A Man and His Camera, BFF (Canon HV20 Review)
Posted by Keith · February 28th, 2008Oh, how I love these wonderful toys! Let me tell you, whenever the big boss man sidles into the office with a new gadget or gizmo under his arm and tosses it on my desk with instructions to test its worth, well it’s as good as Christmas to a big nerd like myself. I poke and prod every inch, field-testing it to within an inch of its warranty, all in the name of consumer gratification. That’s right, we run these machines through the ropes simply to let you know how they perform.
My most recent encounter was with the Canon HV20 camcorder, a camera with the ability to shoot in the HDV codec, meaning that when programmed to do so, it records with 1080 lines of resolution (a big improvement from the 720 lines found in typical mini-DV NTSC). I feel my first obligation is to explain to you the difference between HD and HDV. Many retailers will label this an HD camera, but don’t expect to see quality comparable to what you get on your HD television. Just like high definition programming, this camera can record the full 1080 lines of resolution, theoretically capturing an equally crisp and defined image. However, the medium, which this and many other HDV camcorders record to, is still mini-DV tapes. To fit onto the magnetic strips of these tapes, the image must be dramatically compressed, degrading the quality of the HD image by a significant amount.Don’t be discouraged just yet, for while you won’t get true HD quality out of these reasonably-priced cameras, you’re still getting a heap more than you would from a standard definition HD camera. That being stated, on to the Canon HV20.To begin with, I downright dig this camera. Canon’s operations are always user friendly, and this model is no different.The menu is easily navigable and the interface is intuitive.With no prior training on this model, I was able to pick it up, pop in a tape, and start recording. The most dramatic feature many will notice first is the camera’s incredible zoom capability. It only has a 10X optical zoom (the zoom that takes place in the lens) but the 40X digital zoom offers results the likes of which I’ve never seen in a consumer camera. I was able to zoom in to minute detail from great distances with very little image degradation.The downside is the camera’s low light performance. The zoom capabilities are hindered dramatically when light ambiance is insufficient. But outdoors, the images look top-notch. The camera has a “cinemode”, which the manual touts as providing “cinema-like quality”, but I found that all it did was de-saturate the image slightly and add motion-blur.However, overall the images captured were crisp, the operations were easy to understand, and the performance was excellent. But the best news I bring to you regarding this camera is that it’s hardly a new model, having appeared on the market last year (which makes it middle-aged in digital years). In fact, Canon has just recently released the HV30, a theoretical step up from the HV20, though the only difference appears to be a black-colored coating and several minuscule features that hardly anyone can distinguish.So, due to it’s “out-datedness,” the HV20 can be found in many places, like the B&H Photo Video store and Amazon, for under $700. This makes it, by far, the best camera for the price-range. You can bet I’ll be nudging the big cheese in the ribs on the back 9 with hopes of acquiring one for future office enjoyment. Sphere: Related Content
Email This Post
Tags: Canon HV20, Review | Posted in Video Production and Publishing |
Subcribe to our RSS feed
