135 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
Great daylight video, grainy in low light - updated 1/10/2009
Let me start by saying that I've been using camcorders for 20 years, way back to the full sized VHS days. Canon and Sony have been my favorites for many years, starting with their 8mm days. Since consumer HD seems to have stabilized in its second generation, I decided to upgrade from my six year old Sony 8mm.
42 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
Question HD is really possible?
I finally decided to replace my Sony 8mm camcorder with an HD camcorder. Read the reviews about the Canon Vixia HG21. Sounded good to me. Bought it, took it to the beach to film the wife and kids in HD. Read the manual and set proper settings before we left. Got home and watched it on a 46' inch Samsung HDTV. WHAT? The video would blur, if the camera moved slighlty,...
This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
Let me start by saying that I've been using camcorders for 20 years, way back to the full sized VHS days. Canon and Sony have been my favorites for many years, starting with their 8mm days. Since consumer HD seems to have stabilized in its second generation, I decided to upgrade from my six year old Sony 8mm.
The Canon Digital SLR cameras are second to none, I own three of them (Digital Rebel, Rebel Xti and an EOS 40D) and they blow the competition away. I fall into the "prosumer" category for digital categories, and the Canon Digic processor is one of the things that has separated Canon from its competitors. So certainly the second generation HD Canon Vixia 21 with the Digic II processor would be a no-brainer, right? Not exactly.
The good:
120GB hard disk drive - you can record up to 45 hours of video in LP mode, and about 11 hours in the best HD mode the camera has. The storage capacity will, by far, outlast the battery that comes with the camcorder.
SDHC slot - Unlike Sony and their proprietary Memory Stick, Canon has and continued to use SD and now SDHC memory. SDHC cards are available from numerous vendors and they are easier to find and less expensive than the Memory Stick.
12X optical zoom - this works extremely well, as advertised. Digital zoom takes away from the quality of the recording, so I prefer to stick with the optical zoom. The controls for the zoom are very fluid and smooth.
Picture quality - in daylight and indoors with good light, the picture quality is exceptional. Playing the video on my HDTV is just as good as any broadcast HDTV quality you'll ever see on TV.
Image stabilization - very few people can hold anything completely still. With the image stabilization feature, you don't have to worry about it - the camcorder handles it for you and does a great job of it.
The bad:
Short battery life - the battery that ships with the camcorder (BP 807/808) will give you no more than 80-90 minutes of operation. If you don't plan to use it any more than that on each outing, then it is not a big issue for you. If you plan to use it for a day of on and off shooting, you need to get another batter. The BP827 will give you almost five hours of running time, for a steep $144. Adding to this, you can only charge the battery while the battery is in the camcorder. The external battery charger is another $60 or so. In short, if you plan to use this camcorder for longer than an hour, buy an extra battery and the external charger so you can charge one battery while using the other. This is not a Canon specific problem, every vendor, including Sony, has its limitations with batteries and charging. They also have the "optional" longer life batteries and external chargers for a steep price as well.
Low light shooting - The picture quality is grainy and unimpressive. After seeing what the daylight shots looked like on the TV, then watching the low light shots, you will be somewhat dissapointed. Perhaps there is some special low light setting I do not know about - I've only had the camcorder for a week. Another reviewer indicated better luck in low light. I will report back if this is resolved.
Despite the additional battery and charger purchase, I think this is a very good camcorder. I hope to resolve the low light issue. Daytime and good lighting recording is breathtaking on replay. Given that this is a consumer grade camcorder, I doubt you'll find any better for the money.
Update:
As promised, I've worked with the camcorder for a couple of weeks now, and not much has changed. The daylight and well-lit room video is broadcast quality HD. Low light is still somewhat grainy. I also purchased a longer life battery and external charger from Amazon, which comes in very handy. I would still purchase this camcorder.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
First of all, this is my first camcorder. We do have the ability to use our small Canon digital camera in this mode but this is a far cry from that. I was excited to get one of the first even though I figured I would be taking a slight gamble as I am not exactly that informed on the subject and wonder about the wisdom of getting a product that is not yet proven.
So far, so good...Our grandchild had a birthday the very day this thing came in so I was determined to figure things out in order to capture the event. I figured that we paid a premium price to have the high HD quality so of course I shot in the highest mode. I only had time to charge the battery and skim through the book but I am happy to report that the quality of the videos was simply outstanding. In my opinion, the easy part is taking the pictures...set it to the quality and mode and fire away. Then, the question is, what to do afterwards...This is the hard part.
