Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer

My wife and I purchased this camera with the intention of using it for our upcoming trip to France. We had a Sony camcorder that we liked, but was getting to be outdated. So, we wanted to upgrade to the HD quality and a hard disk so we wouldn't have to haul a bunch of tapes with us. Well...the quality of the camcorder and ease of use was great! However, during our second day in Paris, it decided to stop working! It said "Access Error". We had no way to capture and document the last 8 days of our vacation because this brand new camcorder stopped working! We couldn't even access the footage we had taken! So, it is at Canon as we speak for repairs under warranty, but even upon getting it back I'll probably never use it for a big trip like that again for fear that it may happen a second time. I called Canon Customer Care to try and get some sort of compensation for our trouble, and they didn't do a thing for us! I would strongly discourage anyone from purchasing this camcorder if they are planning on using it for documenting anything major in their lives. BE WARNED!!!!

The camera is great, easy to use, the zoom is high quality, couldn't be a better camera. But, the software is terrible. I have yet to make one movie from my vacation, Honeymoon, or my kids soccer game because the software does not work. When trying to piece together diffiernt scenes it just won't do it. Get the camera but plan on getting seperate vidieo software.

This is the first camcorder I have ever owned as well as operated in my life. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not an electronics expert, so I won't write a very technical review as many others have.
I will just tell you what I would want to know if I considered buying this item: I think it's great, it works, it's easy to use (there are many more functions I haven't even explored yet, but if you're a more experienced cinematographer I'm sure you can find them helpful), it shoots great footage (also in HD if you want). An "unsung" attribute that this camcorder has is that is also takes amazing photos! The colors it captures are bright, great contrast, and you don't need to correct them in Photoshop!
The camcorder is MAC compatible and the battery life is also very very good.
The only thing that constitutes a slight inconvenience is that in order to download the footage on your computer, you must have the camcorder's power cable hooked up.
Besides that I can say that I'm very happy with it and the quality of the video.

I've been using videocams since the betamax tapes first came out, and I've upgraded throughout the years as the technology advanced. I wanted a well priced product, HD, and stop depending on tapes or discs... I did my homework, and finally purchased the HG10. I've been using it for a couple months now, and am extremely pleased with the performance.

PROS:
- EXCELENT VIDEO QUALITY: performs true to HD quality
- Great size for travelling
- 40GB Hard Drive more than enough space, even for extended vacation times
- Good size LCD screen

CONS:
- Ergonimics could be better
- Sound quality is merely OK.
- Editing video software is extremely basic, and unless you have a VERY POWERFUL PC, don't even try editing these HD videos... my Sony Vaio stalled ALL the time.

You must purchase the HD cable separately, and an extra battery (the one that comes with the camera lasts only two hours). When at home, I hook up the camera to our Sony 42" LCD with the HD cable, and people are blown away by the quality. In conclusion, I'd buy this camera 10 times over.

I am by no means a camcorder expert, but I am a videophile and a Canon fan, so that's why I chose this camera. It does not disappoint! While 1080p would have been great, the birth of my son wasn't going to wait for technology to catch up to the top format.

It has been great capturing all of the big "firsts" in high-def! I rest easy knowing that it won't end up like my honeymoon footage that is grainy, lacks definition and, *gasp*, is in analog format on tapes! I love the hard drive...it seemed the obvious choice over straight-to-dvd or memory card recording for so many reasons--no media to keep up with, speed and flexibility, and unmatched storage capacity...

The 'usability' of the camera is good, but not great. The menus are easy to understand like my Canon digital camera. However, the scrolling wheel can be tough to control. It is easy to get stuck in ff or rewind mode by accident. After not using the camcorder for a while, I forgot how to turn on the light, so it would be nice to have a few more dedicated buttons. It's not like there isn't room, even on the tiny device. None of this would be a problem if I used it more often.

Anyways, people have talked about the software ad nauseam...so I won't get into that, except to say that the lack of available software to watch AVCHD files is frustrating, at best.

The bottom line is that the HG10 excels at what a budget HD camcorder should--great video quality and (virtually) unlimited storage. Where it lacks (usability, adjustments, etc) it more than makes up for it in the video quality department--and that's what matters most, right?

