Digital 8 Camcorders Digital8Camcorders.com is your one-stop source for information about digital 8 camcorders.

1. 

   Kevin McMurtrie
   April 10th, 2010 - 22:50

   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.

   ———

   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 1440×1080 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 1920×1080, 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.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. 

   Mark Siffer
   April 11th, 2010 - 00:15

   This camera has serious problems. First, if you want to burn a high-def disc, what canon doesn’t tell you is you need their dw-1000 burner costing hundreds of dollars and blue-ray burnable dvds. Oh, you want to play that burnt disc, you will need a blue-ray dvd player. Ok, so maybe you want to just burn a regular dvd? Well, you will need an intel 16-quad core, 2^32 gb of ddram and about 4 weeks computing time. Of course, why would you want to buy a high-def video recorder to burn standard dvd? Oh you want an avi or mpeg? Forget it! The software that comes with the camera is absurd. First, it is replete with spelling and grammatical errors – should make you feel confident! Then it is virtually unusable. Canon actually told me to purchase sony vegas dvd software for hundreds of dollars too. I told them no way and they said try IMovie 08 – of course on a pc, that is not too easy to do! And if you want support, forget it, you are on your own. The goal of canon support when I contacted them was to simply get me off the phone – not really a problem since they knew next to nothing. Oh and you want to take a pic with the camera, better get yourself a micro-sd memory card – sure their is 40gb of hard-disk space but you can’t use any of it for your 800kb crappy picture. And when plugging in to usb, even if the battery is charged, you must have the power cable in. And good luck focusing in on anything in close range. The camera never can so it just continues to adjust the focus constantly. Long story short, I would not pay $50 for this camera.
   Rating: 1 / 5
3. 

   Alan Bailey
   April 11th, 2010 - 00:57

   Borrowed this camera from a friend to compare to my 3-year-old HDV-based Sony. Here’s what I found:

   1- Shoots great HD. Easy to use and very functional.

   2- Plugs into my intel-based iMac via usb. Transfers easily, but TWICE as slowly as from my Sony.

   3- Since the format is being converted to allow the files to play nice with iMovie, the end result is that the AVCHD is dumbed down a bit, just as with HDV. Side by side comparison of the final product (DVDs made in iDVD) is that they both end up looking just about the same.

   So, I’m sticking with my antique HDV tape-based rig and waiting for someone to come out with a consumer HD camera that creates a format compatible with Quicktime without having to modify the files.

   Are you listening Canon? Make a camera that allows me (and everyone else) to drag and drop the digital files into iMovie or FCP and i’ll be first in line to buy it!!
   Rating: 2 / 5
4. 

   Benjamin Manning
   April 11th, 2010 - 02:06

   The Motion artifacts were a disappointment. I am NOT a tech, but based on research, I understand the following:
   
   1) [From United States Patent 5313280 Description] A typical television signal, when digitized, produces a data stream of about 100 to 150 megabits per second (Mbps) before compression. Compressed video data streams usually range from 56 kilobits per second (kbps) to 45 Mbps. The receiving codec expands or decompresses the digital signal, then converts it back to an analog video format for display.

   The process of compressing and decompressing the signal introduces defects, called motion artifacts in the received video image. These artifacts are readily observable when the video signals are displayed. Such well known motion artifacts include (1) blocking, where the received video image has rectangular or checkerboard patterns not present in the original image; (2) blurring or smearing, where the received video image has lost edge detail present in the original; (3) image persistence, where an old or previous image remains on the monitor; (4) jerkiness, where the original smooth continuous motion is perceived as a series of snapshots.

   For a given codec, higher compression ratios (lower transmission rates) will generally produce more noticeable motion artifacts. For example, when a signal is compressed to 56 kbps (a compression ratio of over 1000:1), the resulting motion artifacts are obvious to observers. At the lower compression ratio (about 3:1) that produces 45 Mbps transmission, most observers cannot detect the motion artifacts.

   2) Canon HG10 is capable of 24 Mbps transmission, but for some reason limits it to 15 Mbps transmission. This requires a higher compression ratio, resulting in more motion artifacts.

   3) When will Canon a) Increase transmission to 24 Mbps, or b) invent a better AVCHD Codec to be less lossy?
   Rating: 3 / 5
5. 

   Rajesh Behra
   April 11th, 2010 - 03:07

   After reading all the positive reviews on this site and doing ton of research I figured out there are no really good consumer camcorders that were released in 2007. I did not want to wait till next yeat for a better model coz’ I needed something for my trip next month. All the available makes and models had some flaw or the other. So I decided to settle down with Canon Hg10 coz’ it had some of the featues that the other cameras were missing like the inbuilt light, wind filter etc.

   But now after having it for a month, I’m not happy with my pick.
   
   The camcorder works really good but it is missing a really important feature and that is “shooting in slow motion or 240 fps shooting mode”.
   
   They say you can achieve this using some editing software but the software doesn’t create smooth flowing slow motion clip like we see in the movies and here on youtube.
   
   Sony SR7 has that mode and many other camcorders has that. This option lets you shoot some really cool slow smooth flowing videos. Canon hg10 has only two modes 60i ie. 30 fps and the most hyped 24p.
   
   I was really disappointed coz of this and now since I had this camera for over a month I can’t return it. So if you guys are into slow motion videos, then this camera is not for you. Also the software that comes withe the camera is very cheesy, pretty basic. I guess they want you to go spent few hundred extra bucks and buy a good software.

   24p is highly overrated. I did not see any huge difference. I was sold by this feature but I now realise that it was a marketing gimmick. Don’t let this be a deciding factor in your purchase.

   Hope this review helps.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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