The Canon HG-10 is a superb follow-on to the top rated and highly acclaimed Canon HV-20.
We could not be happier. This is a gem of a camcorder. Obviously each reviewer has their own specific reasons for purchasing such an advanced camcorder.
This is our third camcorder and we have been shooting family events, vacations and even hurricanes for close to 20 years. We burn our captured footage on a number of DVD's and share with family members (many who live a great distance away). We have two HDTV's and are about to buy a Blu-ray player. Our Sony camcorder died in The UK this summer and instead of buying another SD camcorder, we decided it is time to step up.
Why now?? Although SIMPLE HD capture and burning software and inexpensive High Def DVD burners are behind the curve at the present time, they are going to happen. Sony, Panasonic, Canon and all the rest...will make it happen. This is too big a potential market to ignore -so we decided to shoot in High Def now, save the backed up video on our hard drive and/or off- line storage, and burn in Standard Definition now. When the software makers and DVD burner makers decide to catch up and make it easy to burn family movies, we will have our (saved) high def files ready to convert to Blu Ray or HDDVD or both.
There are a ton of very technical reviews on the HG-10 on this and other websites. CNET and Amazon provide a great deal of information, Camcorderinfo.com and smartguider.com are just two of the many others. We think any buyer should review them all and also do a web search on
"Canon HG-10 reviews"

After days of reading reviews virtually every web review and visiting at least 7 retail stores we came away with some interesting observations. You are not going to get much technical help at the major retail outlets. You can get hands on and see what works for you. When comparing the HG-10 to the CanonHV-20, there was no comparison as to the ergonomic superiority of the HG-10.
For the technical data you will have to hit the web as the folks in the stores just do not have the depth you need to help you make this kind of buying decision.
We found a few very helpful "gems" in selecting this camcorder.
1) We went to the Canon website.... www.usa.canon.com and downloaded the HG-10 manual in .pdf format (yes it is 118 pages) but if you print the pages in short batches, you will have an excellent and VERY readable document to review BEFORE and after you purchase the HG-10. The manual that comes in the box is very small and hard to read. It would also be a VERY wise idea to also download the .pdf file for the Corel Application Disc Version two.
2) This Corel Guide is a much shorter manual -just 16 pages long. You really want to read this one cover to cover before you buy, and particularly Page 3, where they discuss needed PC systems requirements. You may want to talk (or email) with Canon and/or Corel regarding your PC versus their "recommended size of the PC system". We have a Core 2 Duo Dell so the Corel software posed no problems.
3) We called Cannon Tech support while reviewing the manual. You will be delighted to find out their 800 number ( 1-800-828-4040) is located Virginia, they are very well trained and if you have a problem..they can immediately lay their hands on an HG-10 and go thru a process step-by-step with you. They were even available on a Saturday afternoon.
4) We cannot say enough good things about Canon support. Having spent untold hours since the early days of the IBM PC, on support lines, trying to get help with hardware and software, we think Canon really got it right. A couple short calls to Canon to clarify some questions made it easy for us to choose the HG-10.
On the HG-10 --all the controls were when we really liked them. The HG-10 borrows a lot of its technology from its tape driven HV-20 sister but after living with internal tape transports in many worldwide (hot, cold and dusty) climates and situations over the years, the hard drive was a very logical choice. The 5 and ½ hours of HXP (full 1080) - highest format is plenty for any vacation. Realistically, how many folks want to sit through even a three hour home movie? We have learned from Hollywood.. Keep it short..Keep it snappy..Keep it interesting. Five and ½ hours of High Def video gives you a ton of material to work with from any vacation. When you get home, the Corel software that comes with the Canon allows you to immediately back up your video files and you are ready to initialize (format) the Hard Drive and you are ready to go with a fresh 5 ½ hours of HXP.
Going through the HG-10 manual provides many happy surprises - the camcorder has more features than you can believe and most reviewers do not have the time or space to address all of the abilities of this camcorder. This camcorder takes better still photos than our Sony Cybershot H-5 (which suffers from chromatic aberration in certain situations).
We purchased a 1 GB (Canon recommends no bigger than 2GB) Sandisk mini-SD card that also comes with an SD adapter. If you already have Still Photo capture and edit software, you may not need to load the entire very voluminous still photo (Digital Video Solution Version 27.0) software that comes on a CD with the HG-10. We went through the manual for that disc and it was all about STILL photos. Having more still photo software than we can ever use already on our PC, we skipped that installation.
Why not get a USB-based Media card reader for your PC (if it does not have one) for under $25. When you take still photos just remove the card from the HG-10 and insert it into a USB media card reader. While, we did not by this camcorder for still photos we are more than delighted with the stills that we can capture in Camera mode.

Regarding connections (page 83 in the HG-10 manual) we love displaying the HXP High Def. video footage on our HDTV. We connect the HG-10 to the HDTV via the (optional) mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. The Canon manual calls this an optional HTC-100 HDMI cable. Sony sells a VMC-15MHD HDMI Mini to HDMI that works very well. Canon does not provide this and you will not find these cables in most stores at the present so you may have to order one over the web.
As many highly regarded reviewers have noted, use the HDMI connection whenever you can for the best quality.
Our HDTV had only one HDMI input (already being used) so we purchased a Belkin HDMI 3 to 1 Switch box that allows us to now plug in HD Cable, the HG-10 and a future Blue ray player. We keep the HG-10 HDMI cable always plugged into the home system and by attaching the mini HDMI to the camcorder we can see 1080 HD home movies in an instant.
A couple of user plusses on the HG-10 are the LCD display and the image stabilization. Both are excellent. The size of the HG-10 is amazingly small and it is incredibly light. We cannot believe they pack that much technology into such a small package. The electronic reminder messages on the screen are quite helpful as we all make mistakes. We like the quick start and the Instant auto focus features. We would suggest buying the optional carrying strap and also a second battery when you order an HG-10.
We plan to add more information to this review regarding burning video and creating AVCHD discs but at this time we think this is the perfect camcorder for our needs.

Import works great with the latest version of iMovie on a Mac. Transfers are fast thanks the hard drive. Editing and transfer to other formats (AppleTV) are very convenient but then my Mac is very fast. I was nervous going with the hard drive over tape but the convenience of it easily offsets any quality loss for the type of recording I'm doing (family and personal). Menus are intuitive and the scroll wheel approach works pretty well (it could be better, but I do prefer it over a joystick). USB 2.0 seems plenty snappy - not missing the firewire.

The hard drive makes it very easy to get out and shoot - no worry about if you are overwriting a keeper tape or if you are going to run out of tape. Its also extremely easy to delete unwanted footage in the field right when you've captured it. This is such a pain on tape that I never do it which results in a lot of wasted time later.

Drive is completely silent. Shoe provides for a shotgun mic which I'll be trying out shortly. Headphone jacks for monitoring sound are there and I've found that to be very important on past units. Construction is solid. Automatic lens cover much easier than having one on a lanyard that you always have to stow. Stand by mode gets you shooting in 1 second which is very nice.

Looking forward to trying the still capability. While the resolution can't match my pocket cam the 10x optical zoom is very nice to have.

On a Mac with the latest iLife and Leopard no software is needed. Drive mounts on the desktop. Movies automatically import into the new iMovie. Absolutely wonderful.

I have been using camcorders since 1985 and have used almost every possible format available for the consumer. As of Oct. 2007, I can firmly say that this is by far the best camcorder ever, in terms of the picture quality, convenience, and the price. Although there are some limitations in the AVCHD format (I don't want to reprise here again), the convenience of the hard drive made me choose the HG10 and I have absolutely no regret at all.

First of all, I would like to clarify other reviewer's information that might misguide some folks. The HG10 does include the software to transfer and to edit the video footage for a PC. It comes with a Ulead DVD MovieFactory SE for editing and for authorinzing the DVD and the AVCHD-DVD (can be playable on some dvd players and Playstation 3. It's a dvd that has HD pictures). If the other reviewer only has a Mac, his complaint was right, since the HG10 only includes the picture browser to handle the still pictures, not video for a Mac.

For the most consumers like me, the DVD MovieFactory works pretty well. I just burned a standard DVD with the DVD MovieFactory and am very satisfied with the result. Converting HD pictures to the SD format does not degrade the original HD quality much and I was impressed by that. I added chapter marks, made menus, and did little editing. Since editing the AVCHD format needs so much processing power, if you don't have a fast computer (dual core, 2 ghz or faster), you should seriously consider to buy a decent computer for editing the AVCHD video. I was using a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, Windows Vista Business PC to make a DVD and it worked OK. Making an AVCHD-DVD is faster since it does not need to re-encode the video files. If you don't do a complicate editing job and want to do merging video clips from the HG10 and burning a DVD, you could use a slower computer for that purpose. I have experiences in using Adobe Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, and iMovie (for Mac). Although the DVD MovieFactory might not be a right tool for the professional work, it is quite good for a home use. I made my friends surprised with the DVD created from it. Only gripe is a complicated software activation process. You should read a software instruction carefully to avoid the hassle (specially the web link in the last page). I have wasted 2 hours just to activate the software.

Yes, the HG10 does not have an IEEE1394 (or firewire, or iLink whatever you call it) port. However, the thing is that it does not need one. All the footages are already stored in the AVCHD format files and you only need to transfer those files to your computer. If you have to capture the video and encode it to a file from the magnetic tape (MiniDV), you might need an IEEE1394 port. However, for HG10, you don't need to do that. If you see other hard drive based camcorders, they don't have it either (They mostly have a USB port). Right before the HG10, I used a Sony DCR-SR100 and it does not have a firewire port, too.

The HG10 has a mini HDMI (type C) port, so if you want to connect the HG10 via HDMI, you should order a mini-HDMI to HDMI (type C to type A) cable. HG10 only includes a composite A/V cable and a component video cable. My minor complaint is that it does not come with a shoulder strap. This toy costs us $1,000, so the nice looking shoulder strap must be given (I am using the one taken out from the old Canon ZR camcorder).

I was told that the HG10 uses the same optical mechanism as Canon HV20, which is known to be the best consumer HD camcorder on the market (it records in HDV format on tapes, not AVCHD on the hard drive). So I expected that the picture quality would be pretty good and I was right. If you have a full 1080p HD display, you will be amazed. Personally, I use a 720p projector at home and am quite impressed by the quality of the picture. Unlike Sony AVCHD camcorders, the sound is recorded in 2 channel Dolby Digital format (Sony records in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital). The good thing of 2 channel recording is that it does not catch my breath. With 5.1 channel recording, you can easily have your breathing sound, since two of the mics are catching rear sound.

For the low light performance (like indoor shot), the HG10 is comparatively better than any other consumer level camcorder on the market that I have seen. However, don't expect too much (like me). It cannot be compared to the low light quality of $3,000 camcorder. My impression is that its low light picture quality is close to a decent 3CCD high-priced consumer level camcorder.

Well, I have been waiting for long to have the right hard drive based AVCHD camcorder. There are many hard drive based camcorders on the market now and none of this caught my attention for some minor reasons, such as no external mic jack, no usb port on the camcorder, or the poor low light performance. Finally I found the right one and am so happy that I have waited.

Thanks for Canon to introduce a good equipment at the right price (under a grand). I hope this review help some people who have waited like me.

I've had this camera for a couple of weeks, I've tried it indoors, at night, outdoors under bright sun. The image quality is superb. I was using it to shoot some scenes at an amusement part, and the videos are good, I was worried about the motion artifacts in AVCHD encoding, but it's not as bad as I had imagined. The low light performance is good, nothing to write home about. Things start get a little grainy indoors in the morning if I go to the shady part of the room.

The controls are pretty easy to use, I didn't read the manual, and it took me maybe 30 min to go through all the menu's including all the manual controlls and figured out what they did.

The software that came with the camcorder is nothing to write home about. I only installed the Ulead software, and didn't bother with the backup utility disc, or the photo software. The installation process may be a little too complex. The Ulead software needed an activation code, which I had to obtain from their website, by creating an account and entering the serial number of the camcorder. The information was available in the manuals, but it wasn't obvious where to find it. Without knowing that creating the account on Ulead website was necessary, and if I had felt suspicious about going to some software company's website and creating a user account, I would've hit a dead end with the activation process.

After that, he 1st thing I wanted to do is to get the AVCHD files off the camcorder. With a PC, and the Ulead software, it was very easy, just plug in the USB cable, a few clicks to select videos segment to download, and directory on the PC to put them, and it was done. The USB cable is a standard mini-USB cable, so I just plugged it into the mini USB cable that I already had connected to the PC for my digital camera. I transfered ~1 GB of video (7-8 minutes long). It was done quickly, in just seconds, it was definitely quicker than I expected, so I didn't really time it.

Once the video is transfered, I could use the Ulead software to make a standard definition DVD, which I tried, it's just like any simple DVD authoring tool, nothing fancy. The encoding was pretty quick, but I have a new quad CPU machine, so YMMV. The encoded DVD looks OK on my 42" HDTV, but I can definitely see the difference between that and the original HD content, which I also played on the same TV through the component and AV cables (2 separate cables, both are included), and a mini-HDMI cable (not included). Both worked fine. The hookup using the mini-HDMI is a lot easier. The included remote came in pretty handy in playing the video on the TV.

I also tried to burn AVCHD on a DVD, but I don't have a player that can handle it. My Xbox 360's HDDVD add-on does not play it. But it does read it, and the disc was labeled BD****, so I figured it's a Blue-Ray format disc. The Xbox can see some directories and files on the DVD, but can't play it. I'm thinking about getting Ulead's Video Studio plus so I can write it to HD-DVD, that still costs ~$100 now, and I can't seem to get the upgrade price ($60) with the software that came with the camcorder.

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 Révolution!

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

I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong that they are allowed to call this High Definition. First, most of these camcorders down-res to something like 1440 x 1080, even though they advertise meeting the full-HD spec of 1920 x 1080. Second, the compression used to accomplish this is fierce, and has very visible artifacting.

