The web was a buzz a few months ago with the announcement of the Canon XH A1 and XH G1, the little brothers to Canon’s popular XL H1. With both camcorders now released CCInfo has been kind enough to post a Canon XH A1 review on their website. Thankfully the XH A1 has lived up to the hype.
According to CCInfo’s color charts, the Canon XH A1 performed almost identically to its larger, more expensive counterpart, the XL H1. Colors and contrast varied slightly in some cases, but CCInfo made the point that the XH A1’s color preset menu allows the user to change almost anything to compensate. Color tones and overall sharpness were very good.
Manual control on the Canon XH A1 is amazingly customizable. You can change almost anything about the camcorder, even the way the controls change to the way you spin the dials. These settings can then be saved and even transferred to other camcorders using the SD card.
CCInfo’s only caveats on the Canon XH A1 were the eyecup, the smallish LCD screen, and the weight of the camcorder. Overall, however, their experience was highly satisfactory. They even give it the edge over the Sony HVR-V1U and the Panasonic AG-HVX200. Canon has done it once again, giving us a camcorder we can love for a long time to come.
