Customer Reviews

Canon VIXIA HF R11 Full HD Camcorder w/32GB Flash Memory

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well I haven't had the camera very long, but it's already packed up and ready to go back.

I have been shopping for a replacement for my JVC GR-D72U for a while now and had narrowed my list down to three. This one wasn't even on the short list. So why did I buy it? Well Costco had it on sale for $355 including a Canon case, a 4GB SD card and an HDMI cable. They were no longer stocking them and it was the last one. It was a new, sealed unit. Considering the MSRP on this camcorder is $699, I figured it might be worth a shot at this price.

When I unpacked it I was very impressed with the camcorder itself. It was very attractive and had a very nice high-quality feel to it. I knew from what I had read about it before that it didn't have a lot of fancy features so I figured that Canon must have made up for it in quality. It sure felt like it. Unfortunately that is where the quality ended.

I went to install the battery I was surprised to see that it actually went inside the camera. So much for an extended battery. To charge it you remove one of the plastic doors on the back of the camera and plug in the power cord. There are two of these doors on the back and they stay attached by rubber tethers and seem fairly secure.

I knew the camera didn't come with a remote but I figured I could get one for it, or use a universal remote; wrong, It doesn't have an IR receiver. And it is not CEC compliant so you can't control it with one of your other CEC devices when it's connected. I was pretty disappointed since this is pretty common in less expensive camcorders.

I went online to see if there were any firmware updates and there was. It allows the camera to recognize SDXC cards now. I checked the firmware on my camera and it was already updated.

After the camera was fully charged I started shooting video. I started in the house with camera on IA (Intelligent Auto). Everything looked sort of dark and grainy, but I figured it might just be the display. I played around with some different settings, which were really easy to find. The menu system in this camera is really easy to navigate and the little flat joystick-like knob made it very easy to move between menus.

After shooting some indoor shots I went outdoors for some shots of the yard and pool. This is where I could test out the zoom and the image stabilizer (IS). This is when I started getting really disappointed. The IS worked ok when the lens was not zoomed, but when fully zoomed it was like it wasn't even on. The IS in my old JVC was far superior. So I went into the menu again to see if there were any settings I could tweak, and that's when I noticed the default is normal IS, not Dynamic IS. So I turned on Dynamic with high expectations. I was sorely let down; Dynamic IS seemed to make no difference. So I played around with some other settings including turning digital zoom and off, but nothing helped. Truly terrible IS.

Well after shooting all my test footage it was time to watch it on the TV. I plugged everything in and it came up on the TV nicely. It was extremely annoying that I had to squat next to the TV with the camera since it had no remote. Well the indoor footage looked terrible; even worse than what I saw on the camera display. It was extremely grainy and the colors were terrible. Unacceptable. So I figured I would shoot some more footage trying some manual settings and priority AS. Same results. This camera cannot take good indoor/low light shots. Maybe if it had an assist light it could, but it doesn't have an accessory shoe to attach one to. Another problem was there was like a motor sound I could hear in the recordings, almost like it had a tape in it. It is tapeless and it doesn't have optical stabilization, so I can only assume it's the auto focus motor constantly working.

So then I viewed the outdoor footage. It was better, but the colors seemed a little washed out. In Auto mode it would change the setting based on the scene. As an example; I got really close to a bush and it would automatically select Macro. A nice feature, but it was so slow to react that is was always a scene behind, or wouldn't change at all. Another problem with this camera is the audio. It sounded pretty bad. The audio sounded to me like it was highly compressed. I recorded the water spilling over the spa wall and it did not accurately reproduce the sound. There were also times when my dog barked while I was recording, and while playing it back it sounded like someone else's dog. Now the nice thing is that it has a mic-in jack, but again, there is no accessory shoe to mount a microphone on. This is another area where my old JVC was far superior.

All in all this is just not a well done product by Canon. It is way overpriced for the features, and especially considering the audio and video quality. Canon needs to just pull this product before it hurts their reputation.

I am going to try the Panasonic HDC-SD60 next. I know someone that has one and has been very pleased with using it with his Mac. I'll post a review on it too.

I didn't comment on the software and included editing applications because there are so many alternatives available if you're not happy with what's included. The most important part is the hardware.

Pros:
o Now supports SDXC cards
o Very easy to use menu system
o No touch screen (I prefer tactile feedback)
o OK outdoor picture quality
o Good zoom
o Built in lens cover
o Size/style/build quality
o 32GB onboard

Cons:
o Poor Indoor/low light picture quality
o Poor audio quality
o No remote control (not even an IR sensor)
o No assist light
o Only accepts one size battery
o Motor sound on recording
o Lens needs to be wider angle (35mm)
o No lens barrel threads for filters
o No accessory shoe
o Digital zoom can't be used in AUTO mode (manual settings don't stick when you switch to Auto)
o Image stabilization is terrible
o Plastic tripod mount threads
o Low resolution display screen
o Battery life is terrible
o The only printed instructions is the Quick Start Guide

UPDATE:
We recently had a lot of snow so I thought it would be nice to drive around and tape it. I have to say that the resulting videos looked pretty good. The colors looked bright without being over saturated. Unfortunatly the image stabilization was a let down as there was quite a bit of shake from us driving over the compacted snow and ice. After we recorder we played it back on the TV, and before we could see the whole video the battery died. It's really too bad you can't get an extended battery for this camera. The good news is that batteries are relatively cheap, so you can keep some spares in the bag.

