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| Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
List Price: $1,299.99
Buy New: $588.99
You Save: $711.00 (55%)
New (10) Used (6) from $515.00
Rating:  150 reviews
Sales Rank: 631
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 10
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 61
Minimum Focal Length: 6.1
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 3.2 x 3 x 5.1
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: 2183B001AA
Model: 2183B001AA
UPC: 013803087079
EAN: 0013803087079
ASIN: B000U8HBRW
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Awesome camera for the Normal User November 8, 2007
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
After reading many reviews of this product I decided to go ahead and pick it up. Knowing that this isn't a 'film makers' camera since the 24p mode is all but useless due to AVCHD on the fly conversion issues with this mode, I decided to purchase it anyway since it is primarily for documenting my children.
First off, the picture is absolutely gorgeous. On an HD TV the picture just jumps out. Having the ability to view from the camera in either Component Cable or HDMI makes this camera easy to use and show on even older generation HDTVs that were made prior to the HDMI revolution.
Using the VERY nice LCD screen on the camera to navigate scenes and select them as you would a DVD shows the real benefit of using a HDD as the storage. Instantly access or delete the scenes you love or hate. No more waiting on tape to rewind or fast forward.
The hard drive holds maybe 5 hours of the highest res footage. This doesn't sound like a lot but in most cases you aren't going to shoot 5 horus of footage before you are back in a place that you can off load it for storage and backup.
The battery on this camera could be a little better. As with all batteries they never last as long as you think. This is probably the most negative feature to me. I would say that I got anywhere from an hour to maybe an hour and a half of shooting on a full charge. I would certainly recommend having a second battery on those long shooting days.
The biggest feature of the camera is the AVCHD compression it uses. Everyone talks about if this format will take off or not. It really doesn't matter if it does or if it doesn't as applications like Pinnacle Studio 11 take the AVCHD format and convert it in to the current formats of HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. AVCHD uses a lot of processing power and Ram when it is rendering to whatever format so make sure you have the horsepower on your machine before you being editing. Pinnacle Studio 11 lets you output to HD-DVD on standard DVDs giving you up to 25 min of HD Video on normal DVD. This is great for the average user as most videos are less than that length. This is very cost effective as standard DVD's are very cheap now and the availability of HD-DVD burners and media are both expensive and hard to find.
I have owned many cameras over the years and so far this is by far the best one I have used. I always loathed having to transfer tape to my machine to edit. Now with the HDD it is painless and very fast. You can get to editing quickly. Just expect many many hours of rendering when you are ready to produce that Final Disk of your content.
I FULLY recommend this camera to anyone. At just under 1000.00 it is a bargain for what you get.
Viva La HD Revolution!
HG10 is a great camcorder at a great price January 5, 2008
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
First a little background then a detailed review. I am a serious casual video user and a more serious amateur still photographer. I have had two previous camcorders, a full size VHS and then a Sony Digital 8. Going on vacation for two weeks to the Philippines I decided to get this Canon HG10 after reviewing everything I could find on the Net. Bottom line, Sony's were too expensive for the same thing.
I had my concerns about going Hard Drive but this thing worked flawlessly whether it be from bumpy automobiles, small boat rides, or walking and banging on my hip (for a few minutes when I accidentally left it on). And after two weeks of filming on high def setting, I only used 10 of the 40GB.
I've viewed the HD video two ways; directly connecting the camcorder to my HD TV through the HDMI connections which is the most convenient; and making a HD AVCHD DVD and playing it through a HD DVD player connected again to the HDMI ports. The video quality is stunning, as true to life as you can get and I appreciated that especially when filming relatives and really beautiful places like the white sand beach and crystal clear waters on Boracay Island). I've tried viewing via component video set ups and they are not bad either.
I had three batteries and if all I had done was film, I think they would have lasted the entire two weeks but I did a lot of reviewing and playing back which really used up the batteries. The size of this camera is just right, it fits in a medium sized shoulder bag with all my other things and no one around me would ever suspect I was carrying a camcorder. It can even fit in a large pants pocket but that would be too conspicuous and then the thieves would notice. The controls were easy to use and I like the jog wheel on the side of the viewing screen which then stayed clean the entire trip. Tip: this camcorder fits perfectly inside a quart-size ziplock bag which really helped to keep it protected from dust, sand and water.
