emarketplace blog

A compact and stylish digital camcorder has become an indispensable attribute of a contemporary tourist – just the way trendy sunglasses or a good sun-protective cream are.

With Sony and Panasonic both making solid breakthroughs into the market this year and unexpected bright performances from their inferiors -- Samsung and Sanyo, buying a new camcorder is likely to become a hard decision to make. But you won’t have to choose between the top contenders if you have already formed a sort of a particular brand loyalty.

If you have your personal preference set on Canon video camcorders, you are sure to rejoice at the newly released Canon VIXIA HF20 high definition video camcorder. The new Canon VIXIA HF20 digital video camera listed in the line of the manufacturer’s 2009 top camcorders is $300 less expensive than its older sister, Canon HF11. At a relatively inexpensive price you get a digital camcorder with 32GB of internal flash memory stuffed with a handful of the features which made the HF11 a favorite last year.

Canon Vixia HF20 is nearly identical to Canon Vixia HF 200, they are only different in 2 ways. One is that HF20 is smaller and has an all-black body. The other is that HF20 has 32 GB of installed memory while HF 200 doesn’t have any. That makes the camcorder a little bit more expensive and supposedly a little bit of a better buy.

The Canon Vixia HF20 has a sleek, lightweight and functional design and is notable for its optical zoom and image processing characteristics. Not only it is small, it is smaller than HF10, but the camera is very comfortable to use and shoots very nice videos. It also has a surprisingly broad manual feature set:

• Audio level control
• Good set of scene modes and auto controls
• Control over the shutter speed
• Decent amount of options and settings for photos
• Microphone input
• Headphone jack
• Accessory shoe for HF20 accessories

All of this is what many camcorders of the size lack. The Canon Vixia HF20′s ports are properly concealed with plastic shields, so that you feel at ease to take the video cam wherever you go and use the camcorder battery and charger on the go.

In HF20 Canon has also redesigned its menu system and you are sure to like the so-called “fly-up” menus, which give an access to a lot of shooting controls. There is also a new feature called video snap, which takes 4 seconds video snap shots when you press the record button. The camcorder has a 15x zoom lens, really sharp to shoot impressive videos. Low light videos are solid, there is a little bit of noise, but you’ll still find it pretty acceptable.

The only drawback of this portable HD camcorder is probably the price, which ranges from $750 to $899 on eBay. Amazon sells it now for $799. It is freshly released and is a little bit more expensive than its competitors, but if you want the manual features, this is probably the best option.

If you are a budget-conscious camcorder user, the HF200 is probably a better buy than the HF20, though it lacks internal memory and the sleek all-black body of the classier looking HF20. So, set your priorities and make you choice to fully enjoy the brilliance of Canon HD video!

Video Review of Canon Vixia HF20

Video Sample of Canon Vixia HF20 (day and night)

Canon Vixia HF20 Image Review

Canon Vixia HF20 Accessories

Canon WP-V1 Waterproof Case

Wednesday April 29, 2009