UPDATE:
I was a little concerned that my expectations might have been a little too high. Well, I have received my Panasonic HDC-SD60 and it has met (exceeded) my expectations. It is at least a generation ahead of the Canon, and is far superior in almost every way performance-wise (the Canon looks better, has a better menu and button placement). I will post a full review of the Panasonic later, but I just wanted to mention here that my expectations of the Canon were not too high.

I just bought this camera from Costco for around $460. I'm a professional filmmaker [...] and I've used all kinds of equipment. I'd love to take the time to write up a detailed review, but I'm on a tight production deadline as I type. And after seeing only one person give this camera a review-- a 1-star review, primarily frustrated, it seems, with the editing software that comes with the camera--I just had to say: "Wait! This is a super camera for the price! Consider it, folks!"

The best I can give you is a link to a ZDNet review. They gave it a 7.9 rating out of 10. That's pretty doggone good. Check it out at: [...]

Have fun!
Bob

I bought this kit at my local Costco for $379.

I currently use a very good Panasonic 3CCD miniDV SD video camera and an iPhone4 for 720p video. This would have to be better than both.

I only use iMovie ('10) on a Mac and didn't even bother with the bundled software.

Therefore, the following are my observations upon using this camera:

* poor low-light performance, lots of noise
* poor optical image stabilization
* poor image quality for motion, lots of jagged edges
* default bit rate set quite medium (change to high)
* default video quality set to medium (change to high)
* default video size set to 1600x1200, (change to 1280x1080)
* default frame rate set to 60i, not 24p or 30p
* setting camera to frame rate modes 24p or 30p disables photo feature
* default JPG compression level set to medium (change to low)
* iMovie must convert AVCHD to QuickTime, a very slow process, even on a quad-core Mac
* AVCHD .MTS files are 1/5 the size of QuickTime .MOV
* The larger .MOV files are a challenge to play off of external drives to their much higher bit rate
* VLC can be used to play .MTS files directly
* rated battery life is only 45m
* keeping footage presents dilemma, keep AVCHD files, QuickTime, or both? lots of storage space required, no tape backup
* video quality of iPhone4, even though only 720p, is better.

In summary, this camera provides worse video quality than my iPhone4. The optical image stabilization, the one thing that could be a significant benefit, is so weak as to barely be useful.

I've returned the camera and will wait another year or two for better technology at this price point.

To start with the deal-killer for me, there is a terrible internal noise that the internal mic picks up anytime the lens is working (which is virtually all the time with auto-focus on!). I tried using the camera without AF, and the menu makes it completely unworkable unless the scene is at a set distance. The camera has an external mic jack, but no accessory shoe to put it on!

The image stabilization is fantastic. The video quality is good too, but suffers in low light.

A better alternative would be the Canon VIXIA M300, which comes with a larger sensor, an accessory shoe, but no internal HD, for $350.

Working with my Mac and memory were my main considerations in buying this camera... and it had to be High Definition...

This is my first True High Def video camera. I love how crisp and clear the image is (since I've been shooting on digital tape for years). I use the highest resolution (FXP@17mbps vs. XP+ 12mbps... Standard play 7mbps... Long play 5mbps.) So, buy a cheap 2TB hard drive and shoot away. The R11 has a number of digital effects, light balancing settings and special settings like "fireworks" and "low light." I've used them both this 4th of July to much success.

I went with the R11 because of the 32GB of built-in Ram (then put a 16GB card in the slot -- get a 10x speed card, at least). There's no running out of space. They're not kidding when they say 12 hours of high def. That's just the internal memory.

This camera works flawlessly with my iMac Intel i7 and iMovie '11 (it works with FinalCut X as well). Completely plug and import. Then I delete or keep the clips from there. I don't have any of the issues mentioned by Mac Users in other reviews.

One "flaw" is that it does not allow a really large, extended battery. So, I immediately bought a backup battery with charger.

I highly recommend this camera.

ps. There are many additional features and settings that I haven't even used yet. There's a lot more there there.

If you just want to shoot some HD video and play it back on your HD TV, this camera is fine. HOWEVER, if you want to download video you've shot to your computer so you can edit it, add some music, transitions, titles, and make a polished product, forget it. The Pixela editing program that comes with it is so weak, you can't add standard MP3 music files, nor can you import video you may have shot from other cameras. There is only one track of audio and video. Transitions don't work well, and overall, it is a disaster. I've tried two other more professional editing programs (Pinnacle 14 Ultimate and Adobe Premiere Elements 8). Both programs accept the AVCHD files from the Canon perfectly, and the editing is smooth. But the camera will not accept the final edited project even though it is saved as an AVCHD file. I have talked with two tech reps from Canon. Both confirmed that the camera will not recognize AVCHD files that were produced in an editing program other than Pixela. So, unless you have a Blu-Ray burner, you'll have to down convert your HD project to standard definition to burn it onto a standard DVD, which defeats the purpose of buying an HD camera. I'm returning the camera ... way too frustrating.