I bought an HG10 after seeing so many good reviews on this camcorder. However, I was disappointed by the video quality. The video of my almost two-year old Sony SR5 hard drive HD camcorder is so much better than the HG10 -much higher resolution and better color. I than bought a Sony SR11 and compared the SR11 with the HG10 head to head. The SR11 also produced much better video than the HG10 in all lighting conditions -indoor, outdoor, good and low light conditions. I have to say the HG performs pretty well at low light but the resolution and color is still not as good as the Sonys (SR5 and SR11). I also found that the 24P was not useful. HG10 also has some other features that the Sony's don't have, for example, a wide range of manual shutter speed. Although a wide range manual shutter speed is very important for a still picture camera, I don't think it is useful for a camcorder unless you are a "pro". I found the standard shutter speed (1/60 second) is appropriate for all of my need for family video.
Many of the reviews claimed that HG's video quality is excellent. I am not sure how many of those reviewers had compared the HG10 head to head with some other HD camcorders. I returned the HG10 and kept the SR11 and I have taken tons of videos with the SR11. I am happy with the amazingly good videos taken by the SR11.

As your average camcorder user, I've found this very easy to use right out of the box. While there are plenty of options to enhance your shots, this does a great job in a very basic shooting mode.

With multiple formats for shooting, the storage is excellent for most 3-7 day vacations. The first time I used this was on a 4 day trip to Walt Disney World, where I go frequently. My first shots were from the monorail, while moving. Stabilization was not perfect, but came out nice once I steadied myself.

Half of my shots were with low light, either at the fireworks shows in the Magic Kingdom & Epcot, or on rides. Almost all of them came out perfect, with the exception of a couple that were out of focus. I found that if low-light focusing was a problem, manually zooming in & out would quickly correct the situation. I was able to zoom in on a full screen shot of Tinkerbell, launching off the castle at the start of the fireworks, with amazing clarity.

While the movie software it comes with takes some understanding, it does work well. It allows you to convert all movies to Mpegs manually, or will do it automatically when creating a DVD. It works fastest when burning straight to AVCHD DVD, and can take a very long time if converting first.

The clarity of the pictures on SP format (2nd only to XP) was true HD quality, and used less space than I thought after 4 days. On SP, over an hour of footage only used about 10% of the storage. When hooked up straight to my TV, or viewing from the AVCHD DVD created, footage came out like I was still there. The next time I go, I will be using the XP format, now that I know I have plenty of storage space.

All in all, was an excellent choice, well worth the money for such fantastic footage.

We bought this to replace our outdated MiniDv camcorder and have been very pleased so far. The quality of the video and sound are great! We connect it to our HDTV and it looks and sounds great! It is very light in weight and easy to use if you're familiar with camcorders. I haven't done much with it yet, other than record video. I'm in the process of putting some videos on DVD with this camera. Overall, I'm happy to have this camcorder.

Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer
This light and easy to carry camcorder is amazing, and the price was unbeatable! The images are sharp and clean, and it's very easy to use, with very little help from the directions (which I keep handy in case I get stuck, because I'm constantly finding new things it will do - things I wouldn't miss if Canon hadn't thought of them, but which I'm really happy to discover. Truthfully, I'll probably never use all the features, because I'm an amateur, but it's nice to know they are there and that you don't have to learn all the technicalities of advanced use in order to get good service from this great camera. I love being able to store tons of stuff right on the hard drive so that I'm not pressured to process the videos to make room for more. That fits in with my busy, crazy life! The battery life is very satisfactory as well. I'm sure this video camera will give me years of great service!

In the past I have been quite loyal to Sony products. I bought this after reading great reviews about how this is superior to Sony. Additionally, I gave in to the lower price. However, although I think this camcorder is worth the price I paid, I do not agree with others that it is the greatest camcorder ever. The auto mode over corrects in back lighting situations and the color cannot compete with the vibrant color of Sony. In some situations it doesn't even feel like HD.

the camecorder is great , but softwear truly sucks, after hours of fighting with the Corel product I give up, do not even download into your comp. just throw it away

Overall I've enjoyed this camera, but there are a couple of shortcomings:

1. AVDHD codec (.m2ts file extention)is not supported by the majority of popular players and editing software, including WMP and quicktime. Additoinally, the software included with the camera, which ostensibly provides basic viewing and editing/disc authoring functions, is terrible to the point of being virtually useless. If you buy one of these cameras you will need to buy some fairly expensive editing software if you plan on viewing your footage on anything besides the camera itself.

