Canon's HV20 HDV camcorder reviewed: dubbed "the monster"

If camcorder sales are to recover, it'll be the ability to record in HD that sparks the resurrection. After all, just about any new digicam and some cellphones can do a passing job at recording VGA or better quality video thus making the purchase of a second dedicated device hard to justify for the average consumer. That's what makes Canon's new iVIS HV20 so interesting; it shoots 1920 x 1080 resolution natively in HDV format to miniDV tapes and includes a 24p cinema mode to boot, a first in this class of camcorders. Best of all, it does this for about $1,000 -- not bad considering the price of other pro-sumer HD cams. Japan's Impress Watch are first to get their hands on a unit for review and although we had to read it using machine translation, it's easy to see that they are, er, impressed. Issues with low light shooting that plagued the HV10 seem to have been resolved on the HV20. While the CMOS sensor remains the same size, they've added the noise reduction technology found in their EOS camera lineup to bring low-light sensitivity down from 5lux to 3lux. In fact, the HV20 "eradicates" the HV10's weaknesses "entirely." Impress will be hitting a review of Sony's comparable HDR-HC7 -- a similarly spec'd HDV camcorder that also supports the xvYCC standard found in HDMI 1.3 for wider color range and space -- to see how they stack up side-by-side. No worries, you can wait, the HV20 won't hit US stores until April. Be sure to click the "read" link below for plenty of sample pics and video.

[FrankTheCrank @ Feb 7th 2007 10:19AM]

Wow...I'm so glad I got that "protection" coverage on my Pani 3CCD camcorder.

It might just break right around April. Whoopsie!

[max andrews @ Feb 7th 2007 10:28AM]

Holy crud...
I actully now have the rather difficult choice between this cheap thing and an HVX200 or an XH-A1. Only problem with the HV20 is of course that crappy little lens putting a damper on things, and the smaller sensor, and the lack of hardware controls, and...oh damn, maybe not such a hard choice after all...

[tzedekh @ Feb 7th 2007 3:22PM]

Actually the HV20's sensor, at 1/2.7 inch, is larger than the HVX's or XH-A1's (1/3 inch).

[grug @ Feb 7th 2007 10:33AM]

Pro gear it's not (especially when using HDV) but 1080 res @ 24p for under $1000 has got to make consumers/amateur filmmakers happy. Sample videos look pretty good.

[jimbo @ Feb 7th 2007 11:26AM]

The HDV format is 1440 x 1080i. It still looks nice on an HD screen, but it is not true 1080i.

[Tony @ Feb 7th 2007 5:04PM]

No. This camcorder does actual 1920 x 1080i. The other formats have the 1440 x 1080 compressed when recorded. But only Canon's HV20 has the TRUE 1920 x 1080 when recorded on tape.

[Jason @ Feb 7th 2007 11:59AM]

No manual focus ring? No sale.

[Vlad @ Feb 7th 2007 12:26PM]

Only pros use manual focus ring, why would consumer bother with it? If you are pro - this camera is not for you Jason.

[Digitalosh @ Feb 7th 2007 1:29PM]

Well, manual focus rings are very useful even for the consumer, and a lot of people who have the skill to shoot pro, cant afford the camera.

[cydeweyz @ Feb 7th 2007 1:42PM]

anyone else notice on the sample pics that the 16:9 is just the 4:3 with the top and bottom clipped off?

[DerekPowell @ Feb 7th 2007 2:05PM]

does it have a uh, crap...whatchamacallit port for remote zoom and focus control? god..what's that called... anyway, that'd help compensate for the lack of manual focus ring.

[matto @ Feb 7th 2007 3:46PM]

Wow, way to fact-check your figures. If you're going to tell us what resolution HDV is, you might want to bother checking it first.

[Joe @ Feb 7th 2007 11:55PM]

Actually Jimbo is right (sort of). HDV is limited to 1440x1080 on tape. This camera may have a sensor capable of recording an (interlaced) 1920x1080 image but it is down sampled, when recorded to tape, to the anamorphic 1440x1080 resolution. Incidentally this is however still considered "true 1080i" [sic], it's just using non-square pixels.
The Sony cameras claim much the same thing with their 3 Mega Pixel ClearVid CMOS sensor.

[Tom Benn @ Feb 9th 2007 12:40PM]

Some footage of upcoming HV20 is available at www.listvideo.com . Also are there any other sites having footage to download and compare?

[t-hype @ Feb 21st 2007 5:02PM]

You can check out sample footage from a japanese review here: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fav%2Fdocs%2F20070207%2Fzooma294.htm&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

It's a bad translation but clicking on a few of the images will give you quicktime files to download.

[ersatz @ Apr 27th 2007 12:24PM]

I've had this camera for a couple weeks now and I'm loving it. To see some test video and still photos taken by my on my Canon HV20 go to http://www.canonhv20.com