Canon HG20 High Definition HDD Camcorder - Silver (12 x Optical Zoom, Multiangle Vivid LCD)

Got mine the other day and apart from a few hiccups which Amazon sorted admirably, it looks like I am to have a great relationship with my HG20. I have a Canon HR10 AVCHD which uses miniDVDs which are a bit of a pain to use. The HG20 has both a 60GB hard drive and can take SDHC cards (16GB SDHC class 6 Transcend cards work well). So lots of storage for your holidays or just being lazy. It has all the functions listed apart from one. The LCD is not the Multiangle Vivid one - my HR10 has this better one. Seems Canon wanted to differentiate the HG20 from its more expensive 'twin', the HG21, and so used a slightly inferior LCD. Really it is the viewable angles which are different. The supplied one, however, is fine except you just have to adjust it a bit more often. Many reviews think the HG20 represents better value than the HG21.

The HG20 is small and feels a bit plastic just like most of Canon's recent crop but that's not a bad thing. It is light, easy to hold and carry. It would fit okay in a coat pocket and not drag.

The LCD pulls out easily and has a positive feel to it - not flimsy. The LCD has a 5-way joystick which is your navigation tool for menus; there are some touch sensitive pads on the bottom of the LCD too. The body has various buttons for display on/off, zoom, snapshots, mode etc. All of these operate fine and are easily accessed.

The battery supplied is a a BP-807 which takes about 2.5 hours for a full charge. The approximate number of minutes of use left is shown on the LCD and is affected by whether you use the HD or SDHC card etc - there's a list of values supplied in the manual. BTW SDHC cards use less power. There are much much cheaper generic batteries available. As ever, be careful if you opt for these. Likey they won't show their remaining power time. You can also buy a cheap charger.

You can use the HG20 whilst it is charging the battery but it stops charging whilst you do.

Turning on the HG20, which is quick, for the first time you need to set the date, etc. This is easily done. There are immediate settings available via the FUNC pad and there are less often used settings under the Menu at the bottom of the initial screen. The menus available change according to the Mode dial setting. They are all pretty simple to use and grasp. The menus etc operate quickly. Indeed, I would say that this is easy to operate. Indeed too it has an Easy button which cuses the HG20 to make all the choices for you!

In use it is fine. The zoom is quiet as is the hard drive. The IS works very well - easily beats my HR10. The LCD gives a sharp clear image in most conditions. There are various shooting modes from 24Mbps (1920x1080) to (1440x1080) 5Mbps. Basically, the output quality is excellent in good light and in low light - beats my HR10 by quite a bit. Sound quality is fine - it is clear and detailed.

So having played about with various settings and gotten some footage, you want to view it...

Well this might not be too easy. If you simply attach the HG20 via a USB cable, WinXP oddly can't see the HD. So, I reckoned I needed to install the software to get the relevant drivers.

I had problems getting the ImageMixer software to install. You need the serial number of the camera (in the battery compartment) and a Net connection and even then it might not install. It took me ages under WinXP to get this fully installed. It kept rejecting the serial number. I briefly turned off my firewall; I heard some had been told by Canon to uninstall any other DVD writing software, etc. After many tries, it did install. Then the HG20 was not seen by WinXP. I changed USB cables and that did the trick.

That should not be such an long, off-putting experience. YMMV. However, with the software installed, the transfer from HG20 HD to PC HD is easy and very quick. Just plug in the HG20, the HD reading software opens showing files on the HD, choose the ones you want and the directory you want and off it goes... You can even edit and burn to DVD from the software. I don't want the supplied software since I use Premiere Pro etc.

In Premiere Pro CS4 there are issues with AVCHD software - it is slow to edit. PPCS4 seems fine with 24Mbps etc but slow. There's an update due soon which hopefully will speed things up. The HG20 output looks excellent.

There are many addons available too. The HG20 can accept headphones and a mic. It has a proprietary shoe too - not the cheapest way to go but it IS an option many don't have.

Overall this is quick, easy to use and gives excellent video even in low light. Seems Canon's DIGIC III offerings (HG20 has DIGIC II) with longer zooms have a price to pay in image quality... Latest is not always best. Great buy for the beginner and amateur - some pros use it too...

This is a great camera in all respects bar one. As a Mac user, I am now having great difficulty getting my footage off the camera. Canon has forced the user over a barrel by forcing you to use their software. And just to annoy us that little bit more, the software WILLL NOT WORK on a Mac. I am now having to look at alternative ways of accessing my footage, which has disappointed me no end. A great, great camera, but this one problem leaves a bitter taste in the mouth after spending so much money. Bad form Canon, very bad form indeed.

Not obvious from the product description but this camera does NOT come with a viewfinder. That's a bit pathetic for something costing over 600 quid. The HG21 has one but you need to fork out 200 quid more for the privilege. Also, the marketing blurb tells you you can get 22 hours onto the Hard Disk. Great you think until you learn that the entry level battery you get with the camera is barely good for an hour or so and you need to prepare to spend another 100 quid on a second battery. To add insult to injury, there is no camera case in the kit- which is useless. I am not just going to chuck a camera like this into my bag. All said and done, apart from not having a viewfinder, this camera is good. The kit you get with is is just utterly rubbish and you need to budget 100 on a second battery and 20 or so on a case. Also, the ImageMixer programme effectively forces you to send them your camera serial No before it lets you download your videos to PC. Nice that.