Canon Vixia HF S11

Ease of Use (4.85)

Canon has made a couple of changes in this year’s lineup that make their high definition models slightly more befuddling to use. Namely, the prominent ‘Easy’ button that used to be right in the middle of the LCD cavity is gone. Instead, you’ll need to enter cruise control by switching the dial over to ‘Dual Shot’ mode. This is a bit of a misnomer, since you can shoot stills and videos in manual mode too. In fact, we have no idea why Canon made this bizarre design choice. For a complete novice—who might actually want to find easy mode—this is hardly intuitive.

Last year’s Easy button has been replaced by the Video Snap button. This imposes a four-second clip limit: you’re intended to put the resulting short vids in to a fun, music-filled slideshow. We suppose this could have some allure, but we would strongly prefer having an obvious Easy button. We think that easy mode should be the easiest thing for users to find. In this regard, the 2009 Canons are a disappointment.

In Dual Shot mode, the user is essentially locked out of anything that could get a novice in trouble. No manual image controls or menu options: just point… and shoot. The good news is that Dual Shot mode actually allows you to capture either maximum quality 4:3 photos or maximum quality 16:9 video without switching modes. The bad news is that you can’t change the quality setting of either photos or videos without swapping to the appropriate mode and making the adjustment in the menus there. Why isn’t there a Dual Shot mode with full menu access? Why isn’t there a clearly marked easy mode version of video or still mode?

If easy mode—or Dual Shot mode—is a little too simplistic for you, the regular video and still modes are also at your disposal. Your first step, however, will be surmounting the steep learning curve that comes with learning the camcorder’s ins and out. Everything is packed into a pretty dense menu, where the sheer volume of options can be pretty overwhelming. There’s also the smaller function and joystick menus, but these options are all represented by sometimes esoteric icons, which novices might find intimidating.

The overall menu structure can be one of the HF S11’s most confusing aspects, spreading everything across several different menus. Some options appear in more than one menu, but most live in just one of the three different menus: the main administrative menu, the function menu, and the joystick menu. This makes the camcorder a bit cumbersome even for more experienced users. To adjust white balance, just pop into the function menu. To shift exposure, use the joystick menu. To shift AGC limit, navigate to the second tab of the administrative menu.

Of the four major manufacturers (Canon, Sony, Panasonic, JVC), Canon offers the least in the way of tool tips, descriptions, or other contextual aids. Panasonic’s Info feature can be activated to bring up a short explanation every time you select something in the main menu. Sony has a similar feature for their main menu, plus short text descriptions inside the camera settings menu. JVC has scrolling descriptions of the features within their menus. That just leaves Canon, with no scrolling text, tool tips, or menu help of any kind. If you don’t know what a feature does, you’ll probably need to refer to the instruction manual.

Requiring this kind of mastery over the menu navigation really places the HF S11 out of reach for less tech-savvy beginners that are considering venturing into the realm of manual controls. Experienced users will adjust quickly, but first-time videographers will probably want to look elsewhere. The one saving grace is the excellent instruction manual.

We already discussed the frustrating multi-layered menu system of the HF S11, but it certainly warrants further discussion. Options have been spread across three different locations, leaving you to guess where to look when searching for a particular feature. This greatly impacts ease of use, especially for less experienced users.

That’s not to say that there isn’t at least a small amount of logic in the menu structure. More significant image adjustments are located in the Function menu (above), where you select a recording quality, bitrate, and image effects. This is also where you can access Aperture and Shutter Priority modes. Quick image adjustments that you might want to make on the fly are located in a quick menu, mapped to the joystick (below). Manual exposure and focus adjustments are both part of the joystick guide.

Everything else is lumped into one giant administrative menu, divided into several different tabs. Navigation of this menu could be a lot easier. Instead of pressing left or right to change tabs, you have to navigate up to the top, then left or right to change tabs.

These minor navigation issues only exacerbate the troublesome split menu design: not only do you have to search for your desired option by process of elimination, but you can’t always do it quickly. So, if you’re looking for the gain control, you might strike out in the joystick guide (even though that’s where focus and exposure are located), then strike out again in the Function menu (even though that’s where you control aperture, shutter speed, and white balance), then finally land in the second tab of the administrative menu at a feature called AGC Limit.

