Canon Vixia HF S10

Ease of Use (4.85)

Canon has made a couple of befuddling changes in this year’s lineup that we find hard to praise. The conspicuous ‘Easy’ button that used to be right in the middle of the LCD cavity is gone. There’s still an auto mode, but it’s strangely labeled as ‘Dual Shot’ mode on the rear dial. The name has very little to do with reality; you can take photos in regular video mode too. We’re not sure how Canon designers arrived at this design decision, but we miss the Easy button, which was a much more intuitive feature for novices.

Taking the place of last year’s Easy button is the new (superfluous) Video Snap button. This imposes a four-second clip limit, supposedly encouraging you to create a fun, music-filled slideshow out of the clips you record. We’re not impressed by the new feature and would much prefer an obvious Easy button.

In Dual Shot mode, the user is essentially locked out of anything that could get a novice in trouble. No manual image controls or menu options: just point… and shoot. The good news is that Dual Shot mode actually allows you to capture either maximum quality 4:3 photos or maximum quality 16:9 video without switching modes. The bad news is that you can’t change the quality setting of either photos or videos without swapping to the appropriate mode and making the adjustment in the menus there. Why isn’t there a Dual Shot mode with full menu access? Why isn’t there a clearly marked easy mode version of video or still mode?

If easy mode—or Dual Shot mode—is a little too simplistic for you, the regular video and still modes are also at your disposal. Be warned that everything is packed into a pretty dense menu, where the sheer volume of options can be pretty overwhelming. There’s also the smaller function and joystick menus, but these options are all represented by sometimes esoteric icons, which novices might find intimidating.

The overall menu structure can be one of the HF S11’s most confusing aspects, spreading everything across several different menus. Some options appear in more than one menu, but most live in just one of the three different menus: the main administrative menu, the function menu, and the joystick menu. This makes the camcorder a bit cumbersome even for more experienced users. To adjust white balance, just pop into the function menu. To shift exposure, use the joystick menu. To shift AGC limit, navigate to the second tab of the administrative menu.

Of the four major manufacturers (Canon, Sony, Panasonic, JVC), Canon offers the least in the way of tool tips, descriptions, or other contextual aids. Panasonic’s Info feature can be activated to bring up a short explanation every time you select something in the main menu. Sony has a similar feature for their main menu, plus short text descriptions inside the camera settings menu. JVC has scrolling descriptions of the features within their menus. That just leaves Canon, with no scrolling text, tool tips, or menu help of any kind. If you don’t know what a feature does, you’ll probably need to refer to the instruction manual.

Requiring this kind of mastery over the menu navigation really places the HF S11 out of reach for less tech-savvy beginners that are considering venturing into the realm of manual controls. Experienced users will adjust quickly, but first-time videographers will probably want to look elsewhere. The one saving grace is the excellent instruction manual.

The Canon HF S10 features the same complicated, multi-layered menu system that is seen across Canon’s entire high def lineup this year. Options have been spread across three different locations, leaving you to guess which place to look for a particular feature. The more significant image adjustments are located in the Function menu, where you select a recording quality, bitrate, and image effects. This is also where you can access Aperture and Shutter Priority modes.

For quick adjustments that need to be made on the fly, the HF S10 has a quick menu. Manual exposure and focus can be accessed via this joystick guide—assuming you don’t use the custom dial for these features.

The rest of the camcorder’s features are lumped into a single administrative menu. The menu is quite large and organized about as well as you might expect. Navigation of the menu, however, can be a real frustration. You cannot simply push left and right on the joystick to switch between tabs; if you’re down in the middle of one tab, you have to use the joystick to return up to the top of the tab, then move left and right to select a new tab. The problem is worsened by the finicky joystick that makes you feel as though every click needs to be very deliberate.

