Canon HG10

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 29 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 7 stars

  Great video, but....

  by GuitarPix on April 10, 2008

  Pros: Excellent quality video image

  Cons: Very hard to use with non-intel Macs.

  Summary: Controls are a bit hard to use with my fairly large hands, and took several hours to find out the software supplied as well as most other video software doesn'...

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  Summary: Controls are a bit hard to use with my fairly large hands, and took several hours to find out the software supplied as well as most other video software doesn't even see the camera or edit the AVCHD files the HG10 creates. Not impossible, but the solution is makes for very long conversions to usable files. If you have a G5 or old Mac - I'd suggest a camera that doesn't create AVCHD files. Otherwise its an excellent camera.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Extremely good video, but small imperfections seem to make you focus on the bad

  by Griffin91 on January 25, 2008

  Pros: Very good video quality in the daytime, lots of cool features

  Cons: Grainy in very low light conditions, bad ergonomics, requires a superfast pc

  Summary: I just bought the cannon HG10 about a week ago, and i was immediately blown away by the great video quality, but the record button was in such an inconvenient ...

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  Summary: I just bought the cannon HG10 about a week ago, and i was immediately blown away by the great video quality, but the record button was in such an inconvenient place (i had to press it with the base of my thumb). I decided to take it out at night, and videotape stuff, so i could get a feel for the night features. the video quality was hurt a lot by the low light, but it wasn't "horrible". I uploaded the videos onto my pc to see some of the features that the included "video editing software" had, and my pc practically couldn't handle the video, it would jump, and the sound would lag sometimes more than a second in front of the video. I have a compaq that has a 256mb ati card, 2.2 ghz, and 2gb of ram. The box recommended at least a 3.0 ghz processor. Overall, I love the camera, and it was such a leap of quality, judging on that the last camera i had was a sony dcr-hc21. but i just cant get over all of the small little quirks.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Will not download to compueter

  by strker16 on December 28, 2007

  Pros: everything about it

  Cons: nothing expect i cant seem to download to computer

  Summary: Well i just got a HG 10 for Christmas and i love it. But when i went to download it to the computer it said the film was corruptest but ...

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  Summary: Well i just got a HG 10 for Christmas and i love it. But when i went to download it to the computer it said the film was corruptest but it was working on the camera. I tried it on a few other computers and same thing. Someone please help me!~!!!

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  Thoroughly Disappointed with Canon HG10

  by Ben342 on May 11, 2010

  Pros: It turns on.

  Cons: Non-existant support for low light or indoor recording. The picture comes out so poorly you will prefer to use your 20 year old SD Camcorder instead!
  Poor User Interface.

  Summary: This was my first (and last) Camcorder from Canon.
  
  I decided to buy it because of the good user reviews, but as it turns out, this HD Camera was being ...

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  Summary: This was my first (and last) Camcorder from Canon.
  
  I decided to buy it because of the good user reviews, but as it turns out, this HD Camera was being sold through the "Apple Store" and the reviews were done by Apple users who are not tech saavy people. For these Apple people, it was probably their first HD camera and they thought "Wow this camera is the best camera ever!", which is of course far from the truth - especailly in comparisson to similarly priced cameras from Sony.
  
  The biggest problem? Exteremely poor, actually useless, low light performance. Any kind of indoor recording will yield a fuzzy picture that is so bad you would be better off using your 20 year old SD Video camera instead. I tried every single setting, this camera SIMPLY WILL NOT RECORD A GOOD VIDEO IN LOW LIGHT OR INDOORS!
  
  I contacted Canon about the problem and they would not admit that there was a problem. Reading through on-line forums, there IS a firmware upgrade, but for whatever reason Canon is not making it available on-line! And if your camera, like mine, is not under warranty then you are out of luck because you can't send it in to Canon either (which they make you do on your own dime).
  
  The sound quality is not good either. And the user interface is not easy or intuitive.
  
  I WILL NEVER BUY A CANON PRODUCT AGAIN! VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND EXTREMELY POOR PRODUCTS!

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• 1 stars

  Downloaded video can't be used on Windows!

  by connable on May 28, 2009

  Pros: The camera is compact and the video looks great in the view-finder window.

  Cons: - Battery life is so-so
  - Canon editing software is awful and incompatible with most other software
  - Good luck editing and viewing your videos on Windows without a complex codec download.
  - Hard drive was broken out of the box.

  Summary: I bought the camera a week before the birth of my son. I have had great experiences with Canon products and spent hours reviewing the various comments on the HG ...

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  Summary: I bought the camera a week before the birth of my son. I have had great experiences with Canon products and spent hours reviewing the various comments on the HG 10. I had little doubt the camera would work perfectly out of the box. Instead, my hard-drive cannot speak to my computer. This is a hardware problem that Canon has informed me it "may or may not fix" depending on the decision of a technician. Of course, this assumes I'm willing to send in my camera for servicing, which would leave me without a camera to film the first weeks of my son's life. So I am stuck transferring all images to my SD card in order to download them to my computer...
  ... which is an exercise in utter futility. The Canon editing software is absolute garbage. Windows Media Player and Moview Maker are incapable of reading the Canon .mts files. This means that I have been unable to view or show my video on anything other than the camera viewfinder window. I have hours of great movies of my son (well, I think they're great) and can't show them to my friends and family. I have done an exhaustive search to find the right codec to fix this problem and have come up dry. The only working codec I found was sitting on a site with a Soviet flag waving in the corner - Trojans, anyone? Canon is of absolutely no help - they have no codec for Windows on their download page for the HG 10!
  I have purchased my last Canon product. I was preparing to buy a Rebel SLR and switched to the Nikon after my frustrations with the HG 10. I hope at some point in the future to be able to use the videos I have taken of my son, but I am not holding my breath.

