Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom | 
| Brand: Canon
List Price: $999.99
Buy New: $634.99
You Save: $365.00 (37%)
New (32) Used (1) from $799.99
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 77
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Monitor Size: 270
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 12
Digital Zoom: 200
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 57
Minimum Focal Length: 4.8
Maximum Resolution: 2070000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 5.1 x 2.9 x 2.5
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: HF10
Model: HF10
UPC: 013803091991
EAN: 0013803091991
ASIN: B001144JQU
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Capture high-defintion video to 16 GB internal flash drive or SDHC cards | | • | 12x optical zoom; SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer | | • | 24p Cinema Mode; 30p Progressive Mode | | • | 2.7-inch widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD | | • | Simultaneous photo capture |
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Product Description
With widescreen TV and HDTV approaching as a viewing standard, it's sensible that home video be compatible. That's the philosophy behind Canon's VIXIA HF10 HD Camcorder. You can have stunning AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) format recording with the ease and numerous benefits of Flash Memory - No discs or tapes required! It's used in most innovative electronic products such as notebook computers, MP3 players, and cell phones. Record to both the camcorder's 16 GB internal memory and a removable SDHC card, extending your available recording space and offering added flexibility in file transfer and playback. The HF10 has a 3.3 Megapixel Full HD CMOS sensor and advanced DIGIC DV II Image Processor, SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization, Instant Auto Focus, our 2.7" Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD and the Canon 12x HD video zoom lens. With 1920x1080 video captures, you're ready for the best HDTV display. SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization Instant AF (Auto Focus) 2.7 Multi-Angle Vivid Widescreen LCD Superb Shooting Control 24p Cinema Mode / 30p Progressive Mode Mini HDMI Terminal and Mini Advanced Accessory Shoe / HDMI Terminal for up to 1080i support Bundled Pixela ImageMixer Software Built-in Electronic Lens Cover USB 2.0 Hi-Speed for digital video streaming and ultra-fast transfer of movies and photos Wireless Remote Control Canon 1 Year Parts/Labor Limited Warranty Unit Dimensions - (WxHxD) 2.9 x 2.5 x 5.1 in (73x64x129mm); 13.4 oz
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Finally an AVCHD Camcorder worth buying April 4, 2008
Educated Parent (Bethesda, MD United States)
108 out of 109 found this review helpful
I had the award-winning HDV (tape-based) HV20 prior to this, and the HF10 is almost indistinguishable in terms of image quality. Given the dramatic difference in image data between an HDV image and an AVC image, that means this is one heck of a camcorder. I have tried out other AVC camcorders and have been really disappointed. Not so here, and I purchased this one. It has 24p and 30p recording, in addition to 60i. (Don't be confused by Canon's nomenclature, it is true 24p, just recorded in interlaced 60i.) The cinema mode has a bit of a wash-out effect on colors. The camcorder is surprisingly small. Power save mode is great, and is virtually instantaneously on when the LCD screen is opened. One warning about AVC in general, if you don't have a fast computer, it will grind it to a halt. I have a quad-core with 4 gig RAM and editing is fine, but I wouldn't want to use an old computer. Sony Vegas works great with the files. Wish the camcorder automatically saved to the SDHC card when the internal storage was full. Otherwise, this is the best thought out camcorder since my DVX-100. Nice to occasionally see consumer products worth their expense.
Love/Hate relationship May 3, 2008
SFjarhead
99 out of 110 found this review helpful
The Canon HF100 is the same as the Canon HF10, except it has no internal memory (the HF10 has 16GB) and the HF100 is $200 cheaper. For $75 I can buy a 16GB SDHC card which works great with the camera;... you do the math.. ~ three 16GB cards for the same price has the HF10 which only has 16GB of memory (but can take external cards also)
Records video at Standard Definition (SD), 720p and 1080p (also takes still shots) This is a must for those that have upgraded to an HD TV and want to watch their home movies in HD.
Here Be Dragons...
If all you want to do is watch your videos directly from the camera, no problem; comes with composite and component cables (will take HDMI sold seperately) However, if you actually want to save your videos, without buying new SDHC cards, then there are a few hiccups. The camera will download to your PC, but only in the format filmed; no filming in HD then downloading in SD. It will capture the HD you filmed in, but the software will not edit the HD format and you will be hard pressed to find a codec that will play the H.264 format nicely.
