Canon HV20 Camcorder Review
By Michael Perlman
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
May 10, 2007
Here it is! The king of the castle. The Canon HV20 ($1099 MSRP). This camcorder packs in a beautiful image, superb ease of use, and a hearty cluster of manual controls. If you can look beyond its imperfect design and awkward handling, you will be treated to the magical world of 24P video.
A massive 1/2.7-inch CMOS sensor lies within the camcorder’s core and spews out 2,900,000 gross pixels. The Canon HV20 shoots both 1080/60i and 1080/24P. In bright light (3000 lux) during 60i, the HV20’s image is sharp as a tack and rife with Crayola-grade color. In 24P mode, the colors are even more saturated and brilliant. In low light, the HV20 is a warrior. At 60 lux (our higher low light setting), the HV20 produced less noise than the Sony HDR-HC7. While the HDR-HC7 faded into oblivion within the dimly lit confines of our testing room at our lowest setting (15 lux), the HV20 retained its color balance and sharpness. The HV20’s 24P mode stepped it up a notch and displayed a minimal amount of noise at 15 lux, trampling all over the HC7’s blurry mess of an image.
Handling the HV20 is another story. It is devoid of a retractable viewfinder and has a flimsy, low-strung hand strap, an unfinished zoom toggle, and a manual focus wheel that is almost as vexing as the one found on the Sony HDR-HC7. The HV20, despite its architectural flaws, is light and portable. It has an automatic lens enclosure, accessory shoe, and side-loading tape hatch, which eliminates the need to remove the camcorder from the tripod in order to swap out a tape. One of the pinnacles of the HV20’s design is its rear-mounted joystick with neighboring Function menu button. This enables one-handed menu operation and puts side-mounted menu buttons and touch screens to shame. No craning your neck or smudging up the LCD screen here. At the finish line, we’d have to hand over the trophy of sound design to the HDR-HC7. It’s just built better.
The HV20 offers a veritable slew of automatic and manual controls. When the camcorder is switched into auto mode, certain manual adjustments like white balance and exposure are disabled. The HV20’s image in standard HDV (1080i) is excellent in auto mode, allowing the shooter to safely coast along while the camcorder does all the work. The HV20’s manual controls aren’t too shabby either. When the camcorder is switched into P mode, exposure, shutter speed, white balance, and gain are available. The manual focus wheel is annoying to use, but accurate once you get the hang of it. Some additional perks include a manual audio level control, zebra striping (for highlighting overexposed whites), and a three speed zoom settings.
The HV20 records to MiniDV tapes in the HDV format. MiniDV tapes beat the pants off DVDs and SD cards thanks to their long recording times and compatibility with a plethora of non-linear video editing programs. Most editing software, even free and cheap programs, can now work with HDV.
Canon sacrificed construction for stunning video quality with the HV20. In 24P mode, the image rivals even the most refined prosumer camcorders. Sure, Sony’s HC7 will feel great in your hand and churn out more style. But at the register, it’s a different story with a $300 gap between the two. Our advice: save your cash for the HV20. It will take your breath away. This is one of the best camcorders we have seen in a long time.
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