Canon Vixia HF S11 Camcorder Review

Manual Controls Summary
• Aside from an additional low light scene mode, nothing has changed from the HF S10 or HF S11. • Easy mode is not easy to find and is confusing labeled as Dual Shot mode • Automatic controls are responsive and respond well to a variety of shooting conditions • Custom control dial is an excellent method for achieving a precise manual focus • Aperture and shutter are not independently controlled, but there is a wide variety of settings available • Exposure and white balance are above average in their flexibility • Four additional color modes, plus a small amount of control over brightness, contrast, sharpening, and color depth • Zebra striping, focus assist, peaking, and auto gain control limits really up the ante on an already robust set of manual control offerings
	Compression & Media	(Page 7 of 17)	Still Features

Auto Mode (9.22)

Auto Mode is confusingly called Dual Shot mode

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.

Zoom (6.5)

The HF S11 has the same flat slider switch that we saw on the HF S100 earlier this year. It's an upgrade over the smaller, thinner zoom slider that we saw on last year's models. This more robust slider has an excellent level of resistance and texture to maximize the user's control. Each end of the slider has a small raised lip to improve grip more. This makes it even easier to use changes in finger pressure to achieve variable zoom speeds. The HF S11 also has secondary zoom controls in the form of membrane buttons on the LCD panel. These buttons, however, can only produce one fixed zoom speed.

The slider switch gives you control over variable zoom speeds.

The HF S11 also features a zoom speed setting that will maintain the zoom at one of three fixed speeds. The setting you choose will impact both the membrane buttons and the primary slider control. Using the slowest zoom speed setting, it takes roughly 22 seconds to go from wide angle to a full 15x zoom. With the fastest speed setting, the same zoom takes roughly 6 seconds.

Zoom Ratio (3.77)

The Canon HF S11 sports a modest 10x optical zoom—the same as the HF S10 and HF S100 before it. That's less than the 12x optical zoom from last year's Canon HF11 or this year's top-of-the-line models from Sony and Panasonic. The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 tops out at 10x, but that is to be expected with its comparatively short lens barrel.

Also conspicuously absent from the HF S11 is any kind of advanced zoom feature, which many manufacturers claim can digitally expand a zoom range without image degradation. Advanced zoom seems to be a big trend in 2009, making its way into flagship models from Sony, Sanyo, and Samsung. It's present in Canon's standard definition series this year, but hasn't yet been incorporated into the high definition models.

As on most camcorders, the HF S11 also has a digital zoom option, which can be capped off at 0x, 40x, or 200x. Using digital zoom will severely decrease image quality, so we recommend leaving that cap at 0x.

New this year to Canon's high definition lineup is a tele-converter option, which magnifies your image an additional 1.7x—an effect similar to that of a tele-converter lens. This feature, however, is a digital image effect, which lowers the effective pixel count from 6.01 megapixels to 2.07 megapixels. The minimum zoom with tele-converter on is 1.7x, while the maximum is 17x.

Zoom Comparisons
Wide Angle	5x Zoom	10x Zoom

Focus (7.5)

Manual focus is only as useful as the ring, dial, joystick, or buttons used to operate it. On previous generation Canons, manual focus was controlled via a joystick that enabled you to select one of several focal increments on a vague scale from "man" to "mountain." For this year's flagship models, Canon took a page right out of Sony's book to add a small manual control dial at the front of the camcorder. The design is startlingly similar, but we see nothing wrong in adopting a feature that works so well.

The manual control dial significantly improves the effectiveness of a manual focus.

You can still adjust focus with the joystick and a handful of hard focal increments, but we doubt anyone would actually choose that method on purpose. The custom control dial lets you assign one of five different operations to the smooth, easy action of a dial. The dial may not significantly improve some other controls, but it is certainly a far superior method for adjusting focus.

Performing a manual focus...		...and the focus assist functions.

The HF S11 also has a rudimentary focus assist, which zooms in on the center of your frame every time manual focus is engaged. Like the HF S10 before it, the HF S11 also has a surprising array of options for peaking. This tool highlights sharp edges in a bold color, helping you determine when your image is most in focus. Manual control aficionados should love this option... and these top-of-the-line 2009 models are the only consumer camcorders from Canon to include peaking. On the HF S11, peaking is available in three different colors (red, blue, and yellow) and can be displayed with a color image or in black and white. When peaking is combined with focus assist and the smooth dial control, the HF S11 offers an impressive interface for focus adjustment.

If you want to turn peaking on and off quickly, you can assign it to the custom control dial, but this will mean removing manual focus from the control dial. It's probably best to just settle on your peaking preferences and leave the dial for making accurate and precise focus adjustments.

