Canon HG10

...software I have already acquired. Canon is generally a great company that I can rely on and this contributed to a major part of my decision when deciding which camera to buy.

This is review that is based on actual experience with this camera working in many different environments:

==Video==

The video quality was absolutely stunning, from the moment it was being recorded and previewed on the small but brilliant ...
...HG-10 comes complete with a Canon F1.8 lense with x10 zoom and a CMOS sensor which can confuse the user with regard to true HD. (Look it up more and compare it to JVC). It has a brilliant digital image stabilizing system as well as functions to use under different lighting. Not only that but the HG-10 comes equipped with it's own light and remote control.
What is probably the best feature with regards to the video is the fact it records direct ... more

Canon HG10

Firstly, my background of work comes from years of video production, video software and work in the television industry. I've worked with some large companies and freelance so, naturally, I look for the best camera I can afford which is compatible with hardware and software I have already acquired. Canon is generally a great company that I can rely on and this contributed to a major part of my decision when deciding which camera to buy.

This is review that is based on actual experience with this camera working in many different environments:

Video

The video quality was absolutely stunning, from the moment it was being recorded and previewed on the small but brilliant VCD, to the point I uploaded the HD footage onto my computer. The quality is perfect to say the least. The were so many different functions regard the video footage. The HG-10 comes complete with a Canon F1.8 lense with x10 zoom and a CMOS sensor which can confuse the user with regard to true HD. (Look it up more and compare it to JVC). It has a brilliant digital image stabilizing system as well as functions to use under different lighting. Not only that but the HG-10 comes equipped with it's own light and remote control.
What is probably the best feature with regards to the video is the fact it records direct HD to the 40gb hard drive which gives approximately 15 minutes of full AVCHD which is the camera's native HD format for Canon. However, that is the greatest weakness of the footage because the footage is not recognised by the most popular editing software such as Adobe Premiere, Final cut or Avid. Even the software for converting it was extremely slow and poor.

Sound

The sound recorded from the HG-10 is really clear, it comes in stereo and you can hear dialogue from really far distances of roughly 40-50 meters! The internal microphone is located at the front of the camera, just above the lens. However, the Canon has two aces up it's sleeve concerning audio. the HG-10 has a 3.5mm Microphone Jack and a accessory slot known as a 'hot shoe' that you can slot in a professional directional microphone in. I've used both before, in fact, I used a XLR to 3.5mm jack during a concert which could of potentially blown the plug and camera up and the sound was superb, close to studio quality. Though when using a microphone the quality was just as sharp.
The hot shoe was very similar in quality except that I found the hot shoe used a lot more power and shortened the power significantly. Just to make things better though, the Audio/Video output plug can be set to a headphone socket so that this can be used to listen to the audio being picked up by the camera.

Battery life

The battery life is roughly an hour to two hours of none stop recording. However, there are functions for quick start and extended battery which can push the battery to well over 2 hours. I found if you close the VCD and use the view finder, also regularly switching off the camera when not needed, a single charge can give you a lot more than two hours of battery when filming.

Software and memory

The memory of the HG-10 lets the whole camera down. When wanting to film long open scenes or multiple scenes in one go, the 15 minutes of the highest quality footage doesn't go very far. The HDD does have a lot of advantages, it does relieve the film maker of the annoyance of changing mini dv, it doesn't require regular and very cautionary maintenance and the HG-10 has a function which protects the hard drive in case of a nasty fall or sharp shock. Generally, hard drive driven cameras are more convenient and give the user a faster and easier way to transfer footage direct without capture. The HG-10 has a socket for extended memory which is used to take photos but I have yet to see whether you can use it for filming, if so you could get an extra 16Gb with the memory available these days.

The software lets the camera down as well, the HG-10 comes with a Corel application disc and a back-up utility disc. The format of HD video is .m2ts or it starts off as .mts. Players such as VLC will be useful for watching these formats however most editing programs don't actually allow you to edit these formats. You can convert the file types with the corel application disc but it takes VERY LONG. Sometimes, it crashes or just stops responding. Eventually, I forked out for other converting software such as TMPenc which does batch coding and does it fast.
It's irritating that Canon did not put a function to film in a different format which would make this apparently simple video recorded a lot less irritating.
If you planned to put this software on a low spec computer then you are casting doom on yourself now.

Cool functions

Some of the interesting functions of the HG-10 include Instant auto-focus which focuses on objects extremely quickly and accurately. Although, obviously this can work against the film maker and create an attacking feature.
Quick start is a feature that switches the camera to use the minimal amount of power so that the film maker can instantly switch the camera on and record from a pseudo-switched off state.
The camera also features sepia, black and white recording and other artistic functions.
And lastly, the lense has a thread which you can attach lens on easily such as fish-eye, telescopic and panoramic lenses.

Conclusion

So there you have it, to sum up what has been said, this is a quality piece of equipment, so advanced that the software of our time can't keep up and Canon have struggled to create software to accommodate the awesome quality of HD. This means the film makers should beware and do a lot of research into the usage and post production of the footage so that you don't end up coughing up more money to pay for editing software.
However, for the more professional film maker, this camera rivals larger Mini HDDV recorders and is perfect for location shooting because of it's compact and discreet size. It's digital image stabilizer almost make the shots seem like they have been filmed with a steady camera which is rare with my experience of handheld camera.

The HG-10 was picked up for £699 about half a year ago, now it should be cheaper but bare in mind the difficulties when using this camera and if this camera is right for you then you have a top-notch deal. So get researching! 

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