Canon HV20 review

Although HD broadcasting is slow in coming to the UK, HD camcorders are arriving thick and fast, and prices are dropping. Sony had the first few generations of the consumer HDV market to itself, but Canon has now joined in, with the HV20 representing its second foray. However, whereas the HV10 was an upright palmcorder aimed at point-and-shoot consumers, the HV20 has a lot more to attract the higher end.

The electronics are virtually identical, though, with a single 1/2.7in CMOS sensor with 2.96 megapixels, and the same DIGIC DVII system is used to process the image. Optical zoom is still 10x, despite the longer handycam format. However, the HV20 sports plenty of enthusiast features, including a standard-sized hot shoe, a microphone mini-jack, and a second mini-jack that can be switched between headphones and AV output. Aside from the connection for component analogue output and FireWire, there's also HDMI for HDTV connection.

However, the HV20 does miss having a lens ring, with a small roller wheel taking care of manual focusing. There's also a separate button for backlight compensation. The remaining functions are accessible using the joystick next to the Start/Stop button. The shutter can be varied from 1/6 to 1/2,000, and aperture from F1.8 to 8, although not at the same time. Exposure adjustment from 0 to -11 is available, too, as well as manual audio setting. There's even a 25PF mode that shoots progressive images but records them as regular interlaced HD video, so you get film-look progressive frames editable with any software that supports HDV.

Despite its virtually identical electronics, the HV20 surpassed its HV10 sibling in our image-quality testing. Both camcorders produce excellent results in well-lit outdoor conditions, but the HV20 offers a brighter image in low light, albeit noisily. In 25PF mode, the results were even better, with less grain visible. The results easily surpassed any camcorder we've tested costing below £1,000.

Since Sony discontinued its HDR-HC1E (web ID: 76246), there's been a lack of HDV camcorders below £1,500. But the HV20 is a keenly priced, feature-rich option. It isn't perfect, but there's enough to bridge the gap from consumer to serious hobbyist.

Author: James Morris