These navigation issues are minor on their own, but they exacerbate the troublesome split menu design: you often have to hunt for the option you want and you can rarely conduct this hunting quickly. For instance, if you’re looking for the gain control, you might strike out in the joystick guide (even though that’s where focus and exposure are located), then strike out again in the Function menu (even though that’s where you control aperture, shutter speed, and white balance), then finally land in the second tab of the administrative menu at a feature called AGC Limit. On top of all this, Canon doesn’t provide tool tips or text descriptions of any of these features. If you don’t know what ‘AGC Limit’ is, you’ll need to consult the operating instructions or just leave that feature alone. The same goes for BLC (backlight compensation), tele-converter, and several other features.

This may only be a minor nuisance to the experienced videographer, but it can make the technology a lot more daunting to first-time users. Fortunately, Canon does provide a very thorough instruction manual, so if you’re willing to spend the time reading up on your purchase, you may be able to take advantage of the depth of controls available on the HF S10.

For a little bit of added flexibility in your menus, there are two font size options (the captures above use the smaller of the two sizes) and 23 language options.

Auto Mode (9.13)

For most consumer camcorders, auto mode is the most commonly used operational style. Even though the Canon HF S10 is a high-end product, people will still end up shooting a great deal of their footage with automatic controls.

Dual Shot mode, which is the camcorder’s dedicated auto mode, is Canon’s new version of easy mode. We don’t particularly like the confusing naming convention of ‘Dual Shot’ mode. On last year’s models, Canon called this same setting ‘Easy’ mode, which is a lot simpler for a new user to comprehend and find. Despite the name, Dual Shot mode is not the only setting for capturing video and stills simultaneously. You can do that in video mode too.

Dual Shot mode is simply a poorly named easy mode, where all menus and manual settings are hidden away to make operation simpler. The only thing you can do with the camcorder is zoom, record, and press the shutter button to take photos. Switching over to regular video mode allows you to manipulate any of the camcorder’s settings. You can, however, let any setting be handled automatically if you only need access to one or two options.

As for how the HF S10 handles specific functions automatically, let’s begin with focus. The HF S10, like many Canons, has two autofocus modes. The first is called instant AF: a secondary autofocus sensor (located beneath the lens) provides an immediate, snap-like focus. We found the instant AF to work well in most cases, but it can be problematic if you’re dealing with lots of motion. If you prefer a more traditional autofocus style, the normal AF system on the HF S10 provides a gradual focus adjustment.

The HF S10 also has face detection, which is a new feature this year for Canon. With the setting activated, the camcorder will automatically detect faces within the video frame and adjust focus and exposure accordingly. During playback, any clips shot using face detection can also be organized and sorted based on whose face is in the clip. Canon claims the HF S10 can detect up to 9 faces at once and 35 faces in all, but we couldn’t get the camcorder to pick up more than a few faces at any given time.

The auto exposure worked great, adjusting to various light sources with gradual ease. The camcorder offers alternate metering methods in still mode, but only one auto exposure setting is present for videos. There are a number of white balance presents on the camcorder, which we discuss in more detail in the white balance portion of the review. Auto white balance was quite effective, although not perfect, and we saw consistently better results when using a manual white balance.

Rounding out the auto controls is an auto slow shutter feature that can be turned on and off in the camcorder’s menu. Turning the feature on allows the camcorder to use shutter speeds down to 1/30 of a second, which will produce a blurry, trailing effect in low light. With auto slow shutter off, the HF S10 won’t drop below 1/60 of a second shutter speed.

Low Light Modes – There aren’t any dedicated low light modes on the Canon HF S10, although there is a night scene mode that drops the shutter speed to as low as 1/2 of a second. The camcorder also has a built-in video light that will help a little if you need to film in the dark. The more recently released HF S11 has two low light modes: one that increases gain but keeps the shutter speed high, and one that drops the shutter significantly. Footage in these modes is either too noisy or too blurry, so we don’t think you’re missing much by sticking with the HF S10.

Scene Modes – The HF S10 has the same set of scene modes as the Canon HF20 and HF S100: Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks. This is a decent amount of scene modes, and competing models have a similar amount.

Other Auto Features

Noise levels are higher than many competing camcorders.