Canon HV10 Camcorder Review

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.0)
The Canon HV10 is a camcorder aimed at consumers, a group very likely to leave the camcorder in auto mode a great majority of the time. That being the case, a camcorder is expected to have excellent automatic responses to constantly changing conditions: focus, exposure, and white balance.

So how did the Canon HV10 rate? It was mixed. The best auto response was probably the focus white balance. Under varying indoor and outdoor conditions, it didn’t have too much trouble figuring out how to adjust color. The only real problem area we saw was strong light from windows while indoors. It took a while for the HV10 to not make a blue mess of the image.

The auto exposure would have been great, were it not for the limited dynamic range. As long as the information is not too dark and not too light, it can make great work finding the proper exposure. But when it hits the cut off point, particularly for dark spots, you cannot get it to read the information. We saw this taking a big hit out of the Low Light Performance (later on in the review).

The auto focus is perhaps the most vital feature to any HD camcorder, because the additional detail makes focal errors that much more obvious. There are two methods of auto focus, which can be selected in the Camera Setup menu: AF and Instant AF. The AF mode is what you’re probably used to. When the focal plane shifts, the camcorder makes a gradual response to adjust focus. This takes a little longer than we like to see. And frequent instances, it had trouble finding if you were past 3x – 4x in the zoom, it could take several seconds to find the focus.

However, Canon has added a new Instant AF focus feature to the HV10 which we were very impressed by. Instant AF mode works by snapping into the next focal plane instead of making the gradual transition. It uses an additional sensor and contrast levels to work much better, when the camcorder has enough contrast. However, when there is not enough contrast, the problem is the same as normal focus. If it can’t read the focus properly, it just takes longer to snap.

If you’re in Auto mode (controlled via a tiny switch under the mode dial), your access to any manual controls are essentially nil. Even some of the administrative options (explained in next section) are removed. Think of it like swimming with a life preserver on: it’s for your safety, not your unbridled enjoyment.

If you switch the Auto toggle to “SCN” you’ll have access to the scene modes, a series of auto exposure presets that give you a modicum of control. Once in SCN mode, press the Function button and use the jog dial to scroll through your options. Scene modes include Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks.

Overall Manual Control (6.5)
Let’s take a tour of the menus first. The administrative menu is accessed by the tiny button above the jog dial, which resides along the right edge of the back. There are a number of features found here, mostly things that you would not need immediately at hand while shooting: digital zoom options, image stabilization on/off, date and time settings, etc.

The first page of the administrative menu (left), the Camera Setup menu (right),
and the Record Setup menu (below).

The menu that concerns us more in this section is the Function menu, which is where most of the manual controls live. In order to have full access, the mode toggle should be in P mode, not Auto or SCN. Pushing the FUNC button creates an L-shaped menu obscures only a portion of the screen. Again, the jog dial is used to navigate. Items here include whether you want the camcorder to be in P mode (normal), or Aperture or Shutter Priority. Next are the white balance options, a slew of them: Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Set (to make a manual setting).

The Function menu (left) and the Scene modes (right).

Next are the Image effects, digital image quality controls that can be useful, but should be used in moderation. They include: Vivid (boosts color and contrast), Neutral (reduces color and contrast), Low Sharpening (reduces only contrast), and Soft Skin Detail (which looks for a certain range of colors commonly defined as “skin tones” and creates a softer look in those areas). All of these can either be turned on or off, so use them wisely. Their effects can be dramatic. There is a final option here of Custom setting, which lets you make a +1, 0, or -1 setting for Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, and Color Depth. Your aggregate setting is then the “Custom setting.”

Next on the Function menu are the Digital Effects, which should probably be avoided entirely. They include such 1989 party hits such as sepia tones, as well as bad ideas for keying still images into your video. Finally, the last item in the Function menu allow you to select what size you want your stills to be if you snap them off while in video mode.

Canon packs an awful lot of controls onto a relatively small area, which can make handling tricky.

Actually making your way through these controls is less than ideal. The jog dial is meant to do most of the work, but I found it to be too small and inconveniently situated. Your thumb will have no problem reaching the control, but it will be constantly butting up against the bottom of the Menu button. Smaller hands found this to be less of a problem, though far from outstanding; I found it to be a major hindrance.

The placement of some other key buttons is just as bad. Presumably, the focus and Exposure Compensation buttons were made external because they want you to have access to them. But if your hand is in the hand strap, it’s a near impossible reach, and certainly requires a maneuver that will upset your shot.

The LCD cavity has VCR controls that play double duty while shooting.

Does it work for you? The only way to know for certain is to go to your locally owned camera shop and find out. This is not recommended for blind internet purchasing. Try before you buy. You may love it, you may hate it. We certainly applaud the amount of control that Canon has provided, trumping the HDR-HC3’s lack of aperture and shutter priority.

Zoom (6.5)
The zoom slider on the  Canon HV10 is disappointingly pedestrian, and offers less control and sensitivity than the zoom controls on many camcorders that cost hundreds of dollars less.  The first major flaw in the zoom control is that the spring provided so much resistance that making subtle speed adjustments was difficult.  This is a major drawback since an ability to finely control zoom speed can be critical to getting the shot you want.  It can be done with this camcorder, but the overly robust spring makes it more difficult than it should be.