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• 9 stars

  I think I am in love... with this camcorder!

  by djzack1234 on April 18, 2009

  Pros: Great video quality, microphone included with camcorder not bad at all, Cinema mode, Hard-drive camcorder, Full-sized accessory shoe, cute camcorder, great zoom, user friendly, yes it's big but it's cool like that!

  Cons: Wind filter good but not great, Interior video quality might be not as good as filming outside (I don't know why) but this is quickly fixed with the cinema mode.

  Summary: I love this camcorder. It is the best you can find for the price and even if it was a thousand bucks, I would still have bought it. Its best ...

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  Summary: I love this camcorder. It is the best you can find for the price and even if it was a thousand bucks, I would still have bought it. Its best quality is it's user friendly. If you are into making movies with your friends as I am and you're just beginning, you are gonna love it. Plus, you can buy a whole bunch of awesome accessories for this camcorder : Microphone, Wide-angle lens and a lot of other awesome stuff. Trust me, I love it and you will love it too.

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• 8 stars

  Great Quality Shots at a Good Value

  by mouseclick on October 14, 2008

  Pros: Good HD quality. Simple shooting controls. Feels comfortable in your hand. nice LCD screen and plenty of decent PC/TV connectivity options.

  Cons: Switching from camcorder to camera modes (both to shoot and view) could be a bit easier. It should come with a shoulder strap (have to buy it separate). Picks up wind a bit more than you'd want but not intolerable.

  Summary: Considering its price, effective features and capabilities, you cannot go wrong with the HG10. It is a great camcorder for HD (in fairness, I have yet to see full HD ...

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  Summary: Considering its price, effective features and capabilities, you cannot go wrong with the HG10. It is a great camcorder for HD (in fairness, I have yet to see full HD quality since I only have a DVD burner but DVD quality is great). The images are a bit soft but, this might be able to be adjusted if I ever remember to do so. I prefer sharp edges so, if you prefer this, make sure you can adjust it (if you prefer softer images than you are good to go). Controls are in obvious simple-to-find places, making it easy to shoot. Switching modes from camcorder to camera and viewing videos and pictures on the HG10 could be made a little easier but, it is not a deal breaker. Also, any camcorder these days should come with a shoulder strap and this one makes you buy it as an accessory. The camcorder also picks up wind noise (especially when point up) a bit more than you'll remember their being wind while shooting but not too terribly - this is probably catch 22 since it also does a good job of picking up sounds all around you instead of just where you are pointing. Battery life seems to be great (I've shot on average around one hour of the highest quality HD and still have more than half the battery left each time, though I'd recommend you buy and have a spare handy always). The amount of video you can record seems to be in line with what is promised too. Overall, this is a great camcorder that 95 percent of those on the market for an HD drive-based camcorder should like very much.
  
  Updated on Oct 14, 2008

  Also, I use Pinnacle Studio 12 for editing and it works like a charm, able to make DVDs (Blu-rays too once I get a burner), and typical extensions (.mov, etc.) for web, etc.

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• 10 stars

  Great camera

  by healingsites.net on September 28, 2008

  Pros: Wonderful video quality

  Cons: Support for AVCHD format is still a little hard to come by.

• 3 stars

  Not so good after all

  by LunchBreak on July 14, 2008

  Pros: Great Looking Video and Nice Design

  Cons: Long Conversion Time and Not Ideal for editing

  Summary: I bought this camcorder to do online videos and to my surprise it takes a long time to convert the files into usable files. Most conversion times with other products ...

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  Summary: I bought this camcorder to do online videos and to my surprise it takes a long time to convert the files into usable files. Most conversion times with other products seem like seconds compared to the hours with this camera. I took it back for a refund and got hit with a $105.45 restocking fee. It did not meet my needs.

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• 8 stars

  Excellent Video

  by OldEngineer on July 13, 2008

  Pros: Excellent HD video recordings, good battery life, good software package

  Cons: Marginal still photo mode

  Summary: Overall, I'm very pleased with my HG10. It is intuitive, easy to use, and makes great video - even in low light conditions. I have had my HG10 for ...

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  Summary: Overall, I'm very pleased with my HG10. It is intuitive, easy to use, and makes great video - even in low light conditions. I have had my HG10 for about a year and it has operated flawlessly. I originally purchased it to record my youngest son's wedding reception. The pictures turned out very good even though the light level at the reception was not bright enough to read. However, although the camera has a still picture mode, I would not recommend it as a replacement for a good still photo digital camera. The pictures are OK, but nowhere near the quality of my Canon EOS 20D. Also, the still mode does not use the 40 Gbyte hard disk and you need to insert a mini SD card to use the still picture mode. A mini SD card is not supplied with the camcorder - which is strange since they are so cheap (around $10 for 1 Gbyte).
  
  There have been some complaints about the audio on the HG10. However, I have not experienced any problems with audio. The built in microphones seem to do fine at picking up anything my ears picked up when the recordings were made. There is an option to use external microphones on the camcorder; however, since I'm satisfied with the audio recording already, I have not tried external microphones.
  
  Other areas where I am pleased with the camcorder are battery life and software. I purchased a spare battery for the HG10, but was pleasantly surprised that I have not needed it to date. I can record hours of video on one battery. Also, the software supplied with the unit has been quite satisfactory. The conversion process to DVD format is slow, but the results are good and the HD aspect ratio is preserved. Someday, I'll get a blu-ray recorder and see how the HD looks in that format.

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