Last week may have been a big week for professional and prosumer Canon fans, but this week is the week for the consumer end of things. Canon has just announced the Canon HV10, an HD digital camcorder geared toward the consumer. The HV10 represents a series of firsts, both for HDV digital camcorders and for Canon itself.
The Canon HV10 features 10x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, and a 2.7″ widescreen LCD with 210,000 pixels. This is not as large as some HD camcorders, and because focusing is so important when it comes to HD this may be a limiting factor. However, the HV10 utilizes Canon’s recently introduced Instant AF system. The Instant AF system first calculates the camcorder’s distance to the subject to get a rough focus, then fine tunes that calculation for accurate focus. Manual focus is also possible.
Video footage is recorded at 1080i. Analog video can also be recorded into the HV10 to digitize old videos you may have. Still pictures on the Canon HV10 can be taken during shooting at 2 megapixels, or in the picture mode at 3.1 megapixels. These pictures are recorded onto a MiniSD card. There is also a built-in flash.
Now on to the “firsts.” Number one, the Canon HV10 will end up being the smallest HDV digital camcorder on the market. This is mostly due to its vertical design, which many other Canon camcorders share. The Sanyo HD1a is still the smallest HD camcorder out there, but it records to memory card at compression rates around three times less than the Canon HV10.
The HV10 uses a CMOS sensor, and is Canon’s first camcorder to do so. The chip is 1/2.7″ and features 2960K gross pixels with 2070K effective pixels. Sony’s HDR-HC3 camcorder, the most direct competitor to the HV10, features a 1/3″ CMOS chip. Going strictly by numbers, this means that the Canon HV10 could possibly perform better in low-light situations than the Sony, but this remains to be seen.
The Canon HV10 also marks Canon’s first foray into the world of consumer-oriented HD camcorders. With a price tag of $1299, the HV10 is set to dominate the consumer-HDV market when it is released. By comparison, the Sony HDR-HC3 is priced at around $1499. My prediction, however, is that Sony will drop the price of their HC3 model by the time the Canon HV10 is released in September.
UPDATE: Some more Canon HV10 links
