The HV-20 is Canon's "flagship" camcorder, and received "2007 Camcorder of the Year" award. It has the best low-light image quality in it's class (in 24p mode, using 1/48th second shutter speed), and CCI says that it has the overall best image quality of all comparable models.
What I like about the HV-20:
1. High definition 1440x1080i video image, using MPEG-2 compression. The similar Canon HG-10 outputs the full 1920x1080i resolution, but since it uses the more aggressive MPEG-4 compression scheme, it's low light performance suffers. Another advantage of the HV-20 is that MPEG-2 is easier to edit than MPEG-4.
2. Manual focus control that is relatively easy to access. The focus control consists of a button and wheel placed just behind the lens on the left side. The button toggles between manual and auto focus and the wheel effects the actual focussing. A lens-mounted ring would be a lot better, but these have gone by the way side on consumer priced camcorders you have to spend $2500 or more on a semi-pro model to get a focus ring nowadays. WHY MANUAL FOCUS IS IMPORTANT: Digital cameras in general often have trouble focusing in low light or low contrast situations, for example shooting seascapes on a foggy day where everything is shades of gray and outlines are blurry and dim. On auto focus, the camera will "hunt" back and forth trying to lock focus, or will lose lock and start hunting in the middle of a shot, ruining that take. You will get better results if you use manual focus in these conditions.
3. Stereo Microphone jack, mounted on the side instead of the front. If you buy any MiniDV camcorder, you will eventually want to use an external shotgun or lavalier microphone. The built-in mic on almost any MiniDV tape drive camcorder is going to pick up the whine from the tape drive and lens zoom motors; an external mic will eliminate this problem. NOTE: The HV-20's mic jack is a stereo input, so that you can use two separate mics with a y-cable, or a single mic with a Mono-to-Stereo adapter. Radio Shack sells a suitable one for $3.00, their part number is 274-374. I use it with the ATR-55 shotgun and ATR-35 lavalier mics I bought for use with the HV-20. If you don't use this type of adapter, a mono microphone will only give a signal to the left audio channel on the HV-20 camcorder, leaving the right channel silent. The adapter will split the signal from the mic equally to both channels, which sounds better. Canon sells a shotgun mic for this camera that is stereo, and uses the camera's hot shoe, but at $150 it was three time the price of the ATR-55 shotgun, so I passed on it.
4. Ability to do "pass-through" Analog-to-digital transcoding. For example, if you have old family videos shot on VHS or 8mm analog videotape, you can use the "pass-through" capability of the HV-20 to convert the analog video to 720x480i digital video that can then be edited on a computer. You connect a VCR or your old Hi-8 camcorder to the HV-20 with component video cables (that's the red, white, and yellow cables that come with the HV-20), then connect the HV-20 to your computer with a firewire cable. Start the capture software on the computer, then play the analog tape the HV-20 will transcode the analog video to digital video and pass it to the computer. You can then perform whatever type of image clean-up your video software supports, and output your old wedding or baby videos to DVD! Not every camcorder supports this, so it was a bonus feature that drew me to the HV-20.
5. Decent ergonomics. The camera feels pretty good in the hand and the controls are pretty good, with a few exceptions, most notably the zoom rocker, which is very poor compared to the EXCELLENT zoom rocker on Canon's own HG-10. What a shame that the HV-20 doesn't share this zoom rocker with the HG-10! Sony's camcorders generally have better "feel" in the hand than the HV-20, but I wanted the best image quality possible, so ergonomics was secondary in my priorities.
6. Well thought out layout of controls and I/O jacks. Some camcorders place I/O jacks UNDER THE BATTERY, requiring you to remove the battery to use them, meaning that you MUST power the camera with the AC adapter to use these jacks. STUPID! What if you are in the field, and don't have access to any power source other than the camera's battery? Thankfully, the HV-20 doesn't seem to suffer from any bone-head design bloopers like that. I also liked the fact that the HV-20 is fully self-contained, compared to a certain Sony model that does not have a firewire jack on the camera itself: you have to use a "docking station" to download this camera to a computer (another dumb design IMO).
