robint
Contributor
I haven't been underwater with it yet, but I did take it on a 3-day camping/hiking trip to Utah. I am very impressed with it for several reasons!
The camcorder: CANON HG-21, 120MB hard drive, will record 11 hours at MXP (1920 x 1080 resolution)
1. Color - wow, the Canon HG-21 really nails the color. All colors are vivid and captured better than my hubby's 12m still camera! We were in bright sunlight yet the camcorder seemed to grab the actual colors without washing them out. Amazing!
2. I shot 36+ minutes of footage at the highest setting, MXP. This only used 6.55 GB of the hard drive.
3. Weight - it is a bit larger and heavier than I expected but not as bulky as the professional camcorders. I also purchased an extra battery, the BP-819 which lasts much longer than the standard battery and only weighs a few ounces more. It won't fit in my pocket, but I like the way it feels in my hand shooting - very well balanced and comfy.
4. Download - It took only 7.5 minutes to download the footage to my computer. This is sooooo nice as compared to my old tape camcorder which downloaded minute per minute of recorded time. This will be a huge bonus for me when we go on vacation and come back with 7-10 hours of footage! Also, with the 120GB hard drive, I probably won't worry about downloading until we get home for vacation which is a plus. I only need to change batteries each day, no tapes or downloading to worry with! It does have the memory card option for downloading, but I didn't try it out this trip.
5. Another thing I like better than my old Sony - the ON/OFF button. This is a little detail but I really appreciate that this button is separate from the the SETTINGs switch. On my old Sony you had to twist the little knob to turn on and then twist again until you got to your proper MODE - View, Record, etc. Too many times I would turn on my camcorder underwater and twist the little knob would go two clicks instead of one so I wouldn't be able to start recording until I clicked again several times to get it back to the right MODE. Well, the Canon has a separate ON/OFF button, so you leave the camcorder in Record MODE and never touch it again while out shooting. So no accidentally clicking too far, being in wrong MODE as the whale shark swims by! I have missed so many cool shots with my old Sony because of this. NO MORE!
6. Another thing that I love - the Canon has an auto lens cap which closes when you turn it off or put it in standby if the LCD is closed! So the lens stays clean and protected when you are topside shooting. This was very nice while I was hiking in the Utah desert. Yes, I know it uses more battery to do this but it is only a real factor topside. But when using the viewfinder instead of the LCD, you are saving mucho battery life anyhow and that is the best way to shoot topside outdoors!
7. Which brings me to the awesome viewfinder! I am so glad I went with the HG-21 instead of other Canons that I had looked at. The viewfinder has on ON/OFF button to activate, then it slides forward so your nose isn't plastered against the back of the camcorder. AND, when you slide it back, the camcorder goes into standby MODE automatically. Very NICE!!!!!! This is the way I ended up using the camcorder for most of our hiking in the desert. The lens stayed protected by the lens cap closing, too.
8. The ZOOM - Wow, wow, wow! I won't be using the zoom on this camcorder underwater most likely, but topside it rocks. I tested it quite a few times and found that even zoomed in to the max the footage looks pretty clear. (I will post a video of the zoom tests so you can see.)
9. The negatives of the Canon HG-21 -- the literature! The manual is bad and the included software is funky and bad. I can't understand how they can honestly put out such a cool camcorder with such bad manuals. Some real dummy wrote the manual - it really goes in depth to explain some really obvious features and then has little more than a line about other things. And there is NOTHING in the manual about using software other than that included in package. The manual is definitely written towards the SoccerMom who is merely shooting video of a kid's birthday party and e-mailing it to grandma. Maybe that is who they think will be their primary user, but they should consider that others may buy it.
10. The LCD menu works by a little toggle that is a bit awkward. However, there are tons of features available through it and I have yet to explore all of them, and probably will never use most of the options. It is important however, to get into the menu to set up what resolution you want to record at, etc. There are functions for special scenes (night, portrait, beach, spotlight, sports, sunset....), white balance, and also shutter or aperture priority settings. You can only access these through the LCD with the little toggle and I am not sure how easy that will be through any underwater housing.
11. If you buy this camcorder, I would highly recommend purchasing the extra longlife battery, the wall charger, and the HDMI cable so you can watch back your footage on your HD tv set. The longlife battery takes about 3+ hours to fully charge so you may want to buy 2 of them.