2. Some parts of the camera have a cheap feel, such as the pull-away dust covers over the aux microphone and output jacks - these do not fit snugly on my unit and will come out of position, exposing the jacks, just from shaking the camera. The selection dial next to the screen is too small for average man-size fingers and it's action has a loose, undapened (cheap) feel to it. Although I can't complain with the performance of the camera, it's dissapointing that a product that purports to be made in Japan has such a low-end feel to it.

3. Will not store still photos to the HDD!! What is that about? I don't understand why Canon not only forces you to use a serperate storage media for stills, but also chose the 'mini SD' format (halfway between standard SD and micro SD), which is arguably the rarest of card formats around. Even sony's proprietary 'memory sticks' are easier to find. The only way I could get a 'mini SD' card for my HG10 was to buy an adapter that accepts a 'micro SD' card.

Aside from these few complaints, this is a great camera and I have enjoyed using it to record hours of precious memories with nary a glitch in performance. Good battery life and brilliant picture quality in either HD mode. Considering it rivals some cameras in the $1000 range for performance and features, this is an excellent value. The OIS is possibly the best feature, and it quells the jitters from hand-held shooting even at the lense's longest focal lenth.

It was August 10th, 2008 when this camera's price got lowered $100-$150. I had to jump on that deal asap, and I haven't looked back since. The quality is everything you would deam of, and the sound, despite what some reviews say, is great. There are some things to consider before buying though. The battery that it comes with will only last around 2hours...(Maybe a little more if you lower the quality).. Also, the packaged software doesn't have a lot of editing options. It is basically just cut and put on DVD..If you are on windows, you might want to check out Pinnacle Studio Plus ($90...which isn't bad at all)..Also, I had some problems with getting the activation code for the Corel software. I am guessing that the website is only up during business hours, because the next day I was able to connect and get the code...So, if you are having trouble getting the activation code...Take a deep breath...try again the next day at various times, and you should get through eventually. If not, you can call support and get the run-around by Canon and Corel...Their customer support (When dealing with this software) is insulting...but then again, so is the software...heh..All in all, though..The video and sound is beautiful! Just try to activate the software during business hours or get better software all together. With this price, you seriously can't go wrong.

This camcorder has everything I needed...high definition video quality, internal hard drive (AND flash drive), user-friendliness, etc. Using to create training videos at work.

I purchased the HG10 through Amazon to do video auditions which require download to my computer. Amazon got the camera to me within 24 hours. Other than some terrible instructions, the camera worked great and I was totally satisfied with it. The problem came when I tried to download to my computer which has an AMD processor. I exceeded all specs, but couldn't get the Corel download software to work. After numerous calls to both Canon and Corel, I gave up. Corel said I had loaded the software and therefore wanted $15 to give assistance. I tried to explain that it had never worked at all. Canon said they couldn't find anyone who could intercede. I also developed a probelm with the USB connection on the camera, and that was the last straw, so I returned it to Amazon. My return was handled promptly and Amazon refunded the full price including their shipping and they also refunded my cost of return shipment.

Excelente, la calidad de filmación es realmente impresionante, muy recomendable sobre todo para un entusiasta del video que desea dar sus primeros pasos (como yo) en este apasiónate mundo o para el usuario promedio que desea grabar sus próximas vacaciones o momentos inolvidables en su vida.
Posee un modo cine que te hará sentir el próximo Steven Spielberg, sin lugar a dudas esta cámara hará las delicias de cualquier usuario promedio y llegara a complacer a un semi-profesional.
Otro punto a favor es su disco duro, que según la calidad de la filmación que escojamos podremos guardar horas de video.
Las fotografías de esta cámara son muy aceptables, vamos es una filmadora, no una cámara digital, pero cumple con su cometido y de manera muy honrosa, puedes antes de encender la cámara seleccionar si la usaras en modo cámara digital o como filmadora, algo que me ha parecido interesante, eso sí a la hora de usarla como cámara será necesario una tarjeta de memoria miniSD para poder almacenar las fotografías en ella, algo sin problemas debido al bajo precio en el que puedes encontrar estas tarjetas en este momento en el mercado.
Como nada es perfecto lo único a lo que realmente se le debe prestar atención es al formato de grabación que es AVCHD un formato no muy extendido y que te puede dar dolores de cabeza a la hora de editar.
Si piensas reproducir los videos en la computadora puedes hacerlo con los programas que incluye pero si tu idea es hacerlo en windows media player no te reconocerá el formato de video, inconveniente que se soluciona instalando un codec.
Sin más que agregar, muy recomendable, fue mi elección luego de un pequeño pero exhaustivo estudio de las filmadoras disponibles al momento, en cuanto a relación calidad y precio para el público al que va dirigida.