So, in essence you have a class of camcorders, advertised as HD-quality, that can ONLY produce true HD in very good lighting with almost no motion. Think test patterns here, or landscapes. Poor lighting and motion in the picture give most of these camcorders fits, as the AVCHD codec just can't handle the extra work imposed by video noise from low light situations or any motion-induced artifacting.

What to do? Well, in typical Canon fashion they sat back, waited to see what everyone else produced, and then released a product that is the best of the genre. Sure, you can get larger drives on the Sony -- up to 80GB. The Sanyo may tout it's tiny form factor, and make exaggerated claims about its' image quality. I owned the Sanyo HD1000 and promptly sent it back; both the quality of the device itself AND the quality of the images it produced were lacking.

The Canon gives the best image I've seen on an AVCHD product. Though not perfect and nowhere close to their own HDV-based HV20, I wanted something non-linear to make working with video a little simpler on my Macs. The HG10 has great image stabilization, wonderful optics, intuitive controls (I especially love the multi-speed zoom control), superb colors, and less of the AVCHD nasties than any other AVCHD camcorder I've seen.

So, if you must own a camcorder that uses AVCHD, this is the one to have! On absolute terms I'd give it three stars, but compared to other AVCHD camcorders it's a five, so four stars overall felt about right...

The camcorder arrived about a week ago and I have played with it a little bit.

I agree that the video quality is very good - but I have to disagree that it is as good as off-the-air HD TV. I wasn't expecting it to be that good and it is not. I have used only component cables (supplied) to play the video on my HD TV (since I am yet to purchase the mini HDMI cable).

HG10 takes excellent still pictures in good light. It takes very good pictures in low light if the subject is within the reach of the flash and if the camcorder is able to focus well. Yes, you can leave your camera home if you are taking the HG10 with you. Please see the first comment to this review.

I am having problems with the supplied Corel (Ulead) Software for video processing. I have tried multiple times, but I can't successfully install the software on my desktop computer. (It installed fine on my less powerful and older laptop computer). Corel refused phone support (because it was bundled software). I did get a response to my email, but basically the same story. There is no free email support either. I haven't called Canon yet. I was able to download the clips into my laptop and convert them into standard definition MPEG files with ease. I could select several clips (totaling 1 GB) and convert them all to MPEG in one shot. Computer took about 2 hours for conversion. Interesting thing is that standard definition MPEG files are only slightly smaller than the high definition AVCHD files.

You may know that the camcorder sports a video light. It is a tiny white LED and can light up objects up to 5 feet away. I was able to record a decent video in pitch dark (of course with tons of grain) that showed all the colors and details of objects. This was something that is more than what I was expecting. (LED video light itself is very bright to look at.)

I am happy with the product so far.

Update 1:
MPG file that was generated from AVCHD file seems to require a special codec. I had given a short clip to a friend and he said he couldn't play the video on his computer. I tried a couple of videos on my work computer, and sure enough, Windows media player says "failed to download the codec." Other mpg files downloaded from the Internet play fine.

Update 2:
Camcorder sports a safety feature called drop sensor which detects accelaration and stops recording and tries to protect the hard disc.

You can take a snapshot of a scene within the camera while playing a video clip.

A neck strap isn't supplied.

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.

I'll be blunt, this is a long review, cause that's the type of review I would like to read myself, just a simple THIS CAMERA IS GREAT A+++ doesn't tell me much... Anyways, I chose this camera over the cheaper HV20 because it looked prettier, and because it had better imagery and manual controls over sony's sr5 at the same price. I also like the large lens, just simple math can tell you a larger lens allows more light to enter.

For those of you pitting this HG-10 vs. SR5, the adv is many...:
1) mic in (essential for good mics out there, accessory shoe is gimmick really, only good for mounting the mic
2) Manual controls = awesome interview, high shutter slow-motion, special effects footage
3) viewfinder (though i think it's a pretty bad one)
4) OPTICAL image stabilization
5) Head-phone out which is really essential for monitoring your audio during shooting
5) 2.1 megapixel effective vs. 1.4 MP sensor, don't even talk about the JVC or Panasonic 3 CCD sensors with about 0.5 MP each, and pixel-shifting.

For those of you deciding between HG-10 vs. HV-20:
1) It looks much less el cheapo at the same price, which is oddly very important to me
2) HARD DRIVE! I shot an hour of interviews and I still have about 5 hours left, without worrying about changing tapes, NICE!
3) Handling is awesome, hands and fingers go where they should go and zoom rocker is good for doing fixed zooms
4) Shorter; scroll wheel is good concept
5) ingesting an hour of raw footage to external hard drive took *correction ~5 minutes and took up 4.3 gb, NICE, try doing that with miniDV

Common Issues/FAQ:
1) Isn't MiniDV recording easier to archive?
Answer: I'm going to take someone's excellent argument for this, look at it this way, my 1 hour of footage takes up 4.3 GB of hard drive space in raw AVCHD format, let's say I have a 500 GB external that I got for $80, that external can then hold ideally 116 hours of video. So at the going price of $3 per miniDV tape and an hour per tape, you would be looking at ~$350 to match what the $80 External can do, and... hard drive space is only going to get cheaper. Plus the advantages of random access to 116 hours of high def video is clear vs. who in their right minds will look through 116 miniDV tapes, digital camera vs. film camera argument anyone?
2) AVCHD is too compressed to be good quality = not so. I think this footage is comparable to the Panasonic HVX200 and that's record to DVCPRO, not in low light though, but in adequate lighting it's pretty damn good.
3) I'm going to run out of footage space because I can't get another hard drive!
Answer: Well this is like the chicken and egg argument, sure you may only have 6 hours of footage at highest quality mode and "only" 10 hours the next step down, but you're still ultimately limited by the 1 hour battery life, so you're well on your way home to recharge and to backup your footage by the time you hit that one hour mark. Those on vacation with this camera should already know its limitations and bring along a laptop, copying and pasting the raw AVCHD files is lightening fast.
4) Canon Camcorders Suck! : Herm, don't quite know what to say here, get a Sony then and all the power to ya

Pros from use:
1) automated lens cover is handy, especially when you playback video, at least it reduces my paranoia a tad bit: it automatically closes.
2) Hard Drive Capacity: 6 hours at highest quality is a dream, 15 hours at lowest is also awesome, I may never have to buy media for this camcorder (yeah i know, technically I can't haha), or log and capture from miniDV... ugh
3) I may be repeating myself, but this camcorder is beautiful, the gray areas are kind of a dirty gradient of colors that looks like a slab of marble, and the mode toggle has concentric aluminum ridges, the zoom toggle is beautiful and the dimensions are trim.
4) Batteries are the same as many other canon camcorders, so after market ones are very inexpensive
5) After market mics are really inexpensive also, I saw an Audio Technica stereo one going for $35
6) Monitoring audio with the headphone out is VERY useful in any situation, especially interviews or anything shot outdoors
7) I must say, low light performance is only good if you use a tripod and under controlled lighting conditions. Want to know how good? For an interview, I had a single 60W table lamp shining on my subject and I was zoomed in with an aperture of f2.8, very sharp image and background is appropriately blurred, who needs lens adapters! (http://thaid.bol.ucla.edu/Dad.png or http://thaid.bol.ucla.edu/Neighbor.png - I was going for that Band of Brothers effect).
8) LCD is pretty sharp, so focusing is easy, color accuracy could be improved though
9) Backup Ingesting is fast!
10) Each start/stop scene automatically becomes its own file, vs. manually logging a scene to capture it with miniDV

Cons off the top of my head:
1) camera should be able to also record pictures on the hard drive, instead of just the miniSD (which I DON'T have!)
2) There should be more mac software bundled in than just the image downloading one. HOWEVER, on macs and possibly pcs, you can backup and ingest the footage by copying and pasting the entire content of the camera hard drive over to your computer. Then open the directory using Final Cut Express 4 or Final Cut Pro 6.0.1+ to let it encode to something editable. Updating this backup is simple, just overwrite everything... or if you want to make things faster, overwrite everything except the AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM folder. Then copy over the new STREAM files while leaving your old ones intact. At 1 Gig/min. though, it may just be simpler to overwrite everything. This hard drive feature kind of reminds me of my digital camera and its 2 GB SD card, I've learned not to delete any pictures from the card, just to take what I need from it when I need it. It's been a year and it's still not full, I suspect the hard drive on this camcorder would work similarly.
3) What they say is true, 24P is not pretty, though yes it allows for more light
4) Doesn't have analog pass-through so you can't hook up a vcr through this camcorder and record the footage to your computer, I've done this before so I kind of miss it.
5) AVCHD is a pain to encode to something useful vs. miniDV, though miniDV is a pain to import. One thing to note is that Final Cut Express lags with 1080 Apple Intermediate Codec or DVCPRO footage, but Final Cut Pro handles it very quickly (on a macbook with core duo 2.0ghz). DVCPRO is awesome but then you'd have to buy something like the HVX200.
6) No firewire = no live-capture and monitoring with your laptop or desktop, I really do wish they could've included firewire.
7) They might as well have left out the viewfinder, its lower res than the lcd panel and doesn't swivel up, not to mention you can't control anything when the lcd panel is closed
8) Ports are fragile
9) Top mounted microphones are the worst idea since the invasion of Iraq, good thing alternative mics are affordable
10) Everything should have been controlled by the scroll wheel, but instead its use is limited and the directional pad takes over too often
11) Cat-eye record button... what? why? I'm fine with a regular old round red record button.
12) USB port inside the LCD cavity, why oh why am I exposing my lcd panel to damage during the lengthy ingesting process?
13) Manual focus sucks on camera since you'll be making a loud scrolling sound, but oddly silent and intuitive with the remote
14) Ahh, 1080i video takes up too much space, my laptop's lcd can't even display that many pixels, give me the option to record in 720p or standard definition please!
*Update: If you use the free Mpeg Streamclip, and encode using Apples Intermediate Codec or whatever, you can reencode it to 720p resolution, and the resulting footage looks identical to the original and it would take up about 1/4th the space: down-resed image: [...]
*New
15) In real world conditions, low-light performance is pretty bad. If you're going handheld through a neighborhood at night lit only by christmas lights and various other christmas decorations, the footage is nauseating to watch. There'll be severe ghosting, out of focus picture, bobbing up and down from walking. I see Canon still has problems with low light situations, in moments like these I'd rather have the Sony infrared option and see black/white picture rather than a color picture with little detail. The pen light only works up to 2 feet, good for interviewing on the spot, but really bad for anything else.

I'll write more when I spend more time with it, but here's some pics to tide you over (not original resolution):
[...]

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.

If you are a Mac user, you MUST have an Intel-based computer to get video off this camcorder. If you have a G4 or a G5 (as I do), you cannot download video from this camcorder. No third-party software, no workaround. Had I known that before, I would have bought something else. I have to use a Windows-based PC at work to download video. The camcorder is great otherwise, easy to use, good results, but I would prefer to be able to use it on my home computer. I have many Canon products and have been happy with all of them, but they really should make it clear that the HG10 requires an Intel-based Mac.

I bought this camcorder mainly to use for videoing wildlife in the field. After 2 months of use I can say that it does a good job but has a few minor problems. My first concern was the auto lense cover, I like it over the manuel cover but it is a bit noisy when you turn the camera on and off. I have had close game react to it on quiet mournings. It also is exposed to the elements, so I would recomend a filter to protect it from dust, drops of water, and twigs. The filter also muffels the noise of the lense cover operating, a little. The camcorder is capable of some extremly sharp stills and videos, when the camera is focused properly, but I noticed that the auto-focus was a little off at times, not much, but enough to notice when you print it out. Like all other small camcorders I have used, the image stabilization is a bit overrated. It is ok but at higher zoom levels it doesn't seem to be much diffrent than any other small camcorder. The camcorder was not very impressive taking telephoto video under low light conditions ( 20 munites before sunrise or 20 min.after sunset ). It was able to record, but if you tried to record at any zoom distance the recording came out distorted and out of focus. It did do better than my friends sony sr-1 that at the same time wouldn't record at all!
The thing that I really liked, mainly the reason I chose the hg-10, the hard disc drive with 5.5 to 15 hours of recording time. I set mine to the next to highest (7.5hours) with excelent resolution results. The life of the battery. I recorded about 2 hours a day and would recharge the battery at night, I didn't even need a spare battery. The 3 position adjustable zoom speed. The still image transfer from captured video, I was suprised with the quality of the still images that were transfered from the video to the sd card. The size, it is small and lightweight real easy to carry I found that it will fit in a quart size zip lock plastic bag for protection in case you get caught in a rain.
Like all new gadgets,it will take time reading understanding and use to gain it's full potential. I have worked a little with downloading and printing a few still pictures with good results. I am having a little trouble downloading video to my computer. I don't know if it's me (probably), the program, or the acvhd format, time will tell. I have used other camcorders (3 diffrent brands) and consider this camcorder to be well worth the money for my use. I would recommend it to anyone. (it works well indoors too) My big problem now is that I have to buy another one because my wife now wants me to buy her one also.

This camcorder's image quality is outstanding. It suffers quite a bit in low light situations, but other than that it is beautiful. Problems arise when you try to edit the footage. I tried to use Nero, and it does a good job rendering the AVC files into MPG, but it has almost no editing options. I tried pinnacle studio, Ulead movie factory and studio, and had varying degrees of success. I could not find a way to get adobe after effects or premiere to recognize the files. Finally I tried Sony Vegas pro 8. Wonderful results. Unbelievable quality was attained in NTSC DVD, PAL DVD and mpeg high def. formats. WOW. I don't like the ergonomics of the grip and positioning of the zoom toggles or the start/stop button. It makes my big, skinny hand cramp. I don't like the fact that you have to have the camera plugged into the wall outlet power source before you can hook the camera up to your computer. I haven't tried the 24p settings, and I don't care if they work well or not. I haven't figured out a way to get my videos to have the time/date displayed on the video, but there MUST be a way. I think the standard microphone is almost worthless, as it picks up the cameraman's voice too easily, but hardly picks up the subjects voice unless they are yelling. But all is forgiven due to the wonderful video images. AWESOME!