I have an Intel Mac and IMovie 08 so I read other reviews of similar cameras and figured out how to move the shots from the camera to the computer. No problem. In my opinion, and that is what these reviews are all about, if you are shooting at the highest quality, you better have a lot of room on your hard drives, and, or, prepare to spend a lot of time on the back end moving your videos off the camera and on to disks or the drives. I did not have much hard drive space left on my Mac so perhaps that fact made things seem very slow. On the other hand, because I wanted to shoot in the highest quality, the wait and trouble were worth the investment...Remember, I am just at the edge of knowing what I am doing so you must consider that my skill level is still very low by comparison.
The great thing about this camera, in addition to the fact that the HD videos are breathtaking, is that the built in hard drive is 120 gigs...wow! that is equal to 82 of the smaller 3 inch DVDs! About 45 hours of recording time on lower quality and near 11 hours or so in the highest quality...so, unless you get nervous about hard drive failure, you can go for a long time without having to move them off the camcorder.
After doing a little reading and fiddling around, I hooked the camera up to our HD TV and was pretty much able to use the little remote device and see the videos. Simply outstanding...most shots were taken in the house with average lighting. One of my concerns was reading that low light might cause grainy videos but I did not find this to be the case....I suspect this could be the case when shooting in extremely low light but I cannot see this ever becoming an issue. I was too impatient to actually link into the HD ports of my TV so we settled for using the ports at the front and went to the game port...I do not think this was actually in HD but it still was just incredible. Later, when I played back some videos on our HP Vista computer and just was blown away with the quality...I had gone outside and take videos of the hummingbirds on our feeder and could not believe how crystal clear the shots were.
The 12X optical zoom is very close to walking up to the subject...very nice. The image stabilizer works great as I never used a tripod and still saw no real shaking. I did notice that you can negate image stabilizer when using the camera on a tripod so that was something I was a little concerned about.
One addition thing that may concern some...apparently these hard drive camcorders could suffer damage to the drives if used at an altitude of 9800 feet and above. If you are a serious mountain climber or plan to be above 9800 feet, you might consider other options.
I am very interested in reading other reviews. So far I am very pleased...no camera will ever be perfect and do all things so, regardless of the quality or cost, there will always be some element of compromise. I have already ordered another battery as well as an SD card for it. The battery life is short of two hours so trips out in the wild pretty much would demand more power. Most may not feel the need to have another battery but I cannot imagine missing any great shots...you pay too much for these things not to be able to use them to their fullest extent...maybe another review when I actually know what I am doing!
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
HG21 is probably the best HD Camcorder out there. I say this because I have tried another high end camcorder from Sony with a 120GB harddrive, which (the Sony) was unbelievably disappointing in both color and resolution. Fortunately, we bought it at Costco, and just returned the Sony within a day.
The Canon HG21 has amazing High Def pictures for daylight scenes. The color is very rich and eye pleasing. If you do a good job shooting, it can fool the untrained eyes as if it's professional HD video. I have a Pioneer 50" 1080i Plasma, and the pictures from the HG21 are so refined, the colors are beautiful.
Night scenes are grainy. This is very disappointing. I also have a Flip MinoHD. The $200 little Flip out performs the Canon for night scenes. Canon should be a bit embarrassed by it and catch up on this front.
The Mac/Apple compatibility of HG21 is a big plus. Canon has shipped a software CD with the camcorder, however, the software doesn't work for Mac, and Mac users really don't need it anyway. It was a pleasant surprise to open up iMovie'08 and the HG21 was automatically recognized on the USB port, and the Camera Import Window within iMovie popped out immediately to guide you through the importing of videos. Previously, everyone said AVCHD editing tool is hard to find. The Mac has it built in. Hats off to Apple. Select "Large" setting to import, "Full" resolution will cost you a lot of hard drive space.
