Review: Canon HG10 AVCHD Camcorder


With its large CMOS imaging chip, 40GB hard disc drive, superb lens, 10x optical zoom, 2.7" LCD and heaps of functionality, is the HG10 as good as AVCHD high definition can possibly get?


Canon HG10 AVCHD Camcorder
There can be no doubt at all that 2007 was the year that witnessed the rise and rise of High Definition - not just in terms of the TV displays now being used in our homes but also the means by which we record our camcorder clips.

In a relatively short period of time, HD has seized the high ground in the consumer camcorder market; the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 based AVCHD compression format has found itself well and truly in the spotlight as a result of the collective efforts of the major players in the market like Canon, Panasonic and Sony, all of whom are collaborators in the development and promotion of the AVCHD format that's now taking the HD camcorder spotlight.

First impressions


At first glance, the HG10 looks like any other mainstream consumer camcorder that uses hard disc drives or flash memory instead of tape. However, a quick rummage around the main body reveals all manner of little surprises - the first of which is that it offers not only an external microphone input (useful when using a separate microphone to record conversations or specific sounds) but also a headphone output - even if the latter is incorporated into the switchable AV output socket.

Upper body of the Canon HG10
The camcorder itself is reasonably small but chunky and very comfortable to handle. Its 40 Giga-Byte HDD (hard disc drive) is enclosed in the body where, on a DV camcorder, the tape loading bay would be situated; this adds weight to the whole thing but in a way that actually aids handling and stability.

Features


A fabulous 1/2.7” CMOS image sensor (this camera uses a single CMOS rather than the triple CCDs as used by the Panasonic HDC-SD5, for instance) produces a total of 2.96 Mega-pixels resolution, which translates to 2.07 MP in movie mode and 2.76 MP in the best stills image mode. It offers a good set of manual controls combined with 25 frame progressive scan and Cinema modes, Canon’s new tapeless HD camcorder features a “G-sensor” auto-shutdown protected internal hard disc drive, which allows 5 hours 30 minutes of Full-HD recording at the highest quality and around 15 hours at the most highly compressed, in addition to a host of manual operating modes designed to offer complete recording and playback control.

It’s possible to shoot stills up to a resolution 2048 x 1536 pixels in a choice of three quality settings which are saved to a mini-SD card (not supplied), with images being produced by a f1.8-3.0, 10x optical zoom lens. It's very useful that full frame-side menu and operation controls are mounted around the generous 211,000 pixel 2.7” LCD screen, making manual control that much easier, and there’s even an all-too-rare 0.27" 123,000 pixels colour viewfinder as well, although its horizontally-fixed position and smallness means that it's not that useable.

The Canon HG10's automatical lens shutter
For those wishing to make use of additional optical accessories, such as lens filters, the HG10 offers a screw-in filter thread of 43mm.

Other notable features include random access to recorded clips with a playlist create, edit and delete option; it offers a slow-motion playback control - variable from 1/8th to 1.4 speed, Shutter (Tv) and Aperture (Av) Priority recording modes designed to allow users to specify a shutter speed (for auto calculation of relative aperture) or vice-versa, Cine Mode (25fps Progressive Recording in PAL, 24fps on NTSC models), 8 special scene recording modes (Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight and Fireworks) and a useful Light Metering Mode that allows users to manually select the area of the picture to be used as the basis for exposure - Evaluative, Centre Weight Average and Spot. The more commonly-found stuff like White Balance presets (Auto plus six modes), Image Effects (5 options) and Digital Effects (5 options) are all there too.

Any recorded clip can be added to a user-defined playlist by selecting its icon in the display and then clicking the Add To Playlist menu option, with the ability to re-organise any playlist at will.

Continuous Recording still images can be saved to either the HDD or the Mini-SD card (not supplied) in LW (1920 x 1080 pixels) or SW (848 x 480 pixels) modes with Super Fine, Fine or Normal options. Still images options are LW (1920 x 1080), L (2048 x 1536), M (1440 x 1080) and S (640 x 480), also available in the three above SF, F and N modes. A 512MB SD card has the ability to hold 350 JPG images at the SF setting, or 525 and 1040 at F and N settings respectively. There's also a PICTBRIDGE-compliant direct-to-printer option using USB when using Canon CP, DS, ES and SELPHY printers.

Recording Modes


As you'll find with all HDD and SD card-recording cameras, you're given several recording options with the HG10. The "best quality" option involves the least MPEG4 video compression, which translates to a bit rate of 15 Mbps at the HXP setting. This provides a capability of 5 hours 30 minutes recording onto the 40GB HDD. The other settings are as follows: XP (9 Mbps; 9 hours 30 mins), SP (7 Mbps; 11 hours 30 mins), LP (5 Mbps; 15 hours).

Connectivity


The HG10 has a whole host of physical connections that enable signals to be exchanged with the real world at large; to play out picture and stereo sound to a normal (non-HD) TV set or recorder you have an AV-out jack which breaks out to Yellow, Red and White RCA phono plugs (Composite Video, Right and Left audio respectively), MiniUSB, Digital Component and HDMI Type C outputs for sending to a HD television display (HDMI cable is not provided, but Component cabling is).