I was excited to have this camcorder, but had to return back. Everything seams as expected except there was some visible and irritating flickering.

It also takes 350 mb of space to store just 15 minutes of video. So I have decided to buy tape based camcorder and have ordered Canon HV 30.

Was just my luck. Everyone is raving about this camera, Canon HG10. I bought one....and right out of the box it did not work. Froze up, and said: "Access Error." I did everything I was supposed to, charged up the battery properly, made all the settings correct (after reading the instruction manual thoroughly in advance, having downloaded it) and then try some test filming. On play back, the video stumbles, stutters and after a minute or two stops. Then a blank screen and the words "Access Error." I re-format the camera's hard drive, problem goes away for a few minutes, then starts again "Access Error." The instruction book's input on this malfunction is may be "condensation." The temperature inside and outside was 75 degrees. Condensation? Anyway, that would not last for one and half days the camera was indoors. The only other word on the subject from the instruction book is "Disk Access Problem." Well yes. What to do about it the instruction book doesn't tell you. I notice also the camera seems very very warm, not hot that it's uncomfortalbe to your hand, but much warmer than my other hard drive camcorder, a Toshiba. Thank goodness I purchased this HG10 camera from a reputable place, J&R Music World. The nice lady there said they would send me a pickup ticket by e-mail so I could return the camera to them. She said it would come by e-mail. Still hasn't, but it's the weekend, so maybe it will arrive on Monday. It isn't the fault of J&R, how would they know that Canon had sent them a lemon camera. Sure hope I can get another one, that works. Considering all the grief of life, this is a small disappointment, but I was looking forward to enjoying a nice camera. Very sad.

This is apparently one of the most popular models currently on the market, and from my experience there is good reason for this.

First is ease of use. While it took me a while to browse through the instruction manual, when I actually started trying out the various functions, I found it surprisingly easy to set up modes/lighting conditions/resolutions/switch between still and movie/etc. The function button/+ key navigation took only a few minutes to get used to, and the on screen descriptions of what you're selecting have enough detail that you don't have to be a veteran user familiar with all the acronyms associated with picture taking to figure out what each item is. The camera is quite light and easy to hold, even for extended time periods, and the LCD display was quite visible even in bright sunlight. The zoom control is conveniently available to your fingers while holding it, and the zoom control itself is neither too sensitive nor too slow to react, and the zoom speed mode adjust is great for certain special situations.

I note that many have complained about shooting in low-light conditions causing excessive graininess in the results, but I have not observed this yet, shooting indoors with what I consider quite low light. The camera also seems to handle large light differentials quite easily: I had my wife take some shots of me while bowling (a feat in itself, as she is definitely not a camera person, so being able to do this is testimony to its ease of use). Bowling alleys have quite bright lighting on the alley itself, while the area behind the alleys is usually very dimly lit. The resulting videos that swing between both the dark/light areas and those taken from dark to light and vice versa show no flaring/glare marks or loss of focus. And the videos had more than enough resolution for me to be able to discern some mistakes I was making in my approach and ball delivery, which is very good as the critical items in bowling happen very quickly and in a very small area (wrist and fingers).

I was very pleased with the camera's close in focusing capability, finding it possible to film a beetle crawling on my rose bushes from just a couple of inches away. The 10x telephoto not only works well, it remains quite steady with the auto stabilizer on. Still picture resolution is more than adequate for anything except high-detail professional portraits, and compares well with shots taken with my 5 megapixel still camera.

