REVIEW: Canon HFS10 / HFS100 High Definition Camcorder

June 15, 2009 by admin · Comments 

I am a member of the Amazon Vine Program. Each month Amazon.com sends me products to review on their site. This month I received the Canon VIXIA HFS10 high definition camcorder..

The HFS10, like any good consumer camcorder, features an excellent facial recognition system, lightening fast auto focus, built in lens cover, etc. But it also has enough manual control to give aspiring amateurs their first lessons in controlling image and audio quality manually.

The manual control set includes white balance, focus, audio, shutter speed, and aperture settings. These controls are not buried in a host of menus – they can be brought front and center when needed. Each component can be turned on separately, allowing you to learn one concept (white balance for example) while the camera still automatically handles focus and exposure.

Canon also included a microphone port – something which nearly every consumer camera is now abandoning. Thankfully Canon knows that good video requires good audio! One of the first steps to ‘upping the game’ is using external microphones to enhance and focus the sound coming into the camcorder.

The bottom line is that Canon has produced a camera that’s very easy to use right out of the box, yet also serves as a tremendous learning platform for aspiring hobbyists (or even future filmmakers) to learn about the key concepts of professional video production.

There are two models available, the other being the HFS100. The only difference between the two (besides price) is that the HFS100 does not have on board memory. Given the low cost of flash memory these days, you might want to consider the HFS100 over the HFS10.

If you have a loved one showing some talent in video production and are looking to graduate them out of a Flip camera, this is the camera to consider. Along with a book on amateur video composition of course.

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