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| Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
List Price: $1,299.99
Buy Used: $549.99
You Save: $750.00 (58%)
New (12) from $575.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  148 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 10
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 61
Minimum Focal Length: 6.1
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 3.2 x 3 x 5.1
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: 2183B001AA
Model: 2183B001AA
UPC: 013803087079
EAN: 0013803087079
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 As good as it gets for AVCHD (at present)... December 13, 2007
49 out of 49 found this review helpful
I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong 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. It also works superbly on my Mac with both iMovie and Final Cut Express 4. It is phenomenally easy to work with non-linear video; in my case this probably overrides the loss in quality to HDV.
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...
[UPDATE ONE: Canon has just released new AVCHD camcorders -- the HF10 and HF100 -- that record at the full HD 1920 x 1080 spec. They will offer improved quality, but the bitrate is less than the comparable Canon HDV units, so there will be some losses to compression.]
[UPDATE TWO: one issue with the HG10 regards the use of external microphones. I just recorded three hours of interviews with an external mike mounted to the camera's "flash shoe" accessory attachment point. There is a a low level noise present, which is caused by the microphone picking up the noise from the hard drive. I can probably minimize this in editing, but be careful about your choice of external microphone -- and mount it off-camera if possible!]
Very good video October 22, 2007
42 out of 42 found this review helpful
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.
 Included "digital video software" is only for stills October 11, 2007
36 out of 112 found this review helpful
Update: Roxio's "Toast" handles video from this camera fairly well. The only catch is that the camera segments files at 2GB. Those segments must be manually joined to reconstruct the original video stream. The camera is now usable but I still feel cheated by Canon's false claims of resolution and compatibility. For six months I had a camera that I couldn't use. Poor sound quality still remains an issue.
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The included "digital video software" is only for still images if you have a Mac. Apple's iMovie 08 is just too buggy to use. It is extremely slow, it requires Intel processors, it sets an incorrect crop on the video, it crashes constantly, and it doesn't even edit in HD. You must work around that with various 3rd party software. (JES Deinterlacer, FFMpeg, etc.)
The video from the camera looks good but Canon is lying about the resolution. It's actually 1440x1080 with rectangular pixels. I've had a few cases where the video was totally blown out with excessive contrast. Stopping the recording and starting it back up fixes it. Other times it works well with an excellent dynamic range and color quality. 24p mode is another lie from Canon. 24p mode aligns the shutter speed for 24 fps rather than 30, but the video stream remains 60i. You'll need third party software to deinterlace and convert it to true 24p.
Audio is barely usable because the microphone is aimed straight up. This does a fantastic job of recording wind, airplanes, birds, echoes, and your own breathing. What is directly in front of the camera sounds thin and far away.
I give this camera a very poor rating because of misrepresentation of its features. It is NOT 1920x1080, it does NOT have 24p, and it does NOT have Mac software. Simple post-processing in HD takes several hours and involves too much buggy software. There's plenty of simple software for SD, but I could have bought an SD camera for a lot cheaper. It may be a revolutionary product but that doesn't mean it works correctly.
 Good Camera, Hard Drive Initially Convenient December 22, 2007
35 out of 37 found this review helpful
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):
[...]
Twice Bought. Twice Returned for mechanical failure. April 13, 2008
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
I bought this camera twice from Amazon. Returned it both times.
First time the lens shutter stopped opening when I turned the camera on. Called Canon technical support. They had no idea why it was doing it. They suggested draining the battery down all the way (?) and recharging and trying it again. Did that. The shutter opened half way and that was it. Shipped it back to Amazon thinking defective unit, it happens.
Read several reviews - and everybody seems to agree that HG-10 is the best overall HD-High Def camera around. The videos were pretty good actually, even in the low light and I really could not bring myself to buy a JVC or a Sanyo.
So bite the bullet and buy another HG-10 from Amazon. That unit, believe it or not, worked for exactly two weeks and one morning at work after I had shot 7 episodes of my video blog - it gave me a message - Hard Drive Not Accessible. I sat there for at least 4 minutes, staring at the screen, thinking to myself - this could not be happening to me.
Again.
Called Canon again - lovely bunch of people by the way - and they said, "Well once in a while the hard drives do blow up. Are you sure you got a new unit?" Yes I am sure. "Well you need to ship it back."
And so that camera, with 7 of my videos, went back to Amazon.
I don't know what to say - I like the camera, like the videos, like the easy menus but to see a $800 camera blow up, twice in my hands AND I am paranoid careful about my equipment. I don't know what to say. If you do buy this camera - keep the box, manuals, everything that comes with it - in a safe place for at least 30 days just in case something like this happen to you.
You have been warned!
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