Canon Vixia HG20 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 24, 2008 3:45 PM
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Audio (9.0)
The audio features on the Canon HG20 are rather good. Towards the front on the right side are a mic jack and headphone jack. On the top, you'll find an accessory shoe, which is unfortunately of a proprietary fit. Whether you use the built-in stereo mic (located in the front under the lens) or an external mic, the Joystick Menu gives easy access to the microphone levels control. When engaged, a small meter appears in the lower left corner of the screen. Use the joystick to push the maximum volume limiter up and down.
If you always want to have sense of volume input, you can have the volume meter permanently displayed in the corner of the screen. If not, you can get rid of it via an option in the Admin menu. Also in the menu, you'll find two other audio options. A Windscreen feature creates a low pass filter that should reduce the high pitched noise of wind rushing over the mic. The Microphone Attenuator reduces the audio signal without the loss of sensitivity that you'd experience by simply lowering the volume.
Playback (6.0)
The Canon HG20 has separate settings on the Mode dial for both video and photo playback. Flipping the Mode dial to video playback displays a screen with four tabs at the top – HDD playback, Memory Card Playback, HDD Playlist, and Memory Card Playlist. When a specific tab is selected, thumbnails of recorded video clips appear below. To play a specific clip, use the Joystick to select a thumbnail and push the center of the Joystick to begin playback.
The basic VCR playback controls - Play/Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, Stop - are located at the bottom of the LCD panel. During playback, pushing in the Joystick brings up volume controls and the ability to jump to the next or previous clip on the drive. Pushing stop brings you back to the set of thumbnails displaying your clips. Pushing the zoom toggle in and out will change the amount of thumbnails visible on the screen. The Joystick and playback button combination makes video playback on the Canon HG20 very accessible and easy to use. Pushing the Display button on the inside of the LCD cavity during playback changes the amount of information displayed on the screen – a good feature to have when you just want to look at your image without being distracted by battery information, date and time, record settings, etc.
Just as in Video mode, there is a Function menu accessed by pressing the Function button located next to the VCR playback controls on the LCD panel. Pressing the function button brings up the following options: Select, Copy, Add to Playlist, Divide, Delete, Scene Search and Menu. The last option brings up the Playback Admin Menu which is very similar to the Admin Menu accessed while in Video Mode.
The Playback Admin Menu contains the following options:
| Video Playback Admin Menu |
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| Playback Options | Record Media for Photos, Photo Capture Quality, Data Code, USB Connection Type, Add Recordings to Disc |
| Settings 1 | Font Size, LCD Brightness, Language, Component Output, TV Type, AV/Headphones, Headphone Volume, Speaker Volume |
| Settings 2 | Wireless Remote Control, Notification Sounds, Power Saving Mode, Control for HDMI, Initialize HDD/SDHC, Photo Numbering, Drop Sensor |
| Date/Time Setup | Time Zone/DST, Date/Time, Date Format, Calendar Start Day |
| Info | HDD Info, Memory Card Info, Battery Info, HDMI Status |
| Close | Close |
The Video Playback Admin Menu
Photo Playback mode is very similar to Video Playback, but there is no screen of thumbnails when you first switch the Mode dial to Photo Playback. Your most recent still photo is initially displayed on the screen accompanied by details about the photo which can be changed by pressing the Display button inside the LCD cavity. Pressing play on the VCR control panel begins an automatic slide show of your stills and pressing the Joystick button allows you to jump between photos as well as delete them. Pressing either the Fast Forward button or the Zoom Toggle magnifies the selected photo and you can use the Joystick to move around the zoomed-in image. Pressing stop brings you to the thumbnail view of your collected photos. Again, at the top of the screen are tabs, but this time just two of them – HDD Playback and Memory Card Playback (Only Video Playback supports the Playlist feature).
Accessing photos via the camcorders internal hard drive was relatively quick and smooth with images usually loading in less than 2 seconds. This is only slightly slower than the time it takes for the camera to load video files for playback.
Pressing the Function button again brings up a set of options: Select, Copy, Protect, Print Orders, Transfer Orders, Delete and Menu. The Menu option brings up the Photo Playback Admin Menu, which is almost identical to its Video Playback counterpart, but with a few less options:
| Photo Playback Admin Menu |
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| Playback Options | USB Connection Type, Add Recordings to Disc, Print |
| Settings 1 | Font Size, LCD Brightness, Language, Component Output |
| Settings 2 | Wireless Remote Control, Notification Sounds, Power Saving Mode, Control for HDMI, Initialize HDD/SDHC, Photo Numbering, Drop Sensor, Firmware |
| Date/Time Setup | Time Zone/DST, Date/Time, Date Format, Calendar Start Day |
| Info | HDD Info, Memory Card Info, Battery Info, HDMI Status |
| Close | Close |
Connectivity (10.0)
The Canon HG20 has a number of ports. On the right side, you'll find a mini (1/8-inch) microphone jack, a component-out jack, and a double-duty headphone-out/AV-out jack. All of these are well-protected behind a hard plastic port cover with an adequately long tether. Towards the back of the right side is another hard plastic port cover for the mini-HDMI.
On the rear is a flip-down port cover for the DC-power. The battery is located here, but fortunately, Canon decided not to hide any ports behind the battery. We only wish Panasonic had been so thoughtful.
| Clockwise starting right: a) DC-in port on the back b) Combined headphone/AV-out jack, component-out, and mic-in on the right side c) mini-HDMI on the right side |
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The LCD cavity has two ports, an SDHC card slot with a flip-down port cover and an uncovered mini-USB 2.0 port.
The top of the camcorder has a proprietary-fit accessory shoe, meaning only Canon brand accessories will fit. It's a crappy thing to do to your customers, especially old Canon loyalists who already own third party accessories. Sony adopted the same concept several years ago. We're just waiting for the adapters to hit the market, unless they already have.
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