Canon Vixia HV40

Handling (6.25)

The HV40 handles a lot differently than Canon’s flash-memory camcorders, mainly because there’s a MiniDV tape deck strapped to its right side. This changes the entire design and feel of the camcorder. Without any modern commodities like touchscreens, fancy LCD bezels, or gimmicky laser-touch systems, the camcorder feels a bit old-fashioned. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, as many people may prefer the HV40’s bulky design and more traditional layout. Still, we really don’t like the embedded ‘membrane-buttons’ located on the HV40’s LCD panel. They are hard to push, unresponsive, and often need to be pinched or squeezed tightly to get them to work. This was one redesign we were ecstatic to see Canon fix on the HF S100, HF S10, and HF S11. Canon’s HF S series also boasts a better hand strap, sleeker design, and more comfortable shape than the HV40.

Unfortunately, there are some other basic problems with the HV40 that Canon really should have paid attention to. For one, the camcorder’s viewfinder doesn’t extend or pivot—it is entirely stationary. This makes it very difficult and annoying to work with, particularly if you have a large battery pack loaded (a thick battery can block access to the viewfinder). This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the HV40 came with a stellar LCD. Instead, the camcorder has an unimpressive 2.7-inch screen with a paltry 211,000-pixel resolution. The HV40 definitely has the real estate for Canon to include a larger, more resolute screen—much like Sony does on its bulky HDR-XR520V.

Button placement and design is slightly problematic on the HV40. The camcorder doesn’t have too many buttons, and most of them are conveniently located on the back of the camcorder (all within a thumbs reach). We found, however, that our thumb often bumped the navigation joystick while we were recording. This happened because the joystick and record button are right next to each other and our thumb fell more naturally onto the joystick than the record button. This wasn’t a huge deal, but Canon does relegate a lot of controls to the joystick (it even has its own menu). So, you may find yourself accidentally adjusting some control on the HV40 because you pressed the joystick button inadvertently.

The joystick itself isn’t great for adjusting manual controls, but it is definitely better than an LCD touchscreen or JVC’s Laser Touch system. Canon’s joysticks are also fairly well designed, and they are large enough to offer a decent amount of precision. There is a small dial near the front of the camcorder as well, but it can only be used to adjust focus. The dial isn’t that great, mainly because it doesn’t have enough surface area and is hard to grip, but also because Canon doesn’t allow the dial to manipulate other controls besides focus.The Canon HF S series has a much better dial (larger and easier to use) that can be used to control a wide range of settings (exposure, focus, assist functions, audio levels, and gain limit). The Sony HDR-XR520V has an even better control dial, and the Panasonic HDC-TM300 and HS300 both have lens rings that can be used to set a variety of controls.

Portability (3.14)

There’s no doubt about it, tape-based camcorders are generally larger than other camcorders, and the HV40 is no exception. The HV40 weighs in at 615g, which is a bit heavier than the Sony HDR-XR520V—and the XR520V has a 240GB internal hard drive on its right side. The HV40 is also significantly wider and taller than the HDR-XR520V. So, this makes the HV40 one of the largest and heaviest consumer camcorders on the market. With many manufacturers trending towards light-weight, flash-memory models, the tape-based camcorders are only going to seem larger and bulkier in the years to come. With tape-based models you also have to remember to bring along numerous tapes when you go on a trip or to a video shoot. MiniDV tapes can only hold 60 minutes of HD video, which is a lot less than most memory cards or internal hard drives are capable of storing (a 16GB SDHC card can hold roughly 85 minutes of video on the Canon HF S100).

Depending on what you compare it to, however, the HV40 is still rather portable. It is more compact than any professional camcorder, and it weighs much less than a DSLR camera. It is also smaller than many MiniDV cameras from years past. You won’t, by any means, be able to fit the HV40 in your pocket, so you’ll have to carry it around in a small bag or using a shoulder strap (or in your hand). The Canon HF20 is far lighter and more compact than the HV40 and Canon’s top-line models, the HF S series, are also significantly smaller than the HV40.

