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January 5, 2010 – Today Canon announced new versions of its high-end HD camcorder line—the HF S series. The new camcorders each include huge, 3.5-inch LCDs that use touchscreen technology and have 922,000-pixel resolutions. This is a major shift for Canon, which had previously relied on navigation joysticks for scrolling through menus and adjusting controls. The new HF S series includes three camcorders—the HF S21, HF S20, and HF S200—each of which has two SD/SDHC memory card slots for recording video as well as a number of new features.

The HF S21 is the company's flagship model and it includes 64GB of internal flash memory in addition to its dual SD/SDHC memory card slots. The HF S21 also includes an electronic viewfinder, and it is Canon's only new camcorder to include such feature. The HF S20 has the same specs as the HF S21, except it only has 32GB of internal flash memory and doesn't include a viewfinder. The HF S200 doesn't have any internal memory or a viewfinder, but it does have two SD/SDHC card slots for recording video (just like the other two camcorders).

All of the HF S models have 1/2.6-inch CMOS sensors with a total pixel count of 8.59 megapixels. These sensors, along with the 10x optical zoom lenses featured on the camcorders, have the same specs as last years models. It seems this year Canon really focused its efforts on improving the aforementioned touchscreen LCD (nearly an inch larger than last year), as well as offering a new optical image stabilization setting called Powered OIS. These new flagship camcorders also include built-in LANC terminals, hot accessory shoes (same fit as last year), and external mic and headphone jacks.

The HF S21 is Canon's only new camcorder
that includes an electronic viewfinder.

Canon's new HD-SD downconversion feature and relay record setting are both available on the HF S21, HF S20, and HF S200. Relay record allows the camcorder to automatically continue recording video from one memory card to another once the first card fills up. With the HF S21 and HF S20 you can set relay record to continuously move from recording to internal memory, to card slot A, and onto card slot B when each media reaches maximum capacity. The HD-SD downconversion feature will create a downconverted standard definition clip from a high definition clip using an in-camera process. Like relay record, the HD-SD downconversion feature requires the use of two media interfaces at the same time (either two memory cards or internal memory plus a memory card).

The HF S20 and HF S200 look essentially identical.

The new HF S models still have front-mounted control dials that Canon implemented on last year's models. The dials appear to be virtually unchanged, although Canon has relocated the Custom Key button to the front of the dial (instead of on the side of the camcorder). Canon has also updated the Video Snap function with all its 2010 camcorders. The new Video Snap settings allow you to choose between taking 2, 4, or 8-second video clips.

Canon is planning to sell the HF S21 for $1399, while the HF S20 will be available for significantly less at around $1099. The HF S200, which has no internal memory, will go for around $999. All three camcorders are expected to be available in April 2010.

View our complete photo gallery for the HF S21, HF S20, and HF S200 here.