It's All in the Lens: Why Canon Makes Such Good Camcorders

by Robin Liss
Published on Dec 4, 2004 12:00 AM



In 1936 Canon was founded as a manufacturer of lenses and cameras. Over the years, Canon has expanded to business machines, printers and other technologies but they have always been a lens manufacturer. Their expertise in making lenses and concentration on consumer and low end professional models is the key to the outstanding video performance of Canon's consumer camcorders and it reminds us that the lens is the most important part of a camcorder.

Canon is one of the leading manufacturers of professional lenses for broadcast video applications. They manufacture professional lenses, sold separately from the camcorder body, which can cost upwards of $10,000. Their still cameras and still lenses, both for digital and film, are used by professional photographers around the globe. They are one of the top lens makers around and a much of the television you watch was shot through a Canon lens.

In 1985 Canon introduced their 8VM-E1, the first integrated camera record unit. Previously a camcorder consisted of a separate camera and video recording unit. The 8VM-E1 recorded to 8mm video tape. Canon followed the 8VM-E1 with the Canovision 8 A1. The lens has always been the heart of the Canon camcorder. In 1991, Canon introduced the LX1, the first moderately priced camcorder with interchangeable lenses. In 1992 they followed-up with the T10G-RF, the first consumer camcorder to include optical image stabilization. Throughout most of the 1990's, every consumer Canon camcorder introduced was set apart from other manufacturers because Canon included optical image stabilization, which provided better video quality than the electronic image stabilizer used on other camcorders.

All this lens history translates into an expertise in making lenses. Canon's consumer camcorders have consistently been the best, or among the best performers in normal lighting conditions throughout the history of digital video camcorders. In recent years, their low light performance was been less than perfect, and that can be attributed to the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and a image computer which tends to increase the grain (noise) a little too much.

The term garbage-in-garbage-out comes to mind when describing the importance of a lens. The number of pixels or the size of the CCD is important, as well as the lines of resolution which a format can hold. However, if the lens produces a poor quality image, none of those other things matter. The lens is how the image gets into the camcorder, and if the lens is poor quality, the entire image will be poor quality. Canon's expertise and quality lens production results in vibrant lively colors with outstanding color reproduction, and a crisp-clean looking image. Whenever I put my hands on a Canon camcorder, I am almost sure that it will produce a great picture under normal lighting conditions.

Canon camcorders consistently produce good images, not because they put a bunch of gadgety features in their camcorders (visa vi Sony) but because they are experts at making lenses. A side-note regarding Canon camcorders, is product differentiation. Every other major camcorder manufacturer, with the exception of Sharp, has a high-end professional line. Sony, Panasonic, JVC all make camcorders that sell upwards of $30,000. Sony even has a half million dollar model which the recent Star Wars movies was shot on (I bumped into it at a show once, that was a scary moment). You would think that because these manufacturers have experience making high end professional camcorders, the things they learn from the pros would seep into their consumers lines - the opposite is true. Sony, JVC and Panasonic all have very high quality camcorders in the $3,000 - $5,000 range. Those camcorders include software features and other technologies which could easily be integrated into the consumer line - however doing so, would seriously jeopardize the marketability of those pro models.

Sony, Panasonic and JVC actually have an incentive to keep quality features out of their consumer lines - protecting the sales of their high end lines. Sony is possibly the worst offender, leaving off manual control features on their consumer camcorders, which could be put in for probably $5, forcing people who want to tweak their image to buy the $1,800 or $2,500 Sony model.

JVC has one of the most obvious cases of leaving off good features to create product differentiation with the GR-HD1 and JY-HD10U. The GR-HD1 and the JY-HD10U are virtually identical camcorders except for two things, the JY-HD10U, a professional model which costs $500 more, includes XLR inputs and easier to use manual control. The GR-HD1, which at $3,000 is a serious investment, contains the same manual control options as the $300 JVC GR-D30. JVC intentionally left the better, more professional manual control off the GR-HD1 so users would be forced to spend an extra $500 to get the JY-HD10U - it's almost offensive considering that the difference is all in computer software which could be installed for next to nothing.

Canon, doesn't really have a 'pro' line. They have two high end camcorders, the GL2 and the XL1S which are used in professional shooting situations, but those models go for under $2,000 and around $4,000 respectively. Canon throws all kinds of great features on the GL2 and XL1S to make them great camcorders with outstanding normal and low light performance. Unlike the other manufacturer's, Canon doesn't have a reason to leave a feature off and put it on a high-end, more expensive camcorder. If Canon has an idea on how to make a better camcorder, they put it on the GL2 and XL1S without any worry of hurting their pro-line.

Taken with their quality lens production, Canon can teach us, and the other manufacturers some important lessons on how to make a great camcorder.