Canon Vixia HF S10

Handling (7.45)

The Canon HF S10 has the same large barrel design that the other top-shelf Canons have this year. As such, the giant cylinder is what you grasp for normal operation of the camcorder. Some may find this shape easier than the bulky hard drive on some high-end models or the small, narrow surface of less expensive camcorders. We’ll be honest… this is a sizable device to carry around all day, despite the comfortable hand strap. The round contour that fits rights under your palm is a very welcome nuance in the design.

This design makes the HF S10 easy to hold, but the resulting location of the accessory shoe is inconvenient. If you plan to use a microphone or video light here, expect your grip to be significantly compromised. The front of the camcorder may be a common location now for accessory shoes, but we prefer the position that was on last year’s Canon models: pushed further back, your accessories won’t be quite such an obstruction to proper grip and won’t weight down the front of your camcorder.

We have few complaints with the button layout of the HF S10. Most of the switches and buttons respond well and are conveniently located. The one weak point is the small and finicky joystick. It’s better than the ambiguous action of the joystick on the Sanyo VPC-HD2000, but it certainly doesn’t make menu navigation fun. Thankfully, manual image adjustments that require more control—like focus—can be made using the custom control dial. For more on how the dial handles, see the Handling section of the HF S100 review.

Portability (6.15)

The Canon HF S10 is approximately the same size as most high-end consumer camcorders: it’s too big to fit in your pocket, small enough to slip into a camera bag or purse. If you’re hoping to carry your camcorder around on a regular basis, there are more compact options, including the Sony HDR-CX500V and the Sanyo VPC-HD2000. That’s mostly a result of the huge lens that dominates the body of the HF S10—a lens larger than anything you’ll find on top-of-the-line models from Sony, Panasonic, or JVC.

If you’re comparing the HF S10 to its sister models, the HF S100 and HF S11, media capacity might have a significant impact on portability. The HF S100 records exclusively to SDHC memory cards, so you’ll have to carry a few of those in order to match the recording times of the other models. The HF S10 has just 32GB of internal flash memory, but the HF S11 has 64GB. Either of these should be sufficient for a long day of shooting, as long as you’re vigilant about transferring files at the end of the day. And both have an extra SDHC card slot for additional footage.

Battery Life (4.55)

The Canon HF S10 lasted 1 hour, 31 minutes, 25 seconds in our battery test. This is virtually identical to the battery performance of its sister models and is just about average for high-end camcorders. The models we’ve selected for comparison, however, happen to have exceptionally good longevity in this department. The JVC GZ-HM400 managed to last two hours on a single battery. If you need a little more from your battery, the HF S10 has an open battery compartment, so you can simply purchase a larger battery pack. More on how we test battery life.

LCD & Viewfinder (7.88)

The Canon HF S10 features the same 2.7-inch color LCD as the rest of Canon’s current HD models. The screen resolution is also the same: 211,000 pixels. While this is a decent size and resolution for an LCD, it is nothing compared to the 3.2-inch, 921,000-pixel screen found on Sony’s HDR-XR520V (or even the 230,400-pixel 3-inch screen of the Sony HDR-CX500V). It is, however, average for most consumer camcorders.

This year’s top Canons also have a new design to the LCD panel. The buttons are a huge improvement: the finicky membrane buttons from 2008 have been replaced by more responsive physical buttons. The new screen has one flat, glossy bezel covering most of the panel. It should keep dirt and scratches off the LCD, but it’s also sure to cause a few glare problems. Fortunately,the LCD screen’s brightness can be adjusted with 44 increments of control. While adjusting the brightness, a grayscale display appears at the bottom of the screen so you can calibrate the brightness to match your shooting conditions. In addition to the brightness adjustment, the screen has a dimmer feature that can be turned on and off. Using the dimmer, or running the LCD with lower brightness should save you help the camcorder’s battery life.

Feature	Canon Vixia HF S10	JVC GZ-HM400	Sony HDR-CX500V	Sanyo VPC-HD2000
Display Size	2.7 in.	2.8 in.	3.0 in.	2.7 in.
Display Resolution	211000 pixels	207000 pixels	230400 pixels	230000 pixels
Touch Screen	✗	✗	✓	✗
Viewfinder	✗	✗	✗	✗
Viewfinder Resolution	0 pixels	n/a	n/a	n/a

Unfortunately, adjusting the appearance of the LCD is the only weapon you have to combat glare. None of the camcorders in the Canon lineup include a viewfinder. Some more experienced users might find this to be a significant omission from an otherwise excellent top-of-the-line camcorder.

Stabilization (4.26)

The HF S10 didn’t perform particularly well in our stabilization testing, especially compared to other high-end models with optical image stabilization (OIS). The good news is that the HF S11 didn’t really fare any better—despite Canon’s new Dynamic setting. If you were thinking of upgrading from the HF S10 to the HF S11 on the basis of stabilization alone, you can save your money. To read more about the HF S11’s Dynamic stabilization performance, read the Stabilization section of the HF S11 review. More on how we test stabilization.

In our low shake test, the HF S10 managed to reduce 28% of the shake. When we cranked things up to high shake, the OIS reduced 29% of the shake. These aren’t horrid numbers, but we expected better. The stabilization will certainly have some impact, but it’s not as effective as what you’ll find on top models from Sony and Panasonic.

The charts above show how much the HF S10 shook during our stabilization testing. The blue lines represent the movement of the image without stabilization, while the orange lines show the movement with image stabilization turned on. As you can see, the patterns of the blue and orange lines are virtually identical; the OIS didn’t do a very good job in correcting shake.

The video above is an example of the Canon’s stabilization capability at low shake levels. When watching this video you can notice a slight improvement with OIS engaged, but the difference isn’t huge. Overall, the stabilization system on the HF S11 didn’t perform as well as the JVC GZ-HM400 or the Sony HDR-CX500V, but it is a significant improvement over the Sanyo’s electronic image stabilization.