7. 24P shooting mode: This is one of the "key" features on the Canon HV-20 and HG-10, and is really one of the primary features that would lead someone to choose one of these Canon's over a Sony, Panasonic, or JVC high-def camcorder. The primary benefit of 24P seems to be that it substantially improves the camera's low light capability, generally this is because 24p uses 1/48 second shutter speed instead of 1/60th second. In 4-way "shootout" between the 4 top brands of High def camcorders, the HV-20 won the low-light image quality test hands-down. The HG-10 happens to use the same sensor, lens, and DIVIC processing chip as the HV-20, but it's low light capability suffers from compression noise caused by the MPEG-4 (AVCHD) compression algorithm. If the best possible low-light image quality is something you will need from your camcorder, avoid any model using AVCHD compression this includes all current (2007) high-def camcorders that store to DVD, Hard disc, and Flash memory cards.
8. Audio (microphone) input level can be manually controlled. This feature is not available on many other camcorders. However, at highly boosted gain levels, the audio recorded from this camera gets pretty "noisy" use a low impedance (600 ohm) microphone to get best results.
What I don't like about the HV-20:
1. Poor zoom rocker it doesn't stick up out of the camera body enough to offer a really good "grip" to your finger. It's still useable, but could be a lot better, like the HG-10's zoom rocker.
2. The cover over the accessory hot shoe is not attached in any way to the camera, making it inevitable that you will lose it eventually. I will fix this issue by drilling a small hole in the cover and making a lanyard for it out of heavy nylon thread which can then be tied to the camera's hand strap.
3. The joystick that you use to access the camera's menu system feels loose and wobbly, like it isn't the best quality. Joysticks on other digital cameras I've used feel more "solid". I guess for $700, I shouldn't expect the same components that you get on a $8000 professional video camera, but this joystick could have been a little better.
4. The viewfinder is physically fixed, and doesn't extend or swivel. This could be a problem if you use an aftermarket high capacity battery that sticks out from the camera's body (the BP-2L13 and BP2L14 batteries that I got for the camera don't stick out, but there might be some brands of aftermarket batteries that do?). Otherwise, the viewfinder's image quality is okay, and seems to be about the same as those of comparable Sony and Panasonic models.
OTHER ISSUES TO CONSIDER AS YOU RESEARCH A CAMCORDER PURCHASE:
1. Storage media: Currently, High Def camcorders are available that record to one or more of these four media: MiniDV tape, built-in Hard disk drive, MiniDVD-R/RW discs, and SD or MemoryStick (Sony) flash cards. The primary differences here are cost, time capacity and compression algorithm used. MiniDV tapes cost about $3.00 each and hold one hour of HD video at 25 megabits per second, and use HDV (MPEG-2) compression. Hard drive, DVD, and Flash card cameras all use AVCHD (MPEG-4) compression at 15 megabits per second; AVCHD is a much more aggressive type of compression than HDV, and most cameras using it have somewhat poorer image quality in low-light situations. AVCHD is also more difficult and processor intensive to edit, requiring a computer with more power than is needed to edit HDV video. Following are some specific's (keep in mind that the Canon HV-20 uses MiniDV tape):
ADVANTAGES OF MINI-DV TAPE: It's cheap and widely available, costing about $3.00 per one hour of video storage capacity. It's easier to edit HDV video than AVCHD video, and HDV offers better image quality in low light. The tape itself is your archival media, and should last at least 10~15 years if you store it in a suitable container that protects it from moisture, dust, and temperature extremes. NOTE: It takes 3 single-sided DVD's to hold the video from one Mini-DV tape if you want to use DVD's as your back-up archival media.