This is apparently one of the most popular models currently on the market, and from my experience there is good reason for this.
br /
br /First is ease of use. While it took me a while to browse through the instruction manual, when I actually started trying out the various functions, I found it surprisingly easy to set up modes/lighting conditions/resolutions/switch between still and movie/etc. The function button/+ key navigation took only a few minutes to get used to, and the on screen descriptions of what you're selecting have enough detail that you don't have to be a veteran user familiar with all the acronyms associated with picture taking to figure out what each item is. The camera is quite light and easy to hold, even for extended time periods, and the LCD display was quite visible even in bright sunlight. The zoom control is conveniently available to your fingers while holding it, and the zoom control itself is neither too sensitive nor too slow to react, and the zoom speed mode adjust is great for certain special situations.
br /
br /I note that many have complained about shooting in low-light conditions causing excessive graininess in the results, but I have not observed this yet, shooting indoors with what I consider quite low light. The camera also seems to handle large light differentials quite easily: I had my wife take some shots of me while bowling (a feat in itself, as she is definitely not a camera person, so being able to do this is testimony to its ease of use). Bowling alleys have quite bright lighting on the alley itself, while the area behind the alleys is usually very dimly lit. The resulting videos that swing between both the dark/light areas and those taken from dark to light and vice versa show no flaring/glare marks or loss of focus. And the videos had more than enough resolution for me to be able to discern some mistakes I was making in my approach and ball delivery, which is very good as the critical items in bowling happen very quickly and in a very small area (wrist and fingers).
br /
br /I was very pleased with the camera's close in focusing capability, finding it possible to film a beetle crawling on my rose bushes from just a couple of inches away. The 10x telephoto not only works well, it remains quite steady with the auto stabilizer on. Still picture resolution is more than adequate for anything except high-detail professional portraits, and compares well with shots taken with my 5 megapixel still camera.
br /
br /I was a little unhappy with the audio quality using the built in microphone, as it seemed a little muffled and indistinct for any sounds more than about 5 feet away, while close sounds (i.e., me talking while filming) could be overly loud.
br /
br /Battery life is a definite problem. The advertised approximate 1 hour on the provided battery is perhaps a little optimistic, and for any extended day trip where you expect to use the camera throughout the day I'd recommend carrying at least one and preferably two spare batteries.
br /
br /Transferring videos from the camera to my computer was quite easy, and did not seem to take an excessively long time for the given file sizes, but I was not happy with the provided Corel software requiring an online registration to use it at all. Are they really so concerned about piracy that this step is necessary? The functionality of this software is ok, though it probably won't win prizes, but it does provide enough features to do most of commonly required editing and archiving tasks.
br /
br /For a camera costing this much, I wish that they had included three very vital accessories: a miniSD card for still photos, a miniHDMI-HDMI cable, and a carrying strap. The cable is almost unfindable in stores, you'll need to order it on-line, but once you have it and hook up the camera to an HD TV, the results are truly amazing, looking like the demo shots you often see on the HDTV's in-store displays.
br /
br /Overall, this is an excellent camcorder, with great ease-of-use and video results that are outstanding. It makes earlier technology camcorders seem positively ancient.
br /
br /---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
br /

I was looking for a Camcorder that:
br /
br /a) Did both still images and video reasonably well
br /b) Gave me the ability to walk into any event with only one device to carry (kids soccer games to parties to a 2 week vacation)
br /c) Easy to use, with good picture quality
br /d) Minimal hassles all the way from shooting the video/stills to downloading and modifying the video/stills.
br /d) Wasn't bleeding edge! So, I was paying through my nose.
br /e) Wouldn't be outdated in a matter of a year.
br /
br /This lead me to the Canon HG10. It is an excellent Camcorder with really good video capture. The optics on this camera are great. The 10X optical zoom was just at the edge of recording steady video while holding it.
br /
br /Highlights:
br /1) Stunning video
br /2) Still images look very good (not great)
br /3) Zoom serves our needs for most indoor shooting. Not great for outdoor but adequate and we have not run into a need where the action was not captured in detail.
br /4) Video compression using AVCHD makes for ample recording time on the 40 GB hard drive.
br /5) Image stabilizer works well and removes any shaking (trembling)
br /6) Easy to use menu system that did not require me to consult a manual
br /7) Basic connectors to laptop, TV part of package
br /8) Charges with both 220V and 110V power source (important for vacations)
br /9) Price is lesser than most comparable quality cameras
br /
br /Lowlights:
br /1) Feels a bit combersome to use if you have bigger hands
br /2) Not as small or light as the other newer camcorders that have hard drives
br /3) Video software is unintuitive
br /4) Zoombrowser is not as good as Picasa (freeware from Google) for most still image tasks.
br /5) The AVCHD video is unrecognized by Windows Media but plays on it once you manually configure it.
br /6) Not a lot of editing capabilities for HD video
br /7) This is not true 1080P (I was not looking for it though)
br /8) There are very few functions that are available in still mode (so it does not do more than Aim, Zoom and Shoot)
br /9) You have to splurge on a MiniSD card (additional $40) for still images (otherwise that mode is disabled)
br /10) HDMI cables are extra and cost a pretty penny (true for most camcorders)
br /
br /This camcorder served most of our requirements but for good still images, I will still have to reach for a camera. For most casual shooting, this is a perfect camcorder/camera and we are loving it!

This is the 6th Canon camera I have bought these last 8 years, and the camera meets my expectations of performance. Its high quality definition is excellent, and is without exception much better than other similar camcorders around. However, I found a "Corel Application Disc" version 2.0 in the box, installed it, and found it did not work with the new .mts files properly, so I called Corel and found that they "did not support this product any more". I ended up buying Corel's DVD MovieFactory V6 and their Video Studio 11.5 Plus Download all for $150 to resolve this issue. Also, Canon supplied 5 separate wires to connect the camcorder to an HD TV when only the HTC-100 HDMI Cable is necessary. I threw the 5 wires out and bought the HDMI cable for $11 and it's an easy process now to quickly wire up my camera to the HD TV and show my pictures. Hopefully, both Corel and Canon will learn to work better together to supply improved accessories for their products.

Easy to use, I thought the menus were pretty straight forward for the novice user. Uploading to PC was difficult, several different CD's come with the camcorder and it's not clearly explained which program does what. Once I did figure it out and uploaded a short clip, I was disappointed to discover that my PC (1.6 GHz) was too old to properly play back and convert to meaningful format for sharing. The audio and frame rate are out of sync ... which means I'll have to probably upgrade to faster processor.

Probably should have done more research before purchasing. So if you have a computer that's 3+ years old, I would be weary.

I just got it - love it. Will start converting all of my DVC video to DVD's and from now on its High Definition for me! This is a very compact unit, installed immediately and worked with iMovie 08 via USB no problem on my Mac OSX computer. Unable to use Final Cut Express HD 3.4 - may upgrade to see if that works. No worries though, I can pull in video using the canon utility or iMove and edit later.

We just got back from a family vacation at Disney world where I filmed several hours (60 GB) of footage. The camcorder was a joy to use. This is my second hard drive camcorder that replaced a earlier version JVC hard drive camcorder.

The one area where this camcorder shines is in low light conditions. The footage is still very good even under very dark conditions. Indoors is not a problem.

I brought my Mac Book Pro with me and downloaded the video onto an external drive. It normally took about an hour to download each night but it didn't require any outside intervention so I could just start it and do something else for a while. The workflow was great even on vacation.

Two downsides to this camcorder is that the lens is not very wide and the body is made of an easily scratched plastic. You need a good amount of space between you and the subject. I'm contemplating purchasing the wide angle converter but the mixed reviews and the general consensus of its weight is holding me back. Even though I got this camcorder back in December 07, after this trip, it is completely scratched and horrible looking. I am generally careful with my electronic equipment but the scratches were unavoidable with this camcorder.

All-in-all, this is a great camcorder and I am very satisfied with it.

I have been using the Canon HG10 for a month now and couldn't be happier with the quality of the recordings. This camcorder has many useful features and no fatal flaws. I'm basing the five stars on the price/performance ratio. I'm not basing the rating on the supplied software and editing capabilities because there are too many variables with computer configurations and I just want to focus on the camera's performance. I have owned an 8mm and two Mini DV camcorders over the last twenty years and have never seen results that are anything close to what I get with this camcorder. Most of my shooting has been done with full automatic mode.
Here are the features and characteristics I really like:
First and foremost, color saturation and accuracy. Even if this wasn't high definition, I'd be pleased with it for the realistic color rendition alone.
It has very good low light shooting capability. Don't expect the crisp, smooth, colorful images you get under bright lighting, but this will pick up viewable images (albeit very grainy and low contrast) under candlelight and outside images at night under a bright moon. It works well under normal indoor lighting at night which is where I shoot a lot of video.
The auto focus is lightning fast. You won't see a lot of "hunting" to focus. The image stabilization works amazingly well. My videos haven't looked this steady since I was using my big, heavy 8mm camcorder years ago. The automatic white balance is very fast and accurate too.
The hard drive is quick, quiet, and a real convenience after dealing with tapes for years. All of the important data is embedded in the video. No more writing information on tiny cassette labels. Finding a particular clip by viewing thumbnails is a huge improvement over winding a tape back and forth.
The controls are well placed and easy to use. The variable speed zoom is excellent and I really like having the option of using a viewfinder or LCD screen when shooting.
There are many more manual options than I'm used to seeing in a compact camcorder. You can control focus, aperture, fame rate, shutter speed, and more. If you've ever used a Canon digital still camera, you'll be in familiar territory with the menus, manual settings and effects. Check out cinema mode. It looks great but it does reduce the contrast and brightness slightly.
The still photo mode produces very good pictures. At about 2.7 megapixels, it won't compete with current dedicated digital still cameras for resolution, but the results are fine if you don't blow the pictures up too big. The excellent optics and image sensor really help here.
A few things I don't like:
Having to plug in the AC adapter to transfer video files to a computer. I know this is to protect the hard drive, but it is a nuisance. Still images can be transfered under battery power.
Mini SD card for storing still images. Storing still images on the hard drive would be convenient but would probably complicate playback. My gripe is that you have to use a mini and not a regular SD card. Regular SD cards are generally cheaper and easier to find. The memory card was not included. Including a small capacity card wouldn't add much to the cost of the camera and would mean the still photo mode will work right out of the box. I had to order a card and wait an extra week before I could use the still photo mode. Not a big deal, but I think everything should be ready to go right away.
Specialized connections for HDMI and component video. For HDMI, it uses a Mini to standard HDMI cable which is not included. Mini to standard HDMI cables are more expensive and harder to find than standard to standard HDMI cables. Component video is accessed by a special type of mini plug for the camera. The cable is included, but if it's lost or damaged, it could be difficult to find a replacement. Using the composite video output downconverts the resolution from 1080i to 480p. Even at 480p, the video still looks very good. The composite A/V cable is also included.
I consider these minor drawbacks; not quite enough for me to dock the rating by a star.
A couple of things I'm neutral on are the flash and the built in microphone. The built in microphone I would consider good, but average. The flash works well for still images but seems to have a somewhat shorter useful range than the built in flash on a lot of dedicated digital still cameras. It won't help much beyond eight to ten feet. You can attach a stronger flash to the hot shoe.
To sum everything up;
Stunning video quality. Good still images are a bonus (see customer images).
Good sound. Can be improved by using an external microphone.
Easy to use. Good control layout. You can hold and operate it with one hand. Image stabilization really helps with one handed operation.
Automatic mode works really well and there are lots of manual control options if you want to tweak them.
For the first time, I'm getting video that looks as good or better than anything I see on broadcast television!

:: Overview

After much reviewing and evaluating we ([...]) found the HG10 to be the best offering on the market. Managed to get the camera here on Amazon for $[...] at the time which is a complete STEAL for what this piece of technology offers. Like all of my other Canon cameras (EOS 30D, SD20, SD870IS, EOS 650) I got the quality and performance I expect from Canon. The camera is compact and light and has a quick startup for power on and shooting quickly. The optics in the camera are stunningly clear and for those that love a big optical zoom look no further. The HG10's zoom is *massive* and to the point where I felt like I was spying on people while shooting clips of the highest residential building West of the Mississippi. Definitely make sure you pick up a decent tripod if you plan to use that zoom or you're going to make your viewers sick. Yes, the camera does have image stabilization but that only goes so far and is rendered pretty much useless in a fully zoomed in shot. When it comes to a full wide shot the image stabilization does a pretty good job of smoothing things out unless you get into a constant vibration//bumpy situation. I had the camera on a tripod shooting video of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA with a strong wind causing some shake that had the stabilization struggling to compensate for. Color accuracy is quite good as all Canons tend to be. Sony cameras typically over saturate color to make it more "punchy" which isn't accurate and rather obnoxious. Even when using a color mode like Vivid on the HG10 you still don't end up with blown out punchy color. If that's your thing - do it in post or buy a Sony. If you're looking for a consumer camera that behaves more like a professional camera the HG10 is your choice.

