Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

I just edited and burned my first DVD with 1080 footage off of this camera using Adobe Premier Elements 7 and it was flawless! I have a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop with a 1.60Ghz processor running Vista Basic with 4Mb of ram. I will also test with Pinnacle Studio Plus 12 and report back.This is an area I think too many people neglect to look into, so trust me when I say that if you experience system and software problems when trying to edit and burn your videos you will go crazy and pull your hair out! It stinks. I was very pleased today, so much so I wanted to write the review.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3UQQGMIT8YFFA I recently purchased this camera when it went on sale. I initially struggled between the HF100 and the HF10. The only real difference is the HF10 includes 16GB of storage built in. Based on the price between the two and the cost of good (class 6, 17MB/s, etc.) SDHC it was a no brainer. Plus, I like the black better than the silver. :-)

The features are great. If you just want to point and shoot, go for it. It even has an 'easy button' (no joke). But if you want more control over the image, it's all there - quality, frame rate, effects, aperture, etc. I've only begun to scrape the surface of all of that. The video shows some shots taken at Amicalola Falls, GA. I did a long zoom to show the great 12x optical zoom.

This thing is small and light. I went on a hike and slipped it into my jacket pocket no problem.

Having a Mac, I had no problem whatsoever getting it into iMovie and importing the movies, editing and sharing. It was a snap. With iMovie I can distribute any way I want - HD, SD, YouTube, iPod, iPhone, iTunes, AppleTV, Quicktime, etc. iMovie recognized the camera and imported the movies quickly and easily. Even easier than I thought it would.

I haven't used it yet for still photos. It has nice features around this. I have a Canon Digital Rebel SLR so I do not anticipate using the camera much for this purpose.

So far the only con is the lack of an included mini HDMI cable. An adapter is only $12, but I haven't been able to enjoy the HD on my plasma yet. The menus and prompts could be a little easier to use, but I was able to pick up things fairly quickly.

All-in-all, this is by far the best camcorder I've owned. BTW - The video has been compressed quite a bit to fit Amazon's guidelines - the video quality of the camera is so much better than what can be shown here.

Bought both cameras to compare. Everybody seems to think that these two are the top consumer cameras to look at. I'll probably agree. Between the two cameras, I ended up choosing the hf10. Simply put, I was expecting the sr11 to perform better at 60i in low light(30-60 lux) based on online reviews. It was definity brighter with auto. However, If you turn up the exposure on the hf10 (in 60i) you could match the brightness of the sr11. Turning up the exposure on the hf10 also made the color saturation increase in low light to where the hf10 was slightly better than the sr11.

Another expectation based on reviews was for the sr11 to have less noise in the same low light range. This is partly true. What they don't tell you is the type of noise. Sure there is less noise, but it is large
chroma noise. It is easily seen on any tv or monitor from normal viewing distance. Medium to dark objects in a 17 x 17 2 story room lit with 4 100w bulbs off a ceiling fan all had very noticable color blotches. The hf10 in the same room produced more noise but it was much finer and it was more of the lumanence type. The noise was definitely more pleasant on the hf10 and you would not really notice it at normal viewing distance on a tv.

The last expectation I had was for the sr11 to produce better skin tones than the hf10. I have a sony vx2000 which I think produces very pleasant skin tones in the low light. Manual white balanceing both the sr11 and hf10 shows that the skin tones look about the same with neither looking better than the other at all in low light (same room conditions as discribed above.) The "peachy" skin tones of the vx2000 was more pleasant than either of these cameras but it is not an HD camera.

Outside, hf10 had a sharper image that is slightly more colorful on most colors except green. The sr11 does make greens look more saturated. The hf10 simply looks more clear however. Its raw performance is better in bright conditons.