A feature I never had before was taking still photos and it performed better than I expected. I was most impressed with the lack of shutter lag and the brightness of the built in flash. I didn't miss bringing a digital cam along at all and had so much fun taking video I didn't take all that many stills anyway. I had it set at the highest setting and didn't come close to filling the 2GB memory card.
One little quirk, if the zoom is set to variable setting, the speed of zooming out is much faster than the speed of zooming in using the same finger pressure for each. I don't know if this is on purpose or if my camera is set improperly but I can deal with it by either remember this or switch the speed setting to either slow or fast fixed speed instead of variable which is what I did. I don't like to zoom that much anyway since zooming in and out is often overdone.
All in all I am very satisifed with this camcorder and my purchase through Amazon. I hope this camcorder lasts me a long time. I will never use tape again.
Andy
San Jose, CA USA
Delightful piece of quality! January 9, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
When we recorded our son's chorus and watched the video on TV, we knew it was time to replace our old Hi8 camcorder so as not to lose any more precious moments. I started with Consumer Reports and after reading the pros and cons of different types of camcorders, decided a hard disk based one was what I wanted. In 2007 December, when HD TV is so prevalent, why not invest in a High-definition camcorder? The best buy Panasonic hard-drive based camcorder HDC-DX1'S price was attractive but was too bulky. I generally don't carry a camcorder with me due to it additional bulk. As I read and read reports on Amazon I converged onto the Canon HG-10, due to a combination of price and the 40G hard disk capacity. The reviews were pretty good on sites such as camcorderinfo.com. I read the only drawback was its low-light performance. After using it for nearly 3 1/2 weeks, here are my impressions/findings:
Why I love the HG-10?
=====================
- Small size. It fits into the palm of your hand. However, it is not so small that it detracts from getting a steady shot.
- The image stabilizer got the best ratings among HD camcorders on camcorderinfo, which is a great plus due to the smaller size.
- The bright light clips are awesome. The quality is unbelievable compared to the quality I used to see among Hi8s. It is just another whole new level of details. As I went beyond the woods and got a shot our home, the details of the bare tree branches through which I was seeing the home was incredible.
- You don't need a separate lens cover. Once you turn the camcorder on, the shutter opens by itself and closes when you switch off. Nice.
- The scroll wheel based menu navigation needs a bit of getting used to, but is convenient to flip through a lot of clips at a time (to get to the one you want to amongst many hundred clips that you have recorded).
- The LCD view finder is compact and flips and rotates like many others.You can flip it and make it sit smugly on the side, so that others can see what is being shot.
- The 3.1 mega pixel camera is definitely handy. I don't have to carry a separate camera. All these built-in cameras do not provide the same quality as a comparable digital camera, but I find that we rarely print digital photos. To see on-screen, this is more than enough for us.
- You can choose between Auto and Manual mode. This will work well for those who want to tweak the settings themselves, but I rarely have used it except trying out in low light conditions.
- The menu for the video is fairly simple; but the camera's menu options can need some time for getting used to.
- Transferring videos to your computer via a USB cable is fairly easy. The provided software is more than adequate to transfer. You can also backup and restore the videos back to your camcorder.
- I haven't seen the videos in high def as I don't yet have a HD dvd player or not yet ordered the mini HDMI-HDMI cable. This camcorder only supports variations of Blueray HD. The video quality burnt onto regular DVDs were quite impressive, especially those shot outdoors or in bright light.
- It comes along with software to edit your movies that work, given the many complaints I read about editing HD movies. The ULead DVD Movie factory . I found I was able to joins clips, add music, tittles and chapters and burn DVDs aftermy first two videos in a relatively easy way. But I am also computer savvy, working with them for daily bread!
- The ZoomBrowserEX software for transferring still images is a more mature application that the DVD Movie factory. I don't use all its features, except for transferring I admit.
- Price (about 750) is reasonable for a High-Definition, 40 GB near top of the line digital camcorder. For my first Hi8, I had paid nearly 1500 with unnecessary additional insurance. Of course, the price will drop in two months, but that is inevitable.
- The battery gives you about 40 minutes of recording time. You may want to carry the supplied adapter along which shouldn't be a problem due to the smaller size of the camcorder itself.
- The 40 GB hard disk records about 5 1/2 hours of high definition video at the highest resolution. I could no t be happier as I rarely shoot 2 hours video in a month.