:: Playback

I'm on a 15" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Santa Rosa with 4GB of RAM. RAM is cheap folks and I highly suggest making sure you have at least 2GB and 30GB+ of HDD space free on your machine. Ideally you'll have a backup drive because HD files are quite large and eat up disk space quickly. That said let's get into playback and acquisition of the clips from the camera. I used iMovie 08. I have Final Cut Studio 2, but since Viddyou is a consumer//pro-sumer focused company it was important to make sure I used the tools available to the majority of our users. It's straight forward getting the clips off the camera via USB over a standard USB to mini-USB cable. Launch iMovie 08 with the HG10 connected and set to playback mode AND *plugged into power* as Canon REQUIRES you to be plugged into power in order to transfer. It's the only highly annoying aspect to this camera, but once you grumble and grown a bit you get over it. The camera will appear in iMovie and when selected iMovie will pull thumbnail versions of all your clips for quick preview and selection of what you want to bring into iMovie. Select your clips and importing will take a few min depending on how much you shot. If you plan on working in Full HD (1080) then you need to make sure you tell iMovie to import the clips at Full HD 1080. I suggest doing that so you have the most data available when it comes time to export the video later. Make your movie as you would with SD footage. Again you're going to need a computer that's a year old or so to work with Full HD as it's a resource hog. Don't expect your slightly older machine to handle it because you'll be sorely disappointed. This is emerging technology and it requires the latest computer hardware to really make use of it. Once you have clips into iMovie you'll see just how stunningly clear, sharp and color accurate the camera is. Really, this is something you have to see to believe and since Viddyou is the first personal video site to launch Full HD 1080p online I can share some footage with you all here. Again you'll need a modern machine that's got some good amount of processing power and at least a standard cable modem connection. HD will get better as hardware and home internet connections get faster...

[...]

:: Encoding (Transcoding)

iMovie converts all of your content from AVCHD to the Apple Intermediate Codec which results in large files that can be edited. To the common user you don't ever see these converted files and probably would never need to know this except for the fact this camera shoots in 1080i - interlaced. If you don't deinterlace your video you will end up with "jaggies" in the output. This is where things get a bit tricky and it's an issue with iMovie//QuickTime. If you export Full HD 1080p (non-interlaced) and tell QuickTime to deinterlace the video there's a slight issue where QuickTime thinks the video is already deinterlaced and ignores the deinterlacing option. I can't tell you how many times I tried a variety of settings to make this work. It was only after scouring the web that I got some answers and it adds quite a bit of time to the process. You need to export from iMovie using QuickTime still, but set your output to a different codec that supports scan lines. I export using Apple ProRes422 HQ which results in a 1.61GB file for 2min of content. I then bring that into Final Cut Studio's Compressor and export to H.264 1080x1920 HD with a deinterlacing filter. Compressor isn't available as a stand alone application however so this really isn't an option to most users, but sadly this was the only way I've been able to get perfect deinterlacing of the 1080i video. In theory you should be able to take the 1.61GB file and check the deinterlace box in QuickTime and export to H.264 there, but for some reason QuickTime STILL ignores the deinterlacing command. Frustrating, but it's new tech and consumer software so it's an issue with the video tools and not the camera itself. There's another gotcha here too. You MUST have QuickTime Pro which is $[...]. Honestly if you're going to be doing any kind of video work on Mac or PC you *should* buy QuickTime Pro period. It's a $[...] investment that will last you for years and is completely worth it. Included below is an example of what interlaced footage looks like and why it's a problem. Oddly when exporting to 720x1280 (720p) QuickTime DOES deinterlace. Yeah - figure that one out...

1080i ::

:: Online Hosting of Full HD Video

Full disclaimer - I'm one of the founders of [...]. Aaron and I have put an astonishing amount of time into bringing Full HD to the consumer//pro-sumer market with the best balance of playback quality and download speed. It's been quite a challenge making this happen yet the results have been more than worth it. If you're looking for a place to host and share Full HD 1080p video Viddyou is your only option as no one else offers Full HD services on the consumer level. Even if you're looking for only 720p hosting or top quality SD (standard definition) you'll find us hard to beat. Putting the video quality aside for a moment its our privacy controls that let you specify exactly who gets to view and even download your original video file that make Viddyou the standout choice. Personal video is just that - personal and privacy is as critical to Aaron and myself as it is to many of you. Your uploads are archived to Amazon's own S3 storage system which powers the site we all love so much here. The Canon HG10 was our test camera during development and remains our best answer to anyone wanting to get into HD. If you have any questions about HD and Viddyou feel free to contact me on [...]and I'll happily help.

Before buying the Canon HG10 camera I was looking around and comparing various products from different brands.
My main considerations were:
- high definition standard (1080i)
- type of media used by the camera
- low-light performance
- price
- size
There are several HD camera models from different manufacturers available on the market which utilize different media: mini-DV cassette, hard disc [HDD], flash memory, mini DVD disc, even Blue Ray disc. The reality is, that only two of them are practical at this point - HDD and flash memory ones. From those two the HDD camcorders are cheaper, but they have movable parts and are rather gentle devices (in the sense that you should not drop your camcorder on the ground whilst the HDD is still spinning).
The flash memory camcorders do not have movable parts (apart from eventual optical image stabilizer [O.I.S.]) and are (in theory) more reliable. The cost of memory is going down, so one day "flash" camcorders of similar specs will cost about the same as the HDD-based ones.
I did not consider mini-DV because of time requred for capturing recorded video and transfering it on DVD for archiving (in many cases you will need to save the video stream in large .avi files first, then render them into .mpg).
HD on mini-DVD is a laugh - less than 15 minutes of record in high quality.
Blue-Ray is still an exotic format, and I have no plans to buy a player yet. At least not until one of the formats (or a third one) is a definite leader on the market.
When it comes to low-light performance, this is all about physics. Larger image sensor gives better picture. Period. HG10 sensor being 1/2.7", is considerably larger compared to 1/5" or 1/6" sensors found in other models. And it performs accordingly.
The price makes this camera a real bargain!
HG10 is not tiny (compared to some non-HD models on the market), but still quite small (especially taking into account that it is a HD model with 1/2.7" image sensor). Maybe it is a bit "fatter" than I expected, but surprisingly it is small enough to put both it and my Pentax *ist Ds camera in one small Lowepro D Rez AW40 bag.

As I also own an older mini-DV model from the same manufacturer (MV200i), I can compare them side-by-side.
When it comes to the level of detail produced with the HG10, especially in good light, it is just stunning.
The low-light performance of the HG10 is very good, even without switching to slow shutter mode. But do not expect the same quality as in professional models.
The O.I.S. in the HG10 works fantastic, a huge improvement compared to my older camera. Still be carefull if you want to get most of your Canon HG10 HD camera - you will need a monopod or a tripod much more often now to get sharp videos. Nothing is wrong with this model, simply the improved resolution allows you to see much more detail ...and imperfection.

Now a few comments about the things which Canon could have thought better about.
No. 1: Start/Stop button and the zoom switch. Those just do not fit my fingers. I have to figure out how to hold the camera. I am also missing a start/stop button at the front of the camera (like in my MV200i). It comes very handy when shooting from a low point and using the LCD panel.
No. 2: On/Off/Mode switch. Difficult to operate due to its size and design.
No. 3: Scrolling through menus and setting up different functions is only possible when you open the LCD screen, as the scroll-wheel is on the inner side of the LCD panel.
No. 4: Very small viewfinder, almost unusable for me (maybe I should take off my complaint No. 3 :)?)
No. 5: No shoulder strap? Canon, you are kidding!
No. 6: Canon uses the full HD sensor in this model (i.e., 1920x1080), however the HD output is 1440x1080. This is not clearly stated in the specs. Practically speaking, this is not a big deal, as tests show no visible difference between these two modes.
No. 7: The built-in lamp is balanced for daylight. It produces blueish tones, if the camera is set to a lower color temperature. This makes the built-in lamp quite useless in the real life.

HG10 is not perfect, but probably the best AVCHD consumer HD camcorder available today. HG10 appears to strike a balance between picture quality (close enough to HV20) and ease of use. Some observations:

1. Instant auto focus and excellent image quality. Excellent optics and smooth zoom. Colors are superb and usability (handling) is great.

2. 60i is very good for overall use (day light, sports, trip videos, fast moving scenes, etc.,). Got mixed results on 24p (Found this mode useful only in limited occasions with no pan or little object movement. 24p is ideal for conversations, presentations, and low-light indoor shots where the combined picture quality of 24p+cinemode is outstanding!!). Given that no other consumer AVCHD camcorder has 24P feature, I consider even the *limited use* 24p mode in HG10 a bonus feature on top of superb 60i.

3. Video Archival/Edit/Play: Just like *.jpeg files digital camera, AVCHD camcorder such as HG10 stores each scene (start->stop record cycle) as an *.MTS file. These files can be archived to PC/MAC, restored back to HG10, played at random on a HDTV, and with a modern PC can be transcoded to other formats for sharing, ..etc.,. This was the main attractive point (convenience in home HD video viewing) in choosing AVCHD over HDV. HG10 can be hooked up to a HDTV using HDMI- type C connector or component cable, browse all the video clips easily and play them (one or continuous) using the supplied remote.

HG10 comes with Corel application disk (GuideMenu) which is good enough for archival/restoration of selected video clips to/from PC. Using my 3-yr old PC (2.6Ghz P4) it took about 630 secs to backup 7.5GB (~ 1hr HD video with 40 clips) to PC. To my surprise I was able to play the M2TS files using the supplied Intervideo WinDVD SE player. Since this PC is old, noticed my video and audio were out of sync but the M2TS files are intact. Any archived HG10 files can be loaded back to camcorder and played nicely on a HDTV. Copying files from PC to HG10 is a slow process (2GB takes 15mins!). This apparently is due to the processing required by the Corel GuideMenu software on the PC. Probably my PC is due for an upgrade (to latest core2 duo + HD capable video card such as nVidia 8600) for any serious AVCHD editing using Ulead Video studio 11 plus or Pinnacle 11+.

I also noticed that my PC recognized HG10 as a 40GB usb drive!! Though not recommended, I was able to copy entire HG10 /AVCHD folder that contains BDMV/STREAM/*.MTS video files to PC and restore it. This direct file transfer is really fast and 7.5 GB transfer takes around 330 seconds. Make sure to copy or restore entire /AVCHD folder (or else file indexing misses the clips). If you have a Blu-ray player, I heard these AVCHD files can be burned to a DVD (no editing or encoding needed) and played directly.

4. Usability: My favorites are the zoom rocker and the LCD dialer. Overall HG10 has very good built quality. There is a slight learning curve (< 1 hr) on various controls and cool options. I tried both SR7 and HV20 and felt HG10 has overall superior usability and handling.

5. Supplied battery lasts about 75-100 mins of typical use. Hard disk is plenty with occasional PC/Laptop backup. Extra battery is worth having if you are on long trips.

These are not issues, but few things Canon might consider improving in their next rev.
1. Support Multiple Playlists: HG10 has 40GB that is good enough for 5 hrs of 15Mbs HD video containing dozens (may be few hundred) clips containing various scenes and occasions. HG10 has a nice feature to tag (group) selected video clips into a playlist. Clips in a playlist can be played in sequence and controlled as a group (eg: delete/transfer,..). I think this is a cool feature except HG10 supports only one playlist and good to have multiple lists. In my typical use I probably fill the 5 hr video over a month with weekly soccer, other sports and family events. With multiple lists we can group related events and directly play on TV with one click.

2. Fast and Slow Play: Supports 5x, 15x, 60x fast play along with 1/8, ¼ slow play. Nice to have 2x and ½x support as well.

3. Hard disk-seek noise: Noticed a faint periodic hard disk seek noise. You will have to really pay attention and record in a real quiet room to observe these periodic clicks. Not an issue for typical use.

4. Support for 5.1 Dolby recording will be useful.

Additional info: [...] Canon Virginia tech support is very good.

My last camcorder was circa 2002 -- tape based, and looks similar to SDTV. A very simple setup, but the videos were showing their age between the multiple upscales when watching on HDTV.

This camcorder looks amazing when connected to my HDTV. When plugging this in the first time, it looks so similar to HDTV broadcasts (or HD-DVD), that you'll be blown away with the quality. Let's look at the pros/cons...

Pros:
- HD based. No rewinding, no waiting for tape to spin up, easy edits on the camcorder to quickly remove sections, etc.
- Length of recording. At the highest resolution (~15MB/sec), this camcorder can do >5 hours of HDTV. Medium is about >10 hours (~10MB/sec) and low is >15 hours (~5MB/sec). Much better than my previous tape setup
- Good low light pickup. My home isn't the brightest of all homes, but it did pickup my indoor shots at night better than my previous.

Cons:
- Editing is much longer than before. Since the video is in AVCHD, my iMac has to decode to something it can use, then re-encode to be used in other apps and encoded once more in order to fit onto DVDs. While the product is amazing, it's easily 4+ hours of wait time in order to get a DVD burned. A tape system would be better for immediate import, but I knew this going in and could bother some people buying this to convert to DVDs.
- Handle was a bit large to grip. My hands are a bit big and this camcorder seemed to fit fine in my hand. Some of my relatives felt the handle was a bit too big for them.
- HD based. Yes, I listed that in the "pros" section as well, but it belongs here due to the additional time and effort it takes to edit the video. There are flash based devices like this, but their capacity is much shorter (if you import often, this can be an advantage)

Now that I've got my feet wet with this baby, I've recommended it to a few people that are looking at similar.

I purchased the HG10 through Amazon to do video auditions which require download to my computer. Amazon got the camera to me within 24 hours. Other than some terrible instructions, the camera worked great and I was totally satisfied with it. The problem came when I tried to download to my computer which has an AMD processor. I exceeded all specs, but couldn't get the Corel download software to work. After numerous calls to both Canon and Corel, I gave up. Corel said I had loaded the software and therefore wanted $15 to give assistance. I tried to explain that it had never worked at all. Canon said they couldn't find anyone who could intercede. I also developed a probelm with the USB connection on the camera, and that was the last straw, so I returned it to Amazon. My return was handled promptly and Amazon refunded the full price including their shipping and they also refunded my cost of return shipment.