Now the down side. My biggest gripe on the hf10 is the auto mode. It tends to underexpose-especially in low light but also applies outside in the shade. You constantly have to increase the exposure to make it look right in low light-many times adding 3 steps of additional exposure. On the lcd screen, some times it has to look a little over exposed to get the recorded video too look right. Fortunely, the recorded video has more detail in the over blown highlights than the built in lcd screen shows. The sr11 has the advantage where you can shift the auto mode to your liking. As an example, you can add 1 exposure level and it will keep that for all its auto exposure calculations. You can not do that with the hf10. You have to manually control it all. The controls are about the same for me except that the sr11 can use a LANC tripod. Handheld, the cam dial of the sr11 is smooth but it firm enough to where the camera will move when you use it. The joystick of the hf10 really isn't any better.

All in all, the hf10 has a greater potential to create better quality video in all lighting (including shooting at 60i) but requires more effort. You do have to turn up the exposure manually and manually white balance to achieve all this however. I actually wanted to like the sr11 because of LANC capability but once I manually set the exposure and white balance of both cameras in low light, my choice was easy. I could not accept the larger blotches of color noise and imagine it would not be very pleasant to record an evening wedding in a church. If you just want to point and shoot, then the sr11 is for you. If you are willing to adjust the camera, I think it is clear that the hf 10 is better. I don't want it to sound like a one sided review but I invite everyone to compare the cameras yourselves as I have done. There are too many times when the reviews are misleading. The sr11 is clearly better than consumer cameras
from the past, but if you don't mind setting a couple of parameters manually, the hf10 is clearly better when it comes to video quality. And to me, thats what matters.

What model is worth buying and sticking too i know HF10 has 16GB internal memory and SD/SDHC card slot but heard some great views as well as videos taking with both models on Vimeo.com. But i also hear alot bad on HF10 with internal memory that can wind uop breaking down wuth and without warranty is valid but thats why we all should get exteneded one on top of vendors but my question is which model is better in ways
1. do they both have or dont have ( MOVING PARTS )
2. are the video quailty the same when recording in SDHC card or Internal memory or it dont matter do to video be same
3. cheapest way to go almost all are saying HF100 is cheaper but how when u need to stock up on SDHC cards to start using HF10 u got internal mem to begin or leave for back up and just use sdhc cards

And most important Q ? i would be using a 2 yr old HP and ACER laptop with Pinnacle Stuido Ultimate ver. 12 along with COREL UleadVideo Studio 11 Plus But i been using those softwares with HG10 and works awesome no errors buit one thing im unable to use MAGIC BULLET LOOKS on either do to graphics card cant read but i ll never wanna use anyhow please get bk to me thanks

I'm a longstanding fan of Canon still cameras having spend some significant coin on two point and shoot and one SLR so when in the market to replace my Sony digital Hi8 video camera, the Canon brand was the first I checked out.

My primary requirements were full High Definition, no media with moving parts. I did not want a CD or DVD burner, I did not want tape, and I did not want to gamble with a hard drive (I'm in IT and am very familiar with drive failure rates... good, but not likely to last the 5-7yrs I want to get out of the camera).

While I like Sony's home AV gear, I've not been a fan of their tendency to use proprietary media.... sure it's often great quality, but I don't want to have to buy a ton of accessories to integrate with current and future systems. The Canon offered nice support for SDHC media (of which cards I already own for a point and shoot and phone). It also introduced me to AVCHD which, from what I can tell is the next thing in HD video format (not media but file format) I knew I was going to need to buck up for some video editing software (went with Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12) so that was something I conceded with any purchase.

Having tinkered with the camera for a month before taking the family to Disney World, I was happy with how it operated... very simple. I was very concerned about battery life as the one it comes with does not last long and the internal memory seemed quite small at 16gb so I bought extra cards for the trip in case I needed them. It so happened that I didn't use over 70% of the memory during the 5day trip and did fine recharging the camera every night. That was awesome!

Now that I have a new laptop and Pinnacle Studio for editing, I've overwhelmingly happy with the totalality of the suite of purchases. With sufficient PC horsepower and editing software, this camera really pops and has provided some great first video footage that has me thirsting for upcoming events to capture for future memories.

I highly recommend the camera, but only if you have or are going to buy a system and software that can handle the AVCHD formatted video.