Introduction
As we reported in the recent JVC GZ-HD40 review, high-definition hard disc drive and flash memory-based camcorders are arriving fast and furiously. One of the newest on the scene is the Canon Vixia HG21, a model with a whopping 120GB HDD, a 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, potent 12x zoom and optical image stabilization to help eliminate the shakes from your videos. What’s also really great about this one is the fact it records at a very fast bit rate of 24 Mbps—almost the level of many HDV and MPEG-2 TS camcorders. In theory a faster bit rate means better video. Whether this baby delivered the goods is exactly what we wanted to discover…

Simply put: this baby is in the top ranks of 2008 consumer camcorders.

by rick_marsh on April 24, 2009:
“Picture quality is outstanding. But, unless you have a super computer it is impossible to edit the footage because of the lousy AVCHD format of capture. Unless you just want to plug the camera in and watch it, unedited, or load it onto your computer, you're...” More...