Exposure (8.3)

Like all high definition Canon camcorders, the HF S11 offers a simple exposure tool. However, the twenty-three increments (from -11 to +11) are more than you usually find on the competition. You can make the exposure adjustment through the joystick guide or opt to use the custom control dial.

Exposure is a straightforward method of adjusting brightness.

The exposure tool is actually more accessible than the HF S11's shutter speed and aperture adjustments. That might serve as some consolation for the fact that shutter and aperture cannot be controlled independently.

Aperture (6.5)

For videophiles that crave a full set of manual controls, Canon comes up short in one major department. Aperture adjustment is possible only in Aperture Priority mode; shutter speed only in Shutter Priority. That means that changing the aperture causes an automatic shutter speed adjustment, and vice versa.

There are several aperture options, but none can be selected independent of shutter speed.

Canon does try to make up for this by offering a wide range of aperture options and an excellent display mechanism for the feature (see animation above). While in Aperture Priority mode, you may not be able to select shutter speed, but you can manually adjust exposure and the auto gain limit. For some users, this maintains plenty of control in the user's hands; others may find it a deal-breaker.

Shutter Speed (6.6)

Just as aperture is adjusted in Aperture Priority mode, shutter speed is adjusted only in Shutter Priority mode. Again, this means that you don't have independent control over aperture and shutter speed. The wide range of shutter speeds extends down to 1/8 (or 1/6 in 24p mode). Many camcorders don't allow you to select a shutter speed below 1/30 of a second, but the Canon HF S11 offers two very slow shutter options (1/8 and 1/15 of a second). In fact, the options actually go all the way down to 1/2 of a second, but those shutter speeds are only selected automatically in Low Light scene mode.

When adjusting shutter speed, remember that slow shutter speeds can really change the way motion looks, adding a lot of trailing and blurring. If you're shooting in dim conditions, you may want to keep it in Shutter Priority mode to prevent the camcorder from automatically selecting a very low speed. If the automatic aperture adjustment doesn't get you enough brightness, you can always use exposure to compensate.

Shutter speed options go as low as 1/8 of a second.

White Balance (9.5)

The white balance settings are exactly the same as what we reported on the Canons we reviewed earlier this year. You can select from one of the presets or perform a manual white balance. Canon always offers a good range of presets: auto, daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, and fluorescent H. This is a good showing, especially compared to camcorders from Sony or Sanyo. The manual white balance is easy to perform and usually does a good job of compensating for different color temperatures.

There are a handful of white balance settings and the ability to perform a manual white balance.

Gain (3.5)

The HF S10 and HF S100 were the first consumer camcorders from Canon to offer some degree of gain control. Even so, the AGC Limit (auto gain control limit) feature is quite limited. Rather than boosting gain, AGC Limit allows the user to limit the maximum gain automatically enacted for a given scene. If you're shooting in bright light, AGC Limit is unlikely to impact your image at all. In low light, you can use this option to decrease noise. Of course, this will also prevent the HF S11 from automatically boosting gain, which could result in much darker footage. Since most consumer models do not allow you to alter the camcorder's automatic gain, we do our low light testing with the AGC Limit set to auto.

AGC Limit control is helpful for limiting the auto gain, but it doesn't ever help brighten your footage.

The AGC Limit control is buried fairly deep in the administrative menu, but it is also one of the five options you can assign to the custom control dial. In most circumstances, you can probably just set the AGC Limit for your current scenario and use the dial for something like focus that you might want to change on the fly.

Color & Image Controls (9.0)

The Image Effects feature in the Function menu allows you to select from one of four preset options that slightly shift the appearance of your footage: vivid, neutral, low sharpening, and soft skin detail. (See below for side-by-side comparisons of the four presets.)

Canon HF S11 Color and Sharpness Controls 3000 lux at 100% Crop
Auto	Vivid	Neutral	Low Sharpening	Soft Skin

A fifth image effect option is Custom, which gives you manual control over color depth, sharpness, contrast, and brightness. This lets the user fine-tune the recorded image, but it's actually a very limited tool. The range for each option is only +/- 1, despite the appearance of a scale with many increments. With Canon already providing such a robust manual control experience in the HF S11, this is a disappointing deficiency.

The custom color controls don't let you do much.

The x.v. Color feature lets the camcorder record in the expanded xvYCC color gamut. Video recorded in this setting will only look different when played back on a television that supports xvYCC—otherwise the colors will look exactly the same.

Other Manual Controls (3.5)

Canon HF S11 Comparisons
JVC GZ-HM400	Panasonic HDC-TM300	Sony HDR-XR520V