Here's my problem. I want to film my son's soccer games in 1080p for viewing on my 57" TV, so I film in 1080p. His coach, along with 1/2 the parents, want SD because they still use DVD players, while I can play the HD via my PS3. I tried many video capture/editting software to capture the HD I film in; nothing recognizes my camera. If I film in SD, everything works great, but this defeats my primary reason of wanting HD (so I can view on my 57" TV, thereby justifying to the wife that HD is worth it...) So, here's what I do. I film in HD, 1080p, use the Canon DVD burner that connects directly to the camera (sold seperately $250) to capture 1080p source (by the way, no blue rays reqiured, a 1 hour soccer game fits nicely on 2 standard DVDs; 1 half per disk - that can then be played back via my PS3) For the coach, and the rest of the parents, I use a Pinnacle 500-usb Video Capture box (about $50) This little device was intended for turning VHS tapes into DVDs. But just plug into the composite output of the camera, and into the usb of your PC, and your PC DVD burner will make the 1 hour of 1080p video into 1hour of 480p on a normal DVD; plus the Pinnacle software also allows you to edit anf make menus and all the good stuff that the HD software hasn't really caught up with yet.
Very nice camera. Be aware of AVCHD limitations. May 28, 2008
Mark (North Carolina, USA)
73 out of 76 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic camera but people need to have more realistic expectations of what to expect from AVCHD. It is a highly compressed format so using this camera in low-light conditions is going to produce pretty "grainy" results. In good lighting AVCHD output from this camera can produce some really great looking results in HD but don't kid yourself into thinking you're going to get professional HDTV quality. This is a point-and-shoot.
I love the camera, especially how fast it focuses in good light, so I'm going to concentrate on what some of the other reviewers said to correct some misconceptions.
I use both Macs and PC and I have to tell you that you that PCs suck for AVCHD - you will waste a lot of time and pull your hair out. I'm sure PC video software vendors will address this eventually, but seriously folks if you want to do this the easy way get an Intel-based Mac (caveat: only Intel based machines using Leopard support AVCHD) and use either iMovie or Final Cut Express 4. Both of these programs (iMovie 08 and FCE4) just LOVE this camera (and two other Sony AVCHD cameras I've tried as well) and they work like a charm. Video making has never been this easy. FCE4 lets you mix AVHCD, HDV and SD video on the same timeline and save in whatever format you want so it's worth the $200 if you want to do that or have more exacting control over your videos. It is basically a (lightly) stripped-down version of Apple's excellent professional video software (Final Cut Pro) and it is very good. For most home videos iMovie 08 (which comes in iLife 08) will be just fine.
I've had no problem transferring the movies directly from the camera but, as mentioned earlier, you do need to have the camera plugged into the AC to do it. You can avoid plugging the camera into your Mac to transfer the files if you're only recording on SDHC cards, rather than internal memory on the HF10, but it works just fine. For this reason I would recommend buying the HF100 (over the HF10) and getting an extra 16Gb memory card or two. You will save money that way and have more flexibility. I bought the HF10 because I had to have it the next day and, at the time, the HF100s were delayed a bit. Transcend's excellent 16Gb SDHC Class 6 card comes with a nifty little card reader for only $78.98 here on Amazon, you can get two of them for less than the $200 difference in price between the HF10 and HF100 so you'll have 32gb to work with instead of 16gb for less money. I don't mind having the internal memory as a backup but you pay more than it is worth for it.
The video camera is just acting like a USB reader when you connect it to your Mac anyway - it is the file layouts that the software recognizes. When read in and converted to Apple Intermediate Codec at 1920x1080 they will balloon in size. If you want to store the raw video in a more compressed way you can simply copy the root directory of the card to another directory and copy it back again later. If you're working with AVCHD you need to buy the biggest hard drives you can afford. 60 minutes of video will use up something like 50Gb of storage on your Mac when converted to 1920x1080. If you just want great looking home video to show on your HDTV, but don't want to go broke on hard drives, Apple offers to import the movies at a slightly lower resolution (960x540) which takes up a LOT less space with very little drop in quality. I have been making home videos and showing them on an Apple TV at that resolution and they look stunning. The quality difference between that resolution and full HD isn't that big of a deal.
If want to try to get truly professional-quality video you should avoid AVCHD cameras and stick to the HDV format concentrating on cameras with larger sensors. But this is great camera for HD home videos at a great price.
The user interface on this camera is slow and clunky. Sony's AVCHD cameras have a better interface (using a touch screen) but you can still watch back the videos (which is the main thing you'll do) and it beats the heck out of a tape camera. I wish they had added a dial or button set for adjust exposure and/or backlighting control on the camera. The joystick works surprisingly well for this however in bright light the screen gets washed out enough that it is hard to tell if your exposure is really that great or not. This is where a viewfinder would really help. But these are minor nits because the camera does a good job at exposure control on its own.
