Great camera. The biggest flaw is not the 60 gb drive which is bigger than you will ever need, or the menu interface which is easy, intuitive and user friendly, the biggest flaw is the lack of the view finder on this camera. Big deal you say, its got a modern screen instead of a view finder, but that modern screen in really bright sunlight kinda washes out (like all those screens do) and might lead you to adjust the settings or force you to trust your autoexposure when you are taking those priceless outdoor shots. The hg 21 has the eye piece viewfinder which is a reliable indicator of what you are shooting in those conditions, but for the extra 300 USDs it's hard to justify. The AF is super in this camera, no distiguishable periods "out of focus" as you rapidly zoom in and out. Also the head set or yellow AV jack, is a must have. Ever record tons of footage and find out the only thing you can hear is the wind buffetting your microphone? Record wearing regular ipod type headphones and you don't have to review the footage to find out if you have the shot. Don't get a camcorder without that or the mic input which this camera has. Terrific simultaneous video record and still photo to the regular full size SD card, cool, works great. Requires class 4 SD card, the speedy type. I think the HG21 with the 120 gb has tons of storage, but it's overkill and takes longer to do a full hard drive clean than the 60gb hg20, but both have a quick clean function for the hard drive. Finally don't expect much from the packaged software if you really want to edit. Corel has pro x2 which works great for avchd. Last thing is the battery. It charges when the camera is pugged in and it works great. I was made to believe that this camera is useless without an external charger and tons of extra batteries, which is not true, 95 min is good. Or just stay plugged to the wall. As a guy who typically struggles with technology, I hope all my "research" helps some one else and as the owner of the hg20 this camera delivers and is simple for anyone to use.

I got this camera today, I wanted to get HG10 as it is cheaper, but I went with this one as it has higher Hard Disk capacity with small price difference.
br /The first test video taken was indoors and with low light, I noticed lot of dots in the frame, however, after setting the AWB to indoor and exposure to low light, the video looked much better, then I tried the sport setting with 24p and the video was impressive!! I hooked the camera to my 40" HD LCD TV, and the colors and sharpness are breathtaking!!
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br /One tip is to use the P (Programmed AE) setting with different selections of White Balance, the LCD screen is clear enough to make a quick decision on the fly to pick the best selection, I used 3 different settings walking in day light, then on a shady area, then inside a shop.
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br /One thing to note that the battery works only 2 hours, Canon offers better battery with 4 hours duration priced around $100.
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br /You also need to read the pros and cons of the video codec, there are lot of information on the Canon HG10 reviews, and very useful. In general the higher the frame bit rate and resolution, the longer it will take to process and edit the video and much longer to burn it on DVD or BluRay.
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br /I actually found out that Google's Picasa 3 application (free download) can open the videos recorded by the camera, this tool can export any clip (or portion of it) to wmv format, once the file is exported, you can use any video editor like Microsoft Movie Maker to compress the file or change it to DivX format, etc.

The HG20 is great. Super Picture. Sound is ok. The HDD makes some noise. SW runs on older PC with 1 GIG Ram and 2.5 GIG Pent. But its right at the edge. Could use a Video Light. Cost goes up and down on this model a good bit. Computer HDD space to edit and store will need to be high. Mini HDMI cable is a must for HD sets. Did a test with A HD tv, by recording the TV. Its interesting. Have not tired yet with a IR light source. When the Cam is off, the Lense protector shakes a little. Battery is min. Will get High cap battery for trips. Lots of Warnings on Care for this unit. But at a good price, this unit have a lot of value. The HF10 and HF100 are good buys also. the HF11 is much more. The HG21 is much more, but has some added features of a view finder. Camrea Mode take Point and Shoot Pictures will. But you have to be still. Lots of manual controls. The Menu system takes a little getting used if you are use to the old canon MiniDV. Wanted to wait a little more, but the old canon ZR45MC is past 6 years. But it analog pass thru. I may use that or a Dazzle unit to put video for family and the web instead of trying to convert the MT2S files. With the video files as big as they are, having a Laptop will not be good with the unit or any HD machine.
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br /Again wanted to wait, but old camera was looking pale on HD TV.
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br /Good Things:
br /60BG harddrive, LP and SP still good for video.
br /Optics are great. 12X. Attachments.
br /Easy Button
br /Connections (HDMI, USB, Analog outputs), Mic in, Head Phones,
br /Lots of things to add on with Canon (battery, Optics)
br /Card Slot option
br /Auto Lense Cap.
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br /Bad things,
br /Joy Stick control on view finder.
br /Heavier than Full Flash based unit.
br /Some Rattles (Not in function mode, just in off mode with Lenses Protector.)
br /Not much Software or Hardware to edit with. (Vista Requirements seem twice that of XP).
br /
br /Things to consider:
br /Add Battery Pack (One big one, or 2 small ones).
br /Tripod
br /Optics (Filters, Wide Angle, Telephoto)
br /Video Light for low light.
br /Quad Core, 6 MB Ram, 1 TB HDD computer for editing video.
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You can not base your review of the camera only on the editing software that comes with the camera. All HD camera's come with just basic editing software which do not take advantage of hardware.
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br /I purchased this camera 2 weeks ago, connect directly to my HD 65" and the picture is incredible. I use Vegas Pro and the editing is great, burn to DVD DL with Blue Ray format and the play back is just as great.
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br /Great camera for the price. I do have one question. What was included within the box when you recieved your camera?

