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August 29, 2008

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Canon-HG10

Canon - HG10 Review

Price (MSRP): $
Megapixel:
Type: Digital Camcorder
Submitted by: Reviewer from Coon Rapids, MN
Date Reviewed: 5/10/2008
Months Owned: 1-5
Photos Taken: Less than 500
Skill Level: Advanced amateur

What's Hot: Recording quality is amazing if you have the camcorder on a tripod.

What's Not: Recording quality is terrible if you hand hold the camcorder and pan or zoom.

Review: My best recommendation that you must absolutely follow is to put the camcorder on a tripod, do not move the camcorder, do not, I repeat do not pan or move the camera up, down, to the left or to the right. If you move the camera at all you’ll have a horrible recording with terrible interlacing blur. Keep the camera absolutely stationary. And then don’t have your subject that you are recording move very fast. If your object moves fast, you will have terrible interlacing blur problems on playback. The funny thing is, the interlacing problems do not show up on that little LCD monitor screen. Moving objects and moving the camera looks fine on the LCD screen when you are recording. Do not believe it. On playback if you are moving the camera at all, panning left or right, up or down, or zooming the lens. It plays back terribly interlaced. Don’t let your object or people move fast as you are recording them. It looks fine in the LCD screen but the playback will really suck on the 1920 x 1080i playback. Moving the camera or fast moving subjects won’t look that good at the lower 960 X 540i playback either. If the camera is on a tripod and the objects move slowly in really good bright light, you will love the recording quality. I repeat. A stationary camera on a tripod and a non-moving or slow moving subject/object will give you amazing HD quality on playback. I suggest using the 60i and not the 24p and don’t use the cinema mode. I think the 60i is the better recording option. The 24p is a tad more jittery. I can’t do anything but speculate about that cinema mode, I don’t totally understand it, but I think it has something to do with 24p or 24 full frames per second. Don’t just go out and shoot without putting that camera on a stationary tripod. You will most likely be disappointed with the playback if you hand hold the camcorder, especially, especially when you use the zoom. The jitter on playback when you hand hold and zoom is unusable. Panning is better with a non HD mini DV camcorder. My old Canon Elura 40 MC mini DV camcorder was more clear with less blur when I panned with that lower resolution Camcorder then when I pan with this Canon HG10. The best tip, don’t move the HG10 camcorder at all when you are recording. Trust me, 20 hours of recorded vacation time later, I found out what doesn’t work, and what vacation shots are a blur and which ones are amazing and I feel like I’m there again. Avoid interlacing problems, jittery playback, and blur in your playback and video editing.

Overall Ratings
Overall quality
9
Ease of use
9
Fit and finish
9
Click-to-click speed
9
Display quality
9
Flash quality
7
Image quality
8
Overall value
9
RATING SCALE: 1 = WORST 10 = BEST

User Reviews do not reflect the opinions of the editors of PopPhoto.com. User Reviews should be used for informational purposes only to help you make an informed choice, not as a definitive authority on what camera or lens is most appropriate for you. Please contact editor@popphoto.com with any problems regarding user review submissions.



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