Canon HV20 HDV Camcorder In the US, Yes It's True

January 31, 2007 – This morning, Canon USA announced the new HV20 high definition HDV camcorder, only few hours after receiving an announcement in Japan. It will join the HV10 in Canon's emerging presence in the HD consumer market. The HV20 ($1099 MSRP) is scheduled for a mid-April release. The numerous improvements over the HV10 include a horizontal form factor, a HDMI connection, mic and headphone jacks, a 24P frame rate, Cinema color, a hot accessory shoe, and, reportedly, a boosted low light performance.

 

Late last week, news of the Canon HV20 was leaked when a product page appeared on Circuit City's website. Appearing a full six days prior to the intended announcement, news set the blogger community flying. Rumors and guesswork led to several incorrect speculations, including the belief that the HV20 would replace the HV10 as the company’s sole HDV consumer camcorder.

 

The rumor proved false. The HV10 and HV20 will stand side-by-side in the HD line-up, each marketed towards different user groups. “For the US market, I think we can all agree that the horizontal format has been overwhelmingly popular…. Vertical style [as on the HV10] is something that a lot of users like, especially if they want to keep things compact or for travel use,” said Mitchell Glick, Assistant Manager for Product Marketing, Consumer Division at Canon USA.

 

Form factor is a crucial element to many consumers, and the decision to keep the HV10 in the product line may give them an edge over Sony, who dominates the HD market in variety – seven consumer HD camcorder in all – but does not offer a compact model.

 

The body bears major changes to the original design. Most significantly, the HV20 has a horizontal orientation which offers room for external buttons to be spread out, as well as providing more stability. The extra room also provides space for the HDMI port, located on the back to the right of the battery, and a hot accessory shoe on top. The HV10 received criticism for not including these features.

 

	Canon HV10, introduced in 2006, has a vertical design.

The HV20 features a 1/2.7” CMOS imager, the same as the HV10, shooting true 1920 x 1080 HD video. Also carried over from the HV10 are the Digic DVII processor, which includes a second processor dedicated to still photos (allowing for processing in their respective color spaces), and the Instant AF focusing system, which employs an external, front-mounted sensor for camera to subject focusing, speeding up total focus time. A 10x optical zoom and Super Range optical image stabilization are also carried over from the HV10.

 

Poor low light performance was perhaps the biggest deficiency in the Canon HV10, and the company has announced that the HV20 will offer improved performance, with the minimum lux now rated at 3 lux (with a 1/30th shutter speed), down from 5 lux in the HV10. This boosted performance comes despite having the same imager and processor as the HV10. Canon could not, at the time of announcement, explain what had changed to increase performance. There are a limited number of ways a manufacturer could tweak performance with the identical hardware to any significant degree, and the 5 lux to 3 lux difference is a substantial claim. Canon has stated that details of improvement will be made available closer to the ship date of mid-April.

 

Borrowing from the professional grade XL H1, XH G1, and XH A1, the HV20 now offers a “24P Cinema mode,” which refers to two separate features. First, the HV20 allows for true 24P frame rate. This is similar to the 24F frame rates of the professional models but because the HV20 has a progressive CMOS chip rather than an interlaced CCD, the name has been changed to 24P. Canon engineers were quick to assert that the visual effect would be extremely similar in both modes.

 

Secondly, the HV20 will offer a Cinema mode, a one-touch, on/off setting that shifts colors to appear more like film. The setting corresponds to Custom Preset #8 (Cine V.) in the XH A1/G1 camcorders. The 24P frame rate and Cinema color mode are available independently or together.

 

The audio features have greatly improved over the HV10, which had been another area of complaint. The HV20 will now offer a mini microphone input and headphone output. Audio levels are accessible through the menu.

 

The handling on the HV20 centers around the new joystick that lies flatter than usual against the body. We found it to be responsive, though it could have used a slightly higher profile. The camcorder also has the new menu system found on the other 2007 camcorders, that envelops the main (or administrative) menu into the function menu, removing some of the button clutter from the body.

 

The new design is marked with a few other unusual features. The viewfinder is extremely small and low-profiled and neither pivots nor extend out from the body, rendering it, if not useless, at least less-than-useful. The large battery is placed in an open cavity on the rear of the body, a design that looks unusual but does allow for an expanded battery. Anything larger than the included battery, however, would make the viewfinder entirely inaccessible.

 

Focus control has improved immensely from the HV10 with the inclusion of a scroll wheel located on the left side of the lens barrel (similar to the multifunction dial on Sony’s latest HD camcorders). Focus enhancement features like Focus Assist (which performs an one-touch digital zoom and peaking) will be carried over from the HV10, along with zebra patterns and Guide Markers. Aperture and shutter priority modes are also available.

 

Connectivity on the Canon HV20 includes a HDMI port and a hot accessory shoe, along with DV/HDV, USB, component-out, and composite-out, offering a wide variety of options for viewing and editing. The camcorder will also feature analog-to-digital conversion, also found on the HV10.

 

Other features on the Canon HV20 include a video light and a flash. Still photos features are identical to the HV10, allowing for resolutions of 2048 x 1536, 1440 x 1080, 1920 x 1080, and 640 x 480 in Normal, Fine, and Superfine qualities. Photos are captured to MiniSD card.

 

The Canon HV20 has an MSRP of $1099 and is scheduled to hit stores in mid-April 2007.