Canon Vixia HF100 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on May 13, 2008 3:09 PM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.75)
The Canon HF100 performs well in auto mode, which should come as welcome news to beginners and the experienced alike. To make the shooting even more welcoming, Canon has lifted a page from Sony's book and added a prominent "Easy" button on the side. When in Easy mode, the exposure, focus, white balance, and other quality controls are all automatically adjusted. All you need do is point, zoom, and hit the record button.
The auto exposure is fast, taking approximately 2-3 seconds to make transitions. The white balance takes about the same amount of time, and it typically quite accurate. The auto focus on the HF100 has two settings to choose from. The first, a Canon special feature, is called Instant AF. It uses an external sensor located on the front of the body to take care of the gross focusing, leaving the internal processor to only deal with fine adjustments. The overall effect is to speed up focus time. It also has the effect of "snapping" the picture into focus, which some people may not like. If that's the case, you have the option to deactivate Instant AF and let the internals do all the work. You're auto focus won't be any more or less accurate, but it may be a little slower. It's important to note that different frame rates have an effect on focus as well. The 1080/60i frame rate has the fastest reactions, while the 24P has the slowest.
You'll find the standard array of Scene Modes on the Canon HF100, located on the top sub-menu of the Function Menu. Options include: Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks.
Overall Manual Control (6.5)
On the whole, the manual control set on the Canon HF100 is very good. Easier to use than Panasonic's and JVC's, and more comprehensive than Sony's, Canon is often the one to beat in this category. True, there could have been more external controls like dials and buttons, but the ultra-compact camcorders rarely offer that. For a great example of what you're missing out on, check out the Cam Control dial on the Sony HDR-SR11 and HDR-SR12.
Not to say that there isn't a learning curve. Make sure you spend some time with the manual before you go out on an important shoot. The manual controls on the Canon HF100 are spread into three distinct areas. The crucial controls are activated by pushing in on the joystick. A small icon pops up in the lower right corner with options for Exposure, Focus, and mic levels. Somewhat less crucial, but still present, are Backlight Compensation, Video Light on/off, and a way to get a quick look at the last scene recorded.
The controls are located in either the Function menu or the Main (Admin) menu, mostly the former. In the Function menu, you'll find Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Scene Modes, White Balance, Image Effects, Digital Effects, and bitrate. When you're actively recording, you have access to the controls on the joystick, but not the Function menu. Also, when you have the Shutter or Aperture Priority modes activated, you can use them while recording.
The controls are intuitive, and we always prefer the joystick control over touch screens and nav-pads. We miss the zebra patterns and peaking from the Canon HV30, but they were not ported over. Overall, it's a more than satisfactory bundle of controls.
Zoom (6.0)
The zoom toggle on top of the Canon HF100
In our review of the Canon HF10, we stated that the zoom toggle felt loose and cheap. The HF100 is better, suggesting that it was a simple manufacturing aberration. Of course, that means that it could happen to you, too. The toggle on the HF100 feels smooth. It's quite large in relation to size of the body. We were able to get about three distinct zoom speeds, depending on finger pressure. If you don't trust your fingers, Canon gives you the useful option to fix the zoom speed to one of three options: fast, medium, and slow. When zooming, a progress bar appears in the upper left corner to give you a sense of where in the zoom range you are. We would have preferred the addition of a actual numerical value.
Zoom Power Ratio (12.0)
The optical zoom on the Canon HF100 extends to 12x. This is about average for an HD camcorder in this price range, and a little better than the 10x zoom on the Panasonic HDC-SD9. The Sony HDR-UX20, a DVD camcorder, has a 15x zoom, but it comes at the cost of a much smaller sensor. The digital zoom on the HF100 can be extended to 40x or 200x. We recommend turning it off altogether.
Focus (5.0)
The focus on the Canon HF100 is okay. Proper focus is more crucial in HD, as your mistakes are more apparent. So if you're the hands-on type, you may want to consider other models, include the Canon HV30, Sony HDR-SR11/HDR-SR12, or JVC GZ-HD6.
To manually focus, select the option from the Joystick menu, then push the joystick left and right to shift focus. The LCD screen is your only means of gauging the accuracy. Canon does offer one fairly good tool to help, a Focus Assist function that automatically blows up the image to a 2x zoom on the screen. This zoom is not recorded to the final footage; it's simply an on-camera helper. Canon's tape-based HDV model, the HV30, steps it up by pairing the instant zoom with a peaking function, which creates fuzzy noise around the areas that are in focus to make them "pop" more on the screen.
