Canon Vixia HV40

Still Features (9.82)

The Canon HV40 has your basic still features even though its still image capabilities aren’t that impressive. The camcorder can take photos at a maximum resolution of 2048 × 1536, which isn’t that large when you consider many new camcorders offer a 4000 × 3000 photo option. To access most of the HV40’s still image controls you have to switch the camcorder over to card mode. Photos can be captured in video mode (even while recording), but only at 1920 × 1080 or 848 × 480 resolutions.

In card mode you have access to all the manual controls that are available in video mode (like shutter speed and aperture control), but you also can set the metering mode to evaluative, center-weighted average, or spot. There are two continuous shooting settings for photos: Normal takes 3 images per second, while High-Speed goes at roughly 5 images per second (when using the flash consecutive shooting runs at roughly 2.1 images per second). Both modes will continue to capture photos as long as you hold down the shutter button or reach the limit of 60 consecutive shots. There’s also an auto exposure bracketing option that takes three images, each of which has a different exposure setting (-1/2 EV, normal, +1/2 EV).

The HV40 has a built in flash that is located to the left of the lens. The flash has a red-eye reduction setting and it can be turned on and off using the joystick navigation control. Additional photo controls include three quality options (Super Fine, Fine, and Normal), a 10-second self-timer, the ability to capture photos during playback (in the resolution the video was shot), and a playback zoom feature.

The Canon HV40 actually produced more vivid colors in its still photos (a 116.7% saturation level) than in our bright light video testing. The color accuracy, which was 4.41 in our still testing, was roughly the same as our video test. This isn’t a bad performance, but it isn’t anything of note. Many camcorders have much more accurate colors in our still testing (the Panasonic HDC-TM300 and the Sony HDR-XR520V, for example).

The color error map above shows that the HV40 had specific trouble with blue tones (notice how long the lines are for the three blue colors near the bottom). The camcorder did not show this much error with blues in our video testing, and the blue colors appear a bit bright and almost neon in their tone. In fact, the HV40 produced a very bright image overall in our still color test. We saw similar things from the HF S100, which also had some slight overexposure.

The HV40’s noise level in our still testing was 0.94%. This is a bit higher than we’d like to see, especially since it is close to double the noise percentage we measured in our bright light video testing. This noise level is close to average for an HD camcorder, however, and it is actually less than the Canon HF S100 measured. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 had the lowest still noise levels of this group, registering just 0.79% noise.

The Canon HV40 only has an effective pixel count of 2.76 megapixels for its still images and it can capture photos at a maximum resolution of 2048 × 1536. This is much smaller than many camcorders are capable of, but that didn’t stop the HV40 from putting up halfway decent numbers in our still sharpness test. The camcorder measured a horizontal sharpness of 1313 lw/ph with 5.2% oversharpening, and a vertical sharpness of 1694 lw/ph with 6.2% oversharpening. These are good scores for a camcorder that doesn’t have a high megapixel capability—in fact, it is actually better than the Panasonic HDC-TM300 was capable of. It also wasn’t much worse than the 6-megapixel Sony HDR-XR520V.

There are lots of better camcorders out there for capturing still photos, however. The Canon HF S series (HF S100, HF S10, HF S11) all can capture 8-megapixel photos, the JVC GZ-X900 and GZ-HM400 can take 9-megapixel photos, and the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 and VPC-CG10 can also take 9-megapixel photos. The HV40’s numbers are also no match for even a cheap, dedicated digital camera—many of which have 12-megapixel still image capability or higher.

Other Features (4.00)

AV-DV Conversion

The Canon HV40 has the ability to convert an analog video signal to a digital one. This feature is found on most camcorders that offer a FireWire terminal because you can use it to output a digital signal while inputting an analog signal via the AV port. We cover AV-DV conversion more in the Connectivity section of this review, but we wanted to mention it here because it can be a valuable tool.

Digital Effects

The HV40 has two transition effects (a wipe and a fader) and three digital image effects (Black & White, Sepia, and Art). All of these effects are available in video mode, while still mode only allows for Black & White and the Sepia setting. The HV40 has a bit of a confusing system for turning these effects on. First you must select them in the Function menu, then you must activate them using the joystick menu.

Video Light

The HV40’s video light is rather strong (its range is around 10 -15 feet), but it does give the footage a slight blue tone. The light on the Canon HF S100 is roughly the same strength, but it works better because it doesn’t have the bluish color. The HV40’s light is activated by pressing a small button on the top of the camcorder (near the back).