Hi
br /I had a JVC miniDV that worked great but wanted to upgrade to HDD. I don't own HDTV or blue ray player any of those fancy stuff. Still I bought this (as who knows when I'll win a lottery and suddenly own all these :) . I was also scared that this thing will never work on my Laptop which has 1.66 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM.
br /
br /Well results are amazing. I tested both video and photo. Tried all the modes like Cine with 24fps, night mode. Tried effects like Sepia . I was able to use the software provided by COrel to transfer the video to my Laptop without any issue. I even burnt a DVD thats playing on my normal DVD player and the quality is great ...
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br /Moral of the story you don't need to be a rocket scientist or pro to use this or burn DVD's. Make sure you read the manual carefully before using
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br /cheers
br /Jag
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br /

I am not an expert by any means but for a consumer grade camcorder the HG10 is outstanding. I have had mine for about three weeks now and here are my observations.
br /
br /Video quality is absolutly beautiful, even in the LP mode.
br /Batery life is pretty good.
br /Plenty of record time on the 40GB HD.
br /It takes great still pics in picture mode.
br /It takes great pics while simultainiously taking video footage.
br /The size of the camera is pretty good for my large hands.
br /Transfering the files to my PC is very easy using the Canon Backup Utility.
br /The rest of the supplied software is useless. It wont run on my PC.
br /
br /As for editing the AVCHD files I've found two programs that handle it very well. Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0 ($69.99 on Amazon) and Ulead Video Studio 11.5 Plus ($69.99 on Amazon). Depending on you PC configuration you may get some jerky playback while editing. But the finished video will be fine. If you set the preview quality in Vegas to "Preview Auto" it will do away with most if not all of it.
br /
br /The Sony program is envolved and very powerful but will take some time to learn. The Ulead program is much more user friendly for the novice. You can download a trial version of each one www.sonycreativesoftware.com and www.ulead.com.
br /
br /I've also found that having a nice big external drive, I use a 1TB My Book, will speed up processing or compression times when reading from one drive and writing the finished video to another drive.
br /
br /Useful additions to you HG10:
br /
br /Canon BP-2L24H extended run battery
br /Canon CB-2LW battery charger
br /Canon hot shoe video light
br /A good fluid head tripod
br /A large external hard drive to store the raw files.
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br /UPDATE: 7/14/08
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br /Still love the my HG10. My comment is on saftware. I recently have to upgrade my computer and purchase an HP quad core, 1TB HD, 4gb of ram running Vista Home Premium 64bit. Sony Vegas does not support 64bit Vista yet but Ulead 11.5 does and it is utilizes the quad core processor as well. Ulead is not as advanced as Sony but until Sony gets it together Ulead is it for me. I converted a 4.5 minute HD video to a hd 1280x720 wmv in about 8-9 minutes. On my old dual core machine that would have taken at least a good hour.

So far, I haven't had any major problems with this camera. I am new with HD camcorders. The video quality for this camcorder is quite excellent. Transferring video over to my computer works fast and well. I have not tried making DVDs using the program provided. I am disappointed I could not use other video editing software. The other drawback is the location of the power bottom; it is hard to turn on and off the camcorder with the fingers of the hand holding the camera. The use of the directional switch without moving the scroll wheel needs some getting used to.
br /In general I like the camcorder specially the video quality. So far I love it.
br /

I did a lot of research before buying this and I would probably buy it again. I don't know what else I would buy.
I bought this so my in-laws could "be there" during the first few days of my firstborn's life.
The set-up was simple. I haven't transferred any video from it to my computer yet, but I took it to work and let our IT guys play with it and they transferred very easily, the video looked superb, great color, and that was just on auto settings inside an office.
So far it's been great. I haven't really had a chance to use it much yet, but what I have, it's very simple and seems to be of good quality. I think the nicest thing to have on it is the hard drive. I never have to worry about tapes, discs or anything like that or how much time or space the video is going to take up even. If I don't want the video there anymore, I delete it.
I think the only complaint I would have is that it doesn't have a firewire plug-in. That would make the transferring oh so much faster than USB2.

Recently got my HG10. I love this masterpiece.
Image quality is excellent. No problems in transfering image to my laptop.
Zoom rocker rocks. LCD is very good. Quick start button is very useful sometimes.
Still trying to grab all its features/ options.

I have used it a few times, and it takes great videos. This is the first camcorder I've owned since a VHS model ten years ago, so it's obviously a step up in quality. One gripe I have: nowhere in advertisements or online manuals did I hear about a restriction in altitude; but the beginning pages of the users manual states that it should not be used above 9,800 feet elevation. For a person living in CO, that means I can't use it on many of my hikes.

This is my first camcorder and I really like it. After spending weeks researching hi-def camcorders I decided on the HG10. 5 1/2 hours of hard drive storage is more than enough for the average vacation. Takes nice video, and when connected to my 52inch HD TV thru the Mini HDMI cable(bought separately) it outputs a fantastic picture. You really need a powerful computer, though, to use the software given, or any of the software for Hi Def for that matter. The software is the only thing I do not like. I highly recomend this camcorder.

I bought it from B&H. Very good camcorder for the bucks. Good image quality. Compact size. I like it a lot because a) good image quality, b) PC and (Intel) Mac compatible (work with iMovie), c) lightweight, d) very easy to use and fully automatic for backlight situation too.

Things that can be improved.
1) Lack of neck strap
2) Lack of carrying case
3) Battery life is a bit short. Should provide a 2400 mAh one.
4) Lack of mini HDMI to HDMI cable
5) Useless 200x digital zoom - I turned that off.
6) Lack of memory to test out the camera feature. Should provide a 1GB memory card. That is cheap.
7) The placement of record button seems strange.

It could be a better camcorder if the above issues are addressed by Canon somehow. We pay $650 to $799 to buy this unit but we end up paying $200 or so on accessories. Why don't they just package a deal that would give customer everything that we dream of at a decent price? It would be a steal then!

I have a 2.8 iMac with an Intel Processor. As I understand from doing research the HG-10 did not work easily with the Mac G5. The picture is crystal clear when transferred to my Mac. The reason i gave this 4 stars, and I plan to update this review later, is that the software that came with it did not work immediately. I had the camera plugged in and started the Canon application and nothing was recognized. I then went on to try to discover the camera in menus and then even went so far, (backwards order i know), to read the manual. Again, no immediate success. As I sat there, the Mac iMovie icon was staring at me. I opened iMove and wah-lah, there was the camera and the test movie of my kids running around. Great camera so far, software was probably works if you have time to figure it out.

This is a great camera. The picture quality on a HDTV is stunning. I use it to film my daughter's soccer games and you can actually identify the players and see the ball. The picture quality is such an improvement from my old Digital 8. And I don't miss changing tapes in the middle of a game - the HDD is more than sufficient to hold several 1.5 hr games. One complaint is that the sound microphone is on the top of the device and can pick up your breathing, etc. Also, the included editing software is barely adequate and many third-party programs have not yet come out with AVCHD-compatible editing software.

Bought this camera about a month ago, what an awesome peice of electronics. Bought the HDMI cable to view on my 50" HDTV, very nice, I think the picture is as good as some of the HD shows on TV or even better. For the price, I feel the HDMI cable should come with it, but oh well what ya gonna do? Camera is so light weight that it's hard for me to keep steady while walking, but then I'm a bit heavy and not so light on my feet. The access wheel on the LCD is a bit awkward but not bad once you get use to it. I always tend to spin it past where I want to be. Bought a Tiffen enhancing filter kit and man did it bring out the colors. Built in mic is so sensitive I can here myself breath and can hear the hard disk motor when very quiet, definitely need to get the Canon DM-50 mic. Not sure which software suite to buy even though the software that comes with it is good enough to transfer video files and still images. Don't like the idea of having to plug in the charger each time I want to transfer files. All in all I feel it is a great hard drive camera with nice features, however I should of waited another couple months for the new HF-10. Now that camera seems awesome, with basicly no moving parts and removable flash memory to transfer files, 12X optical and 30P - WOW !! Next time !!

Excellent Hi Def Camera. I wish it had a firewire to use with my MAC. You can only download recorded video using USB. It would be nice to capture streaming video as it was hooked up to my computer.

the camecorder is great , but softwear truly sucks, after hours of fighting with the Corel product I give up, do not even download into your comp. just throw it away

Overall I've enjoyed this camera, but there are a couple of shortcomings:
br /
br /1. AVDHD codec (.m2ts file extention)is not supported by the majority of popular players and editing software, including WMP and quicktime. Additoinally, the software included with the camera, which ostensibly provides basic viewing and editing/disc authoring functions, is terrible to the point of being virtually useless. If you buy one of these cameras you will need to buy some fairly expensive editing software if you plan on viewing your footage on anything besides the camera itself.
br /
br /2. Some parts of the camera have a cheap feel, such as the pull-away dust covers over the aux microphone and output jacks - these do not fit snugly on my unit and will come out of position, exposing the jacks, just from shaking the camera. The selection dial next to the screen is too small for average man-size fingers and it's action has a loose, undapened (cheap) feel to it. Although I can't complain with the performance of the camera, it's dissapointing that a product that purports to be made in Japan has such a low-end feel to it.
br /
br /3. Will not store still photos to the HDD!! What is that about? I don't understand why Canon not only forces you to use a serperate storage media for stills, but also chose the 'mini SD' format (halfway between standard SD and micro SD), which is arguably the rarest of card formats around. Even sony's proprietary 'memory sticks' are easier to find. The only way I could get a 'mini SD' card for my HG10 was to buy an adapter that accepts a 'micro SD' card.
br /
br /Aside from these few complaints, this is a great camera and I have enjoyed using it to record hours of precious memories with nary a glitch in performance. Good battery life and brilliant picture quality in either HD mode. Considering it rivals some cameras in the $1000 range for performance and features, this is an excellent value. The OIS is possibly the best feature, and it quells the jitters from hand-held shooting even at the lense's longest focal lenth.

I purchased this camera for myself prior to a trip to Europe, and, although my review is based on preliminary observations, I have to say, I am really impressed. The camera is easy to operate - it takes the hard drive about 3-10 seconds to warm up. The flipout LCD's menu is intuitive, and the picture is *fantastic*. I was considering the Sony hard drive based camera, but I'm really glad I chose this one and saved a considerable amount of money.

Really great product. I have an LCD projector with a 10' screen and instead of looking grainy like the standard video camcorder this HD camcorder looks perfect on it. Only problem is that most of the editing software doesn't support AVCHD yet and most people don't have HD players so the only practical way to show final videos (for now) is by hooking the HG10 directly into your TV or projector.

Our 1st camcorder purchase. We needed a HD camcorder. We'd heard bad things about minidv tapes malfunctioning in high humidity and abrupt changes in temperature (for e.g. while in Hawaii on going from the A/C hotel room out onto the hot humid beach). So we decided to buy a Hard drive sort of camcorder. The plus side of this is the easy editing/deleting on the camcorder itself. Playback on a TV (regular TV or HDTV) is easy and it lets you choose scenes (rather than having to rewind a minidv tape). Battery life is good, focus and zoom adequate. Sound quality is good. The picture is very good especially in movie frame and HD mode.

Overall, a very good buy. Works well for a family needing a good point and shoot camcorder with user friendly features and HD quality. Paid $ 639 for it. Bought it from Marcus Audio Video - order arrived in time and was packaged well.

We bought this camera in anticipation of the birth of our first child. It is everything we expected. With adequate light, the video is crystal clear. There are quite a bit of noise in poorly lit environment but that is expected. Another advantage is that this camera share the same battery footprint as my Canon DSLR (Rebel XT) so I gain an extra charger and spare batteries, even if they are at lower capacity; which is good to have in a pinch.

The software is adequate and we have no problem converting them into DVDs.

This camera is very good and I recommend it for casual videography. The battery life is as advertised when shooting in HD mode, about a half days worth of steady shooting. The color and light metering are about all the amateur could ask for out of the box.

As was stated in the Wired magazine review which compelled me to buy this camera, the sound recording is poor in windy conditions. Even a strong breeze will cause a racket in any recorded piece.

Windows users, be forewarned: I bought a MacBook which I was wishing for a long time because of the bad Corel software include with the camera. The software is a dog, and a dead dog on an older PC. It requires a very new computer to work in my estimation. You need a better computer than the HP Pavilion 512MB with Athlon I tried it on, but the new MacBook required nothing to work.

Try to find this camera online, as I did at J&R, if you know even a little about video recording you will appreciate the lower prices of a "sight unseen" purchase.

This is a great camera at a great price. It normally sells for $1300 so $760 or whatever is a great price. First of all it looks even better in person then it does from the pictures. If you are used to a touch screen display, like me, then it takes a few minutes to get aquatinted to the dial. The video speaks for itself. It is amazing. It is easy to get onto a mac using final cut and I'm sure that it is just as easy to get onto a pc. I took some videos in both good and low light and played them on a "standard definition" tv and they looked amazing. I can't even imagine what the quality is on an HDTV. If you are even considering breaking into the world of HD video like I was this is a great camera. It shoots high quality video (full HD) and is selling for cheap! I haven's used my microphone with it yet, but the mic on the camera is pretty good at cutting out ambient noise. Overall, great.

Canon HG10 AVCHD 40GB High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom. This unit has great low light capability, and the 40 GB HDD provides for ample recording time. It records in 1080i not 1080p, this is the only drawback. The stills quality is also good at 5Mp.

We love this camera. The picture is so clear. It was ready to go right out of the box. Easy to use, and it connects up to our iMac computer using iMovie. Just plug it in, then import...no problem.

In the past I have been quite loyal to Sony products. I bought this after reading great reviews about how this is superior to Sony. Additionally, I gave in to the lower price. However, although I think this camcorder is worth the price I paid, I do not agree with others that it is the greatest camcorder ever. The auto mode over corrects in back lighting situations and the color cannot compete with the vibrant color of Sony. In some situations it doesn't even feel like HD.

