[Macworld]

Post your comments for Canon rolls out new camcorders here

[TeaEarleGreyHot]

Did they announce any pricing? Ballpark?

[flybynight]

It says in the article "Pricing and availability were not announced..."

[Photonerd]

I just bought a Canon HD cam, but luckily I don't feel too bad as the optical zoom on the higher end model has dropped to 10x from 12x. I'll take the former over any extra pixels or gizmos. Using Video cameras for still images is a mistake anyway.

[Schneb]

I'll stick with my HV20 until they decide to go with pure progressive scan capture.

[elCapiton]

I just bought an HF10 this past Saturday. Looks like it's superceeded by the new HF S10 with twice the storage. Hopefully prices come out soon since I have 14 days to return this one.

[Bob_Hudson]

"Using Video cameras for still images is a mistake anyway."

That used to be the case but no more.

With today's HD camcorders taking stills is a whole different ballgame than it was with 720x480 DV and other standard definition camcorders. Canon's new low end HD camcorder has a 10x optical zoom and operates at up to 8 megapixels in still mode (its CMOS sensor has 8.59 megapixels). One of Canon's standard definition camcorders (yes they still make them) has 1.07 megapixel CCD sensor that used 800,000 pixels in photo mode.

After I got my Sanyon Xacti HD1000 camcorder there simply was no more need to carry a still camera when I travel. It makes beautiful 8x10 prints even though it "only" has a {font:arial,helvetica}{font:arial,helvetica}{size:-1}4-megapixel CMOS imager (it uses 3.5 MP in the 16:9 still mode I use to make my stills compatible with the HD video aspect ratio). The HD1000's {size}{font}{font}{font:arial,helvetica}2496 x 1408 still image produces an almost 17x10 inch image when converted to the 144DPI resolution that is best for digital prints. One of the new Canon HF S10's can take a 4:3 still that would print at more than 22x17 inches at 144DPI or almost 23x13 in 16:9 mode.{font}

With that kind of image size, a 10x optical zoom and optical image stablizer, it's more than enough for all but pro photographers and those who just have to make mural-sized prints and just gotta have maximum megapixels and interchangeable lenses.

[dreyfus]

They should give one of these shiney new HV40s to Jobs and ask him to connect it to one of his even more shiney new Firewire-less MacBooks. According to him all current camcorders have no problem with it.

[hmurchison]

Nice zinger Dreyfus!!

You know the flash camcorders are nice but I'm still carrying a bit of a torch for the HV40 and the HDV format. Probably because I think the editing is still easier and there's comfort in having the data locked up on a tape. I guess i'm just an old curmudgeon in this area. Anyways here's hoping Canon makes these models affordable. I'm ready to go HD.

Cecille B. Demille here I come.

[KernelG]

dreyfus said:

They should give one of these shiney new HV40s to Jobs and ask him to connect it to one of his even more shiney new Firewire-less MacBooks. According to him all current camcorders have no problem with it.

From Canon's VIXIA HV40 page, "USB 2.0 Full Speed."

I use Firewire for audio and storage devices alike, and I hope it comes back on the next Macbook models, but it looks like Canon heard the word. And for the SDHC models a card reader is superior anyway.

[dreyfus]

[quote name='KernelG']

>

dreyfus said:

They should give one of these shiney new HV40s to Jobs and ask him to connect it to one of his even more shiney new Firewire-less MacBooks. According to him all current camcorders have no problem with it.
From Canon's VIXIA HV40 page, "USB 2.0 Full Speed."


I use Firewire for audio and storage devices alike, and I hope it comes back on the next Macbook models, but it looks like Canon heard the word. And for the SDHC models a card reader is superior anyway.

Well, the information on the Canon US page is maybe incomplete... The German Videoaktiv magazin published detailed specs, and according to those the HV40 is using USB 2.0 for stills only, video out is still via Firewire (same as with the HV20 and HV30 before). As this camera is also working in standard definition mode, I also do not see how else it should work - sustained throughput of USB is insufficient to capture in real time.

[d2hamilton]

My question (which I always have a hard time finding) is "is the HD - hard disk / SDHC based - version compatible with iMovie / iDVD?" When I researched in the past, it seemed like it was only the tape based versions which you could import into iMovie.

[dreyfus]

hmurchison said:

Nice zinger Dreyfus!!

You know the flash camcorders are nice but I'm still carrying a bit of a torch for the HV40 and the HDV format. Probably because I think the editing is still easier and there's comfort in having the data locked up on a tape. I guess i'm just an old curmudgeon in this area. Anyways here's hoping Canon makes these models affordable. I'm ready to go HD.

The AVCHD format (with all the different manufacturer implementations) is a failure and support under OS X is poor - if Apple really wants to remove FW, they should do the homework first (that is support the vast majority of HD/Flash/DVD/WTF camcorders out of the box in OS X, iMovie, FCE and FCP - they do not properly support even half of what is on the market) and THEN discontinue support for a standard that just works. I do like tapeless technologies that do work - I use a Panasonic P2 sytem for all business work and it is dream-like but very expensive, in the consumer space there is simply nothing that can rival DV tape until now. A 60 minute tape is 5 bucks and once it has been captured, just move it to a safe location and you have a backup. Much more painless than any other technology.

[elCapiton]

AVCHD imports fine in FCP from the Canon HF10. The only really annoyance is that FCP transcodes it to Apple Pro Res 422 on the fly so importing is not that quick. There's no real way around transcoding because FCP does not seem to want to import AVCHD natively. Can't speak of iMovie but I suppose FCE should work pretty much the same if FCP supports it.