Digital Trends

Canon HV10

December 4th, 2006 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The Canon HV10 has an upright design compared to the more common horizontal configuration of the Sony HC3. To be honest, I don’t like this style of camcorder, especially since the HV10 is too wide for my hand. I never did feel comfortable, even after adjusting the strap many times. I like camcorders that rest on the heel of your palm. Realize this is my preference—you may like the other style. That’s why we always stress you must do a hands-on with any camera or camcorder—especially with a price over a thousand bucks.

The camcorder is attractive, with dark gray and silver accents. It measures 2.2 x 4.1 x 4.2 (WHD in inches); as you can see, the camcorder is as deep as it is tall, making for an awkward grip IMHO. It weighs 15.5 ounces without battery and card, 17.8 ounces with. The front is dominated by a 10x optical zoom with a built-in lens cover. Also here is a flash for taking stills, an LED light to illuminate dark scenes and do double duty as an AF Assist lamp for stills, the Instant AF sensor, a door covering Firewire and component video outputs as well as A/V in/out.

The top of the HV10 has a stereo mic and nomenclature stating the camcorder has optical image stabilization, Instant AF and a 3.1-megapixel CMOS sensor. This is the first time Canon used a CMOS sensor in a camcorder, although they use them in all their D-SLRs. With this imager you can record 2048 x 1536 pixel shots. There is no hot shoe for optional mics or lights. The right side has wide/tele toggle switch, a dedicated snapshot button and a dial to choose whether you want to record video to tape or save images on the MiniSD memory card. You’ll also find a direct transfer button and a tiny speaker. The left side—which is mostly dark gray—has a cool blue light that illuminates the HDV logo when you power up, letting your tech-wise friends know they’re being recorded in high-def. You’ll find the flip-out 2.7-inch widescreen LCD monitor rated a good 210K pixels and the lithium ion battery below it. When you pop open the LCD, there are a number of controls for playback (FF/REW/Play/Stop). You can also turn on the LED light, adjust the type of flash, the brightness of the LCD and access the digital effects.

The rear has a .27-inch viewfinder (rated 123K pixels) with diopter correction and a master mode dial with center record button. A small switch lets you move from Auto to Scene and “P” options. There are eight scene choices such as Portrait, Snow, Sunset and so on. With “P” there’s Program AE, shutter- and aperture priority modes. There are three buttons that give you access to Function, Focus and Exposure choices. A jog wheel on the right lets you move through the menus. There are two compartments to give you access to the MiniSD card slot, USB out and DC in jacks. You find a Focus Assist key is here as well. Since this is an HDV model, you’ll be recording to MiniDV tape. To access the slot, you slide the open/eject button on the bottom and load the cassette. Noticeably absent is an HDMI out, something found on the Sony HDR-HC3. Since most HDTVs have this input and it requires a single connection rather than three for component, Canon dropped the ball on this one.


The HV10 is supplied with a decent kit to get you started but there are some glaring omissions—such as a blank tape. Along with the camcorder, there’s a rechargeable lithium ion battery with AC adaptor, remote, component, stereo video and USB cables as well as a tri-language Owner’s Manual (90 pages in English). You’ll also find a CD ROM that’s woefully short—it has ZoomBrowser EX 5.6 software and drivers. With them you can manage your stills but forget about the video—you need to purchase separate editing software to even download it to your PC. This is really weak. For the record, more companies are making HDV editing software and recently Ulead announced its Video Studio 10 (around $50) has a free HV10 plug-in. You can get a free trial at www.ulead.com. Remember you’ll also need to purchase a Firewire cable with the proper pins for your computer to port the footage and a couple of blank tapes.

After charging the battery, setting the basic parameters, loading a tape, it was time to shoot some hi-def video.

Image Courtesy of Canon