Canon Vixia HF11 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Aug 7, 2008 7:00 AM
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Picture & Manual ControlAutomatic Control (6.75)
The Canon Vixia HF11 makes automatic control a snap yanking a popular feature straight from Sony: an "Easy" button right in the LCD cavity. When you hit this button and the blue light turns on, you'd be hard pressed to screw up a shot, short of cupping your hand over the lens. In Easy mode, the menus are completely inaccessible. You can only point and zoom.
The automatic responses are quite good, and no different than we saw in the Canon HF10 and HF100. The auto focus is probably the most critical area for a camcorder to perform well in, especially when the manual focus controls are so limited on the camcorder. There are actually two types of auto focus to choose from. The default setting is called Instant AF. It works by using a sensor placed on the front of the camcorder to perform the gross focus operations, leaving the processor inside to only deal with the fine focusing. As a whole, the system works to speed up focus time. It does not, however, necessarily improve focus accuracy. When activated, the Instant AF creates a snapping effect as it shifts focus, which may not be to everyone's liking. If you prefer, you can deactivate the feature, which causes a more gradual shift.
All of the other automatic controls once again proved adequate in most shooting environments. Exposure and white balance shifts took approximately 2-3 seconds. Mixed indoor and outdoor lighting proved challenging for the white balance unless there was a clearly dominant light source in the majority of the frame.
Of course, you'll find the standard array of Scene modes that allow for one-touch adjustments in tricky shooting environments. They include: Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks.
Overall Manual Control (6.5)
Very little has changed on the Canon HF11 in terms of manual controls. Most interface is done through the joystick, located on the outer edge of the LCD panel. It's well-placed, but we long for something more powerful. Particularly for adjusting focus, a joystick just can't compare with the Cam Control dial on the Sony HDR-CX12, or the ring on the Panasonic HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100.
Canon does step up with the sheer amount of manual control. You'll find focus, an exposure tool, white balance, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, as well as some limited control of saturation, brightness, contrast, and sharpness. This is nearly everything the enthusiast could ask for. Panasonics offer independent aperture and shutter, which gives you a tighter control over exposure, and some users may prefer that. However, we find the extra control over color more useful most of the time, considering how much consumer camcorders oversaturate.
Zoom (6.0)
The zoom toggle is located on the top of the camcorder, towards the back. The toggle on the HF10 was cheap and loose, and Canon did not take the opportunity to fix it on the HF11. However it feels, the toggle still allows you to create a smooth, crawling zoom all the way across the zoom range. When you're zooming, a small scale appears on screen to give you sense of where in the range you, but no precise numerical value is given.
Zoom Power Ratio (12.0)
The optical zoom on the Canon HF11 extends to 12x, which is the same as the Canon HF10 and Sony HDR-CX12. This should be enough of a zoom power to get the shot you need. If it's not, well... move yourself closer.
The digital zoom can further extend the shot to either 40x or all the way out to 200x. We recommend turning the digital zoom off altogether, because it causes image degradation.
Focus (5.0)
The manual focus is adjusted via the joystick, which is certainly not the ideal way to do it. The full-sized ring on the Panasonic HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100, and the Cam Control dial on the Sony HDR-CX12 are much better for making smooth focal transitions without bumping and jarring the camcorder.
Canon lends a hand with focusing by including a Focus Assist tool. When activated, anytime you touch manual focus, the image onscreen appears at a 2x zoom. This gets you into the action close enough that you'll have little problem seeing the subject. The zoom does not appear on your final footage—just on the LCD. JVC offers the best assist tool in the biz, creating a brightly colored noise along areas of the shot that are in focus.
Exposure & Aperture (7.6)
The Canon HF11 includes both a simple exposure tool and an Aperture Priority. The inclusion of an easy-to-understand exposure tool is key to helping the beginning user. To activate, push in on the joystick. A small menu pops up onscreen. Select "EXP" and a scale appears in the upper left corner. The scale runs from -11 to +11. Well, okay... it doesn't sound simple when we explain it, but the process is easy and doesn't require any special camera knowledge. Panasonic omits anything this easy, offering only aperture control.
The Aperture Priority is activated on the top line of the Function menu. In this setting, you select the aperture and the camcorder automatically adjusts the shutter speed. Settings 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. Unfortunately, there's no way to close the aperture all the way.
Shutter Speed (6.95)
The Canon HF11 has a Shutter Priority mode. It allows you to set the shutter speed while the camcorder automatically adjusts the aperture. In 60i and 30P modes, the shutter speeds include: 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, and 1/2000.
In 24P mode, the slower shutter options change: 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, and 1/48. From 1/60 and faster, the settings are the same.
These settings offer good control in low light, especially when you don't want to rely on the auto slow shutter modes that can make your video look terrible and blurry.
White Balance (7.5)
The white balance options on the Canon HF11 include Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Set (Manual). This is a good collection of preset options—certainly more expansive than the indoor/outdoor presets on Sonys. Making a manual white balance is very easy. Just select the "Set" option and push in on the joystick. The icon onscreen will blink for a moment, and when it stops the image is adjusted.
Gain (0.0)
There is no manual gain control on the Canon HF11. Only Panasonic offers this option in consumer camcorders.
Other Manual Controls (2.0)
Cine Mode - When in this mode, the color is processed in an alternate gamma curve. It's meant to match the Cine 1 setting on the Canon XH A1 and XH G1, both professional camcorders (see chart). When recording in this setting, the mid-tones are expanded, while the highlights and shadows are "crushed." This means that you'll get a great range of color, as long as your scene is well lit. If your shot is too dark or too bright, you'll lose more detail than you would recording in the standard gamma curve.
Markers - There are four options for creating screen markers to help you line up your shot. Would you like a single horizontal line or a nine-sector grid? Now would you like that in white or gray?
Image Effects - The Image Effects settings are but the smallest fraction of what you'd find on a pro camcorder, but still more than what any consumer camcorder seems to offer. First, there are four simple one-touch preset options. Choose between Vivid (boosts saturation), Neutral (decreases saturation), Low-Sharpening (lowers sharpening), and Soft Skin (better skin tones).
The more powerful setting is a fifth setting, called Custom, that allows you to create a single customized setting. There are four parameters—Color Depth, Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness—each that can be set to -1, 0, or +1.
The frame grabs below should give you a rough idea of the effect of each setting.
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| Canon HF11 - 3000 lux in Auto mode |
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| Canon HF11 - 3000 lux in Vivid mode |
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| Canon HF11 - 3000 lux in Neutral mode |
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| Canon HF11 - 3000 lux in Low Sharpening mode |
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| Canon HF11 - 3000 lux in Soft Skin mode |
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