DISADVANTAGES OF MINI-DV TAPE: Real-time video transfer via Firewire; if you have a full 60 minute tape, it takes 60 minutes of real time to download your video to your computer. Also, the 25 megabit per second bandwidth may be too much for many older computers: even if you already have a Firewire card installed, if your computer's CPU, data bus, or hard drive can't accept the data stream at the rate it's being transmitted by the camera, you will at least lose frames and at worst, the whole captured video file could be trashed and unplayable. Tape drive cameras are more sensitive to humidity than the other types; condensation inside the camera's tape compartment will shut it down, requiring you to bring it indoors to an air-conditioned space to dry out. Motor noise from the tape drive can be picked up by the camera's built in microphones (same problem really with HDD and DVD cameras). The HV-20 is no exception, it's motor noise is clearly audible on the recorded video. Use an external mic (600 ohm for best results) to alleviate this problem. Keep in mind that you can remove unwanted noise from the audio track in post production with relatively inexpensive software
2. ADVANTAGES OF HARD DRIVE CAMERAS (Canon HG-10 especially): Stores the full 1920 x 1080i high def video; MiniDV tape cameras using HDV compression actually record only 1440 x 1080i (non-square pixels), requiring a resampling of the video in post-production to get 1920 x 1080i. Lots of storage capacity: Up to 5 hours on the 40 megabyte drive in the Canon HG-10. Fast and easy video transfer to your computer via USB; you don't need to install a firewire port if your PC doesn't have one already. Transferring an hour's worth of video from an HG-10 to a computer takes a lot less time than the same transfer on an HV-20. Less motor "whine" in the audio track than you have with tape drive cameras. Less sensitivity to environmental problems like dust and moisture.
DIDADVANTAGES OF HARD DRIVE CAMERAS: A little more expensive purchase price, about $100 more for the Canon HG-10 compared to the HV-20. The big disadvantage currently is the AVCHD compression: compared to HDV compression used in MiniDV tape cameras, it's harder to edit in post-processing software, and requires a more powerful computer. AVCHD video shows a LOT more noise and compression artifacts in low-light shots than you get with HDV video.
ADVANTAGES OF DVD CAMCORDERS: Only one really, and that's the ability to put the disc into a DVD player and view it, or transfer it to computer. Transfer of video to computer same as HDD (via USB) so faster than Tape drive. Hitachi recently came out with a high def camcorder that stores to Mini-BlueRay discs. I don't know for sure what the blank discs would cost, but you can bet they're way more expensive than regular 8cm DVD-RW's (Standard size blank BlueRay discs at Fry's cost $20 PER UNIT (December 2007))!
DISADVANTAGES OF DVD CAMCORDERS: Expensive media in terms of cost-per-minute of shooting time. The small, 8cm DVD's used in these camcorders have very limited capacity, only about 15~20 minutes at the highest image quality. DVD cameras tend to be bulkier, since the 80mm diameter disc takes up a lot of space compared to a 64mm wide x 45mm tall MiniDV tape. AVCHD Compression; same issues as for HDD cams in terms of loss of image quality and difficulty to edit in post-processing.
ADVANTAGES OF FLASH CARD CAMCORDERS: No moving parts in the storage media. This should mean longer service life and greater reliability. If flash memory continues to grow in capacity while dropping in cost, this type of camcorder could eventually bury Tape, HDD, and DVD. Easy transfer of video to PC over USB bus.
DISADVANTAGES OF FLASH CARD CAMCORDERS: Currently (2007) Most Expensive storage media: $140.00 for a 16 gigabyte SD card, compared to $3.00 for a 13 gigabyte MiniDV tape. Uses AVCHD compression; same issues as for HDD and DVD cams in terms of loss of image quality and difficulty to edit in post-processing.
UPDATE: June 2010
The camcorder took a fall on a vacation last month when a strong wind gust blew the whole tripod over. The impact was on the unit's left side, on a wood deck, and the LCD screen became cracked. About 1/4 of the screen is now permanently blacked out, but the camera still records and plays, so I can still use it, albeit only with the viewfinder.
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