I was a little unhappy with the audio quality using the built in microphone, as it seemed a little muffled and indistinct for any sounds more than about 5 feet away, while close sounds (i.e., me talking while filming) could be overly loud.

Battery life is a definite problem. The advertised approximate 1 hour on the provided battery is perhaps a little optimistic, and for any extended day trip where you expect to use the camera throughout the day I'd recommend carrying at least one and preferably two spare batteries.

Transferring videos from the camera to my computer was quite easy, and did not seem to take an excessively long time for the given file sizes, but I was not happy with the provided Corel software requiring an online registration to use it at all. Are they really so concerned about piracy that this step is necessary? The functionality of this software is ok, though it probably won't win prizes, but it does provide enough features to do most of commonly required editing and archiving tasks.

For a camera costing this much, I wish that they had included three very vital accessories: a miniSD card for still photos, a miniHDMI-HDMI cable, and a carrying strap. The cable is almost unfindable in stores, you'll need to order it on-line, but once you have it and hook up the camera to an HD TV, the results are truly amazing, looking like the demo shots you often see on the HDTV's in-store displays.

Overall, this is an excellent camcorder, with great ease-of-use and video results that are outstanding. It makes earlier technology camcorders seem positively ancient.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

I was looking for a Camcorder that:

a) Did both still images and video reasonably well
b) Gave me the ability to walk into any event with only one device to carry (kids soccer games to parties to a 2 week vacation)
c) Easy to use, with good picture quality
d) Minimal hassles all the way from shooting the video/stills to downloading and modifying the video/stills.
d) Wasn't bleeding edge! So, I was paying through my nose.
e) Wouldn't be outdated in a matter of a year.

This lead me to the Canon HG10. It is an excellent Camcorder with really good video capture. The optics on this camera are great. The 10X optical zoom was just at the edge of recording steady video while holding it.

Highlights:
1) Stunning video
2) Still images look very good (not great)
3) Zoom serves our needs for most indoor shooting. Not great for outdoor but adequate and we have not run into a need where the action was not captured in detail.
4) Video compression using AVCHD makes for ample recording time on the 40 GB hard drive.
5) Image stabilizer works well and removes any shaking (trembling)
6) Easy to use menu system that did not require me to consult a manual
7) Basic connectors to laptop, TV part of package
8) Charges with both 220V and 110V power source (important for vacations)
9) Price is lesser than most comparable quality cameras

Lowlights:
1) Feels a bit combersome to use if you have bigger hands
2) Not as small or light as the other newer camcorders that have hard drives
3) Video software is unintuitive
4) Zoombrowser is not as good as Picasa (freeware from Google) for most still image tasks.
5) The AVCHD video is unrecognized by Windows Media but plays on it once you manually configure it.
6) Not a lot of editing capabilities for HD video
7) This is not true 1080P (I was not looking for it though)
8) There are very few functions that are available in still mode (so it does not do more than Aim, Zoom and Shoot)
9) You have to splurge on a MiniSD card (additional $40) for still images (otherwise that mode is disabled)
10) HDMI cables are extra and cost a pretty penny (true for most camcorders)

This camcorder served most of our requirements but for good still images, I will still have to reach for a camera. For most casual shooting, this is a perfect camcorder/camera and we are loving it!

Hi
I had a JVC miniDV that worked great but wanted to upgrade to HDD. I don't own HDTV or blue ray player any of those fancy stuff. Still I bought this (as who knows when I'll win a lottery and suddenly own all these :) . I was also scared that this thing will never work on my Laptop which has 1.66 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM.

Well results are amazing. I tested both video and photo. Tried all the modes like Cine with 24fps, night mode. Tried effects like Sepia . I was able to use the software provided by COrel to transfer the video to my Laptop without any issue. I even burnt a DVD thats playing on my normal DVD player and the quality is great ...

