files while leaving your old ones intact. At 1 Gig/min. though, it may just be simpler to overwrite everything. This hard drive feature kind of reminds me of my digital camera and its 2 GB SD card, I've learned not to delete any pictures from the card, just to take what I need from it when I need it. It's been a year and it's still not full, I suspect the hard drive on this camcorder would work similarly.
3) What they say is true, 24P is not pretty, though yes it allows for more light
4) Doesn't have analog pass-through so you can't hook up a vcr through this camcorder and record the footage to your computer, I've done this before so I kind of miss it.
5) AVCHD is a pain to encode to something useful vs. miniDV, though miniDV is a pain to import. One thing to note is that Final Cut Express lags with 1080 Apple Intermediate Codec or DVCPRO footage, but Final Cut Pro handles it very quickly (on a macbook with core duo 2.0ghz). DVCPRO is awesome but then you'd have to buy something like the HVX200.
6) No firewire = no live-capture and monitoring with your laptop or desktop, I really do wish they could've included firewire.
7) They might as well have left out the viewfinder, its lower res than the lcd panel and doesn't swivel up, not to mention you can't control anything when the lcd panel is closed
8) Ports are fragile
9) Top mounted microphones are the worst idea since the invasion of Iraq, good thing alternative mics are affordable
10) Everything should have been controlled by the scroll wheel, but instead its use is limited and the directional pad takes over too often
11) Cat-eye record button... what? why? I'm fine with a regular old round red record button.
12) USB port inside the LCD cavity, why oh why am I exposing my lcd panel to damage during the lengthy ingesting process?
13) Manual focus sucks on camera since you'll be making a loud scrolling sound, but oddly silent and intuitive with the remote
14) Ahh, 1080i video takes up too much space, my laptop's lcd can't even display that many pixels, give me the option to record in 720p or standard definition please!
*Update: If you use the free Mpeg Streamclip, and encode using Apples Intermediate Codec or whatever, you can reencode it to 720p resolution, and the resulting footage looks identical to the original and it would take up about 1/4th the space: down-resed image: [...]
*New
15) In real world conditions, low-light performance is pretty bad. If you're going handheld through a neighborhood at night lit only by christmas lights and various other christmas decorations, the footage is nauseating to watch. There'll be severe ghosting, out of focus picture, bobbing up and down from walking. I see Canon still has problems with low light situations, in moments like these I'd rather have the Sony infrared option and see black/white picture rather than a color picture with little detail. The pen light only works up to 2 feet, good for interviewing on the spot, but really bad for anything else.

I'll write more when I spend more time with it, but here's some pics to tide you over (not original resolution):
[...]

After reading many reviews of this product I decided to go ahead and pick it up. Knowing that this isn't a 'film makers' camera since the 24p mode is all but useless due to AVCHD on the fly conversion issues with this mode, I decided to purchase it anyway since it is primarily for documenting my children.

First off, the picture is absolutely gorgeous. On an HD TV the picture just jumps out. Having the ability to view from the camera in either Component Cable or HDMI makes this camera easy to use and show on even older generation HDTVs that were made prior to the HDMI revolution.

Using the VERY nice LCD screen on the camera to navigate scenes and select them as you would a DVD shows the real benefit of using a HDD as the storage. Instantly access or delete the scenes you love or hate. No more waiting on tape to rewind or fast forward.

The hard drive holds maybe 5 hours of the highest res footage. This doesn't sound like a lot but in most cases you aren't going to shoot 5 horus of footage before you are back in a place that you can off load it for storage and backup.

The battery on this camera could be a little better. As with all batteries they never last as long as you think. This is probably the most negative feature to me. I would say that I got anywhere from an hour to maybe an hour and a half of shooting on a full charge. I would certainly recommend having a second battery on those long shooting days.

The biggest feature of the camera is the AVCHD compression it uses. Everyone talks about if this format will take off or not. It really doesn't matter if it does or if it doesn't as applications like Pinnacle Studio 11 take the AVCHD format and convert it in to the current formats of HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. AVCHD uses a lot of processing power and Ram when it is rendering to whatever format so make sure you have the horsepower on your machine before you being editing. Pinnacle Studio 11 lets you output to HD-DVD on standard DVDs giving you up to 25 min of HD Video on normal DVD. This is great for the average user as most videos are less than that length. This is very cost effective as standard DVD's are very cheap now and the availability of HD-DVD burners and media are both expensive and hard to find.

I have owned many cameras over the years and so far this is by far the best one I have used. I always loathed having to transfer tape to my machine to edit. Now with the HDD it is painless and very fast. You can get to editing quickly. Just expect many many hours of rendering when you are ready to produce that Final Disk of your content.

I FULLY recommend this camera to anyone. At just under 1000.00 it is a bargain for what you get.

Viva La HD Révolution!

First a little background then a detailed review. I am a serious casual video user and a more serious amateur still photographer. I have had two previous camcorders, a full size VHS and then a Sony Digital 8. Going on vacation for two weeks to the Philippines I decided to get this Canon HG10 after reviewing everything I could find on the Net. Bottom line, Sony's were too expensive for the same thing.

I had my concerns about going Hard Drive but this thing worked flawlessly whether it be from bumpy automobiles, small boat rides, or walking and banging on my hip (for a few minutes when I accidentally left it on). And after two weeks of filming on high def setting, I only used 10 of the 40GB.

I've viewed the HD video two ways; directly connecting the camcorder to my HD TV through the HDMI connections which is the most convenient; and making a HD AVCHD DVD and playing it through a HD DVD player connected again to the HDMI ports. The video quality is stunning, as true to life as you can get and I appreciated that especially when filming relatives and really beautiful places like the white sand beach and crystal clear waters on Boracay Island). I've tried viewing via component video set ups and they are not bad either.

I had three batteries and if all I had done was film, I think they would have lasted the entire two weeks but I did a lot of reviewing and playing back which really used up the batteries. The size of this camera is just right, it fits in a medium sized shoulder bag with all my other things and no one around me would ever suspect I was carrying a camcorder. It can even fit in a large pants pocket but that would be too conspicuous and then the thieves would notice. The controls were easy to use and I like the jog wheel on the side of the viewing screen which then stayed clean the entire trip. Tip: this camcorder fits perfectly inside a quart-size ziplock bag which really helped to keep it protected from dust, sand and water.

A feature I never had before was taking still photos and it performed better than I expected. I was most impressed with the lack of shutter lag and the brightness of the built in flash. I didn't miss bringing a digital cam along at all and had so much fun taking video I didn't take all that many stills anyway. I had it set at the highest setting and didn't come close to filling the 2GB memory card.

One little quirk, if the zoom is set to variable setting, the speed of zooming out is much faster than the speed of zooming in using the same finger pressure for each. I don't know if this is on purpose or if my camera is set improperly but I can deal with it by either remember this or switch the speed setting to either slow or fast fixed speed instead of variable which is what I did. I don't like to zoom that much anyway since zooming in and out is often overdone.

All in all I am very satisifed with this camcorder and my purchase through Amazon. I hope this camcorder lasts me a long time. I will never use tape again.

Andy
San Jose, CA USA