This camera was on sale for $300.00 off MSRP at a local chain - Amazon.com had it even cheaper, but I was in an unusual hurry to tape my son's event that evening. I wasn't looking for an HD quality recorder, but for the price, I couldn't really pass it up!
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br /This thing has an "Easy" button, which meant I didn't need to read the manual before heading out. I packed up my tripod and set up my camera within a few hours - I used the power cord.
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br /The camera performed very nicely, auto adjusting for lighting condition and color, with the "Easy" button turned on. If you have ever video-taped in a gymnasium, you know how not-wonderful that light can be.
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br /The next morning I installed the included software to convert the AVCHD format to AVI for editing in Pinnacle Studio 12, Ultimate. While I had a lot to learn about the editing software, the camera software transferred the file very simply [I had read terrible reviews of it, but seems to work well.]
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br /My final movie was proof that the camera adjusted well for lighting conditions, and that the stabilization and auto focus worked nicely. I don't think one could go wrong with this camera - it seems to be a lot of bang for the buck. I can't wait to get into the advanced, priority modes, and other features.
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br /Caveats??? - Of course you knew there'd be something - I'd only given four stars!
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br /1 - Small battery, but detailed battery meter. You will need to get a back-up. A high-capacity battery is available;
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br /2 - Battery only charges on the camera - no separate battery charger;
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br /3 - No on-camera view-finder. For that you need the HG21, and a few more $$$.
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br /4 - Only 12x optical zoom. BUT... I normally won't use digital zoom, but I needed it to get in close enough - my son was across the gymnasium. The digital artifacts were not distracting - it did a very nice job. ALSO, note that a telephoto extender, and a wide angle adapter, are both available if you need this capacity.
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br /So far, that's all I've got. I thought I had some "buyer's remorse" at first, but when I saw the output, that went out the window. Thank for reading - I hope this helps.

Received the my camcorder HG20 from Amazon today. It's a great camcorder. I bought it from Amazon, as Amazon was offering most cheapest price for this Camcorder. Almost $350 less than retail price, which was amazing. Initially I decided to buy a standard HDD camcorder and got JVC Everio 330 for $330 from Walmart. But found the camcorder video quality was very poor and returned it. Then I saw this HD Camcorder from Canon with 60GB HDD in Amazon, which is just $220 extra, but with lot of good features. Main thing is it's HD with 1/3" CMOS image sensor, where other camcorder at same price comes with 1/6" sensor. Also I love plenty of HDD space to store video. Recently I took some video and those are stunning and I am very happy this time with my purchase from Amazon. Only one misleading information in Amazon site for camcorder description - "Built-in Video Light - Increase your low-light capabilities even further by shooting with the HG20's built-in video light. This light enables you to shoot subjects in low-light at distances up to 4.9 feet away. ", which is wrong information. This HG20 camcorder has built-in flash for still photography but no built-in video light. The built-in video light photo that is shown in Amazon site is actually Instant AF Sensor of camera. The video light for this camcorder is sold separately, which is $109 at Amazon and $120 at Canon site. Except of the this everything about the camcorder is superb and the purchasing and delivery experience at Amazon are great.

