February 6, 2012
Canon HFG10 Full HD And Flash Camcorder
The Canon VIXIA HF G10 is an excellent piece of hardware, plain and simple. Between its powerful processor, CMOS Pro sensor and multiple shooting modes - including the ability to shoot in cinematic 24p framerate - the Canon VIXIA HF G10 is a video enthusiast’s dream.
Canon spruced up the zoom rocker, widening it and refining its smoothness. I would have liked the ability to switch between zoom and focus control using the lens ring, but the rocker was efficient enough, especially with its 16 different fixed speeds. If we’re lucky, we’ll get two rings next year for that purpose, and I’ll have 14 litters of kittens out of sheer excitement. The dual SD/SDHC/SDXC card slots were carried over from last year, enabling us to throw in cards with up to 64GB capacities and continuously record via Canon’s relay technology. Inside, the Canon VIXIA HF G10 has 32GB of Flash memory, which is on the light side compared to the Panasonic HDC-HS900’s 220GB HDD. The VIXIA HF G10 battery resided on the small side and did not provide an adequate life, so backup packs are a must buy.
The Canon VIXIA HF G10 renders excellent low-light video, to a point. In my test scene of about 17 lux, it yielded some of the best results I’ve seen in its class. Just a little darker, though–dim living-room-level light–and it’s the typical noisy mess, at least with automatic gain control enabled. The audio quality is quite good as well. The sensitive stereo mics provide decent separation and a nice warm tone without the tinniness of the lower-end models.
While the Canon VIXIA HF G10 is a great prosumer camcorder, with excellent video quality and a flexible feature set, it’s quite expensive and may be more than many people need. And you should definitely try before you buy to determine if any aspects of the camcorder’s design and operation bother you.