Lows:
=====
- Low light performance is a deterrent. First I thought I don't shoot in low lights. But we all do. Your home on the inside during evenings with the fluorescent or incandescent lights on. This is low light for the HG-10. I found pictures to be grainy. Not much of an improvement here compared to the old Sony Hi8 I had. But at an indoorplace such as Arnold's Go karts, where the lighting was bright, the quality was not an issue.
- The movie editing software is fairly basic, which is okay as I could burn DVDs with it which is all I want to do with some music. BUT, the application crashed twice when I had too many chapters. The application is also a resource hog. Of course, we are editing videos. My 2 GB, dual core, 9100 Inspiron (laptop) took more than 7 hours to burn a DVD with about 40 minutes of edited video. Just be aware you need a nice, geek-impressing desktop to do video edits. Once upon crashing, most of my video edits were lost. After I removed many chapters (every clip becomes a chapter) the application was more stable.
- The user manual for the DVD Movie factory is just fair. It doesn't explain the process of editing using the application well. The context sensitive help is something that a school boy would have written better. It looks like a hastily written user manual.
- You want to order a mini-HDMI to HDMO cable if you want to see the video in High Def. The component video cable is provided.
Overall I am happy realizing no camcorder will be without drawbacks in the price range, I as a consumer/amateur, is willing to pay. At least with a high definition camcorder I don't have to worry about getting outdated in the next several years. The Canon HG-10 is a delight overall.
Best HD Hard Drive Camcorder, Overall Better Than Sony SR7 December 28, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I got this one from one of the Brooklyn Stores. These stores follow bad business practices. But luckily for me I had no issues , the product was shipped ontime. It was original and everything worked fine.
I was shopping for hard drive based HD camcorder for last few months. I almost made my mind on Sony SR7 after a using my friend's camcorder. Sony is excellent in bright light and outdoors , but its grainy and below par sharpness when shooting indoors.
I would give my points as below
Outdoors
Sony SR7 is about 9 /10
Canon HG10 is 8/10
Indors
Sony SR7 4/10
Canon HG10 6/10.
One feature that I found very useful in Canon is that the camcorder has indoor light ( not flash). The light helps to shoot in low light conditions. The range is about 5 ft for this idoor light. Though I bought that external Canon video light , I think this inbuilt light is adaquate for my needs. I has a flash light for taking pictures.
Sony SR7s colors are manipulated , Sony tinkers with the image processing to make the vidoe brighter, but true colors are lost during the process. For HG10 , the colors are exactly the same as seen with naked eye. A light green is a light green in Canon HG10. Where as in SONY SR7 the same light color becomes a brighter thick green. If you want to shoot ONLY bright outdoors then SR7 should be on your list your choice. But having used both, I can say overall ( indoor and outdoor) Canon does a better job.
For me the three things that are important in buying this camcorder over SONY SR7 are
Price ( at least 400 cheaper than SR7)
Inbuilt Video Light.
Indoor Picture quality.
Great camcorder, would you like to see some sample footage? May 2, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
The existing reviews here are great and pretty much cover what you need to know about the HG10. What you'd REALLY like to see is some sample footage, right? Look no further than vimeo... there is a HG10 "channel" on vimeo where you can see a ton of sample footage and short films, etc, all shot with the HG10. [...]I've been using my HG10 for about 2 months and I love it. You'll find some of my sample footage on that channel. A few recommendations if you purchase this camera:
1. use an external mic if you really care about sound quality. the internal mic is ok, but it picks up the (very quiet) lens sounds during focusing and zooming, and it is located on top of the camera instead of the front... so you get the sound of your own breathing instead of what you really want to hear, the stuff in front of the lens.
2. invest in Sony Vegas Movie Studio for editing this footage. totally solid software and works great with the AVCHD footage.
3. make a lot of backups! we've all been using various magnetic tapes (and even film) for years and years, many of them still sitting on shelves and ready to be pulled and played in some ancient system if you wanted to relive some old memories... DVD-Rs are not permanent! if you only backup to them, you'll try to play/copy/read them a few years in the future and they won't work. That fantastic video you got of your new baby will be gone when the kid gets old enough to want to watch it. Get those video files on to some form of magnetic media (harddrives are cheap) and archive, archive, archive.
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