.
I remember sitting in class one day as a kid and thinking. WOW. I can SEE!!!! I didn't like wearing those new glasses but man - oh - man. Everything was so clear and sharp. In an instant i became ugly AND i could read the chalk board.
Some years later (5months ago) i saw some high definition footage from the Canon XH A
1 on a digital video forum. (
dvinfo.net (Look for Steven Dempsey's posts))
Amazing Amazing Amazing. Footage.
That's a XH A
1 picture. Not the hv20. Its a beauty.
The cost for the latest and greatest AMAZING new "glasses" (XH A
1).
4 dollar signs and ninety five cents. Side by side in price tag formation.
$3,499.95
OUCH.
Three and a half grand. Do i really need a fifth camera? Well, fourth. One is barely alive.
For three grand i could travel to India. For three grand i could double the amount of cameras i have, buy two more tripods, 12 new websites, 4 calling birds, 3 french toasts, 2 turtle doves and a brand new pair of eye seeing glasses. With some change left over for a couple pounds of back bacon. and beer
Then one day.......
i handed over my credit card.
And, instead of spending 3.5 thousand dollars i spent $1000.
Its been almost a month and i am quite happy with this camera.
The Canon HV20 does not look much different than any other hand held palm-sized camera. And that is my biggest complaint.
2nd complaint - when you have the LCD screen flipped out It is difficult to hit the manual focus button.The Canon HV 20 isn't much bigger than a Coke can and weighs only 1.2 lb (544.3g) For someone who carries around his camera everywhere he goes, its nice to have such a small camera with Big Camera powers/quality. For someone asking the local paper mill if they would be willing to allow me to shoot a documentary. Showing up on the first day of the shoot with the HV20.
Not-so-impressive.
I wanted the grand piano but bought the foot long Casio keyboard. I WISH there was something wrong with this camera. Then my problem with the outside of the camera would justify the grumbling.
I wish the outside, the shell. Was bigger, bulkier. With bigger buttons and knobs and switches.
From tape to ComputerI had some problems trying to edit footage at first. The higher bit rates really choke After Effects. Adobe Premiere handles these files fine. I capture the video off the camera using Premiere Pro 2.0 and firewire. (HDV capture) The HV20 captures images in genuine HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. If you capture at that size you can expect Gigabyte sized files for anything over 5 minutes.
Some sample
footage... 85mb rendered out at 1280x720 (Low light conditions in the restaurant, Punched up the contrast while editing the cat stuff. The camera was capable of correcting this, if i had adjusted the settings correctly)
Manual ControlsThe HV20 allows you to control and adjust the Shutter speed, Aperture and Exposure. I read somewhere that the HV 20 has poor low light performance. NOT TRUE. It does just as well as my 3 chip gs500. If not better.
Shutter priority. 1/6 - 1/2000.
Aperture Priority. F1.8 - 8
It also has some minor control options for sharpness, contrast, color depth and brightness.
This little Coke can of a camera even has Zebra stripes! The settings are 70% Zebra, 100% Zebra and Peaking.
The HV20 has 4 different zoom modes.
Slow, Fast and a mixture of slow and fast (SPEED 2) And Variable. A touch sensitive mode that combines the slow, medium and fast. It still has that non human feel though. Even in slow mode it doesn't "ease into" zoom. Something most cameras do not do anyway.
The HV20 has a focus assistant which allows you to see a close up of the subject without having to zoom or touch any other controls. It's like a un-obtrusive magnifying glass that disappears when you touch any other button or control.
Impressed yet? Its got enough under the "hood" to make your neck ache. From looking down, as you press buttons. For hours. O.K not hours.
Super powers. The camera has Super Powers i tell you.
PresetsThe HV20 has all the usual presets. Tungsten, daylight, cloudy, auto white balance. You can start shooting right out of the box without looking at the manual.
24pI am not going to explain or comment on the 24p feature. Go here or here to learn about it.
wiki 24p . And if 24p is a major concern read the forums.
dvxuser and
dvinfoI prefer the sharp crispness of the High Definition non- 24p mode.
Am i happy with the HV20.
Sure, I'm happy. This camera has changed the way i shoot - and what i shoot. I'm taping stuff i wouldn't normally just to see what it looks like in high definition. It reminds me of my first pair of glasses. It reminds me of broadband v.s. dial-up. If you want to make the leap and are tired of shopping for $3000 + cameras, the HV20, though it may be small, is good. Its a good coke can camera.
I'm sorry, but I'm still not sold on the dinky size, for what this thing can do. The miniaturization of electronics is part of what makes living in this day and age so exciting. But, at a certain point we are going to need a pill that will shrink our hands to the size they were when we were 6 years old. Canon, design a HD camera the size of the xh, sell it for half the cost of the XH and me and all the other almost professional/hobbyist will but it!
And that is the End.
Though i will probably edit this post 5 more times in the next few days.
CHEERS
note: the past 5 posts were all shot with the HV20 (April 30 to today)