What's particularly useful about the HG10 is that it has been afforded the luxury of a Microphone input socket and - when switching the AV output socket function within the menu - a Stereo Headphone output as well. If you're looking for an instant point of comparison against the Panasonic HDC-SD5, you have it right there, since there's neither a headphone out or mic input on the SD5.

USB 2 is the primary means of connection to PCs and Macs for both movies and stills; users can create playlists of clips and images and play them out to TV or computer via a comprehensive set of connections that includes AV-out (composite), Component and HDMI (digital). In addition to the potential for using an optional microphone on the hot accessory shoe, the HG10 will also accept an external microphone input, too. The AV-out socket can be switched to facilitate stereo headphone monitoring during recording.

The HG10's G Sensor drop censor prevention is a definite plus in that it helps to protect the data saved onto the hard disc drive in the event that the unit is either dropped or is at least subjected to a sudden descent (without impact!). In detecting negative G forces, the HDD will be immediately parked and the heads will be preserved. This is an increasingly common feature as first seen on JVC's range of Everio G HDD camcorders.

Unclipping the cover to the HG10's accessory shoe
Finally, although the HG10 offers comprehensive manual control, its superb lens doesn't support physical manual focus control - for this you have to go into the menu and set it up in such a way that the joystick control is used to make adjustments during operation; this is similar to other main manual controls on the camera, too. However, those looking for a Cinema-like quality to their movie clips will be heartened to learn that Canon offers a PF25 progressive 25fps cinema mode (on PAL products)

It's possible to place an optional DM50 stereo microphone or a VL-3 video light on the Hot Accessory Shoe; the main lens will accept either a TL-H43 Tele-converter lens or a WD-H43 wide-angle adaptor.

Performance


Let's dive straight in and say that the pictures coming off the HG10's HDD are staggering - and so they should be. For a start, we're making use of a large 1/2.7" CMOS imaging device which is, as you can probably work out, is a tad bigger than a 1/3" inch chip. We think of 1/3" CCDs and CMOS chips as being "big" so this is certainly that. It shows in the pictures. Shoot outdoors in optimum light and you get fabulous pictures whose resolution, colour and contrast ratio are excellent. Take the cam indoors and record in slightly less than optimum conditions (in other words, what some might call "low light") and the HG10 hangs in there to give most people perfectly useable pictures whose colour and contrast ratio is still surprisingly good.

Switch off the auto recording modes and you find a surprisingly good level of manual control, too. The Shutter and Aperture Priority (common on Canon video cameras) are a real boon and give users a quick route to the best setting whilst maintaining a reasonable degree of manual control. What is worthy of criticism (albeit of a limited nature) is the lack of proper physical manual focus control. It would be much better to have a manual focus ring around the lens since the process of going into the menu, finding the focus setting and then making the adjustment during recording is cumbersome and impractical, to say the least.

The HG10's USB and miniSD card sockets
However, even when shooting in fully-auto mode (though being careful about how clips are recorded). the results are very impressive. Connect the HG10 via an HDMI cable (not supplied) or Component digital connections (supplied) and you get a true picture of the camcorder's true potential - the pictures are fabulous! We were particularly impressed with clips shot in various indoor settings - including a mixed-light, anarchic children's party where disco lights and incoming daylight are challenging enough for any camcorder - whether consumer or professional. The HG10 coped superbly - particularly in Auto mode.

We recorded a test product demo sequence for a maker of iPod accessories which required shooting under office strip-lights, and with a clip-microphone being plugged into the HG10's Mic Input jack in order to record live speech. The results were excellent with the sound being of near "professional" quality. The mic input jack really is a major plus on this camcorder - especially in a market where many manufacturers are now exclusing both mic inputs and headphone outputs. Well done Canon.

Battery life


The battery pack supplied with the HG10 is Canon's BP-2L13, which offers a typical operating time of 65 minutes when using the LCD screen for continuous recording and playback. When recording intermittently, users can expect to get 110 minutes operating time using the viewfinder only and when shooting in the highest HXP mode. The equivalent operating time when using the LCd is 105 minutes, according to Canon's own specifications. In our trials, and with a brand-new battery pack, we achieved durations in excess of those stated, with over 2 hours' usage in HXP/LCD mode when operating intermittently (and carefully).

Conclusion


The AVCHD system might entail heavy compression, but the results from the CMOS imaging device are stunning; colour, contrast and resolution are excellent and the cam doesn’t suffer from low-noise artefacts in the way that its major competitors do. Not only is the HG10 a joy to use with easily accessible record and playback controls, but it produces HD pictures and sound that is head and shoulders above the competition. No surprise, therefore, that this model was granted the first prestigious SimplyDV Camcorder of The Year Award for 2007. Well done Canon!

A note about editing: In order to test the useability of the HG10's AVCHD video clips, we connected the camcorder to a new Apple iMac 24" running iMovie '08 under Mac OSX (10.5 Leopard). All of the clips imported faultlessly and we were able to proceed with the edit with no hitches whatever. The resulting sequence was then saved as a desktop-playable Quicktime H.264 file in addition to being exported as an iPhone-formatted Podcast file. The results were excellent and far exceeded our expectations.

We haven't been able to test the HG10 with other Windows/Vista based applications that support AVCHD (such as Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 and Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus) but we'll endeavour to do so as the opportunity arises. If you have experience of using the HG10 with either of the above applications then please tell us all about it on the SimplyDV Forums.

Reviewed by: CB. November 2007.

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