As I said earlier this is a very compact point-and-shoot camera that shoots HD video and for that it's excellent.
 OK overall. April 16, 2008
Phillip Ushijima (IL United States)
60 out of 89 found this review helpful
This is my first HD camcorder so I can't really compare it to others. But my expectations of what a full 1920x1080 camcorder should be have not been met.
I have shot scenes in both 1080/60i and 1080/30p at the highest quality possible - 17Mbps. The images seem softer than I'd prefer even with the digital sharpening enabled. This must either be the lens or the sensor based on my experience with digital still cameras. Either way I was disappointed. The compression artifacts and/or noise reduction being performed also degrade the video quality to a point below what I would expect. Even in ample light, the texture of fine hair and textiles is lost lending to a plastic appearance. In low light, noise levels are about what I expected. It is not terrible like I've seen in samples from older AVCHD cameras and other small flash cameras like the Sanyo Xacti. Notably, noise levels and exposure were markedly improved in 30p mode vs. 60i mode.
The built-in video light is next to useless. I couldn't get the right color balance, the throw distance is poor and it's too narrow. The built-in flash is too bright without manual adjustment. The camera's ports are all hidden behind plastic doors attached with thin plastic strips that ruin the otherwise solid-feeling build of the camera. There are several functions that are only accessible by scrolling through menus for which I would have preferred having dedicated buttons to manipulate (auto/manual focus, exposure compensation and manual white balance in particular). The placement of the some controls is awkwards. I have small hands so I felt a small camcorder should work well. But it is difficult for me to reach the power button with the hand holding the camera. I can't actually bend my thumb back far enough to activate the start/stop button with the pad of my thumb - it hits rights around the inside of my thumb's knuckle. The zoom lever is sensitive and smooth. The mode dial is difficult to operate with the hand holding the camera.
I do like the weight of the camera. I like the appearance. I like how quiet it is. My previous Mini-DV camera produced videos with wonderful whirring tape motor and zoom motor background sounds. This one has no noticable background noises aside from when on-camera controls are manhandled. I like being able to transfer the recordings directly to my computer in a fraction of the time that the recordings represent. My Mini DV camera transferred at a 1:1 ratio.
I don't like that the software I use (iMovie) can't read the recordings directly unless they are on camera. I have to trick it by putting a previously transferred recording onto a memory card and inserting it while iMovie is running. The recordings take several times their length to import into iMovie on my Intel C2D 2.16 GHz iMac because it converts them into an intermediate format for editing. These are issues with my software, not the camera, but Mac users should be aware of this since besides professional level editing software iMovie seems like to only option for handling AVCHD video on the Mac.
I am considering returning or selling the camera in the hope that something better will come along. I don't have a need to capture HD video so I can wait.
 Numerous quirks not mentioned in reviews April 29, 2008
Bryan F. (Madison, WI USA)
47 out of 52 found this review helpful
While I wanted to like this camera (and use it to replace my Canon HV10), the growing list of annoyances and downright bugs are making me doubt this purchase. I can't find too many faults with the technical aspects of the camera (which all the reviews on the web seem to focus on). But trying to use it gives me a lot of frustrations. Notably:
1) As mentioned in another comment, you cannot extract video over USB without the camera also being plugged in to its AC adapter. Period. Yet you can extract pictures without external power. This makes no sense and is quite a drawback to anyone who wants to pull video off it in a hurry or to a laptop away from an AC outlet.
2) The ability to take still pictures during video recording is greatly hindered by the fact that it will often (always?) not let you take more than one picture until you stop recording and let everything get written out to memory.
3) Many aspects of the interface are maddeningly slow (particularly when displaying picture/video thumbnails). With only a dozen still pictures saved in my camera, switching to "view pictures" mode takes 10+ seconds, and flipping between pictures takes several seconds. Expect to see a lot of "READING MEMORY" messages. I've even had it hang up entirely just when switching between modes, requiring me to pull the battery.
4) The "premium" of built-in memory in the HF10 doesn't seem worth it. The camera treats it and the SD slot as distinct storage areas you have to manually select and switch between. Unless you are going to use the internal memory exclusively, you might be better off with the less complicated HF100 and a big SD card.
This is a nice camera in many technical respects, but in my mind falls flat in the implementation. The interface is littered with various "DO THIS/DON'T DO THIS" messages; too bad they didn't spend the time to eliminate the need for the messages instead.
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