The included "digital video software" is only for still images! There is absolutely no video software included with this camera. There's a QuickTime logo on the camera but the movies are in no way compatible with QuickTime. There is no Firewire DV output. As boxed, you can not play the recorded movies from anything but the camera itself. A few third party utilities can be purchased to convert the camera's video files but their usefulness is quite limited. Most seem to have a 2GB limit.

The video looks pretty good on the camera. Too bad I'd have to put the whole camera in a box and mail it for anyone else to see it.

I have been using camcorders since 1985 and have used almost every possible format available for the consumer. As of Oct. 2007, I can firmly say that this is by far the best camcorder ever, in terms of the picture quality, convenience, and price. Although there are some limitations in AVCHD format (I don't want to reprise here again), the convenience of hard drive made me choose HG10 and I have absolutely no regret at all.

First of all, I would like to clarify other reviewer's information that might misguide some folks. HG10 does include the software to transfer and to edit the video footage for a PC. It comes with a Ulead DVD MovieFactory SE for editing and for authorinzing the DVD and the AVCHD-DVD (can be playable on some dvd players and Playstation 3. It's a dvd that has HD pictures). If the other reviewer only has a Mac, his complaint was right, since HG10 only includes the picture browser to handle the still pictures, not video.

For the most consumers like me, the DVD MovieFactory works pretty well. I just burned a standard DVD with DVD MovieFactory and am very satisfied with the result. Converting HD pictures to SD format does not degrade the original HD quality much and I was impressed by that. I added chapter marks, made menus, and did a little editing. Since editing AVCHD format needs so much processing power, if you don't have a fast computer (dual core, 2 ghz or faster), you should seriously consider to buy a decent computer for the editing the AVCHD video. I was using a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, Windows Vista Business PC to make a DVD and it worked OK. Making AVCHD-DVD is faster since it does not need to re-encode. If you don't do a complicate editing job and want to do merging video clips from HG10 and burning a DVD, you could use a slower computer for that purpose. I have experiences in using Adobe Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, and iMovie (for Mac). Although the DVD MovieFactory might not be a right tool for the professional work, it is quite good for a home use. I made my friends surprised with the DVD created from it. Only gripe is a complicated software activation process. You should read a software instruction carefully to avoid the hassle (specially the last page). I have wasted 2 hours just to activate the software.

Yes, HG10 does not have an IEEE1394 (or firewire, or iLink whatever you call it) port. However, the thing is that it does not need one. All the footages are already stored in AVCHD format files and you only need to transfer those files to your computer. If you have to capture the video and encode it to a file from the magnetic tape (MiniDV), you might need an IEEE1394 port. However, for HG10, you don't need to that. If you see other hard drive based camcorders, they don't have it either (They all have a USB port). Right before HG10, I used a Sony DCR-SR100 and it did not have a firewire port, too.

HG10 has a mini HDMI (type C) port, so if you want to connect HG10 via HDMI, you should order a mini-HDMI to HDMI (type C to type A) cable. HG10 only includes a composite A/V cable and a component video cable. My minor complaint is that it does not come with a shoulder strap.

I was told that HG10 uses a same optical mechanism as Canon HV20, which is known to be the best consumer HD camcorder on the market (it records in HDV format). So I expected that the picture quality would be pretty good and I was right. If you have a full 1080p HD display, you will be amazed. Personally, I use a 720p projector at home and am quite impressed by the quality of the picture. Unlike Sony AVCHD camcorders, the sound is recorded in 2 channel Dolby Digital format (Sony records in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital). For low light performance (like indoor shot), HG10 is comparatively better than any other consumer level camcorder on the market that I have seen. However, don't expect too much (like me). It cannot be compared to the low light quality of $3,000 camcorder. My impression is that its low light picture quality is close to 3CCD consumer level camcorder.

Well, I have been waiting for long to have the right hard drive based AVCHD camcorder. There are many hard drive based camcorders on the market now and none of this caught my attention for some minor reasons, such as no external mic jack, no usb port on the camcorder, or the poor low light performance. Finally I found the right one and am so happy that I have waited.

Thanks for Canon to introduce a good equipment at the right price (under a grand). I hope this review help some people who have waited like me.

I've had this camera for a couple of weeks, I've tried it indoors, at night, outdoors under bright sun. The image quality is superb. I was using it to shoot some scenes at an amusement part, and the videos are good, I was worried about the motion artifacts in AVCHD encoding, but it's not as bad as I had imagined. The low light performance is good, nothing to write home about. Things start get a little grainy indoors in the morning if I go to the shady part of the room.

The controls are pretty easy to use, I didn't read the manual, and it took me maybe 30 min to go through all the menu's including all the manual controlls and figured out what they did.

The software that came with the camcorder is nothing to write home about. I only installed the Ulead software, and didn't bother with the backup utility disc, or the photo software. The installation process may be a little too complex. The Ulead software needed an activation code, which I had to obtain from their website, by creating an account and entering the serial number of the camcorder. The information was available in the manuals, but it wasn't obvious where to find it. Without knowing that creating the account on Ulead website was necessary, and if I had felt suspicious about going to some software company's website and creating a user account, I would've hit a dead end with the activation process.