Overall I am very happy with the camcorder. The video looks great in bright light. Inside videos and pictures tend to be grainy. Also, when moving/walking the video is very shaky. You do have to buy a separate SD memory card to take and save pictures.

This camcorder is trully High Definition. If you've made the jump to a HDTV and have a standerd Camcorder, then this is a worthwhile upgrade. I did my homework on this one because it's a lot of money for most of us.This is the best quality family movie camera for those who have large screen HDTV at the best price. I have found that moving up to HDTV is as different as going from black white to color. This HG10 is fully automatic but can be used manually. All the bells whistles you would expect. I'm still practicing with it and learning all that it can do, although I must admit I struggle with ATADD (Advanced Technology Attention Deficit Disorder). Read the book several times and play with the camcorder a lot. I don't need to say anything about Canon, we all know how good they are. The only down side of the HG10 is that its hard drive could be damaged if turned on over 9,800 feet in altitude. Which is easy to do if you live in the Rockys like I do. So be carfull. It's light weight, compact and tough. Might seem to small if you have big fat hands. Wait till you see your home movies in HD!
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I wish I had it 1 or 2 year ago for the birth of my son. This Canon HG10 AVCHD camcorder is really amazing. On my 57" HD flat screen TV, I can barely make a difference between the quality of the videos I made with the HG10 and a HD DVD movie!!!
br /From 1 to 10 I will rate 9.8!!!

So far, I haven't had any major problems with this camera. I am new to the camcorder experience, so you might want to check out some of the other experienced reviews, too. Both the picture and video quality for this camcorder are quite excellent. They also transfer over to your computer well. I have yet to try making DVDs out of my captured footage, using the programs provided or other outside sources, so I honestly can't say anything about that at the moment. The battery life, for the battery that came with the camera, lasts a long time when its fully charged. The only draw back I see so far is the video file type. The AVCHD file format is what the camera records in. As of right now and as far as I know, it is hard to get this file type to play in many of the video and video editing programs used in computers, hence the need for its own video editing software. This software comes with the camera, but it is limited in its abilities, and I prefer other video and video editing programs that are already on mine and other computers. So, with that in mind if you want to use other software that can't read AVCHD files, you may have to wait until those programs get updates that include the new file type or get conversion software, like Elecard, that can convert the AVCHD files to useable file types. I believe, that is about it for now.

Great camcorder. From what I can tell It's the best one out there right now. I do have a few complaints, but nothing's perfect
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br /Pros:
br /Compact
br /Amazingly crisp outdoor quality
br /Easy menus
br /East to dump files to computer
br /Quick Start feature is a plus
br /Decent quality on still shots
br /Accessory shoe on top is nice for light and mic attachments
br /Has a little LED light for low-light situations (not very strong though)
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br /Cons:
br /Editing software is VERY basic.
br /Low light situations make grainy vid quality (To do better you need to spend at least $3000 on a camcorder).
br /When dumping to computer, the camcorder needs to be connected to power source which is a pain.
br /24p Cinematic mode is useless, panning is very jerky and choppy when turned on.
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br /Over-all great camcorder. Would definately recommend
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I got this through a secondary seller on amazon and it was quite the buy. Best buy was selling it for around 930 and i got this one new for 630. Its light weight and very straighforward. the few issues i have had are with the battery life and the software package. While recording in high def the battery barely scrapes it to an hour half max. The softwares that come with the camcorder called correl video and inter video win dvd are quite cumbersome to use. The video files that are saved on my computer cannot be played at once for some reason and i have to select it one clip at a time. The camcorder in general works very nicely and only sees some problems when recording inside the house at night. The picture has a grainy texture sometimes. Im not sure if they are still selling for this price but if they are its a great buy. Otherwise it wont be a bad idea to check out sony's SR lineup.

This is a great little camera, takes outstanding video. Using a camera with a hard drive is a dream - no more capturing video, just drag the files to your computer and edit. Great camera for the money!

I've been using my new HG10 for the past couple of weeks and absolutely love it. The image quality is stunning and the manual controls are great. At first I thought the images on auto were oddly compressed and not that good, but once I read through the instructions and switched to the cine mode I've been set. The cine mode using 24 fps is great and looks amazing. I've also loved the fact you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture, which is great. Definitely get to know the manual controls. I do have to upgrade my computer as it's getting a little old to deal with HD and I've yet to find a way to use the .mts files it writes out to, but it looks like the mac programs can handle it well. I'll be figuring it out soon, hopefully. The main thing is the image quality and control which is absolutely stunning.

Great little camcorder. Picture quality is great. Sound is so-so at best. Easy to use right out of the box. Super compatibility with Mac.

I am not going to tell you about the specifications and capabilities of this JEWEL. You can find plenty of other places for that. What I will tell you is this.
First, if you want to see broadcasting quality video with images you actually shot, you do not need to look any further. The HG10 is solidly and beautifully built. Very easy to use, but, most importantly, it records the most eye-popping images previously unknown to the amateur user. I tell you about the video quality simply because that is the single most important reason you want to capture video ultimately. When you look at video memories you do not think about the camera you used to capture it. It is the quality of the video that stays and makes you remember, not whether the camera that took it came with shoulder strap or not (I can not believe someone made a point about that!)
Second, you can view the video files you capture as soon as you stop recording. No need to rewind anything. If you like it, keep it; if you don't, then delete it on the spot--just like you do with digital cameras, except with video.
Third, to make movies, the camera is bundled with software which will allow you to download the videos to your computer for editing and burning your videos in DVD quality. To get started, all you have to do is to plug the camera to your computer with the USB cable provided. However, if you want to burn HD home movies, you have to purchase software separately. I recommend Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus (you can read my separate review). AVCHD is not a problem at all.
I absolutely love this camera.

I confirmed with Canon and they said it records at 1440x1080, not 1920x1080. They expect the HDTV to upconvert it the rest of the way when viewed directly from the camcorder via HDMI. That bothered me which is why this is 4 stars and not 5. The bundled software is not very good but it gets the basic stuff done and I guess that's fine. People who need better will have or buy it.

I feel I got my money's worth although I bought it elsewhere for cheaper.

The camera is great once you take the time to figure it out. HOWEVER, to download video to a computer you need to have an intel based computer!!! Nowhere in the literature is this stated. I spent countless hour setting up everything, only to discover the Intel requirement. I questioned Canon sales people prior to purchasing the camera. I explained which computer I own, etc. Thanks a lot Canon.

Sick....just, sick! This thing makes fantastic movies, photos, etc. Plus everything "just works" under Mac OS X 10.5 with iMovie 08. I was so surprised by the hi-def movies I could make that I almost forgot about the photos, then I took some... Wow! The camera mode is the best I've ever encountered from any consumer product (you know... the less-than-$2K-category)!

One word of advice: If you get this, spend $129 for the Canon iP4500. The pictures are amazing.

Please ignore the "megapixel myth" about cameras. This camera does more with 3, than any of my prior 8MP, 10 MP cameras have ever done.!

Great images and enough room to store hours and hours of best moments... after a week of use, I still have a lot of space to continuing capturing those moments that no one wants forget...

I have been using this cam for a few weeks and I love it. If you have a Mac and use Final Cut this cam works great. The video looks very nice (I love shooting in HD). If you add any filters get good ones. I have some and they are cheap! when filming the edges have black on them, and get good batteries (cannon) I got some cheap one on amazon and they work fine but 30mins is short I'm planning on getting a real canon battery.

This camcorder is everything for which I was searching! It has excellent video quality, better than what I expected for less than $650 dollars! The menus are easy to use and the features are great. I love having a hard disk, eliminating the use of tapes or disc! I just upload the video to my computer edit it and make a DVD. Construction and design are durable and efficient. I love this Camcorder!

Pros: 40GB Hard Drive, HiDef Recording without huge bulky files (AVCHD format), Good in low light recording, Advanced accessory shoe makes adding accessories a snap, Amazing color (RGB engine from canon), Easily accessible menus, Decent software to convert and limitedly edit video, Durable Construction, Attractive Design, Good Battery Life, Built in flash for still pictures, Canon reliability and trust.

Cons: Inability to edit video on Camcorder, Slightly heavier and larger than other HDD camcorders, Could include better software for video editing.

I used the Canon HG10 Camcorder to shoot a Bridal Shower, and the video was very clean. Before I bought this Camera I read some of the reviews concerning the on board mic, that it did not pick up sound so well, so I bought an external mic, and the sound is just fine.
I will also suggest a brighter external video light, the VL-3 or VL-10.It would be good to invest in another Battery,
BP-2L24H.

As your average camcorder user, I've found this very easy to use right out of the box. While there are plenty of options to enhance your shots, this does a great job in a very basic shooting mode.
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br /With multiple formats for shooting, the storage is excellent for most 3-7 day vacations. The first time I used this was on a 4 day trip to Walt Disney World, where I go frequently. My first shots were from the monorail, while moving. Stabilization was not perfect, but came out nice once I steadied myself.
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br /Half of my shots were with low light, either at the fireworks shows in the Magic Kingdom Epcot, or on rides. Almost all of them came out perfect, with the exception of a couple that were out of focus. I found that if low-light focusing was a problem, manually zooming in out would quickly correct the situation. I was able to zoom in on a full screen shot of Tinkerbell, launching off the castle at the start of the fireworks, with amazing clarity.
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br /While the movie software it comes with takes some understanding, it does work well. It allows you to convert all movies to Mpegs manually, or will do it automatically when creating a DVD. It works fastest when burning straight to AVCHD DVD, and can take a very long time if converting first.
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br /The clarity of the pictures on SP format (2nd only to XP) was true HD quality, and used less space than I thought after 4 days. On SP, over an hour of footage only used about 10% of the storage. When hooked up straight to my TV, or viewing from the AVCHD DVD created, footage came out like I was still there. The next time I go, I will be using the XP format, now that I know I have plenty of storage space.
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br /All in all, was an excellent choice, well worth the money for such fantastic footage.

Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer
br /This light and easy to carry camcorder is amazing, and the price was unbeatable! The images are sharp and clean, and it's very easy to use, with very little help from the directions (which I keep handy in case I get stuck, because I'm constantly finding new things it will do - things I wouldn't miss if Canon hadn't thought of them, but which I'm really happy to discover. Truthfully, I'll probably never use all the features, because I'm an amateur, but it's nice to know they are there and that you don't have to learn all the technicalities of advanced use in order to get good service from this great camera. I love being able to store tons of stuff right on the hard drive so that I'm not pressured to process the videos to make room for more. That fits in with my busy, crazy life! The battery life is very satisfactory as well. I'm sure this video camera will give me years of great service!

It was August 10th, 2008 when this camera's price got lowered $100-$150. I had to jump on that deal asap, and I haven't looked back since. The quality is everything you would deam of, and the sound, despite what some reviews say, is great. There are some things to consider before buying though. The battery that it comes with will only last around 2hours...(Maybe a little more if you lower the quality).. Also, the packaged software doesn't have a lot of editing options. It is basically just cut and put on DVD..If you are on windows, you might want to check out Pinnacle Studio Plus ($90...which isn't bad at all)..Also, I had some problems with getting the activation code for the Corel software. I am guessing that the website is only up during business hours, because the next day I was able to connect and get the code...So, if you are having trouble getting the activation code...Take a deep breath...try again the next day at various times, and you should get through eventually. If not, you can call support and get the run-around by Canon and Corel...Their customer support (When dealing with this software) is insulting...but then again, so is the software...heh..All in all, though..The video and sound is beautiful! Just try to activate the software during business hours or get better software all together. With this price, you seriously can't go wrong.

This camcorder has everything I needed...high definition video quality, internal hard drive (AND flash drive), user-friendliness, etc. Using to create training videos at work.

Had a Sony camcorder before purchasing this one. This one beats the Sony product by all means. Definitely one of the Best HDD camcorders currently available in the market. This camera can be very rarely seen for a discounted sale price compared to the other sony camcorders in the market. I have been using this camera for the last 2 months and did not find any issues so far.

I ordered this product after many false ad prices on internet by many camera sites.they all offer false price and try to sell you overpriced accessories.the camara is light and ease to use.it also takes great still pictures as well video.i am 100% satisfied with product and amazon site.

Recently bought this camcorder. It works really great. I didn't try all the features yet, but I really like this camcorder as my first one. I was able to put my video on my computer using "Back up" software, and I installed Corel software without any problems. I can watch my clips, but the only problem I have is the when I try to watch my video on my laptop, it goes really slowly. I think that I am having this problem because of my computer. I have Sony Vaio, Pentium 4, 3,06 GHz and 384 GB of RAM. May be I should buy additional memory? Who knows, please give me an advise.

I found this camera to be perfect for the purpose intended and would not hesitate to reccomend it. Its small size and recording options/quality make it just abotu perfect.

high-quality output. I wish there were easier ways to upload (or broadcast) the videos on my PS3. Some people claim that Canon is being deceptive about claiming this camera to be 1080p, but I haven't confirmed it either way yet.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with this camera! I haven't had alot of time to play with like I would like. But the picture on this thing is AMAZING! I have 50 inch DLP and when I plug the camera into it to watch what I've recorded....It is BEAUTIFUL! It is FAR better than any standard camera you could ever buy! Plus because its HD it does pixelate as much when you use the digital zoom...most cameras the digital zoom is just plane crap! GREAT CAMERA! WOULD RECOMEND TO ANY WANTING AN HD CAMERA!

I bought this camcorder for my husband as an anniversary gift, and I was very nervous about making the purchase without his opinion. I read every review and visited it at the store more than once.
br /He loved it. The high definition quality is great and we captured our anniversary as though we were still there. We have been completely happy with the camcorder. We have played it back on high definition TVs and it compares with the travel channel.

