Canon Vixia HV40

Compression (10.00)

The Canon HV40 uses HDV compression to record high definition video to tape and DV compression to record standard definition video. When tape-based camcorders ruled the market, HDV and DV compression were extremely common. In fact, they are still very common, but most camcorders that record to non-linear media (flash memory or an internal hard drive) use AVCHD compression. While the popularity of HDV is fading, the compression still has a lot of benefits. It is far easier to work with than AVCHD, and even out-of-date editing programs should be able to handle the HDV codec.

When using the DV codec to record standard definition video, the HV40 offers two video resolutions and two recording qualities. Videos can be recorded with a normal aspect ratio (4:3) at 640 × 480 or a wide 16:9 ratio at 853 × 480. The quality options are SP or LP, with LP giving you about 30 extra minutes of record time (at a lower quality). The SP/LP option is not available when shooting HD video. HDV and DV compression have a constant bitrate of 25Mbps, because they are used to record to tape (which has a constant speed).

The most significant change from the HV30 to the HV40 is the inclusion of a native-progressive 24p mode on the HV40. Most 30p and 24p modes found on consumer camcorders are actually recorded as 60i video with a technique called a 2:3 pulldown that removes certain frames in order to create the look of 30p or 24p. The HV40 has this option, as well as a native 24p mode that actually records 24 frames per second video to tape. Previously, this feature was only found on Canon’s professional models, but it is now available to consumers on the HV40. Did the native 24p footage look all that different from 24p recorded at 60i? Not really. Plenty of purists will disagree, but the average consumer will probably not notice the difference. The main benefit of native 24p is in editing and post production. Read more about the advantages and disadvantages of various high definition compression types.

Media (4.00)

There used to be a time—only a few years ago really—when all camcorders recorded to tape. Well, the Canon HV40 hearkens back to that era by recording all video to MiniDV tape. We’re not saying that the HV40 is out of date; it’s simply a modern camcorder that records to an older media. Tape still has its glorious benefits over memory cards, internal hard drives, and internal flash memory. MiniDV tapes are very cheap, they’re familiar—particularly if you’ve ever used a VCR—and they offer you a simple, tangible copy of your video. With non-linear media, your videos only exist as digital files saved to memory, unless you take the time to burn them to a disc. Tape is great for people who don’t want to deal with the hassle of backing up their footage to a computer, hard drive, or DVD. MiniDV tapes are also fairly easy to find, so if you run out of blank ones while you’re on vacation it shouldn’t be too much trouble to purchase some extras.

The main disadvantages of tape are that it makes your camcorder bigger (you have to fit the bulky tape deck somewhere), and it can make the editing process longer. Video recorded to tape must be captured in real time onto a computer, which is often a frustrating and tedious process. Non-linear media has far less mess: you just connect the camcorder to your computer and import videos as you would photos or music. Both systems are time consuming, but with non-linear media, getting your footage from a camcorder to a computer is much more streamlined.

For HD video, MiniDV tape can only hold 60 minutes of video. For standard definition recording there is the option of using the lower-quality LP mode, which allows for 90 minutes of video. The Canon HV40 does have a MiniSD card slot, but you can only capture photos to these memory cards—not video. Read more about the advantages and disadvantages of various media types.

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.