Canon Vixia HF S10

Low Light Sensitivity (3.77)

The Canon HF S10 required 15 lux to reach 50 IRE in our low light sensitivity test. These are essentially the same results we recorded in the HF S10’s sister models. That’s not a terrible performance, but it’s also not exactly the best either. Many of last year’s camcorders performed better than this and models from Panasonic, Sanyo, and Sony all surpassed the Canons on this test. More on how we test low light sensitivity.

The good news is that the HF S10 offers 30p and 24p frame rate options, which improve sensitivity significantly. To read more about how the HF S10 and its sister models performed in this test (including results at the alternate frame rates), see the Low Light Sensitivity sections of the HF S100 and HF S11 reviews.

Low Light Noise (10.59)

The Canon HF S10 fared very well in our low light noise test, measuring just 0.98% noise at 60 lux. These are better results than those from most of the Canon’s competitors. Despite these noise scores, we have to say the CX500V looks the best in low light. Its footage is brighter, clearer, and sharper, as you can see in the crops below. The Canon lineup may be without noise, but you can see discolored compression artifacts marring the image that are all but absent in the CX500V footage. More on how we test low light noise.

Low Light Color (7.05)

Low light color performance for the HF S10 is just about average for a high-end consumer camcorder. Its color error measured 5.20 and the saturation was just 58.57%. These results are significantly worse than those produced by the camcorder in bright light. More on how we test low light color.

We also tested the HF S10 in its alternate frame rates (30p and 24p) and achieved slightly better results. Even these scores can’t compete with the excellent numbers produced by the Sanyo VPC-HD2000, which had excellent low light performance across the board. To read more about Canon’s low light color performance this year, see the Low Light Color sections of the HF S100 and HF S11 reviews.

There weren’t a lot of surprises among the competition for the HF S10. The HM400, with its incredibly high resolution sensor, has a darker image than many camcorders and its low light color accuracy and saturation suffer as a result. The Sony HDR-CX500V performed about the same as its hard drive equivalent, the HDR-XR520V. Both Sony models produce results similar to those of the Canon lineup. And, as mentioned previously, the Sanyo HD2000 simply outperforms all the rest when it comes to most of our low light tests.