Canon Vixia HV40 camcorder

[Jason Boggs]

Just bought this little gem on B&H photo. I have a cheap Panasonic 3CCD camcorder that takes decent video, but i wanted to go to HD, and get a camera with better functions, and the HV40 fits the bill. An instant savings of $300 brings it down to 649. I've heard lots of good things about this camera, and from the reviews and youtube videos, I can see why. If you're in the market for an HD camera with infinity focus along with a manual focus, jump on this deal because it only lasts through March. B&H PHOTO CANON HV40

HERE ARE A FEW SAMPLES OF WHAT THIS CAMERA CAN DO:

daylight overcast raw footage

HV40 test

low light test

test footage

test footage2

Of course when it comes in, I'll have my own video and review of the camera.

 

[brandongreen]

remember.... http://www.hv20.com is your friend.

 

[Jason Boggs]

remember.... http://www.hv20.com is your friend.

Yep, I'll definitely be going on that forum if I have questions or want to find something out. Thanks for the link!

 

[D. Hayes]

Wow that low light test is good! I need to tinker a bit more with my HV30.

 

[Paul Knightley]

A good buy - I have an HV30 and the footage which comes out of it is great (watch in 1080p HD):

e.g.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJeR4tjAeE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQHOnv6xYJM

Low light seems to work best when I use the HDV25 setting along with the cinematic pre-set - I think for NTSC cams this would be the HDV30 setting.

On the vids above, the 1st one (TX supercell from last May) is in HDV25 format; the second (the Severn Bore) is in HDV format.

 

[Mark Blue]

The Canon HV Series Rocks

Way cool Jason! I think it's even cheaper than when my wife bought mine for Christmas by $50 or so, but I saw that deal on B&H the other night and thought whoever may be interested should jump now because the Mini DV camcorders are getting harder to find.

Brandon Green's posts inspired me to purchase some goodies for my HV-40 and they arrived last week. I bought the B&W 43-52 mm step up ring, the 52 mm Raynox HD Wide Angle Lens, and a 72 mm B&W lens hood. I also bought one of those Pearstone batteries listed underneath the accessories page for the HV-40 on the B&H site. I'll try and get some pixs posted in the very near future. Once you put the other parts on the body it makes the HV-40 look more like a prosumer model. I was so excited last week when I had it put together that I was like a little kid in a candy store.

Of all the aspects storm chasing involves the photography piece has thrown the biggest learning curve at me, but I'm spending a lot of time trying to learn and getting the right equipment I'll need to take some spectacular shots this coming season. I'm really excited to see more and more chasers from Stormtrack picking this model up and look forward to hearing any news you are willing to share about your setup in the future and that goes for anyone who owns this model here on Stormtrack!

 

[Brandon Headley]

I love my HV20! I use it as a dash cam since I got my Canon Xh-A1s. Low light is pretty good with the HV20 and I really haven't had any problems with it. I'm sure the HV40 is even better.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I got the new camcorder today! Woo Hoo!!!

I can already tell that this is going to give me some great footage. Right now I'm going over the manual to get acquainted with my new friend.

I'm really impressed with the automatic instant focus on this thing. When it says instant, it means instant. Of course, the camera will be on manual focus for storm footage, but the auto focus is impressive to say the least. I'm just scratching the surface right now on what this camera can do.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

I'm surprised that so many are opting for the HV series over the new Flash Drive cameras, such as the Sony CX or the Canon HF series...Is there any (quality) drawbacks of the flash drive formats, or is quality the same and it just comes down to personal storage preference?

 

[Bill Hark]

Dustin, I use the HV20 and I definitely prefer the tapes over flash drives. Although I think tapes vs. flash drives has been discussed before, I like having an immediate archive. A broken tape can be spliced together with minimal loss while a corrupted flash drive could mean loss of all data. On impotant video, I import into the computer and make a tape backup. There is the real-time wait for capture into a computer but this is not a major issue for me.

Bill Hark

 

[Jason Boggs]

I'm not sure how true it is, but I hear that HD video is much better on tape than a flash drive source. Again, that's just what I heard.

