Canon churns out HF11 / HG21 HD camcorders

No sooner did we have a chance to wrap our mitts around JVC's Everio GZ-HD40 and Samsung's SC-HMX20C than Canon comes out with a pair of its own. Kicking things off is the iVIS HF11 (which turned up in name back in April) -- an HD camcorder with 32GB of built-in memory, an SD / SDHC card slot, Full HD recording capabilities (using the polarizing AVCHD format) and a 12x optical zoom. The iVIS HG21 (pictured after the break) relates most closely to the aforementioned HD40, as it packs a capacious 120GB internal HDD, 2.7-inch flip-out LCD and most of the same specifications as its sibling. Expect 'em both to land next month (at least in Japan) for ¥140,000 ($1,317) apiece.

[Mehul @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:19AM]

HF11 has a 32GB flash memory while the 120GB is a HDD.

Personally, I'd go for the HF11

[Zavh @ Jul 22nd 2008 5:37PM]

I own the HF10, biggest set back is the abysmal battery life. Great picture quality with slightly off reds however, a little over an hour of recording time is a pain.

[LondonConsultant @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:32AM]

The HF11 records AVCHD at 24Mbps - woo hoo!

[rock99rock @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:22AM]

This is like a 35-40% bump in bitrate over the already high rate of the hf10. AWESOME.

[farfisa @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:06AM]

Woah, that's the biggest part of the story right there!
The current models top out at 17 Mbps. That could be reason enough to wait for these!

[wunch @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:47AM]

They're already very reasonable, but I hope this means a price drop for the HF10/100. Maybe there's an unannounced HF101?

[OneLove @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:39AM]

I just don't get this comment system. says 1 comment outside. I clicked in and there are 0 comments. I refreshed 3 times and there are 2 comments. I go back out and refreshed and it still says 1 comment?

[ReductiMat @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:42AM]

Didn't the HF10 just come out?

[Neal @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:11AM]

No, it's been out for a little while, I have the HF100, and if they offer something similar to that for the HF11, it would be nice. The HF10 has 16G internal only, but there is no way to cleanly cut over to the SD card if that fills - I'd assume the same for the HF11. The HF100 has no internal memory, so it's cheaper (and you can get your own SD card cheaper than the price difference they charge to have the same size card internal) but with all the same features sans the RAM.

[peestandingup @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:01AM]

Noisy internal HDDs in camcorders can suck it. Thats just on more moving part that you don't need in devices like this, especially since they're more prone to fail than flash memory. Glad I got the HF100.

[egbsystems @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:10AM]

120 GB Hard Disk... very nice...

[Skorpius @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:56AM]

I surely hope there is a proper viewfinder back there for all that cash.

[jason @ Jul 22nd 2008 7:01PM]

Man, someone really needs to be totally clear on HD, HD, and HDD. Sometimes HD stands for Hi-Def, other times it stands for hard drive, and then usually someone throws in HDD to make it a trifecta of H's and D's.

Hey Engadget - I know that you're all sad about the editor leaving and all, but how's about using your power for good and having all electronics mfgs standardize on HiDef for hi-def and HDD for hard disc drive?

Puh-leeeese?

Am I just cranky today?

[ipodrulz @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:10PM]

Does the HG21 still have that cool rocker zoom switch that the HG10 had?