Which camera will take the cake?

If you’ve been reading some of my recent posts, which I hope you have. You might remember me talking about purchasing a new HD camcorder. Up until this point I was guaranteed to be buying the Canon HV30 which from my research proved to be outstanding. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances this is no longer possible. As a result I decided to settle for the HDD (hard drive) counterpart, the Canon HG10, which should be arriving today.

Now, when buying a consumer, prosumer or professional video camera you must ask yourself a few questions. These include things like; What kind of format does the camera record onto? Is the value for money good? Will it fulfil your needs? Does it have expandable memory? How long is the battery life? Well, I’m here to answer these questions for you, in regards to the Canon HG10 and HV30.

Canon HG10

Released sometime in between 2007&2008, the Canon HG10 was the first HDD HD camera released by Canon and it sure does pack a punch. With a sleek outlook and sturdy build the HG10 is perfect for any novice film maker. It houses a sophisticated lens with a focal length of 6.1 – 61mm (35mm equiv. = 43.6 – 436mm in16:9 or 40 – 400mm in 4:3) and an aperture range of f/1.8-3.0. The 43mm front mount is perfect for accessories, whether it be a fisheye, wide angle, dof adapter the HG10 has it covered. It also comes with a standard 10x zoom.

The Canon HG10 records in FULL high definition at 1920×1280 progressive, however when the footage is taken off the camera it is down converted to 1440×1080 which is still superb but obviously you will be experiencing some loss. At first I was skeptical about purchasing this camera as it was hard drive based and all my life I had used MiniDv’s. However, you will be surprised at the similarity with the quality between the two.

There are really only three major downsides I can see with the HG10 and those being; the AVCHD format into which it encodes/records its video and the fact that HDD’s can crash, ergo all your footage can be lost before you are able to say “uh oh”. The problem with AVCHD is that it is quite hard to edit with most video editors that are available today, the camera exports the files as .mts which will work fine in Sony Vegas 8+ but if you are using things like Windows Movie Maker or Premiere CS2 (I think) you will experience some problems. Apparently, the inbuilt mic doesn’t really do to good a job in picking up sound, so you may want to invest in a cheap external mic.

Specs:

Average price – $500
Sensor Size – 1/2.7
Manual Controls – Yes
Manual/Auto Focus – Yes
HDMI output – Yes
Weight – Approx 500g
Rating: 9/10

In conclusion the HG10 is a steal at the price you can get them now and with 40gb of storage you will find yourself with more than enough filming space. Although at best quality the HG10 can only record up to 5.5 hours of footage. Though it does posess a few minor let downs, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

Canon HV30

Labeled as the “mother of customizable consumer cams” the HV30 is the closest you will get to a prosumer camera without actually buying one. The modern cylindrical design is one of the best I’ve seen and the finish is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately the Canon HV30 has now been superseded by the new and improved HV40. Either way it’s still a mind blowing camcorder.  Similar to the HG10 the canon has a 43mm front mount and the 10x zoom lens with an aperture range of f/1.8-f/3.0

Probably one of the final MiniDv HD cameras being released by Canon, the HV30 shoots incredible footage at both 24p (for that film look) and 30p. Unfortunately it also down converts footage upon import to your pc. In general the HV30 is quite user friendly and experiences no problems with editing and capturing footage. Simply stick in the firewire cable and you’re good to go. As a result it records to HDV (high definition video) instead of AVCHD. The audio capabilities are up to par with the majority of other consumer cameras but nothing extraordinary, they are however a little bit better than the HG10. Nevertheless you should probably still invest in an external microphone.

There are no major downsides with this camera that haven’t already been mentioned but something I found annoying was the “tethered” hot shoe mount. It’s incredibly annoying if you are trying to accessorize and screams “amateur”. As a result most owners end up disposing of the tethered threads by cutting it off.  The image quality is practically the same as HG10, infact both cameras are pretty much replicas of one another with different recording formats (HDD and MiniDv).

Coming back to audio and connectivity, the HV30 does have a handful of useful ports, plugs and audio jacks so that enhancing your audio and transfers is a breeze. It has both a firewire and usb ports alongside a mic and headphone jack and finally an “advanced accessory shoe mount”.

Specs:

Average price: $600
Sensor Size – 1/2.7
Manual Controls – Yes
Manual/Auto Focus – Yes
HDMI output – Yes
Weight – Approx 550g
Rating: 9.5/10

The Verdict

To wrap up, I would like to say that both cameras are great and it’s very hard to pick a definite winner as there isn’t one. But in this case the HV30 will take the cake, only by a little bit though. If you are $100 short and really want a new camcorder then I recommend you go with the HG10 as it is pretty much exactly the same, although it doesn’t possess some of the niftier features the HV30 has. If you hate HDD cameras and editing AVCHD, then I suggest you go with the HV30, on the other hand if you are getting tired of using tapes and know how to edit you should invest in the HG10

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