Moral of the story you don't need to be a rocket scientist or pro to use this or burn DVD's. Make sure you read the manual carefully before using

cheers
Jag

the camera is a good camera, i have a one year old dell dual core one point eight processor and the computer has a hard time playing the hd format in the software that came with it, that is the only downer so far, i can't really enjoy the viewing and editing process. other than that the canon name brand holds true to its value, the night recording however isn't great. infact, i recently watched the movie cloverfield, and i was laughing to myself thinking how the whole movie was filmed by this guys personal camcorder and it all takes place in the dark. obviously holywood editing. thats not even close to being realistic to how a non professional man on the run with your everyday camcorder and let alone its not a canon hg 10, would turn out.

This camera is small and very easy to use. The resolution is fabulous. When using the Canon HDMI cable with my high def TV, the home videos are as crisp and clear as any high definiton movie or show. Amazon's price was far lower than anywhere else. I highly recommend this video camera.

We purchased this product over six months ago. Couldn't be happier with the quality of videos it produces. Even in low light conditions the pictures come out great. The convenience of hard drive is also good. Highly recommend this if you are in market for a camcorder.

This is an excellent product that I have purchased. The controls are easy and intuitive, the picture clarity is very good, and it integrates very well with my Samsung 40 in LCD TV. It is a giant leap from my old Cannon ZR 60, which was a miniDV based non HD camcorder. I don't know why I did not buy this before.

Simply amazing video! Low light a small issue, but works great in an auditorium with sufficient light on stage. Creates DVDs that look amazing compared to my older JVD miniDV camcorder. Saving small segments of video to a hard drive is 10x more efficient and easier to edit that with a miniDV. Also note worthy: great ergonomics, smooth/simple controls, plenty of options, takes nice still photos. Would definitely recommend to anyone upgrading to a HDD camcorder! Running software on a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4 (nothing impressive) and able to edit video content and render DVDs without difficulty. Oh, and playback looks fantastic on my 51" Panasonic plasma TV! Thanks Canon for making such an impressive HDD camcorder at such a reasonable price!

Had a Sony camcorder before purchasing this one. This one beats the Sony product by all means. Definitely one of the Best HDD camcorders currently available in the market. This camera can be very rarely seen for a discounted sale price compared to the other sony camcorders in the market. I have been using this camera for the last 2 months and did not find any issues so far.

I ordered this product after many false ad prices on internet by many camera sites.they all offer false price and try to sell you overpriced accessories.the camara is light and ease to use.it also takes great still pictures as well video.i am 100% satisfied with product and amazon site.

I like this HD camcorder so much. It's easy to use. The picture quality is super good.

Overall I am very happy with the camcorder. The video looks great in bright light. Inside videos and pictures tend to be grainy. Also, when moving/walking the video is very shaky. You do have to buy a separate SD memory card to take and save pictures.

This camcorder is trully High Definition. If you've made the jump to a HDTV and have a standerd Camcorder, then this is a worthwhile upgrade. I did my homework on this one because it's a lot of money for most of us.This is the best quality family movie camera for those who have large screen HDTV at the best price. I have found that moving up to HDTV is as different as going from black & white to color. This HG10 is fully automatic but can be used manually. All the bells & whistles you would expect. I'm still practicing with it and learning all that it can do, although I must admit I struggle with ATADD (Advanced Technology Attention Deficit Disorder). Read the book several times and play with the camcorder a lot. I don't need to say anything about Canon, we all know how good they are. The only down side of the HG10 is that its hard drive could be damaged if turned on over 9,800 feet in altitude. Which is easy to do if you live in the Rockys like I do. So be carfull. It's light weight, compact and tough. Might seem to small if you have big fat hands. Wait till you see your home movies in HD!

Recently bought this camcorder. It works really great. I didn't try all the features yet, but I really like this camcorder as my first one. I was able to put my video on my computer using "Back up" software, and I installed Corel software without any problems. I can watch my clips, but the only problem I have is the when I try to watch my video on my laptop, it goes really slowly. I think that I am having this problem because of my computer. I have Sony Vaio, Pentium 4, 3,06 GHz and 384 GB of RAM. May be I should buy additional memory? Who knows, please give me an advise.

high-quality output. I wish there were easier ways to upload (or broadcast) the videos on my PS3. Some people claim that Canon is being deceptive about claiming this camera to be 1080p, but I haven't confirmed it either way yet.