Battery Life (5.85)

The HV40 has good battery life with its provided BP-2L13 battery pack. The camcorder lasted for just under two hours in our test (1 hour, 57 minutes to be exact). This is around 20 minutes longer than the Canon HF S100 managed, and it is a bit longer than average for a consumer camcorder. More on how we test battery life.

The HV40 can accommodate larger battery packs that should give the camcorder a longer record time. The problem is, if you insert too large of a battery, like the BP-2L24H, you may not be able to use the viewfinder on the back of the camcorder. Batteries that extend too far out block you from pressing your eye up against the viewfinder (or they make it very uncomfortable). This is one of the reasons we wish Canon had implemented a pivot or extension option on the HV40’s viewfinder.

LCD & Viewfinder (8.63)

The HV40 includes both an electronic viewfinder and an LCD screen, making it one of the few consumer camcorders manufactured by Canon that offers a viewfinder. Neither the viewfinder nor the LCD is worthy of much praise, however. The LCD is 2.7-inches in size, has a 211,000-pixel resolution, and features Canon’s old LCD bezel design—the same design found on the Canon HF20 and HF200. The HF S100, S10, and S11 all feature a flat, glossy screen design, although their LCDs still have the same specs as the HV40.

We would have loved for Canon to include a larger LCD on the HV40, mainly because the camcorder is definitely big enough to accommodate one. The 2.7-inch size is OK, but it doesn’t do anything to set the camcorder apart from the crowd. Brightness can be set manually on the LCD (with 44 increments of control), and you can also bump up the backlight of the screen by holding down the display button for two seconds.

Feature	Canon Vixia HV40	Canon Vixia HF S100	Panasonic HDC-TM300	Sony HDR-XR520V
Display Size	2.7 in.	2.7 in.	2.7 in.	3.2 in.
Display Resolution	211000 pixels	211000 pixels	230400 pixels	921000 pixels
Touch Screen	✗	✗	✓	✓
Viewfinder	✓	✗	✓	✓
Viewfinder Resolution	123000 pixels	0 pixels	183000 pixels	n/a

We love that Canon put a viewfinder on the HV40, but, to be frank, the one Canon included is really bad. It cannot extend, pivot, rotate—nothing. The viewfinder is completely stationary, which makes it terribly difficult to use. Also, if you load the HV40 up with a larger battery pack, you may not even be able to press your eye against the viewfinder at all. The viewfinder is also made out of a hard, non-flexible plastic that is uncomfortable and doesn’t provide a good seal around your eye. We understand that viewfinders are beginning to become a rarity on consumer camcorders, and it seems that Canon wants to make them as unfriendly to use as possible.

The viewfinder is 0.27-inches in size and features a paltry 123,000-pixel resolution. It also has a tiny diopter adjustment slider on its left side. Unfortunately, you cannot use the viewfinder and LCD simultaneously on the HV40, since the only way to activate the viewfinder is to close the LCD.

Stabilization (0.54)

Even though the Canon HV40 is equipped with an optical image stabilization system (OIS), the camcorder didn’t do very well in our stabilization testing. Yes, the camcorder’s OIS does help stabilize shake in hand held shooting, but our results found that it did not work as effectively as other camcorders—particularly in our high shake test.. More on how we test stabilization.

In our low shake test, the HV40 was able to reduce roughly 7% of the shake by using its OIS system. This isn’t very good, especially when you consider the HV40 is so heavy and box-shaped (which should keep it more stable). In our high shake test, the HV40 didn’t show any improvement with its OIS engaged. These poor numbers aren’t that different from what we saw on the Canon HF S series. In comparison, the Sony HDR-XR520V had one of the best stabilization systems we tested. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 also did quite well with this test.

The video above shows the HV40 with both stabilization turned off and on. As you can see, it is difficult to notice any difference between the two images. We must say, however, that in real-life, hand held shooting with the camcorder we did notice a difference with OIS engaged. When we hooked the HV40 up to our shake rig, however, the camcorder had a lot of difficulty stabilizing the footage.