The other problem with the zoom is the fact that I find that the HV 10’s hand strap positions your hand awkwardly – and makes operating the zoom slider even more difficult.  Tilted at a relatively extreme angle, we found that the hand strap served to hold the camcorder securely in our palms but did not put us in a comfortable shooting position.  In fact, with the strap adjusted to a normal degree of tightness, your fingers overshoot the zoom lever.  To operate the lever comfortably, we had to loosen the strap so much that the camcorder cantilevered about an inch away from our palms, which then made it harder to hold a steady shot.  At this price point, it’s disappointing to see a control as critical as the zoom implemented so clumsily.  It’s serviceable, but far from refined.

Zoom Power/Ratio (10.0)
The Canon HV10 features 10x optical, 40x and 200x digital zoom. That's the exact same zoom as the Sony HC3.  A 10x zoom is about what you should expect from a camcorder of this quality. It may seem small, but it's largely limited by the size of the imager and length of the lens barrel. Larger zooms are often found on lower-end camcorders with smaller chips.

Focus (5.5)
Manual focus interface on the HV10 is adjusted using the tiny jog dial on the right rear of the camcorder.  It’s far from an ideal controller for making fine manual focus adjustments, but short of a true focus ring, it works just as well as any focus control we’ve seen on a compact camcorder by virtue of the Focus Assist feature.  Focus Assist enhances your ability to focus accurately by increasing the size of the onscreen image and sharpening outlines through peaking.  It’s a great feature that helps tremendously with focal accuracy, and is common on prosumer camcorders.  It also elevates the HV 10’s manual focus from run-of-the-mill and marginally useful to arguably the best on a consumer HDV camcorder.  As mentioned above, the jog dial is small and difficult to use like most miniaturized compact camcorder controls, but Focus Assist gives it a significant boost in terms of usability.

Exposure (Aperture) (6.5)
This camcorder provides very good independent control over exposure – and shutter speed – with one major caveat:  like other consumer camcorders from Canon, there is not a way to de-link exposure or aperture from automatic gain controls.  However, independent exposure and aperture are easily accessible on this camcorder which is a significant advantage over Sonys.  Panasonic camcorders do offer independent gain control, but manual controls on the HV10 are easier to use.

In aperture priority mode, labelled Av in the P menu, you can control the aperture on a scale from F1.8 to F8.0 by pressing in on the jog dial to access aperture controls, and then jogging up and down to cycle through the options.  The camcorder automatically adjusts gain to achieve a properly exposed image.  In other words, while you can set the aperture on the HV 10, you can’t lock gain levels.  With the aperture set at F8.0, you can make exposure adjustments by pressing the EXP button at the base of the camcorder’s rear.  In a dark shooting environment, increasing exposure will result in a very grainy image, so use this setting with caution.

You can also adjust exposure by simply pressing the EXP button in any shooting mode.  This makes adjustments along a –11 to +11 scale as an aggregate of picture settings.  It’s an easy setting to access with the press of a single button but will adjust iris, gain, and shutter speed together.

Shutter Speed (5.0)
Shutter speed can be adjusted in the same way as aperture, and the HV10 offers options to drop the shutter speed below 60 which is a benefit that’s surprisingly rare on consumer camcorders.  To control shutter speed on the HV 10, the shutter speed priority mode is selected from the menu, marked as Tv.  In Tv mode, shutter speed options available include 8, 15, 30, 60, 100, 250, 500, 1000, and 2000.  The same warnings apply here as to aperture priority mode.  While Canon does provide precise control over the shutter speed, you cannot control gain and you’ll risk a very noisy image especially at high shutter speeds.  Pressing the EXP button in Tv mode allows adjustment control over exposure through an aggregate of gain and aperture adjustments.

White Balance (7.5)
The HV10 offers a nice complement of white balance settings, including Auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, halogen, and manual.  Manual white balance on the camcorder is particularly easy to set.  From the menu, you cycle through white balance options using the jog dial and as soon as you select the manual white balance icon, the camcorder engages and sets.

Gain (0.0)
The HV10 does not provide any means of controlling gain independently of other picture adjustments.  In terms of manual controls, this is the camcorder’s biggest weakness since it can have such a deleterious effect on picture quality.  We hope Canon adds manual gain control in the camcorder’s next iteration.

Other Manual Control (5.0)
Focus Assist - Focus Assist is an option that enhances your ability to focus manually by both magnifying the image onscreen to reveal greater detail, and using peaking to exaggerate the edge contrast of the image.  Working in tandem, magnification and peaking give you the ability to assess focus more accurately than any other consumer camcorder.  If only the focus controller were better than the tiny jog dial…

Zebra Pattern - Zebra Pattering on this camcorder is confusingly labelled Assist Mode in the administrative menu.  The zebra settings available are off, 70, and 100. The Zebra Pattern imposes a diagonal white and black stripped line on any overexposed areas of your image.

Markers - The HV10 also provides the ability to superimpose either a horizontal center line, or a grid on the screen to assist with framing shots.  The horizontal line crosses the center of the screen while the grid option divides the screen into nine equal boxes.  Guidelines for either option can be displayed in white or grey.

Screen shots of the Level Marker controls (left) and Zebra / Peaking controls (right).