Canon Vixia series - thoughts??

[Chris Gullikson]

I am finally thinking of upgrading from my trusty Hi8 and going to an HD format. I am really leaning towards a compact camera, this is not solely for chasing.

I am really considering the HF11 which is a 32 gig internal flash , 24Mbps, AVCHD with excellent low light reviews.
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-Vixia-HF11-Camcorder-Review-35436.htm

Also considering the HG20 which has a built in 60 gig hard drive but have concerns with failures and data loss.

I am totally new with HD - is the AVCHD going to a major pain to work with? All I really want to do for now is simple cuts and splices. Should I also be looking at a flashed based SD camera if HD is going to a major pain to work with?

Help!!

 

[Jason Foster]

A buddy of mine bought the HG20 and the only two things are the CMOS and lightning (I can see the difference). I also don't like how the image stabilizer works when your camera is on a tripod and zoomed in...it's gets shaky, just the opposite of what you want. You can turn the image stabilizer off, and that takes care of the problem, but it's not a fast maneuver, and can get rather annoying (I get annoyed when my buddy has to fuss with it in the middle of shooting).

 

[David Schuttler]

I just bought a Vixia HF S100 last week. I'm still learning but you can see some you tube samples Here and Here . I am currently uploading 2 more , one is sort of macro after unscrewing the wide angle lens and using the back end.

 

[Paul Knightley]

As I've mentioned in the other thread about HD cams, I've gone for the Canon Vixia HV30, with tape. From what I've taped so far it's very nice!

 

[Dave Marshall]

Consider this purchase carefully. I've got a Vixia HF100...and I hate it.

I don't hate the camera really. It takes some phenomenal video. It's relatively intuitive, and the flash memory cards are way convenient. If this was a miniDV camera, I'd be shouting from the mountain tops that it was great. The AVCHD format, however, is a colossal pain in the ass. Converting is a slow, painful process, and MUST be done before it will play on any third party player except players specifically designed for the AVCHD format. May the gods help you if you want to keep it in 1080i. The conversion on a high end dual core machine takes at least 2-3 minutes for every minute of video converted in 1080i. For DVD quality video (4MBit 720x480x29.97fps, <50% quality of the original) it's more like 45 seconds per minute. The most popular conversion software, AVSConverter, has such high end features as completely dropping your audio from custom conversion profiles for MPEG2 (which is what TV stations are going to want).

If you're on a laptop trying to do the conversion, double the times above, at least.

It's maddening. It's ALMOST worth it, if you have the time to invest in REALLY working through the learning curve and figuring all the little bugs out. Do NOT expect to pull the camera out of the box and take video to the TV station that day. I've had mine 4 months and I only got my first decent video to a TV station yesterday (after fighting for 3 hours with it). These AVCHD cameras have come a long way in the last 2 generations, but it will be another generation or two at least before they can compete with miniDV cameras in every way.