The only downside to this camcorder is it records in AVCHD format for Hi-DEf. Thats great if you have a newer PC or Mac with the system requirments to compliment the camera. In my case, I ended up returning the camcorder because my Powermac G4 and imovie6 doesn't recognize it. I guess I'll have to upgrade my system if I want to use the HD technology on the Mac. I don't think you PC users will have a problem as long as your PC was purchased within the last couple of years. The picture Quality was very impressive!

The video we recorded is crispy clear. Easy to set up and easy to use. Light weight, easy to carry. We have considered sony which has many neat features like zero light capability and bigger hard drive. But you would have to spend more on the sony specified audio equipment and battery which cost much more. I have shopped around, this is the best price I have found. Tip: We dumped the recorded file into sony vegas for editing instead the software they recommended.

I read several reviews on several cameras including the HG10. I have not found any problems with the HG10, it does everything I want it to do.

This is my first Camcorder, so I don't have to much to compare with, but I have to say that the Image Quality is Great!! I play it on my HD TV and it's amazing the perfection of the image that you get. I can't give you technical coments as other reviewers as I'm new in filming, but for the price I Think you can't get better results than with this camcorder. I have to admit that the Software included is not great, but it does his job (at least includes a SW).

Can't speak for the MAC people, but I'm a PC user, and this camera had been working great for me so far. The video quality is good, although the picture may get a little grainy in low light. The camcorder also takes good snap shoot pictures. I feel bad that I had just spent $250 recently on a SONY camera that takes poor pictures in low light. This camcorder would have done the job. The software that comes with the camcorder is also useful in the sense that you can use it to convert the videos from AVCHD format to the standard MPEG format easily. The only disappointment with the software is that it is too simple and doesn't offer a lot of different features, but hey... that's where ADOBE comes in. I would definitely recommend this camera to other people.

I traded in my GL2 (Canon GL2 MiniDV Digital Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom a large Canon mini-DV camcorder with superb optics) which I loved, because I wanted to go high-def, wanted to make transferring video to my computer easier and wanted a smaller camera that I could take with me easier. The HG10 is all these things. You can find all the technical details by googling for reviews - I won't repeat them here - but what you read is borne out by the camera. It takes great video, is easy to use yet has ample scope for adjustments for those who want to go beyond automatic shooting and transfer to a Mac is a breeze. The sound captured is actually acceptable in most situations, but not that great with more ambient noise or at larger distances (>15 ft or so), and I am contemplating adding an external mic such as RODE VideoMic Directional Camcorder Microphone or Stereo VideoMic. I now take this with me to lots of different events and can take great video of my kids, and enjoy every minute of it.

The camera is great, easy to use, the zoom is high quality, couldn't be a better camera. But, the software is terrible. I have yet to make one movie from my vacation, Honeymoon, or my kids soccer game because the software does not work. When trying to piece together diffiernt scenes it just won't do it. Get the camera but plan on getting seperate vidieo software.

We purchased this product over six months ago. Couldn't be happier with the quality of videos it produces. Even in low light conditions the pictures come out great. The convenience of hard drive is also good. Highly recommend this if you are in market for a camcorder.

This is an excellent product that I have purchased. The controls are easy and intuitive, the picture clarity is very good, and it integrates very well with my Samsung 40 in LCD TV. It is a giant leap from my old Cannon ZR 60, which was a miniDV based non HD camcorder. I don't know why I did not buy this before.
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Simply amazing video! Low light a small issue, but works great in an auditorium with sufficient light on stage. Creates DVDs that look amazing compared to my older JVD miniDV camcorder. Saving small segments of video to a hard drive is 10x more efficient and easier to edit that with a miniDV. Also note worthy: great ergonomics, smooth/simple controls, plenty of options, takes nice still photos. Would definitely recommend to anyone upgrading to a HDD camcorder! Running software on a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4 (nothing impressive) and able to edit video content and render DVDs without difficulty. Oh, and playback looks fantastic on my 51" Panasonic plasma TV! Thanks Canon for making such an impressive HDD camcorder at such a reasonable price!

I used the camera for a month now, I like it. Great Video resolution when enough light. I give it 4 because the Video quality not that good in deem light

I got my Canon HG10. Harddrive AVCHD. It is a nice unit. Easier to use than my Old Sony minidv ergonomically, esp the zoom...really nicely calibrated for touch. Also, Canon does not use touch screen. Has a jog wheel which is just OK..kinda small. Hard drive is totally silent...no tape mechanism noise thru the microphone. Kinda wide/chunky body due to the hard drive.

Likes:
Hard drive classics. No rewind, fast forward, write-over for deletes.
Instant access via thumbnails, etc.
Move files straight to PC as files using the included software....(no sequential real-time transfer like tape)
Good quality HD and SD DVDs
Transfer is via USB...firewire not required.
Seems to be of nice build quality compared to HV20

Dislikes:
No "natural" tape archival, of course, But easy to archive to a DVD
It makes you use the AC adapter to transfer...it is afraid of power loss and harddrive corruption according to Instructions.
Files are huge
Mini SD and Mini HDMI are extra costs since most don't have either
You cannot just access the files on the Hard drive. You must use the included transfer. I would have thought you could see the files on the HDrive and have it treated like a USB drive. It even warns you never to do this.
Low light video is grainy.

The thing came with ULead DVD Factory SE by Corel. Basic. It has utilities to backup Camcorder to PC, Author, or move files back to camcorder.

I was able to move files to PC, Author and burn a DVD in widescreen Standard Def. It allowed me to slice and dice clips, create menu and chapters...the basic stuff....real simple. My DVD output Quality was very high for SD...higher than what I get from Sony minidv digital camcorder (non-HD). The audio was Dolby Digital,but only 2.1 on my burned DVD. Not 5.1. Will have to look into that..not that it matters since I don't have 6 microphones for surround sound. I use a Quad Core Processor, 3gb of ram...runs OK.

It also came with a special WinDVD Intervideo Player SE to play AVCHD files in HD...so these files from the Camcorder are playable in HD on the PC. Those files look better on my HDTV than on my PC. The PC is a little shakey...could be my video card...which is a Nvidia 7350.

The files are .M2TS files.

Strangely, Windows Media says it cannot play. But if you say "Try", it does play the AVCHD file video...not audio. I bet they will fix that. Until they do, we won't be sharing HD files with buddies!

I do not have Blu Ray or HD DVD player, so I did not attempt to author a disk of that format. But it's good to know I can work with AVCHD files and not the challenge they were a year ago. I suppose Pinnacle, SonyVegas, and Adobe software will advance this rapidly.

I tried 24p and 60i. The pans using 24p are jittery, as some report. They are bad enough that I would not use.

super sharp LCD screen, better than HV20
simple intuitive menu
decent still photo quality - don't need to carry seperate camera to amusemanet parks any more
excellent video quality even at lower resolutions
build quality is excellent
love the hard drive

I bought an HG10 after seeing so many good reviews on this camcorder. However, I was disappointed by the video quality. The video of my almost two-year old Sony SR5 hard drive HD camcorder is so much better than the HG10 -much higher resolution and better color. I than bought a Sony SR11 and compared the SR11 with the HG10 head to head. The SR11 also produced much better video than the HG10 in all lighting conditions -indoor, outdoor, good and low light conditions. I have to say the HG performs pretty well at low light but the resolution and color is still not as good as the Sonys (SR5 and SR11). I also found that the 24P was not useful. HG10 also has some other features that the Sony's don't have, for example, a wide range of manual shutter speed. Although a wide range manual shutter speed is very important for a still picture camera, I don't think it is useful for a camcorder unless you are a "pro". I found the standard shutter speed (1/60 second) is appropriate for all of my need for family video.
br /Many of the reviews claimed that HG's video quality is excellent. I am not sure how many of those reviewers had compared the HG10 head to head with some other HD camcorders. I returned the HG10 and kept the SR11 and I have taken tons of videos with the SR11. I am happy with the amazingly good videos taken by the SR11.
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No worries at all here. It was a great purchase at a great price. The camera has done everything we could've envisioned. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Amazing quality indoors and out. Installation was a breeze and I can even edit movies from my camera so not to take up so much room on my computer. Great small powerful camera, sleek design, I would recommend it to anyone.

I am still in the learning stage with this camcorder. Last year I bought a Sony DCR-SR80 (non-HD, 60 gig HDD). I was generally happy with that camcorder, using it mostly for my sons' sporting events. Then I read where HD video, converted to mpeg, is a higher quality than a SD camcorder mpeg. I did a side-by-side comparison of both camcorders. The result: the Canon converted video was sharper and had truer color than the Sony SD. Also, the HD video (not converted) played through the camcorder into an HD TV is phenomenal. The disadvantage to converting to SD is that the downconverting (is that a real term?)takes time, and unless I'm missing something, is a multi-step process with the included software.
Issues: There is limited software that is available to do decent editing for the HD mode. This isn't a huge problem for me at the moment, because currently Bluray burners and media are a little too $$$ for my tastes, so hopefully, when the prices go down (hopefully by football season), more software will be available. I downloaded a 30 day free trial of ULEAD 11, but it is a bit awkward to work with. I also have Vegas Studio 8, which I am very happy with for SD video, but Sony hasn't released a version to work with Canon HD video. It does work with Sony HD Camcorders, but they (the HDD versions)cost around $400 more than this one. Also, I agree with those who are unhappy with the microphone. The wind noise on a breezy day is horrible.
Overall, it seems like a nice camcorder at a great price.

This is the first camcorder I have ever owned as well as operated in my life. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not an electronics expert, so I won't write a very technical review as many others have.
br /I will just tell you what I would want to know if I considered buying this item: I think it's great, it works, it's easy to use (there are many more functions I haven't even explored yet, but if you're a more experienced cinematographer I'm sure you can find them helpful), it shoots great footage (also in HD if you want). An "unsung" attribute that this camcorder has is that is also takes amazing photos! The colors it captures are bright, great contrast, and you don't need to correct them in Photoshop!
br /The camcorder is MAC compatible and the battery life is also very very good.
br /The only thing that constitutes a slight inconvenience is that in order to download the footage on your computer, you must have the camcorder's power cable hooked up.
br /Besides that I can say that I'm very happy with it and the quality of the video.

I am by no means a camcorder expert, but I am a videophile and a Canon fan, so that's why I chose this camera. It does not disappoint! While 1080p would have been great, the birth of my son wasn't going to wait for technology to catch up to the top format.
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br /It has been great capturing all of the big "firsts" in high-def! I rest easy knowing that it won't end up like my honeymoon footage that is grainy, lacks definition and, *gasp*, is in analog format on tapes! I love the hard drive...it seemed the obvious choice over straight-to-dvd or memory card recording for so many reasons--no media to keep up with, speed and flexibility, and unmatched storage capacity...
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br /The 'usability' of the camera is good, but not great. The menus are easy to understand like my Canon digital camera. However, the scrolling wheel can be tough to control. It is easy to get stuck in ff or rewind mode by accident. After not using the camcorder for a while, I forgot how to turn on the light, so it would be nice to have a few more dedicated buttons. It's not like there isn't room, even on the tiny device. None of this would be a problem if I used it more often.
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br /Anyways, people have talked about the software ad nauseam...so I won't get into that, except to say that the lack of available software to watch AVCHD files is frustrating, at best.
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br /The bottom line is that the HG10 excels at what a budget HD camcorder should--great video quality and (virtually) unlimited storage. Where it lacks (usability, adjustments, etc) it more than makes up for it in the video quality department--and that's what matters most, right?

We bought this to replace our outdated MiniDv camcorder and have been very pleased so far. The quality of the video and sound are great! We connect it to our HDTV and it looks and sounds great! It is very light in weight and easy to use if you're familiar with camcorders. I haven't done much with it yet, other than record video. I'm in the process of putting some videos on DVD with this camera. Overall, I'm happy to have this camcorder.

I was excited to have this camcorder, but had to return back. Everything seams as expected except there was some visible and irritating flickering.
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br /It also takes 350 mb of space to store just 15 minutes of video. So I have decided to buy tape based camcorder and have ordered Canon HV 30.

I like this HD camcorder so much. It's easy to use. The picture quality is super good.

The camera is great. We shot video in many types of environments and it always works great. The menus are complicated and the software provides little automation.

I received this HD camcorder 2 days before my wedding last weekend and I was thoroughly impressed by the picture quality of it out of the box. A family member recorded our wedding ceremony and much of our reception was filmed and the picture quality is incredible. We hooked up the camcorder to our 1080 Sony LCD TV and the picture quality is unreal. Even the later parts of the reception with the light getting lower where very sharp and the battery life was GREAT!

Although I have only had the camcorder a few weeks I only have good things to say about it. It well exceded my expectations and the price was right. The item shipped very quickly and arrived on time. I would recommend the camera and seller to anyone.

the camera is a good camera, i have a one year old dell dual core one point eight processor and the computer has a hard time playing the hd format in the software that came with it, that is the only downer so far, i can't really enjoy the viewing and editing process. other than that the canon name brand holds true to its value, the night recording however isn't great. infact, i recently watched the movie cloverfield, and i was laughing to myself thinking how the whole movie was filmed by this guys personal camcorder and it all takes place in the dark. obviously holywood editing. thats not even close to being realistic to how a non professional man on the run with your everyday camcorder and let alone its not a canon hg 10, would turn out.

This camera is small and very easy to use. The resolution is fabulous. When using the Canon HDMI cable with my high def TV, the home videos are as crisp and clear as any high definiton movie or show. Amazon's price was far lower than anywhere else. I highly recommend this video camera.

I am not Cecil B. DeMille by any lights, and this camera is wonderful - perfect for recording the small things in life that, in the end, add up to everything that really counts! Great picture. Easy to use.

