Canon Vixia HF11 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Aug 7, 2008 7:00 AM
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Audio (9.0)The audio options on the Canon Vixia HF11 are identical to those offered on the HF10. As part of the Joystick menu, you can manually adjust the microphone levels. Just press down on the center of the Joystick, scroll down to Mic, and use left and right to adjust your levels. This will also display an audio monitor in the bottom left corner of the screen. Though the monitor scale is incredibly small, it offers more increments than some of the competition—24 bars, as opposed to the 8 bars on the Panasonic HDC-SD9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $494.95).
The HF11 also has a Wind screen and a Mic Attenuator, which is designed to reduce the amplification of sound, or increase loss. While the Wind screen may help dampen the sound of a slight breeze, don't expect it to cancel the effects of a good blustering—as we've said before, relying on a wind screen function is like wearing a helmet in a tornado.
The audio levels control seen in lower left
Like its predecessor, the HF11 has a Mic jack, Headphone jack, and Mini Advanced Shoe that is compatible with numerous attachments, including the Canon DM-100 boom microphone. When we reviewed the HF10, we recommended a microphone like the DM-100 for cutting down white noise and headphones for monitoring your audio. On the HF10, the story is no different; headphones and a mini-shotgun mic are a great way to achieve crisp, clean recording on the HF11—a goal that can be hard to attain in consumer camcorders.
Canon's proprietary-fit accessory shoe
will not take your old accessories.
We're going to take an angry stab at Canon once again for switching from a universal shoe-fit to a proprietary-fit. Anyone who is already happily in the Canon family and owns compatible mics or lights will have to upgrade.
Playback (6.0)
The Canon Vixia HF11 offers two ways of playing back clips that are identical to what was offered on the HF10: the Instant Playback option located within the Joystick menu and a separate, full-fledged playback mode accessed via the Mode dial. Though the Instant Playback is extremely limited, it's a customary and handy option to have. While in video recording mode, you can watch the most recently recorded video and delete it if the video didn't turn out right.
For a larger breadth of options during playback, use the Mode dial to switch to either Video Playback or Photo Playback mode. In Video Playback mode, a gray screen appears containing four tabs at the top: flash memory Playback, SDHC Card Memory Playback, flash Memory Playlist, and SDHC Card Playlist. Within each tab are individual icons representing recorded clips. In order to select a clip, highlight it with the joystick and press the center of the Joystick to play it.
Playback controls are located on the bottom of the LCD panel: Play/Pause, Rewind/Zoom Out, Fast Forward/Zoom In, Stop. You can control the volume and shift between clips using the Joystick. Stop brings you back to the icon screen. The visibility and convenient location of playback controls is a great feature on the Canon. By comparison, other camcorders require you to struggle with a cryptic joystick or bother with touch screen controls that block the image you're trying to view. During playback, you can also press the Display button within the LCD cavity to view the video alone, the date and time of the video, or the date/time plus some info about length of clip and image quality.
As in Video mode, there is a Function menu (accessed by the Function button on the LCD panel) and an Administrative menu nested within the Function menu. The Function menu is more abbreviated in Playback mode, containing just five options: Copy, Add to Playlist, Delete, Select Date, and Menu. The Video Playback Administrative Menu consists of the following options:
| Video Playback Administrative Menu |
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| Memory Operations | Memory Info, Card Info, Media: Movies, Media: Images, Delete All Movies, Initialize |
| Display Setup | Brightness, Data Code, Language, Start Week |
| System Setup |
Battery Info, Wireless Remote, Beep, Power Save, AV/Phones, Phones Volume, Speaker Volume, Image Numbers, Image Quality, TV Type, Component Out, HDMI Status, USB Setting, Add to Disc |
| Date/Time Setup |
Time Zone/District, Date/Time, Date Format |
| Close |
Close |
In Photo Playback mode, there is no icon screen at first—your most recent still photo is automatically displayed. By pressing the Display button inside the LCD cavity, you can view just the image, the image plus some basic information, or the image accompanied by a highly detailed profile including a histogram chart, image size, exposure level, and white balance setting. While viewing the image, you can use the Joystick to shift between images, rotate 90 degrees, or delete the image. Pressing play starts and pauses a slide show of all your stills. Pressing the zoom toggle zooms in and allows you to use the Joystick to pan around different parts of the image. To access the icon screen, press the stop button. Here is the familiar gray screen from Video Playback mode, but with just two tabs: Flash Memory Playback and SDHC Card Playback. (The Playlist feature is available only for videos.)
Unfortunately, no improvement has been made to the speed at which the camcorder reads stills from the internal flash memory. Images take between 5 and 10 seconds to load—much longer than the nearly instantaneous time it takes to load video during Video Playback mode.
The Photo Playback Function menu is characterized by six items: Copy, Protect, Print Order, Transfer Order, and Menu. Nested within the Function menu, again, is an Administrative Menu:
| Photo Playback Administrative Menu |
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| Memory Operations | Memory Info, Card Info, Erase All Print Orders, Erase All Transfer Orders, Erase All Images, Initialize |
| Display Setup | Brightness, Language |
| System Setup |
Battery Info, Wireless Remote, Beep, Power Save, Image Numbers, Component Out, HDMI Status, USB Setting, Add to Disc, Firmware |
| Date/Time Setup |
Time Zone/District, Date/Time, Date Format |
| Close |
Close |
Connectivity (10.0)
In the back you'll notice an accessory shoe that's on the shrimpy side—is this a new standard terminal? No, it's Canon's own proprietary hot shoe. Canon's really playing copycat with Sony. First Easy mode, and now this. Now Canon-only accessories will fit in the shoe, which is totally bogus for those who want to use third party attachments. Of course, Canon is only offering a microphone and a video light, so the pickins are slim. A hard plastic tab shrouds the new hot shoe, and is connected to the body of the camcorder with two thin plastic strips that will yank out with ease.
Ports are located all over the HF11 in no particular organizational structure. The Mic, AV/Headphone, and DC jacks are all found in the back, housed by thick plastic tabs that are anchored to the body of the camcorder by slightly thicker plastic strips. Still, we'd opt for the Sony HDR-SR12 (Review, Specs, $833.33)'s port design over Canon's any day. It is nice to have the Mic and Headphone jacks in back to keep cables out of the way. Just be sure to switch from AV to Headphone or you'll get a scratchy blast of sound in your ears.
Within the LCD cavity you'll find the SDHC card slot and Component terminals. To open the SDHC card slot, you have to slide the Card Open door and the hatch will pop right up. The hatch must be manually shifted back down in order to close it. This is the nicest port design on the HF11. A thin plastic square covers the Component terminal, and that sums up the uneventful LCD cavity port offerings.
Another frustrating issue with the HF11 is the mini-HDMI output, rather than a full-sized HDMI. This will likely require an adapter or a special mini-to-standard HDMI cable. The HDMI and USB terminals are located under the hand strap, guarded by a rubberized shield that is prone to damage.
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| The mic jack and AV-out/headphone jack on the back of the HF11 |
The component-out jack in the LCD cavity |
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| The mini-HDMI out and UBS on the right side under the hand strap |
The SD/SDHC card slot in the LCD cavity |
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