Canon Vixia HF S11

The Canon HF S11 (MSRP $1399) is another excellent contender among this year’s high definition camcorders. Its bright light video performance rivals just about anything you’ll see from any manufacturer in 2009. In low light, however, the HF S11 does struggle—just as its predecessors did.

What’s more, the few upgrades that it received from the HF S10 aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Sure, you have 64GB of internal flash memory, but you have to pay $100 for that privilege. (And the original 32GB was a substantial amount of memory.) There’s the compatibility with Canon’s new RA-V1 LANC adapter, but that’s sold separately at a steep price of $120. And finally there’s the new Dynamic image stabilization option. This second level of stabilization does, in fact, improve stabilization, but only very slightly. The HF S11 is still among the worst of the competition when it comes to stabilization—at least when it comes to our testing methodologies.

Even more importantly, Canon has done nothing to correct the few flaws that we reported on the HF S100, released earlier this year. There’s no viewfinder, aperture and shutter cannot be independently controlled, easy mode is confusingly disguised as Dual Shot mode, and the three-tiered menu system with no tool tips or help features is an intimidating obstacle for less experienced consumers.

That might seem like a whole lot of negative, but our disappointment is really a result of wanting perfection from an already impressive camcorder. The update doesn’t add much to the Canon lineup—unless you really yearn for LANC compatibility. The final verdict? If you are an experienced videographer and rely heavily on manual controls, the HF S11 may be a compelling product. The vast majority of consumers, however, will be content to either save $100 and purchase the HF S10 or look to other manufacturers for simpler to use and/or more affordable camcorders.