This product performs as claimed, is easy to use and is small enough to be discreet.

i started reviewing camcorders and realized that all the ones i wanted were out of my price range. i then realized that i was looking to have a lot of features that i probably really didn't need. i found this one and it seemed to have things i was interested in....hd, storage on the hard drive, small size and compatible with my macbook. i have only used it a few times, to record my two month old and so far it works great. i am able to capture her with such great detail, its amazing. i love that you can view all the scenes in playback mode and choose which one you want to see and delete it right there. no more ffwd and rewind thru hours of video. it also has a built in light which has been helpful in some darker situations. i would recommend ordering a mini sd card to capture still images and if you are interested a hdmi/mini hdmi cable to connect the camera right to your hd tv.

I've been using videocams since the betamax tapes first came out, and I've upgraded throughout the years as the technology advanced. I wanted a well priced product, HD, and stop depending on tapes or discs... I did my homework, and finally purchased the HG10. I've been using it for a couple months now, and am extremely pleased with the performance.
br /
br /PROS:
br /- EXCELENT VIDEO QUALITY: performs true to HD quality
br /- Great size for travelling
br /- 40GB Hard Drive more than enough space, even for extended vacation times
br /- Good size LCD screen
br /
br /CONS:
br /- Ergonimics could be better
br /- Sound quality is merely OK.
br /- Editing video software is extremely basic, and unless you have a VERY POWERFUL PC, don't even try editing these HD videos... my Sony Vaio stalled ALL the time.
br /
br /You must purchase the HD cable separately, and an extra battery (the one that comes with the camera lasts only two hours). When at home, I hook up the camera to our Sony 42" LCD with the HD cable, and people are blown away by the quality. In conclusion, I'd buy this camera 10 times over.

Was just my luck. Everyone is raving about this camera, Canon HG10. I bought one....and right out of the box it did not work. Froze up, and said: "Access Error." I did everything I was supposed to, charged up the battery properly, made all the settings correct (after reading the instruction manual thoroughly in advance, having downloaded it) and then try some test filming. On play back, the video stumbles, stutters and after a minute or two stops. Then a blank screen and the words "Access Error." I re-format the camera's hard drive, problem goes away for a few minutes, then starts again "Access Error." The instruction book's input on this malfunction is may be "condensation." The temperature inside and outside was 75 degrees. Condensation? Anyway, that would not last for one and half days the camera was indoors. The only other word on the subject from the instruction book is "Disk Access Problem." Well yes. What to do about it the instruction book doesn't tell you. I notice also the camera seems very very warm, not hot that it's uncomfortalbe to your hand, but much warmer than my other hard drive camcorder, a Toshiba. Thank goodness I purchased this HG10 camera from a reputable place, JR Music World. The nice lady there said they would send me a pickup ticket by e-mail so I could return the camera to them. She said it would come by e-mail. Still hasn't, but it's the weekend, so maybe it will arrive on Monday. It isn't the fault of JR, how would they know that Canon had sent them a lemon camera. Sure hope I can get another one, that works. Considering all the grief of life, this is a small disappointment, but I was looking forward to enjoying a nice camera. Very sad.

The Canon HG 10 is the camera i was looking for a good price. It is very easy to use and have a layman use it too. I would recommend any one looking for a basic model with great features.

I bought this camera 7-8 months ago. I have been using this camera alot and I like it very much. It is very light and day light videos are perfect. But I dont like night recordings even some digital cameras which has video recording feature can record better at night. My previous camera was Sony TRV22e which was a minidv camcorder, so that is the only camera that I can compare my canon. There are good things and bad things about this camera. First of all if you were a Sony Camera user you will not find many different features as you had in Sony camera such as filters, effects, dubbing, voice mixing. The sound quality is not that good. The ring which is on the monitor looks very cheap. You can do manual focusing with that ring if you want but it is not that efficient. Another thing taht I dont like is 24 frame movie feature I believe it does not work good. Once you have installed the software to your computer it is very easy to transfer the files from camera to your pc. The files are not compatible with adobe premiere pro. So you have to convert them any file which is compatible. the picture quality of the digital camera is perfect. I like to take pictures with this camcorder, I dont have to carry a digital camera separately. If you are looking for a good quality camcorder I definitely recommend this camera but I would check Sony before buying.

This is a great camera, but it is not for the non-technical. The software shipped with this device does not work. Cannon will not support the software they ship with the device, and Corel will not offer technical support outside of a forum. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMCORDER is you are not a computer genius. It seems I bought in to early for diskless technology.

My wife and I purchased this camera with the intention of using it for our upcoming trip to France. We had a Sony camcorder that we liked, but was getting to be outdated. So, we wanted to upgrade to the HD quality and a hard disk so we wouldn't have to haul a bunch of tapes with us. Well...the quality of the camcorder and ease of use was great! However, during our second day in Paris, it decided to stop working! It said "Access Error". We had no way to capture and document the last 8 days of our vacation because this brand new camcorder stopped working! We couldn't even access the footage we had taken! So, it is at Canon as we speak for repairs under warranty, but even upon getting it back I'll probably never use it for a big trip like that again for fear that it may happen a second time. I called Canon Customer Care to try and get some sort of compensation for our trouble, and they didn't do a thing for us! I would strongly discourage anyone from purchasing this camcorder if they are planning on using it for documenting anything major in their lives. BE WARNED!!!!

I am new to camcorders, but an expert with digital photography. I purchased the HG10 after reading great reviews. I took a few videos and uploaded to my XP pc without problem. However, the playback was jerky and made me motion sick watching. The playback on the camera is fine. I spent thee days reading numerous blogs on issues people have with the included software and issues such as mine. This is contrary to the rave reviews you see on Amazon and CNet. I would love to keep this camera, but the fact that after days of research and trials, I still can not playback my videos on my XP pc is totally unacceptable. I have always been a big fan of Canon but they shipped a product without the expected software support.

I bought this item for my wife and it exceeds what she really needs it for, I got her this because I want to use it as well. I was a little disappointed that it didn't come with a night vision mode but I can live with out that, it would be nice to be able to decide where my files are to be writen (hard drive or sd card) I still have not seen what the recordings look like on a hi-def screen because I'm in Iraq and we're short of those here so I'll hold judgement on that. Easy to use but the menus are not beginner frendly.

Excelente, la calidad de filmación es realmente impresionante, muy recomendable sobre todo para un entusiasta del video que desea dar sus primeros pasos (como yo) en este apasiónate mundo o para el usuario promedio que desea grabar sus próximas vacaciones o momentos inolvidables en su vida.
br /Posee un modo cine que te hará sentir el próximo Steven Spielberg, sin lugar a dudas esta cámara hará las delicias de cualquier usuario promedio y llegara a complacer a un semi-profesional.
br /Otro punto a favor es su disco duro, que según la calidad de la filmación que escojamos podremos guardar horas de video.
br /Las fotografías de esta cámara son muy aceptables, vamos es una filmadora, no una cámara digital, pero cumple con su cometido y de manera muy honrosa, puedes antes de encender la cámara seleccionar si la usaras en modo cámara digital o como filmadora, algo que me ha parecido interesante, eso sí a la hora de usarla como cámara será necesario una tarjeta de memoria miniSD para poder almacenar las fotografías en ella, algo sin problemas debido al bajo precio en el que puedes encontrar estas tarjetas en este momento en el mercado.
br /Como nada es perfecto lo único a lo que realmente se le debe prestar atención es al formato de grabación que es AVCHD un formato no muy extendido y que te puede dar dolores de cabeza a la hora de editar.
br /Si piensas reproducir los videos en la computadora puedes hacerlo con los programas que incluye pero si tu idea es hacerlo en windows media player no te reconocerá el formato de video, inconveniente que se soluciona instalando un codec.
br /Sin más que agregar, muy recomendable, fue mi elección luego de un pequeño pero exhaustivo estudio de las filmadoras disponibles al momento, en cuanto a relación calidad y precio para el público al que va dirigida.

The included "digital video software" is only for still images! There's a QuickTime logo on the camera but the movies are in no way compatible with QuickTime. There is no Firewire DV output. A "Corel" disc is included but it doesn't run on my computer and the manual implies that it's only for making DVDs. How do you get the HD video off this camera? A few third party utilities can be purchased to convert the camera's AVCHD video files but their quality and usability varies greatly. Once you do find good software, you realize that the camera's 24p mode is broken. You need to search for more software to repair or re-process the 24p video. (24p eliminates horizontal motion flicker sometimes seen in 60i video, especially on computers.)

The video from the camera looks very good. My videos are sometimes coming out with too much contrast (pure white and black areas) but that could be my fault. Learning the controls for the camera involves many, many trips to the manual but I'm starting to remember where features hide. Most adjustments can be performed quickly. Hard drive storage works flawlessly even through jiggles and bumps.

I give this camera a very poor rating because of problems getting video off the camera. Finding the software you need to make this camera work is a nightmare (and could cost you money). Editing the video, including fixing broken 24p videos, is a complex and time consuming process. My process is to convert AVCHD into enormous temporary files using iMovie 8, repair 24p mode in JES Deinterlacer, edit the video in any QuickTime app, then export to MPEG 4. The temp files are too large to archive so I have to start all over again to make another edit. A new software CD and a patch for the 24p problem would probably raise my rating to at least 4 stars. Until then, stay away.

If you need a camera with all the jazz - Touch screen, being able to snap stills while video recording, view finder that is super adjustable, 5.1 audio, camera is certainly not the best option. HG10 on screen messages, though useful, carry a poor feel to them as the message text and graphics do not seem to fully utilize the color and resolution capability of the LCD screen. These do matter to some extent to provide a general good feel.

However if you are like me and itch to record in the HD just because that sounds (actually looks) cooler and want to pay not too much more than standard recording cameras, then you may very well grab this camera. I have therefore removed one more star. Though the fall of gadget prices is almost inevitable, I have not seen too may falls of this magnitude!

Beware of the fact that recently there has been a huge price fluctuation for this camera ($630 to $800!!) so it is quite possible that you may find this camera selling much cheaper even before you have unpacked it!

The Motion artifacts were a disappointment. I am NOT a tech, but based on research, I understand the following:
1) [From United States Patent 5313280 Description] A typical television signal, when digitized, produces a data stream of about 100 to 150 megabits per second (Mbps) before compression. Compressed video data streams usually range from 56 kilobits per second (kbps) to 45 Mbps. The receiving codec expands or decompresses the digital signal, then converts it back to an analog video format for display.

The process of compressing and decompressing the signal introduces defects, called motion artifacts in the received video image. These artifacts are readily observable when the video signals are displayed. Such well known motion artifacts include (1) blocking, where the received video image has rectangular or checkerboard patterns not present in the original image; (2) blurring or smearing, where the received video image has lost edge detail present in the original; (3) image persistence, where an old or previous image remains on the monitor; (4) jerkiness, where the original smooth continuous motion is perceived as a series of snapshots.

For a given codec, higher compression ratios (lower transmission rates) will generally produce more noticeable motion artifacts. For example, when a signal is compressed to 56 kbps (a compression ratio of over 1000:1), the resulting motion artifacts are obvious to observers. At the lower compression ratio (about 3:1) that produces 45 Mbps transmission, most observers cannot detect the motion artifacts.

2) Canon HG10 is capable of 24 Mbps transmission, but for some reason limits it to 15 Mbps transmission. This requires a higher compression ratio, resulting in more motion artifacts.

3) When will Canon a) Increase transmission to 24 Mbps, or b) invent a better AVCHD Codec to be less lossy?

Borrowed this camera from a friend to compare to my 3-year-old HDV-based Sony. Here's what I found:

1- Shoots great HD. Easy to use and very functional.

2- Plugs into my intel-based iMac via usb. Transfers easily, but TWICE as slowly as from my Sony.

3- Since the format is being converted to allow the files to play nice with iMovie, the end result is that the AVCHD is dumbed down a bit, just as with HDV. Side by side comparison of the final product (DVDs made in iDVD) is that they both end up looking just about the same.

So, I'm sticking with my antique HDV tape-based rig and waiting for someone to come out with a consumer HD camera that creates a format compatible with Quicktime without having to modify the files.

Are you listening Canon? Make a camera that allows me (and everyone else) to drag and drop the digital files into iMovie or FCP and i'll be first in line to buy it!!

As a sound engineer I am interested in sound quality first. I do not know much about video. When I picked up my HG10 from B&H video the first thing I did was testing what I can do with audio files. Apparently, HG10 creates about 2GB files in size which cannot be combined seamlessly in post production editor. So, if you are shooting 15min episodes or shorter that shouldn't bother you but when it comes to filming concerts and shows this camcorder is not your best choice because at the point where the file was cut you will hear sound dropouts. This limitation is casually mentioned in the manual. I guess, I will be getting some other camcorder because I need to film concerts, recitals and stuff like this.

After reading all the positive reviews on this site and doing ton of research I figured out there are no really good consumer camcorders that were released in 2007. I did not want to wait till next yeat for a better model coz' I needed something for my trip next month. All the available makes and models had some flaw or the other. So I decided to settle down with Canon Hg10 coz' it had some of the featues that the other cameras were missing like the inbuilt light, wind filter etc.

But now after having it for a month, I'm not happy with my pick.
The camcorder works really good but it is missing a really important feature and that is "shooting in slow motion or 240 fps shooting mode".
They say you can achieve this using some editing software but the software doesn't create smooth flowing slow motion clip like we see in the movies and here on youtube.
Sony SR7 has that mode and many other camcorders has that. This option lets you shoot some really cool slow smooth flowing videos. Canon hg10 has only two modes 60i ie. 30 fps and the most hyped 24p.
I was really disappointed coz of this and now since I had this camera for over a month I can't return it. So if you guys are into slow motion videos, then this camera is not for you. Also the software that comes withe the camera is very cheesy, pretty basic. I guess they want you to go spent few hundred extra bucks and buy a good software.

24p is highly overrated. I did not see any huge difference. I was sold by this feature but I now realise that it was a marketing gimmick. Don't let this be a deciding factor in your purchase.

Hope this review helps.