Canon HF10 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control
The Canon Vixia HF10 has an Easy button, a brand new feature for Canon, one “borrowed” directly from Sony, which has made it a standard on all their consumer camcorders. As long as Canon can get away with this neat bit of thievery, it’s a smart idea. Though there’s little difference between their Auto mode and Easy mode, it’s the idea of simplicity planted in shopper’s mind that is going to make this work for Canon.

When in Easy mode the camcorder will attempt to automatically make all the adjustments you need. You can’t even get into the menu system so you’re stuck with whatever the HF10 thinks is best. In this way, it’s even more of an idiot-proof mode than Sony’s easy mode. The Canon Vixia HF10 also offers users several scene selection modes to automatically adjust to certain situations. These include Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks.

Overall Manual Control
Unlike the Canon Vixia HG10 there is no control dial around the joystick next to the LCD to make manual adjustments on the Canon Vixia HF10. Although you can still activate the same menu system for quick manual controls by pressing in on the joystick, you will need to use left/right to make adjustments. We found the scroll wheel was smoother and jostled the camcorder less than using the joystick, but the scroll wheel was far from perfect. Canon stuck with the tried and true joystick – no complaints here. Manual controls on the Canon Vixia HF10 include Focus, White Balance, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Canon’s Image Effects. This is more than what you see from most consumer oriented camcorders.

Zoom
The Canon Vixia HF10 has a 12x optical zoom, which is a step up over the Canon Vixia HG10 and HR10’s 10x optical zoom. The zoom control on the top of the barrel isn’t very comfortable to use, mostly due to the fact that the camcorder isn’t easy to hold onto in general. We also found that our reviewer, who has small hands, had to stretch to reach the zoom toggle. A second set of zoom controls are found under the LCD and double as FF and Rewind controls when in playback mode. We should note that the improved zoom is the result of the Canon Vixia HF10 using a smaller 1/3.2 inch sensor, which may bring its own drawbacks, like poorer low light performance.

Focus
Unlike the Canon Vixia HG10 there is no control dial around the joystick next to the LCD to make manual adjustments on the Canon Vixia HF10. This means you’ll have to use left/right on the joystick to make focus adjustments, which can lead to bumpy footage. For this specific purpose, we preferred the rotating wheel on the HG10 and liked the HV10’s dedicated focus wheel even more. Pressing in on the joystick will give you a small menu in the lower right of the LCD with three pages, one of which is focus. When you’re on the focus page pushing up on the joystick will engage manual focus. You can then use left/right on the joystick to adjust focus. Like the Canon Vixia HG10 you can set Focus Assist to activate automatically so the image on the LCD will zoom in so you can better judge the adjustments your making. This is a nice feature but the lack of a dedicated Focus Assist button like on the HV10 means you can’t check your focus except by making the manual adjustments.

Exposure (Aperture)
Manual exposure can also be accessed via the small menu that appears when you press in on the joystick. Scroll down until you’re at the “EXP” option and the up to make adjustments. You then see a bar appear at the top left and moving left/right on the joystick will adjust the exposure between +/- 11.

You can also use the Aperture Priority tool to adjust exposure. You can access this by going to the top line of the Function menu and setting the camcorder to “Av” mode. You then have the option to set aperture priority to any of the following settings: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.7, and f/8.0.

Shutter Speed
Unlike Sony’s new AVCHD camcorders the Canon Vixia HF10 allows you to adjust shutter speed by placing the camcorder in Shutter Priority mode via the Function menu. You can’t, unfortunately, adjust both shutter and aperture manually at the same time so in Shutter Priority mode the aperture will be adjusted automatically. In the 1080/60i and 1080/30P modes, the Canon Vixia HF10 allows you to set the shutter speed to 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, and 1/2000.

In 1080/24P, your options are 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/48, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, and 1/2000.

White Balance
There is a good selection of white balance settings on the Canon Vixia HF10. In the Function menu you will find presets that include Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. That last is for fluorescents that emulate daylight. You can also set white balance using a reference card that can be purchased cheaply at most camera shops, or use a white piece of paper in a pinch.

Gain
There are no gain controls on the Canon Vixia HF10.

Other Manual Controls

24P and 30P modes - 24P mode allows you to get more of a film look with your vide capture, especially when combined with Cine Mode, see below. We’re not sure if the Canon Vixia HF10’s 24P mode displays the same issue with motion trailing that we saw on the HG10, that will have to wait until we get it into the labs. 30P mode has been added this year as a nod to those who produce web content where video is often encoded at 15fps. With 30P recording you can produce smoother 15fps video because every other frame is removed. Even those who don’t produce online content can enjoy the additional aesthetic choice that 30P offers.

Cine Mode - This setting shifts the gamma curve to affect exposure and color rendering. It is similar to the Cine 1 setting found on the much more expensive Canon XH A1. You can see the difference between Cine mode and the normal gamma curve by viewing this graph. The idea is to emulate film colors by giving mid tones preference and losing detail in the shadows. In well-lit settings your picture can look remarkably good, but in even moderate low-light situations you’ll want to take it out of Cine mode. Unfortunately you can’t be in Cine mode and also be in Aperture or Shutter Priority modes, but you can choose from 60i, 24P, and 30P.

Image Effects - With image effects you are given some control over color performance. You can choose from four settings: Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening and Soft Skin Detail. You can also set it to Custom, which allows you to adjust Color Depth, Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness to values of -1, 0, or +1.

Markers - Somewhat similar to the Guide Frames found on Sony camcorders these markers can be used to better frame and line up your shot. Unlike the Sony Guide Frames that only give you a simple grid there are a few Marker options on the Canon Vixia HF10. You can have a simple horizontal line across the center of the screen in white or grey or you can have a grid that divides the screen into nine sections, also in white or gray. You can find this option in the Display Setup section of the Admin menu.