Canon VIXIA HF20 HD Dual Flash Memory with 32 GB Internal Memory and 15x Optical Zoom
Product Description
Canons new VIXIA HF20 Dual Flash Memory camcorder packs so
much excitement and high-quality imaging power into its small,
lightweight body, youll be inspired to keep it close. Capture vividly
colored, realistically detailed, high definition video and photos with a
Genuine Canon 15x HD Video Lens with SuperRange Optical Image
Stabilizer, 3.89-megapixel Full HD CMOS Image Sensor, and Canons
latest DIGIC DV III Image Processor. The VIXIA HF20 lets you record
up to 12 h… More >>
- Capture up to 12 hours of HD video to a 32GB internal Flash drive as well as directly to removable SDHC memory cards
- Genuine Canon 15x HD video lens; DIGIC DV III image processor
- 3.89 MP Full HD CMOS image sensor; 1920 x 1080 Full HD recording
- SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer; Genuine Canon Face Detection
- HDMI terminal for easy, one-cable connectivity to your HDTV
Canon VIXIA HF20 HD Dual Flash Memory with 32 GB Internal Memory and 15x Optical Zoom
Tagged with: Canon • Dual • Flash • HF20 • Internal • Memory • Optical • VIXIA • Zoom
Filed under: Video Pocket Camera
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Video from HF20 is too good. Connected the camera to my 1080p TV, with a $5.00 HDMI cable, I could not believe the video quality.
My grip is about the night shots, captured video is too noisy. The still images are also bad in low light. I know it does auto focus by sensing the reflected beam of IR or something from the subject. But in low light it seems to get lost or takes a long time.
I have still not used the software provided by Canon. Windows Vista does not recognize .mts files. So I got Window-7 RC and it works great, as soon as the camera was connected to PC, Win-7 started copying the .mts and .jpg files to hard drive, then played them.
Rating: 4 / 5
Bought this camera a week ago and have had some time to play around with it. I have not yet used the provided editing software as I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. You do need a pretty beefy computer to play/edit these files but they look great! File transfers from this camera are quite fast (much faster than real-time tape). I think I was able to transfer about 30 minutes of footage in about 6 minutes over USB2.0. Comes with composite and component cables so you can watch video straight off the camera to practically any TV (no need to edit of tranfer to computer). You do need to purchase a separate HDMI cable if you want to connect it to an HDMI capable TV but is not necessary if your TV has Component in. (Camera is selectable between SD and HD component out)
I love all the manual functions such as aperture setting, exposure and focus….a must for anyone wanting to ‘compose a shot’. Along with the manual setting though it can be set to fully automatic….point and shoot! I am impressed that the video mode also uses Canons face detection technology so it actually can track a face (or faces) while shooting video to keep the important subject in focus!
Some drawbacks to the camera are that the stock battery last only about 90 minutes which seems short to me. I picked up a spare for about $60 for our upcoming road trip. Another issue for me is that you have to connect the camera to wall power in order to transfer files from the internal memory. I guess it makes sense, you don’t want to lose power while tranferring files, but it seems like a hassle. There is the option to copy files to an SD card which can then be put in your computer….but that is an extra step as well. Not that big of a deal though.
Overall I really like it. It’s small, easy to use with some nice manual features as well. Built in light and flash if you need it and nice looking video for this price range. You can read more here if you’d like:
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Rating: 4 / 5
When it comes to filming and making it look good, lighting is everything. As long as there is adaquate light in your shot, the HF20 will give you a crisp, vivid picture that looks great on HDTVs. AVCHD is gaining greater support, and on my Mac, it’s as easy to work with as P2 downloads. Both iMovie and Final Cut Pro (Version 7) can easily ingest footage from the camera. I highly recommend springing for a shotgun mic that sits in the hot shoe, and a higher capacity battery. With 32GB storage, you need a better battery before you can ever expect to full the memory on a single shoot. Very easy to use, and very favorable results.
Rating: 4 / 5
Video from HF20 is too good. Connected the camera to my 1080p TV, with a $5.00 HDMI cable, I could not believe the video quality.
My grip is about the night shots, captured video is too noisy. The still images are also bad in low light. I know it does auto focus by sensing the reflected beam of IR or something from the subject. But in low light it seems to get lost or takes a long time.
I have still not used the software provided by Canon. Windows Vista does not recognize .mts files. So I got Window-7 RC and it works great, as soon as the camera was connected to PC, Win-7 started copying the .mts and .jpg files to hard drive, then played them.
Rating: 4 / 5
Functionally this camera is fantastic….lightweight, small and has incredible image quality. Well laid out controls. Just a caution is that most people will not be able to actually make use of its outstanding image quality without a Blu-ray burner and Blu-ray player as in iMovie and many other programs the quality is imported at a reduced quality and you cannot burn HD quality movies on regular DVD’s. This is not this camera’s fault however as all HD cameras are more technologically advanced than most people presently can make use of.
My main gripe however, and why I subtracted one star, is in an otherwise incredibly engineered camera Canon used the “mini advanced accessory shoe” and NOT the “advanced accessory shoe” (and it took me about 15 minutes to discover there were two different kinds of shoes…who would have even imagined there could be two different kinds of accessory shoes for consumer products!!?).
First this mini shoe is I believe only on a very few products and needless to say it is NOT compatible with anything using the “advanced accessory shoe”. I found this out when I obviously mistakenly ordered the DM-50 microphone which does not fit.
The mini shoe is a stupid idea in the first place, and more importantly Canon has intentionally engineered INcompatibility within their own product lines. Something like microphones, lights, flashes, etc should be cross compatible across all of their product lines and, if you own other Canon products, would, for example, force you to buy almost identical duplicates of accessories because you could not use them on different Canon cameras. Why they did this is something that defies understanding.
Take Home Message: Choose you accessories carefully!
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought the HF10 from Amazon and love it; its amazing. The HF20 is the next generation of that camera line and it produces .MTS file format (AVCHD) high-definition files. I just want to warn all perspective buyers that what they state in the Pixela software manual about the minimum requirements in order to actually be able to watch/ edit the highest-res video that comes off this camera are true and cannot be ignored: I have a Pentium 4 @ 3.6Ghz and 2 GB RAM and a PCIx video card and it is not good enough to play the video back smoothly (using Pixela software player) wihtout dropping frames ! The amount of system or video RAM is not the key; you MUST have either a fast Pentium “D” class or a Pentium Core 2 Duo (at least) processor (with matching motherboard w/ Intel chipset) or you can’t really play/edit the highest res of video that comes out of this camera! (Note that my PC can archive the video to hard drive, DVD etc , just not smoothly playback and edit). Playback and editing may be possible on a lesser system but the performace will leave you unhappy most likely. Hope this helps with your search.
Rating: 4 / 5