Overall, I would give this HG21 a "A-" for great daylight performance, working with iMovie'08 which is a wonderful consumer movie making tool, but has lackluster grainy night scenes.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
This is best HD camcorder on the market. It takes amazing pictures. The clarity is similar to watching a blue-ray movie. I love the huge hard drive. It takes hours of video without any worries. The best part is the quick and easy transferring of video clips to my computer. I used to spend the whole day uploading DV tapes. Now, through the USB is 10 times faster. The editing software is very easy to use.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I was using a MiniDV camcorder and decided to up grade. I'm not a big Canon fan, mostly because of price but I sure do love this camcorder. There is A LOT of great features on the HG21 and yes it does have a viewfinder (the HG20 does not). Its very simple to use and you have a lot of storage with the 120GB hard. I love shooting in the 24p cinema mode. I definitely would recommend it! If you don't need a huge hard drive or viewfinder than go with the HG20 its exactly the same and you will save some $$$.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I was really surprised by its size. it is very small and light, but does a great job with pretty much anything, but it does struggle in the dark like every other camcorder under 2-3 grand. The resolution is great and the added program for transfers is simple and easy. If you want to transfer files onto the computer in a usable format it gets more frustrating as it scales down the resolution, and not all file formats are available. You would have to buy a separate program. All in all it is a great camcorder with lots of options for its intended users.
-Buy a better battery,
-Don't try using the camera for action shots
-must have lots of lighting to get a great photo.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
Purchased this camera a month or so ago from Amazon -- extremely happy with this camera. Incredible image quality - especially in the 24mbs setting (the highest quality setting). The camera is compact and light in weight.
Some notes for purchasers : You'll definitely want to get the BP-827 battery for this camera -- it eats through the standard battery shipped with the camera quickly. Personally, I bought a couple of the BP-827's. Also, the cameras image quality in low-light scenarios is average -- so the VL-5 light (another accessory) comes in handy and seems to work very well with this camera. Best image quality from this camera will come from very well-lit scenes -- which is going to be true for almost any consumer grade camera out there.
Overall, I'm very happy with this camera.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I've used this camcorder for about a month now and I'm very happy with my purchase. Canon released the new 2009 models at CES2009 - and this model still compares well in comparison. (The newer models sport much better camera capabilities, but I already own a great camera.) Originally purchased this model instead of the HG20 for the viewfinder, and although the viewfinder works OK the additional hard drive space makes the purchase worthwhile. Picture Quality is awesome (I only record in MXP) and sound quality so-so, but I'll connect an external microphone if I need better sound quality. Due to the enhanced picture quality in MXP you will not get away with common standard definition recording mistakes - especially when you play back on a large size LCD or Plasma. Quick pans or bumpy recording could make you feel sick when watching playback on a large screen. Maybe a good book on the subject is in order before capturing that big event ... or let your wife do the recording ;-). Car power adapter and extra battery is a must for long trips.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
The Vixia HG21 is an excellent camera. The image quality surpasses others that I have seen. Using Shutter Priority (Tv) I was able to capture waterfalls on HD video and on Still image with the misty quality that Ansel Adams had captured with his large format cameras.
The extended life batteries and the additional lens kits from Canon are a bit pricey. But found it is best to go with the recommended Canon accessories rather than 3rd party.
Using HDMI out port or the Component Out port to a 1080p flat screen monitor provided surprisingly beautiful HD video to the screen with crystal clear imaging.
The camera is very light and takes a bit getting used to after having used professional cameras.
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This review is from: Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I love the camera and the video quality. But check the video format and see if it's compatible with your software and your other videos. Adobe Premiere, for example WAS not fit to edit this camera's videos (look for updated review below)!!! I am using Vegas editing software (you can buy it online).
Ah, the camera is a bit bulky. Doesn't fit your pocket. You have to carry it around your neck.
**** VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE:
ADOBE PREMIERE CS4 already supports the video format for this camera. NATIVE EDITING - i.e. no lenghy and quality deteriorating conversions before you edit. But YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD a specific patch to the software - free on the internet. Just google it. I don't remember the name. I use it on my Mac CS4. Double check for PCs, but it should work.
FOR APPLE USERS:
iMovie IS ONLY PARCIALLY COMPATIBLE. It recognizes the format, but does not edit nativelly. Which means that you have to import everything into iMovie before editing. And this importing looses A LOT of quality !! Really. I could not get anything that was good quality out of this setup. It doesn't make sense to buy an HD camera, and end up with crappy output because of conversions. DO NOT USE iMovie with this camera until they upgrade the software for native editing (like Adobe did).
Good Luck !!
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