Canon HV10 HD Camcorder

The Canon HV10 HD camcorder is the company's bid for some of the action in the consumer HD camcorder market. So far, Sony is the only camcorder manufacturer to make a serious bid for this market with its HDR-HC1 and HC3 video cameras. lIke the HC1 and HC3, it captures high definition video to standard miniDV cassette tapes.

The HV10 boasts a decent 10x optical zoom and 2.96 megapixel CMOS sensor. It captures high definition video at 1920 x 1080 pixels, and 16:9 widescreen, and also has a standard definition mode which captures in either 4:3 or 16: 9 mode. It's worth noting that although the HV10 is described as "3.1 megapixels" only 2.96 megapixels are used in shooting video, the full 3.1 megaoixels are only employed when capturing photographs at 1920 X 1440 pixels.

Canon claims that the HV10 HD camcorder is "the world's first consumer HD camcorder to feature Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)." The Super-Range OIS corrects a wider range of vibration and movement than most OIS systems including motion vibration such as that experienced when travelling in a fast car, the movement caused by handheld use and even the movement caused by your body swaying slightly when you're trying to stay still.The HV10 also uses Canon's Digic DV II system to reproduce colors as accurately as possible.

There are a number of features to make shooting great video easier including, intelligent auto-focus which analyses nin metering frames to help bring images into focus, auto exposure modes, program AE modes, simultaneaous video and photo recording, level an grid markers to help compose shots, and a histogram display to help monitor exposure. There's also a built-in flash for low-light still captures.

Other notable features of the Canon HV10 HD camcorder include; a FireWire port for connecting to a Mac or PC for editing footage, a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD, USB 2 port for transferring photos, and a wireless remote control.