I found this camera to be perfect for the purpose intended and would not hesitate to reccomend it. Its small size and recording options/quality make it just abotu perfect.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with this camera! I haven't had alot of time to play with like I would like. But the picture on this thing is AMAZING! I have 50 inch DLP and when I plug the camera into it to watch what I've recorded....It is BEAUTIFUL! It is FAR better than any standard camera you could ever buy! Plus because its HD it does pixelate as much when you use the digital zoom...most cameras the digital zoom is just plane crap! GREAT CAMERA! WOULD RECOMEND TO ANY WANTING AN HD CAMERA!

I wish I had it 1 or 2 year ago for the birth of my son. This Canon HG10 AVCHD camcorder is really amazing. On my 57" HD flat screen TV, I can barely make a difference between the quality of the videos I made with the HG10 and a HD DVD movie!!!
From 1 to 10 I will rate 9.8!!!

I am not an expert by any means but for a consumer grade camcorder the HG10 is outstanding. I have had mine for about three weeks now and here are my observations.

Video quality is absolutly beautiful, even in the LP mode.
Batery life is pretty good.
Plenty of record time on the 40GB HD.
It takes great still pics in picture mode.
It takes great pics while simultainiously taking video footage.
The size of the camera is pretty good for my large hands.
Transfering the files to my PC is very easy using the Canon Backup Utility.
The rest of the supplied software is useless. It wont run on my PC.

As for editing the AVCHD files I've found two programs that handle it very well. Sony Vegas Platinum 8.0 ($69.99 on Amazon) and Ulead Video Studio 11.5 Plus ($69.99 on Amazon). Depending on you PC configuration you may get some jerky playback while editing. But the finished video will be fine. If you set the preview quality in Vegas to "Preview Auto" it will do away with most if not all of it.

The Sony program is envolved and very powerful but will take some time to learn. The Ulead program is much more user friendly for the novice. You can download a trial version of each one www.sonycreativesoftware.com and www.ulead.com.

I've also found that having a nice big external drive, I use a 1TB My Book, will speed up processing or compression times when reading from one drive and writing the finished video to another drive.

Useful additions to you HG10:

Canon BP-2L24H extended run battery
Canon CB-2LW battery charger
Canon hot shoe video light
A good fluid head tripod
A large external hard drive to store the raw files.

So far, I haven't had any major problems with this camera. I am new with HD camcorders. The video quality for this camcorder is quite excellent. Transferring video over to my computer works fast and well. I have not tried making DVDs using the program provided. I am disappointed I could not use other video editing software. The other drawback is the location of the power bottom; it is hard to turn on and off the camcorder with the fingers of the hand holding the camera. The use of the directional switch without moving the scroll wheel needs some getting used to.
In general I like the camcorder specially the video quality. So far I love it.

I bought this camcorder for my husband as an anniversary gift, and I was very nervous about making the purchase without his opinion. I read every review and visited it at the store more than once.
He loved it. The high definition quality is great and we captured our anniversary as though we were still there. We have been completely happy with the camcorder. We have played it back on high definition TVs and it compares with the travel channel.

So far, I haven't had any major problems with this camera. I am new to the camcorder experience, so you might want to check out some of the other experienced reviews, too. Both the picture and video quality for this camcorder are quite excellent. They also transfer over to your computer well. I have yet to try making DVDs out of my captured footage, using the programs provided or other outside sources, so I honestly can't say anything about that at the moment. The battery life, for the battery that came with the camera, lasts a long time when its fully charged. The only draw back I see so far is the video file type. The AVCHD file format is what the camera records in. As of right now and as far as I know, it is hard to get this file type to play in many of the video and video editing programs used in computers, hence the need for its own video editing software. This software comes with the camera, but it is limited in its abilities, and I prefer other video and video editing programs that are already on mine and other computers. So, with that in mind if you want to use other software that can't read AVCHD files, you may have to wait until those programs get updates that include the new file type or get conversion software, like Elecard, that can convert the AVCHD files to useable file types. I believe, that is about it for now.