I am discovering the joy of recording events for posterity... The camcorder is easy to use and produces excellent video.

I've always been a Sony guy when it comes to video, but I use Canon for my stills. I decided to try the Canon this time for video and I'm more than satisfied. The video quality is very sharp and detailed, and the auto white balance helps capture some great footage when recording with auto on. I also messed with manual white balance, focus, and shooting modes. All worked as expected. There are a couple things that this model does not have that would be nice (i.e. infrared night shooting, firewire), but my main interests in my new camera were picture quality. I didn't bother installing the editing software as I use Adobe and Pinnacle software for that. If you're looking to capture some stunning detailed video, I would recommend this camera. 60 GIGs of HD space is a nice perk as well. Thanks Amazon for the quick shipping. Just in time to get some HD video of my new 8 week old german shepherd pup!

I got my HG20 camcorder on Thanksgiving sale with free battery pack (BP 827). I'm really impressed with the performance so far. Video and audio quality is top notch, both outdoor and indoor (with normal lighting). I connected it with my Samsung 4061 HDTV, the video quality is simply exceptional. The focus is crystal, and zoom is great. The hard drive is really quiet, unlike my previous Panasonic camcorder SDR-H18. I haven't tried SDHC recording yet. The photos taken with this camcorder are really good too. The menus are user friendy, you don't need to dig thru' the manual a lot. The battery life is average, but I wouldn't worry much since I got BP-827 for free.
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br /The only downside is that you have to charge your battery with the camcorder since no seperate battery charger is included in the package.
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br /The supplied software is for basic editing. It's similar to the one supplied with Panasonic SDR-H18, but this s/w takes AVCHD format only. I have used the Panasonic software for basic editing (cut unwanted scenes, add transition between scenes, add title, music etc), so it's not that bad and the menu's are almost the same. But my Turion 64 laptop is too old/slow to edit the AVCHD format, so I'm collecting the videos for future editing with faster computer.
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br /You can read the professional reviews on cnet.com and camcorderinfo.com which gives you indepth analysis.
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br /I compared Sony HDR-SR11 before buying, but HG20 beat SR11 with price, quality and performance and is worth every penny.

Please read the other reviews to get an idea of how this camcorder runs for a consumer/pro-sumer camera.
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br /I just wanted to point out for those that are not PC users but instead own an Apple Mac Pro or any other Mac computer that can run High Def. that the software that comes with this is for PC. Yes I know you can run "Bootcamp" or "Parallels" and run Windows that way. But for those who want it native on your Mac with software for your Mac, it won't run.
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br /The only reason why the software is so important is that since the files are recorded/digitized on the HG20's hard drive vs a physical tape, the file names are not the common video file names that are currently out there (.mov,.avi, etc). The file names used are ".mts". So you think you can just drag and drop to your computer from the camcorder. Or if you've already done that, you've tried double clicking the file. But still nothing. And that's why it's so important to note the extension of ".mts"
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br /What the software does or should do is convert the files from the camcorder so you'll be able to see your video and even edit it. But since it's for PC, Mac users are out of luck. I knew about the AVCHD file extension situation so that's why my rating is still a four star. A five star would be an Apple Mac friendly software shipped with the camcorder.
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br /A solution after some digging and some other users' Reviews:
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br /iMovie08 ($79)
br /VoltaicHD ($35)
br /?? Final Cut Studio 2 ($1299) Haven't tested
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br /(again as of Dec. 2008 - the HD industry might have better solutions to deal with this new AVCHD file/.mts extension.)
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br /I would test VoltaicHD first. They have a demo but reading some reviews, file conversion can take hours.
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br /iMovie08 though can read and import the video from the HG20 just fine.
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br /But....
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br /exporting it out to a ".mov" file extension for other software to use like After Effects or Premiere can only export to size that is 960x540px which is not "True" HD which is 1920x1080px. It is actually half the dimensions of HD.
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br /Now why does iMovie do this? I don't know.
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br /To conclude, that's my only caution about buying this or any other HD camcorder that records on the Hard Drive that records 1920x1080. So if you see AVCHD, be warned that it's a fairly new file format and getting your video from your camcorder to to your computer might cause some headache.