I'm not too picky on the media, and I already had a mini dv camera, so I had quite a few unused mini dv tapes laying around.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Jason, thanks for sharing this info and getting the thread started. I need to get a new camcorder and have felt frustrated that my budget was limiting the quality I could get, particularly in low light. But this baby looks affordable, and low light obviously isn't a problem for it. Very helpful information from all the contributors.

 

[Chris C Sanner]

I'm not sure how true it is, but I hear that HD video is much better on tape than a flash drive source. Again, that's just what I heard.

I'm not too picky on the media, and I already had a mini dv camera, so I had quite a few unused mini dv tapes laying around.

That's not true at all. Quality wise, there are a number of factors at work which don't just involve the media being recorded on. This is probably from the same people who think bit-rates are a direct measure of video quality, which (again) is far from true.

In a purely practical sense, you can achieve much higher quality with flash based media than tape simply because you have no upward cap on flash media except hardware limitations.

Dustin, I use the HV20 and I definitely prefer the tapes over flash drives. Although I think tapes vs. flash drives has been discussed before, I like having an immediate archive. A broken tape can be spliced together with minimal loss while a corrupted flash drive could mean loss of all data. On impotant video, I import into the computer and make a tape backup. There is the real-time wait for capture into a computer but this is not a major issue for me.

Bill Hark

That's definitely one great advantage to tapes and one thing I do miss about them. However, the benefits of going tapeless with a good secure workflow are just huge towards productivity. If you do your homework and set up things right, you can easily avoid any issues. But really, it's nothing more than personal preference as to which is better at this point. However, as technology continues to progress, tapes will become increasingly irrelevant for sure.

I'm surprised that so many are opting for the HV series over the new Flash Drive cameras, such as the Sony CX or the Canon HF series...Is there any (quality) drawbacks of the flash drive formats, or is quality the same and it just comes down to personal storage preference?

What surprises me also is how few people on ST are overlooking the obvious best option in HD-DSLRs. The old HV line of cameras was good a few years ago, and their low light performance is ok, but they have nothing both on image quality and in low light compared to the HD-DSLRs. The second and third generation models from Canon are very good. The Panasonic's GH1 is what I use, and I can shoot from a much wider range of focal lengths, at better apertures, all while capturing much better quality footage for the same price with better control over the image and no limits on recording time. Pound for pound (or dollar for dollar), no camera measures up to it under $10,000 except maybe another HD-DSLR and the EX1-R from Sony. It'll take some time yet, but in five years or so anyone worth their salt in professional videography will at least be using DSLRs on most jobs simply because of the advantages they offer which video cameras in the sub $10,000 market can't even touch -- much less cheap and comparatively inadequate consumer cams.

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

This is probably from the same people who think bit-rates are a direct measure of video quality, which (again) is far from true.

Interesting...as while "shopping" I've been using Bit-Rates as a gauge of video quality...

I had my mind set on a low end "prosumer" unit, but after a little research, I'm not so sure you don't get more bang for your buck with a higher end Consumer model...

This new model is somewhat intriguing.... http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/671536-REG/Sony_HDR_CX550V_HDR_CX550V_64GB_HD_Handycam.html

Damn near twice as much as last years model (CX500V), but it has some improved features that might make it worth the extra money, including Wider Angle lens, takes SD instead of just Memory DUO (about time Sony did that), and it also records at 24mbs as opposed to only 16 on last years model...$500 seems like a lot for the same series just the new model, but those three features are pretty valuable...

 

[Scott Weberpal]

I prefer tape for the simple ease of storage. For me, having everything on tape and only copying bits and pieces onto my hard drive is much more practical than having to transfer an entire file. I really enjoy being able to transfer the "best" footage and back that up on a hard drive. I'm sure at some point I'll switch over to a tapeless work flow, but right now it's just not practical for me.

My only real beef with tape is recording in HDV allows a maximum resolution of 1440x1080 rather than 1920x1080. If a producer needs video in 1920x1080, it's pretty simple to "stretch" the video when exporting it, which I usually do in H.264.

I also want to stick with my CCD based video camera (Sony FX1) as long as possible. The rolling shutter and "jello effect" issues with CMOS make it less desirable IMO - and I have yet to find an affordable CCD camcorder that uses flash based technology.