Canon Vixia HF S11

Manual Focus (7.50)

Miscellaneous Controls (12.50)

Image Effects

4 Presets: Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, and Soft Skin Detail

Custom Image Effects

Allows for direct control over brightness, contrast, sharpening, and color depth

x.v. Color

For recording in the expanded xvYCC color gamut

Tele-conversion

Digitally enlarges the center of the screen by roughly 1.7 times—essentially producing the same effect as a tele-conversion lens.However, this is a digital image effect that lowers the effective pixel count from 6.01 megapixels to 2.07 megapixels.

Color Bar

Displays an original set of SMPTE color bars that can be recorded and used for calibration later. The camcorder can also produce an audio reference tone with the color bars.

Zebra

Zebra is a common professional feature that assists with manual exposure adjustment. With the setting activated, black and white stripes will appear in overexposed areas while you are shooting (the stripes won’t end up on your final footage). This helps you manually adjust exposure levels to make sure nothing in the frame is blown-out from over-exposure. You can set the zebra sensitivity to 70% (slightly overexposed) or 100% (very overexposed).

Onscreen Markers

Onscreen markers, or guide frames, can be displayed on the HF S11 as a single horizontal line in white or grey, or as a nine-quadrant grid also in white or grey. These lines won’t be in your recorded footage and are simply used to assist with framing.

Audio Controls (5.75)

The Canon HF S11 has the same audio features as Canon’s previous high-end camcorders, the HF S100 and HF S10. For starters, it includes a 3.5mm external mic input near the front of the camcorder (on the right side) and an AV-output that can double as a headphone jack. These are important features that are must-haves for any high-end consumer camcorder. Unfortunately, the mic jack has no port covering whatsoever, which leaves it fully exposed to the elements. It is well-placed, though, so at least you don’t have to contend with annoying cables when you connect a mic to the camcorder.

The HF S11 has a Dolby Digital 2-channel microphone that isn’t particularly well-placed, but it is better than some of the top-mounted mics we saw on models from Panasonic and JVC. The HF S11’s mic is located on both sides of the camcorder, near the very front of the lens. Wandering fingers can definitely find their way into rubbing up against this side-mounted mic placement, particularly when you use the custom control dial on the left (located just beneath the mic). On the right side, the mic is more out of the way, even if you have large hands.

Like Canon’s other camcorders, the HF S11 has a manual audio level adjustment option. When adjusting audio, there is no numeric or incremental display of how much you are raising or lowering the levels. Instead, a small line in the lower left of the LCD expands and contracts as you raise and lower the audio levels (almost as if you’re turning a volume knob). Still, the manual audio adjustment is a terrific feature to have. The camcorder includes an audio level display with markers for -40dB, -12dB, and 0dB. By checking out the display you can figure out where your audio is peaking and adjust levels accordingly.

There are a number of additional audio features on the HF S11 that the casual videographer is likely to ignore. There’s an audio test tone that can be used for calibration or testing audio equipment, a microphone attenuator that can be engaged to limit audio levels, and a wind cut feature for reducing noise associated with rustling wind. The HF S11 has Canon’s proprietary Mini Advanced accessory shoe that is protected by a sliding cover on top of the camcorder. This is the same accessory shoe as featured on all of Canon’s consumer HD camcorders—except for the Canon HV40, which has a regular-sized shoe.

The built-in microphone	The external mic input

Editing (7.00)

The Canon HF S11 comes with too many discs. If you’re easily intimidated by technology, the four discs that ship with this camcorder might set your head spinning. There’s the ‘transfer utility’ disc, the ‘video tools’ disc, the ‘video software’ disc, and the instruction manual. The latter might be self-explanatory, but you’ll probably spend too much time figuring out what the other three are.

Our suggestion is to slog through installing all three. When you first plug the HF S11 into your computer, you’ll probably also have to install a driver, which Windows will hopefully help you do. Once all this has been completed, you’re ready to try out ImageMixer 3 SE.

The most important task handled by ImageMixer is transferring your files from the camcorder to your computer. You can’t simply drag and drop AVCHD files. This program, however, makes the transfer process very easy (see screenshot below). This is especially easy when you’re working with internal memory camcorders that should be backed up from time to time. ImageMixer also allows you to transfer footage from your computer back onto your camcorder.

The Editing/Authoring portion of ImageMixer is a little more complicated to use, but it has several options that intermediate video editors will welcome. You can adjust the volume of your video, add your own audio files, add text/titles, or do some basic splicing and trimming.

Though ImageMixer is at the heart of the HF S11’s software, it also comes with a separate photo viewer/editor and a program for transferring your own audio files onto the camcorder (for use with playlists and Video Snap). For an overview of the software that ships with this and other camcorders, see our article: Video Editing Software For Your Camcorder.