Great camcorder. From what I can tell It's the best one out there right now. I do have a few complaints, but nothing's perfect

Pros:
Compact
Amazingly crisp outdoor quality
Easy menus
East to dump files to computer
Quick Start feature is a plus
Decent quality on still shots
Accessory shoe on top is nice for light and mic attachments
Has a little LED light for low-light situations (not very strong though)

Cons:
Editing software is VERY basic.
Low light situations make grainy vid quality (To do better you need to spend at least $3000 on a camcorder).
When dumping to computer, the camcorder needs to be connected to power source which is a pain.
24p Cinematic mode is useless, panning is very jerky and choppy when turned on.


Over-all great camcorder. Would definately recommend

I got this through a secondary seller on amazon and it was quite the buy. Best buy was selling it for around 930 and i got this one new for 630. Its light weight and very straighforward. the few issues i have had are with the battery life and the software package. While recording in high def the battery barely scrapes it to an hour half max. The softwares that come with the camcorder called correl video and inter video win dvd are quite cumbersome to use. The video files that are saved on my computer cannot be played at once for some reason and i have to select it one clip at a time. The camcorder in general works very nicely and only sees some problems when recording inside the house at night. The picture has a grainy texture sometimes. Im not sure if they are still selling for this price but if they are its a great buy. Otherwise it wont be a bad idea to check out sony's SR lineup.

The only downside to this camcorder is it records in AVCHD format for Hi-DEf. Thats great if you have a newer PC or Mac with the system requirments to compliment the camera. In my case, I ended up returning the camcorder because my Powermac G4 and imovie6 doesn't recognize it. I guess I'll have to upgrade my system if I want to use the HD technology on the Mac. I don't think you PC users will have a problem as long as your PC was purchased within the last couple of years. The picture Quality was very impressive!

This is a great little camera, takes outstanding video. Using a camera with a hard drive is a dream - no more capturing video, just drag the files to your computer and edit. Great camera for the money!

I used the camera for a month now, I like it. Great Video resolution when enough light. I give it 4 because the Video quality not that good in deem light

The Canon HG 10 is the camera i was looking for a good price. It is very easy to use and have a layman use it too. I would recommend any one looking for a basic model with great features.

The video we recorded is crispy clear. Easy to set up and easy to use. Light weight, easy to carry. We have considered sony which has many neat features like zero light capability and bigger hard drive. But you would have to spend more on the sony specified audio equipment and battery which cost much more. I have shopped around, this is the best price I have found. Tip: We dumped the recorded file into sony vegas for editing instead the software they recommended.

This is the 6th Canon camera I have bought these last 8 years, and the camera meets my expectations of performance. Its high quality definition is excellent, and is without exception much better than other similar camcorders around. However, I found a "Corel Application Disc" version 2.0 in the box, installed it, and found it did not work with the new .mts files properly, so I called Corel and found that they "did not support this product any more". I ended up buying Corel's DVD MovieFactory V6 and their Video Studio 11.5 Plus Download all for $150 to resolve this issue. Also, Canon supplied 5 separate wires to connect the camcorder to an HD TV when only the HTC-100 HDMI Cable is necessary. I threw the 5 wires out and bought the HDMI cable for $11 and it's an easy process now to quickly wire up my camera to the HD TV and show my pictures. Hopefully, both Corel and Canon will learn to work better together to supply improved accessories for their products.

I bought this camera 7-8 months ago. I have been using this camera alot and I like it very much. It is very light and day light videos are perfect. But I dont like night recordings even some digital cameras which has video recording feature can record better at night. My previous camera was Sony TRV22e which was a minidv camcorder, so that is the only camera that I can compare my canon. There are good things and bad things about this camera. First of all if you were a Sony Camera user you will not find many different features as you had in Sony camera such as filters, effects, dubbing, voice mixing. The sound quality is not that good. The ring which is on the monitor looks very cheap. You can do manual focusing with that ring if you want but it is not that efficient. Another thing taht I dont like is 24 frame movie feature I believe it does not work good. Once you have installed the software to your computer it is very easy to transfer the files from camera to your pc. The files are not compatible with adobe premiere pro. So you have to convert them any file which is compatible. the picture quality of the digital camera is perfect. I like to take pictures with this camcorder, I dont have to carry a digital camera separately. If you are looking for a good quality camcorder I definitely recommend this camera but I would check Sony before buying.

The camera is great. We shot video in many types of environments and it always works great. The menus are complicated and the software provides little automation.