Canon Vixia HV40

Manual Focus (6.75)

Miscellaneous Controls (10.00)

Image Effects

The camcorder includes four pre-set image effects: Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, and Soft Skin Detail. These effects change the look of your recorded video, although none of them produce a drastic change. We showed examples of these settings in our color testing.

Custom Image Effects

The camcorder has a Custom setting that allows you to create your own Image Effect. You can individually adjust Color Depth, Sharpness, Contrast, and Brightness with the Custom setting, but a limited adjustment range of -1 to +1 is available for each setting.

Cine Mode

We’re not exactly sure what Cine Mode does, but according to Canon it gives the footage a more cinematic look (presumably by adjusting exposure, color, and possibly the gamma curve). Cine Mode is meant to be used in conjunction with the camcorder’s 24p frame rate, but it does not have to be.

Markers

Displays a line or set of lines on the screen to assist with framing. There are two different marker options: a level (one line with a notch in the center) and a grid (the screen is divided into a nine-sector grid. Either marker can be displayed as white or grey, and the lines do not end up in your recorded footage.

Zebra

Zebra patterns can be displayed in portions of the frame that are overexposed. The Zebra sensitivity can be set to 70% or 100%. Like the Markers, these patterns are only meant to assist with shooting and they do not end up in recorded footage.

Audio Controls (5.75)

The Canon HV40 has a basic set of audio controls that include the ability to manually set audio levels. The camcorder has a top-mounted, built-in microphone that is mostly out of the way from accidental rubs with fingertips or straps. The top-mounted placement of the mic doesn’t point directly at your subject, but it still does a good job picking up directional audio. When shooting HD video, the HV40 compresses audio using the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 codec. 2-channels of 16 bit, 48 kHz audio is recorded with a transfer rate of 384kbps. For standard definition video, the audio is recorded as PCM digital sound with 16-bit (48 kHz/2-channels) and 12-bt (32kHz/4-channels) options.

If you don’t like using the onboard microphone, the HV40 has a 3.5mm (1/8-inch) external mic jack on its right side. Just below this is the AV port that also doubles as a headphone output. A microphone can also be connected via the advanced accessory shoe on the top of the camcorder. The shoe is standard size so it should fit most accessories, but in order for a microphone to use the shoe’s power connection it must be compatible with Canon’s advanced accessory shoe design.

When manually setting the audio levels a display on the LCD shows where audio levels are peaking. Unfortunately, this display only provides decibel labels for -40dB, -12dB, and 0dB. So, if you’re trying to set the levels at a specific decibel, it isn’t going to be easy on the HV40. Additional audio controls include a windscreen and a microphone attenuator for the built-in mic.

Because it records to tape, the HV40 has numerous dubbing options and audio playback settings. During playback you can set the channel output between L/R (left and right channels), L/L (left channel only), and R/R (right channel only). The audio output can also be set to Stereo1, Stereo2, Mix/Fixed, or Mix/Variable depending on your audio dubbing preferences.

Editing (4.50)

The most important thing to know about the HV40’s provided editing software is that it does not come with a program that allows you to transfer video from tape to your computer. If you want to edit the footage you shot with the HV40, you’ll need to purchase your own editing program. Basic programs like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker will do the trick, or you can spring for professional-level editing software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere to capture your footage from tape to computer. We want to make this fact clear because many consumers may assume the HV40 comes with some sort of video editing software. It does not.

Most camcorders that record to non-linear media instead of tape come with a basic video editing application. Canon includes Pixela ImageMixer 3SE on its flash-memory camcorders, but this program is not included with the HV40. The only thing the HV40 comes with is a Digital Video Solution Disk, which contains two photo organization programs (one for Macs and one for Windows). The photo programs are called ZoomBrowser EX 6.2 (Windows version) and Image Browser 6.2 (Mac version). Both programs are essentially rip-offs of Apple’s iPhoto software, and they function essentially as organizational tools. Screen grabs of the Image Browser application are shown below.

When the HV40 is connected to a computer and is put into card mode, the Image Browser application automatically brings up a photo transfer screen. Transferring photos using the software is easy, but this is something most people will be familiar with if they’ve ever owned a digital camera. Once photos are transferred, you can view and organize them in the Browser Window (below). Minor edits and adjustments can also be made to photos.

Image Browser does have a few useful video features, but none of them allow for editing or capturing footage from tape. The program allows you to import video clips as well as iMovie projects, so you can organize your videos using Image Browser if you want to. We can’t really imagine many people doing this, however, as you must use a separate program to edit and capture the footage anyway. For an overview of the software that ships with this and other camcorders, see our article: Video Editing Software For Your Camcorder.