Exposure & Aperture (7.6)
The Canon HF100 offers both a simple Exposure control and an Aperture Priority mode that affects exposure. The first option is great for shooters who don't know the first thing about camera terminology and simply want to make the picture darker or brighter. The latter suites the needs of the advanced crowds. It's a great combination that the other manufacturers could learn from. Generally, Panasonics don't cater enough to novices, and Sony's don't meet the demands of advanced shooters.
The exposure control is accessed by pushing in on the joystick. When activated, a scale appears at the top of the screen with a range of +11 to -11. What may be confusing to beginners is that the scale changes depending on the lighting situation. For instance, if you're pointing the camcorder into a dark room and activate the Exposure control, the scale may only extend from -11 to +1 or even +0. This is because the auto exposure controls have already exhausted their resources. There is nothing left to "turn up."
The Aperture Mode is activated by going into the Function menu and shifting the camcorder out of "P" mode, the Canon-speak for Manual mode. Then exit the menu. The Aperture value is displayed on the left side of the screen. To change it, push in on the joystick, then toggle up and down. Options include: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.7, and f/8.0. For whatever reason, Canon does not offer the ability to shut and aperture further, like Panasonic does. Panasonic also offers more increments in its aperture range. Sony does not offer any direct control over the aperture. JVC is about equivalent with Canon.
Exposure in action
Shutter Speed (6.95)
The shutter speed is controlled directly in Shutter Priority mode. You cannot manually dictate aperture and shutter speed at the same time. However, if you lock the shutter then use the Exposure control, it will only be able to adjust the aperture. This works vice versa, as well - locking the aperture value then using Exposure to shift the shutter.
Shutter speed options at 60 and 30P frame rates include: 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, and 1/2000.
In 24P frame rate mode, the range changes to: 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, and 1/48. From 1/60 and up, they are the same as above. Overall, this is a pretty modest range of control. Panasonic offers a wider range in the faster end of the spectrum. However, Canon is much more generous in the slower end. Panasonics only drop as low as 1/30th. This is a significant trick to have in your back pocket for low light shooting. Sonys are the most frustrating, offering no manual shutter speed and two low light modes that offer widely variating effects.
White Balance (7.5)
The white balance settings are located in the Function menu. There are quite a few more presets than you'll find in most other manufacturers: Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. Of course, you also get an Auto mode and a manual adjustment option.
To make a manual adjustment, toggle over to the Eval. WB setting, point your camcorder at a white or neutral grey target, and push in on the joystick. The white balance will blink for a few seconds, then the picture adjusts and the icon stops blinking. It's always comforting to see something like this blinking, or a total screen blank out, to know that the camcorder complied with your request. With some camcorders, you just never know if it happened or not.
The White Balance submenu
Gain (0.0)
There is no gain control on the Canon HF100 camcorder. Only Panasonic offers gain control in its consumer range of products.
Other Manual Controls (2.0)
Cine Mode - Cine Mode is an alternate gamma mode for how the camcorder processes colors, meant to make the HF100 match something closer to Canon's professional line rather than the oversaturated colors standard on most consumer camcorders. When active, the highlights and shadows are compressed and the midtones are expanded. Cine mode presumes, to some extent, that you've properly lit your scene. This is not the best run-and-gun setting, as you'll lose more details in the shadows and highlights. However, if the lighting is good, the image tends to have great looking colors.
Image Effects - This refers to a set of controls that let you adjust color if the auto controls aren't cutting it for you. Canon offers a more powerful version of this on its digital still cameras called MyColors. However, you'll be hard pressed to find anything this extensive on any other consumer camcorder, which puts Canon ahead of the pack in this area. There are four settings that you can choose from (one and only one at a time): Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, and Soft Skin Detail. The fifth setting, Custom, is the really good one. In this setting, there are four parameters to control, each of which has a range of -1 to +1. Make your custom setting based on: Color Depth, Sharpness, Contrast, and Brightness. The only thing we're left wishing for is that you could have more than one Custom setting at a time.
The Image Effects options
3000 lux 1080/60i auto
3000 lux 1080/60i Vivid
3000 lux 1080/60i Neutral
3000 lux 1080/60i Low Sharpening
3000 lux 1080/60i Soft Skin
Markers - There are four options for creating on-screen lines that help you set up your shots. You can either have a single horizontal line in white or grey, or two vertical and two horizontal lines in white or grey. These lines are not recorded to your final footage. They only appear on screen while shooting.
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