Canon HV10 Camcorder Review

Ease of Use (7.0)
The HV10 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $814) is an easy camcorder to use but novice shooters may find its plethora of features and options confusing.  If you’re in this category, and consider yourself a point-and-shooter who seldom ventures beyond Auto mode, the HV10 will perform well.  If you do make use of the camcorder’s manual controls, they are comparable in terms of accessibility to Panasonic and JVC camcorders, and more convenient than on Sonys.

The factor that impinges most significantly on the HV10’s ease of use is the miniaturized size of the external controls.  The buttons on the back of the camcorder – Function, Focus, Exposure/End Search and Focus Assist are tiny.  I found that I frequently had to push a button two or three times to engage it because they are so small.  The all-important jog dial is also too small, and too close to the mode dial.  Yet these complaints are related to ergonomic issues.

Putting physical control aside, the manual control interface is quite efficient, and using controls is relatively easy and intuitive.  By that measure, the manual control feature set on the HV10 ranks with JVC camcorders for their ease of use, and is ahead of Panasonics which utilize a manual control interface that is not immediately intuitive (though Panasonics do generally boast a more complete manual control feature set that includes independent gain control.)  Unless you have small hands, you’ll likely find that the scaled-down nature of the HV10’s controls make it harder to use than it should be.

Handling (4.0)
Handling this camcorder certainly has its drawbacks, which is not a surprise given that this is the first ever HDV camcorder you can slip into your pocket (barring the Sanyo VPC-HD1 (Review, Specs, $499.99), which we panned). Whatever you want to call this body type – upright, ultra-compact, pistol grip, etc. – you’ll never confuse it for a professional camcorder. Finding the proper grip takes time, and more so than any horizontal (traditional) body, hand size is a major factor. Some people with larger hands will simply not be able to reach the controls without some awkward two-hand wrangling. The second issue with ultra-compact camcorders is stability – a smaller mass and upright design means that the camcorder wobbles a lot more during handling. Forget trying to keep it perfectly even while making exposure adjustments or menu navigation – it just won’t happen. If you’re a point and shooter, maybe this isn’t such a big issue. But it’s something to keep in mind.

Some things are easier to reach than others. We found the zoom toggle to be less than ideal, but not impossible. The jog dial, located along the right side of the back, was too small, and the little ceiling of plastic above it made the perfect place to jam our thumb in frustration every time we needed to scroll up. And while we love to have manual controls made into external buttons, the Function, Focus, and Exposure buttons (top to bottom) get progressive harder to reach with your shooting hand – rather a detraction from the convenience factor.

Can you comfortably point and shoot? Yes, absolutely. Canon probably doesn’t intend for you to do much more. But with the significant number of manual controls, it’s a shame that you can’t manipulate them more easily. 

Portability (6.0)
The HV10 measures 56mm x 90mm x 29mm (2.1” x 3.5” x 1.1”) and weighs in at 440g (15.5 oz.) making this the most compact 1080i HDV camcorder to date.  As for Canon’s claim that you can slip it into your pocket, suffice it to say that if you make a practice of wearing cargo pants that may be true. Even though this camcorder isn’t exactly diminutive, Canon has pulled off a significant achievement in miniaturizing the HV10 as much as they have. If your bottom line is capturing images that will look great on your HDTV with a camcorder that’s no bigger than your now obsolete SD point-and-shoot, this Canon may be just what the doctor ordered.

LCD/Viewfinder (6.0)
The Optura 600 (Specs, $1099) sports a widescreen 2.7” LCD with a resolution of 210K pixels that displays a clear, sharp image.  The screen does have a tendency to solarize, a common problem with LCD screens that only Sony’s engineers have addressed with much success.

The HV10 also has a .27” EVF (electronic viewfinder) with a resolution of 123K pixels.  It’s not well-designed, but at least its an option.  Many compact camcorders that pack tons of features into a small body, such as the Panasonic SDR-S150 (Review, Specs, $699.95) and JVC’s Everios have abandoned EVF’s altogether.  Like the EVF on the Optura 600, this one does not extend, and has no eye cup.  In order to see an image clearly using this EVF, you  have to jam your eyelid against its surface so it’s uncomfortable for more than brief usage.

Battery Life (11.1)
The Canon HV10 ships with the BP-310 battery pack. The slim profile of the battery, fitting into a narrow cavity below the LCD, makes it seem likely that an expanded battery pack is not in this camcorder’s future. That’s not to say that it won’t happen – this is not an enclosed battery. But a big, fat battery would really throw off the balance of this camcorder.

So, if you’re going to stick with the BP-310, you should know how long it will last. We went ahead and tested that for you. In continuous HDV shooting, with no manual controls or zoom engaged, the battery lasted 71 minutes and 23 seconds (1 hour, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds). This is hardly an impressive performance, and you may well want to invest in a second battery if you’ll be out all day with the HV10.