I have owned the HG20 for one week and am amazed with the clarity of the HD picture especially in low-light conditions. Definitely need a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable for playback to LCD TV's. Very happy with the performance. Autofocus is very smooth. Battery life is limited but once you have the extra battery, there's no problem....

I got this small baby about a month back from Amazon for an excellent deal. I spent some good hours on this by trying both video and photo in almost all the available setting.
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br /Pros :
br /Picture quality is amazing. I assure you that you can't get better than this if your budget is below $1000.
br /Very handy, sleek, light weight to shoot the moving objects and image stabilizer works pretty good.
br /Very intuitive settings and control mode. No need to spend hours to learn.
br /If you have a reasonable light, the results are very close to some high-end camcorders.
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br /Cons:
br /The first and foremost - it looks like the outer body is made up of some cheap plastic. It's not sturdy.
br /Your index finger should be at least 4 inches long to reach the click button if you take still picture. I think this is just because of the hard drive.
br /It comes with some basic software which is very poor for you to manage your videos and photos. (Probably I haven't spent good time to research)
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br /Actually I took some videos at higher resolution and used Nero to convert it to DVD format and burned it in DVD. When I played the same in my PS3 with 1080i, it's very close to 1080i resolution streamed directly from CAMRA to my TV through HDMI.
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br /I also recommend to get additional battery (will be bulky) for your travel.
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br /On the whole (4.8 out of 5) I strongly recommend this baby if you are looking to buy a decent camcorder without draining your bank account.

I got this camcorder as a gift for my boyfriend. he had an older camcorder that took tapes. he loves the camera, great look and feel. Lighter than we both thought it would be and absolutely amazing.
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br /also, Amazon is the best website for shopping!! I have never had an issue with getting my products when dealing directly with Amazon! thank you so much and have a great holiday season!

The Camera is AWESOME. The image quality is breathtaking. The physical size of the camera is very reasonable, easy to carry.
br /Just a note for those who may want to record in high definition but do not have HD equipment. You will need a software to convert HD recording to MPEG 4 format.
br /The Camera package would be much better if Canon did include a charger with the camera. Now that said, it is good to order a charger (which is easy to travel with and is 110/220 V.
br /Since this is not a camera issue per say, I have 5 stars to this camera.

I was able to find this camcorder for [...] including free shipping at [...]
br /great price for a great camcorder

Recently got the HG20. Am fairly pleased with the perform of the camera, so all is good there. Unfortunately, I'm not so happy with the editing software. It's incredibly basic, and has a lot of issues.
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br /Initially I was having some issues with this software using my laptop (which I discovered is a tad under spec with having only a Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2GHz), so I installed it on a friend's new computer which is over spec'd with a Quad CPU processor and more than enough memory. The software requires at least a Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz. Thankfully, his system solved most of the blips I was originally seeing on my laptop, however, there were still many small pauses in the small editing screen playback feature. For example, if I put two different clips together, the playback feature worked fine up until it reached the second clip, after which the CPU went from being ~50% busy to 100% busy, which created many small pauses in the movie as the sound continues. When adding a transition between clips (such as a Fade into the second clip), or if I added words (Titler) to one of the clips, the CPU again jumped from ~50% to 100% busy and then many small pauses were seen. If you can live with this, the final saved version comes out fine once saved and created, but its not a nice program for making a movie requiring precision. To put this in more perspective, I've been using Windows Movie Maker for the past few months using the film footage from my digital camera, which I would say is a fairly basic program. However, Windows Movie Maker has a lot more options and freedom as compared to the HG20 software, called ImageMixer 3. What I've initially noticed that I'm not liking is that I cannot overlap text, and there's no 90-degree rotation option (although you may not want to do this with widescreen shots), and there's no features such as slowing or speeding up your footage. As a small example, Windows movie maker allows text that is fading away to be overlapped with text that is fading in so that you have a very quick transition between text. With ImageMixer 3, you have to wait for your first set of text completely fade away before you can have new set of text begin to fade in.
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br /In summary, the very basic Windows Movie Maker is a much better editing software than the ImageMixer software designed for the HG20, which comes with a lot of pausing even with a sytem that has specs better than is required. If you buy this camera, which is good, you should consider trying to find something else to edit your movies with.