I will be posting some videos by the end of the month (I am in process of upgrading my computers so haven't gotten to any editing yet). Granted, it will all be topside, but I think you will get a good assessment of the camcorder.
robin
The camcorder: CANON HG-21, 120MB hard drive, will record 11 hours at MXP (1920 x 1080 resolution)
1. Color - wow, the Canon HG-21 really nails the color. All colors are vivid and captured better than my hubby's 12m still camera! We were in bright sunlight yet the camcorder seemed to grab the actual colors without washing them out. Amazing!
2. I shot 36+ minutes of footage at the highest setting, MXP. This only used 6.55 GB of the hard drive.
3. Weight - it is a bit larger and heavier than I expected but not as bulky as the professional camcorders. I also purchased an extra battery, the BP-819 which lasts much longer than the standard battery and only weighs a few ounces more. It won't fit in my pocket, but I like the way it feels in my hand shooting - very well balanced and comfy.
4. Download - It took only 7.5 minutes to download the footage to my computer. This is sooooo nice as compared to my old tape camcorder which downloaded minute per minute of recorded time. This will be a huge bonus for me when we go on vacation and come back with 7-10 hours of footage! Also, with the 120GB hard drive, I probably won't worry about downloading until we get home for vacation which is a plus. I only need to change batteries each day, no tapes or downloading to worry with! It does have the memory card option for downloading, but I didn't try it out this trip.
5. Another thing I like better than my old Sony - the ON/OFF button. This is a little detail but I really appreciate that this button is separate from the the SETTINGs switch. On my old Sony you had to twist the little knob to turn on and then twist again until you got to your proper MODE - View, Record, etc. Too many times I would turn on my camcorder underwater and twist the little knob would go two clicks instead of one so I wouldn't be able to start recording until I clicked again several times to get it back to the right MODE. Well, the Canon has a separate ON/OFF button, so you leave the camcorder in Record MODE and never touch it again while out shooting. So no accidentally clicking too far, being in wrong MODE as the whale shark swims by! I have missed so many cool shots with my old Sony because of this. NO MORE!
6. Another thing that I love - the Canon has an auto lens cap which closes when you turn it off or put it in standby if the LCD is closed! So the lens stays clean and protected when you are topside shooting. This was very nice while I was hiking in the Utah desert. Yes, I know it uses more battery to do this but it is only a real factor topside. But when using the viewfinder instead of the LCD, you are saving mucho battery life anyhow and that is the best way to shoot topside outdoors!
7. Which brings me to the awesome viewfinder! I am so glad I went with the HG-21 instead of other Canons that I had looked at. The viewfinder has on ON/OFF button to activate, then it slides forward so your nose isn't plastered against the back of the camcorder. AND, when you slide it back, the camcorder goes into standby MODE automatically. Very NICE!!!!!! This is the way I ended up using the camcorder for most of our hiking in the desert. The lens stayed protected by the lens cap closing, too.
8. The ZOOM - Wow, wow, wow! I won't be using the zoom on this camcorder underwater most likely, but topside it rocks. I tested it quite a few times and found that even zoomed in to the max the footage looks pretty clear. (I will post a video of the zoom tests so you can see.)
9. The negatives of the Canon HG-21 -- the literature! The manual is bad and the included software is funky and bad. I can't understand how they can honestly put out such a cool camcorder with such bad manuals. Some real dummy wrote the manual - it really goes in depth to explain some really obvious features and then has little more than a line about other things. And there is NOTHING in the manual about using software other than that included in package. The manual is definitely written towards the SoccerMom who is merely shooting video of a kid's birthday party and e-mailing it to grandma. Maybe that is who they think will be their primary user, but they should consider that others may buy it.
10. The LCD menu works by a little toggle that is a bit awkward. However, there are tons of features available through it and I have yet to explore all of them, and probably will never use most of the options. It is important however, to get into the menu to set up what resolution you want to record at, etc. There are functions for special scenes (night, portrait, beach, spotlight, sports, sunset....), white balance, and also shutter or aperture priority settings. You can only access these through the LCD with the little toggle and I am not sure how easy that will be through any underwater housing.
11. If you buy this camcorder, I would highly recommend purchasing the extra longlife battery, the wall charger, and the HDMI cable so you can watch back your footage on your HD tv set. The longlife battery takes about 3+ hours to fully charge so you may want to buy 2 of them.
I will be posting some videos by the end of the month (I am in process of upgrading my computers so haven't gotten to any editing yet). Granted, it will all be topside, but I think you will get a good assessment of the camcorder.
robin
