Canon Vixia HF S10

Motion (10.80)

The high-end Vixia camcorders from Canon are definitely some of the best motion performers we’ve seen all year. Footage is sharp and smooth, while bright light motion is marred only by a fractional amount of trailing. When watching the videos below, keep in mind they have been heavily compressed by YouTube in the uploading process. Check out the linked HD versions of each video to get a slightly better idea of their quality.

The excellent motion we observed from the HF S10 was indistinguishable from the video captured by its sister models, the HF S100 and HF S11. To read more about the motion performance of these camcorders and the 24p and 30p options they offer, visit the Motion sections of the HF S100 and HF S11 reviews. You can also visit our YouTube channel to see videos from dozens of competitive camcorders.

While all the high-end camcorders we’ve tested have captured motion very well, the JVC GZ-HM400 is probably the best. Its motion is impeccably smooth, amazingly crisp, and has very little noticeable artifacting. Our only complaint is that the camcorder doesn’t have any alternate frame rate options for HD video. JVC does include three slow motion options, but the quality and resolution of these shooting modes is extremely limited.

The Sony HDR-CX500V rendered good motion, but the camcorder can only capture HD video at a 60i frame rate. The CX500V does have a low-quality slow motion option, but it’s less versatile than what is offered on the JVC GZ-HM400. We found the HDR-CX500V’s 60i motion to be quite smooth and very crisp. It had a tiny bit more artifacting and motion trailing than the Canon HF S10, but, overall, the two camcorders had similar performances in this test. The Canon HF S10’s superior score is largely a result of its 30p and 24p frame rate options.

The last camcorder in this group was the Sanyo VPC-HD2000. The most noteworthy achievement for the HD2000 is its ability to capture native 60p video. The progressive 60fps frame rate really pays off when it comes to smoothness, producing motion that rivals even the HM400. It’s certainly smoother than the flagship Canon camcorders. This motion isn’t perfect, however. The Sanyo footage is less sharp than that of the HF S10 or the JVC GZ-HM400. It also shows more hints of compression artifacting.

One final complaint of the HD2000 is its lack of a 24p frame rate option. If you want to capture a more film-like aesthetic, the HD2000 isn’t the camcorder for you. Even the 60i and 30p alternatives on the HD2000 are recorded at a slightly lower bitrate, suggesting that Sanyo really expects you to use the 60p setting for the highest quality video. More on how we test motion.