On top of all this, Canon doesn’t provide tool tips or text descriptions of any of these features. If you don’t know what ‘AGC Limit’ is, you’ll need to consult the instruction manual or just leave that feature alone. The same goes for BLC (backlight compensation), tele-converter, and several other features. This may only be a minor nuisance to the experienced videographer, but it can make the technology a lot more daunting to first-time users.

For a little bit of added flexibility in your menus, there are two font size options (the captures above use the smaller of the two sizes) and 23 language options.

The main menu	The joystick menu in video mode

Auto Mode (9.22)

Whether you’re loaning your camcorder to someone less technically inclined or just don’t have the time or patience to frame a shot manually, the HF S11’s auto mode will come in handy. Unfortunately, finding easy mode isn’t all that easy. The HF S11’s dedicated auto mode is Dual Shot mode, which is represented on the mode dial by a green icon of a camera and a camcorder. We handed the camcorder to several random passersby and not one identified this as the easy mode. We hope that next year’s upgrades from Canon will address this irritating design flaw.

Users that experiment with this Dual Shot mode will be rewarded with a very straightforward recording experience. All menus and manual controls are hidden away and just about the only thing you can do is zoom, record, and press the shutter button to take photos. If you find this mode a bit too streamlined, you can also switch back to regular video mode in order to gain access to some options. Thankfully, you can keep most controls automated and still have access to the one or two manual controls you want.

As for how the HF S11 handles automatic controls, we found most adjustments to be more than adequate. Like its predecessors, the HF S11 has two autofocus modes. The first is called Instant AF—a mode that utilizes a secondary autofocus sensor (located beneath the lens) to provide an immediate, snap-like focus. Instant AF seemed to work well in most cases, but it can be finicky if there’s a lot of motion in your frame. For a more traditional autofocus style, there’s the normal AF system. With this system, autofocus still works quickly when moving between multiple subjects, but it doesn’t have the same immediate, locked-in focus shift that occurs with instant AF. The normal AF mode looks a little more natural—almost like someone is performing a manual focus with a lens ring.

The HF S11 also features the same excellent auto exposure as the rest of the Canon lineup. The camcorder adjusts to various light sources with gradual ease. Strangely, there are multiple metering methods in still mode, but only one auto exposure setting is present for videos.

For a little extra help with focus and exposure, the HF S11 has face detection. When this feature is activated, the camcorder will automatically detect faces within the video frame and adjust focus and exposure accordingly. During playback, any clips shot using face detection can also be organized and sorted based on whose face is in the clip. Canon claims their face detection can isolate up to 9 faces at once and 35 faces in all, but we couldn’t get the HF S11 to pick up more than a few faces at any given time.

There are a number of white balance presents on the camcorder, but it’s the auto white balance that many beginners will rely upon. Fortunately, the auto white balance works surprisingly well in a variety of lighting conditions. Even so, the adjustments made in auto mode are never quite as accurate as those effected by a manual white balance.

Rounding out the auto controls is an auto slow shutter feature that can be turned on and off in the camcorder’s menu. Turning the feature on allows the camcorder to use shutter speeds down to 1/30 of a second, which will produce a blurry, trailing effect in low light. With auto slow shutter off, the HF S100 won’t drop below a 1/60 of a second shutter speed.

Low Light Modes – The HF S11 boasts only a small handful of upgrades from the HF S10 and HF S100 released earlier this year. One of those is the addition of a low light scene mode, which drops the shutter speed to as low as 1/2 of a second. There’s also a Night Scene mode, which keeps the gain low and the shutter speed relatively high. This is more appropriate for shooting a city skyline at night. And in case you need that little bit of extra help when shooting in the dark, there is a built-in video light.

Scene Modes – The HF S11 has the usual set of scene modes, with the single addition of Low Light mode. The full list of available options is as follows: Portrait, Sports, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Night Scene, Low Light, Spotlight, and Fireworks. This is a decent amount of scene modes, and both the Panasonic HDC-TM300 and Sony HDR-XR520V have a similar array.

Other Auto Features

Higher noise levels than many competitors.