Canon has officially entered the AVCHD arena with their newly announced HR10 AVCHD camcorder. The Canon HR10 marks the company’s first foray into the AVCHD arena, now burgeoning with new camcorders and (finally) software. Thankfully, Canon seems to have based this new camcorder on the HV20, a tape-based HD camcorder that has garnered some very good reviews. However, it is AVCHD, which has its drawbacks as you will see.
The Canon HR10 will record to MiniDVD discs, and is the smallest AVCHD camcorder to record in this format to date. Dual-layer DVD-R and DVD-RW discs are supported, which will get you almost one half hour on the highest quality setting. This medium has one of the smallest amounts of recording time and is compressed at about half the bitrate of HDV tape. Reviews of AVCHD camcorders point out motion artifacting and other anomalies as a result.
A Full HD 1920 x 1080 CMOS sensor, 10x OIS (optical image stabilization) zoom, and a 2.7″ widescreen LCD also feature on the Canon HR10. Canon’s Instant AF, which makes your focusing “snappier,” is included, as well.
And finally, for the videographer in you, the Canon HR10 features 24P capability and Cine Mode, which will give you a “film-look” effect. The 24P mode also allows the camcorder to perform better in low light situations.
The Canon HR10 will be available in August for an MSRP of $1199.
