Canon HV10 Camcorder Review

The Front (8.25)
At the top of the Canon HV10 is of course the camcorder's 6.1 to 61 mm 10x zoom lens, with an aperture of F1.8-3.0 . Canon has recently adopted the built in lens cap functionality into some of their camcorders and the HV10 is one of them. Turning on the camcorder into camera mode automatically opens the lens cap. The lens is threaded to take filters and other lens accessories at a 37mm diameter.

Right below the lens cap lies the camcorder’s small flash which is surrounded by black plastic. To its right is the fairly large light sensor which the camcorder is now using for its improved auto focus system. To the right of that is the vertical flash bulb, which is quite thin but raised from the rest of the front of the camcorder by about 3/8ths of an inch.

The front is styled in a variety of black and silver plastic and the only other feature on the front of the camcorder are three accessory jacks, the AV in/out jack. The component-out mini jack which hooks up to a breakout cable and the Firewire HDV / DV-out jack. The placement of these jacks on the front of the camcorder is fine, as realistically none of them are going to be used (very much) while you are shooting so it is unlikely that they will get in your way.

The Right Side (5.0)
The right side is pretty bare, which we do like, but to be honest, we’d rather have a few more features, like a mic jack on the right side, then not have them at all. The bottom half of the right side of the HV10 is bare except for the strap which wraps from about half way up the right side towards the back and connects down with the underside of the camcorder. Despite this, the camcorder has no problem sitting flat.

On the top half of the right side there are feature buttons, including Canon’s 45 degree angle titled zoom control, a photo shutter button, and a photo recording mode button that switches from tape to card. Behind those photo features is the cameras speaker for audio playback, and a direct print button. With the way that the strap is laid out, your hands generally fall on the control buttons but not so much that they get in the way.

The Back (6.0)
The back of the HV10 is packed without an inch of free space. At the top is the viewfinder which doesn’t extend outward or tilt up. Normally, we really think that non-tilting or non-extending viewfinders are a big problem, but they aren’t on the HV10. It’s practical because of the battery placement. Since it’s on the side and not the back, your nose doesn’t make intimate contact with the back of the battery. Additionally, speaking of your nose, because the camcorder is so slim, when you are shooting with the viewfinder your nose tends to fall on the right side of the camcorder and does not get unpleasantly squished by the back of the camcorder.

The viewfinder is surrounded by yet another shade of grey plastic – Canon has quite the palette on this one. It’s a textured plastic that feels a bit like sandpaper – we’re not huge fans. The viewfinder does not extend, and it’s a question as to why they even bothered to put it on, other than to satisfy curmudgeons like us who insist on them. Great, it’s there, but you’d never want to use it.

Right below the viewfinder is the camcorder’s main event mode dial button which rotates to switch between camera, play, and off modes and has a big record button in the center. To the right of it is a small green power on indicator button and to the right of that, extended off the camcorder’s body, a bit like a doublewide trailer, is the menu engage button and menu jog dial.

Around the rotating power dial is a shooting mode feature which will switch from P (Canon’s manual control mode) to Auto and then to scene mode. If you’re confused, it’s three concentric buttons dials – kind of like an onion. In the center is the record button, around that is the power dial, and around that is a shooting mode button.

Below the control onion is the function button which toggles on things like shutter speed and other functions depending on the shooting mode you’re in. Below the function button is the focus button for adjusting focus and below that is the exposure button for adjusting exposure by steps (aperture in most cases).

To the left of this column of buttons are two hard plastic jack covers which reveal the MiniSD card slot under one cover and the USB and DC In slot under another. To the left of those are the battery eject and focus buttons. In general we think the back is pretty well laid out, it has all the features and that is what we prefer.

The Left Side (7.25)
The left side of the HV10 also has the mix of grey and black styling with a nice HDV logo on the LCD screen. The LCD screen takes up the upper half of the camcorders’ left side while the battery slot takes up the bottom half. Canon has been putting more and more batteries into closed slots on their camcorders lately and it’s nice to see that on this model the battery is not in a closed slot, so extended extra large batteries will fit the camcorder.

Opening the LCD screen reveals a multitude of camcorder control buttons hidden away. At the top is the play pause button which also functions as a flash toggle. Below that is a second row, with a record pause button, a digital effects button, a rewind button and a fast forward button. The rewind and fast forward buttons also double as navigation buttons for the still pictures.

The third row of buttons includes a backlight button, display toggle button and a stop button which doubles as a camera shooting mode button.

The left side of the camcorder is laid out fine, however, we’re worried that the already poor handling of the HV10 could be exacerbated if you put an extra large battery on it, causing it to constantly “roll” to the left side.

The Top (6.0)
The top of the HV10 is bare – too bare. The only feature on the top back of the HV10 is the microphone, which is situated more towards the shooter than the lens. Now, some of our newer readers will probably be a bit alien to matchbox style camcorder design. The biggest problem (besides the horrible handling) of vertical / matchbox style camcorders is where in the world do you put the microphone. If you put the microphone in the front it’s going to be touched and handled, creating terrible audio. So, as an alternative manufacturers keep putting it on the top of the camcorder, where it’s a lot more likely to get the sounds of a Boeing 747 or the person shooting the video than the actual subject you’re recording. This whole situation becomes much worse when you realize that you have absolutely no choice but to use the HV10’s on camcorder microphone. You can’t even further the Canon P&L statement by using a Canon branded accessory (which of course Sony’s “intelligent” accessory shoe will gladly let you do) hooked up to an accessory shoe – because there is none.