After that, he 1st thing I wanted to do is to get the AVCHD files off the camcorder. With a PC, and the Ulead software, it was very easy, just plug in the USB cable, a few clicks to select videos segment to download, and directory on the PC to put them, and it was done. The USB cable is a standard mini-USB cable, so I just plugged it into the mini USB cable that I already had connected to the PC for my digital camera. I transfered ~1 GB of video (7-8 minutes long). It was done quickly, in just seconds, it was definitely quicker than I expected, so I didn't really time it.

Once the video is transfered, I could use the Ulead software to make a standard definition DVD, which I tried, it's just like any simple DVD authoring tool, nothing fancy. The encoding was pretty quick, but I have a new quad CPU machine, so YMMV. The encoded DVD looks OK on my 42" HDTV, but I can definitely see the difference between that and the original HD content, which I also played on the same TV through the component and AV cables (2 separate cables, both are included), and a mini-HDMI cable (not included). Both worked fine. The hookup using the mini-HDMI is a lot easier. The included remote came in pretty handy in playing the video on the TV.

I also tried to burn AVCHD on a DVD, but I don't have a player that can handle it. My Xbox 360's HDDVD add-on does not play it. But it does read it, and the disc was labeled BD****, so I figured it's a Blue-Ray format disc. The Xbox can see some directories and files on the DVD, but can't play it. I'm thinking about getting Ulead's Video Studio plus so I can write it to HD-DVD, that still costs ~$100 now, and I can't seem to get the upgrade price ($60) with the software that came with the camcorder.

The camcorder arrived about a week ago and I have played with it a little bit.

I agree that the video quality is very good - but I have to disagree that it is as good as off-the-air HD TV. I wasn't expecting it to be that good and it is not. I have used only component cables (supplied) to play the video on my HD TV (since I am yet to purchase the mini HDMI cable).

HG10 takes excellent still pictures in good light. It takes very good pictures in low light if the subject is within the reach of the flash and if the camcorder is able to focus well. Yes, you can leave your camera home if you are taking the HG10 with you. Please see the first comment to this review.

I am having problems with the supplied Corel (Ulead) Software for video processing. I have tried multiple times, but I can't successfully install the software on my desktop computer. (It installed fine on my less powerful and older laptop computer). Corel refused phone support (because it was bundled software). I did get a response to my email, but basically the same story. There is no free email support either. I haven't called Canon yet. I was able to download the clips into my laptop and convert them into standard definition MPEG files with ease. I could select several clips (totaling 1 GB) and convert them all to MPEG in one shot. Computer took about 2 hours for conversion. Interesting thing is that standard definition MPEG files are only slightly smaller than the high definition AVCHD files.

You may know that the camcorder sports a video light. It is a tiny white LED and can light up objects up to 5 feet away. I was able to record a decent video in pitch dark (of course with tons of grain) that showed all the colors and details of objects. This was something that is more than what I was expecting. (LED video light itself is very bright to look at.)

I am happy with the product so far.

Update 1:
MPG file that was generated from AVCHD file seems to require a special codec. I had given a short clip to a friend and he said he couldn't play the video on his computer. I tried a couple of videos on my work computer, and sure enough, Windows media player says "failed to download the codec." Other mpg files downloaded from the Internet play fine.

Update 2:
Camcorder sports a safety feature called drop sensor which detects accelaration and stops recording and tries to protect the hard disc.

You can take a snapshot of a scene within the camera while playing a video clip.

A neck strap isn't supplied.

Import works great with the latest version of iMovie on a Mac. Transfers are fast thanks the hard drive. Editing and transfer to other formats (AppleTV) are very convenient but then my Mac is very fast. I was nervous going with the hard drive over tape but the convenience of it easily offsets any quality loss for the type of recording I'm doing (family and personal). Menus are intuitive and the scroll wheel approach works pretty well (it could be better, but I do prefer it over a joystick). USB 2.0 seems plenty snappy - not missing the firewire.

The hard drive makes it very easy to get out and shoot - no worry about if you are overwriting a keeper tape or if you are going to run out of tape. Its also extremely easy to delete unwanted footage in the field right when you've captured it. This is such a pain on tape that I never do it which results in a lot of wasted time later.

Drive is completely silent. Shoe provides for a shotgun mic which I'll be trying out shortly. Headphone jacks for monitoring sound are there and I've found that to be very important on past units. Construction is solid. Automatic lens cover much easier than having one on a lanyard that you always have to stow. Stand by mode gets you shooting in 1 second which is very nice.

Looking forward to trying the still capability. While the resolution can't match my pocket cam the 10x optical zoom is very nice to have.

On a Mac with the latest iLife and Leopard no software is needed. Drive mounts on the desktop. Movies automatically import into the new iMovie. Absolutely wonderful.

After reading many reviews of this product I decided to go ahead and pick it up. Knowing that this isn't a 'film makers' camera since the 24p mode is all but useless due to AVCHD on the fly conversion issues with this mode, I decided to purchase it anyway since it is primarily for documenting my children.

First off, the picture is absolutely gorgeous. On an HD TV the picture just jumps out. Having the ability to view from the camera in either Component Cable or HDMI makes this camera easy to use and show on even older generation HDTVs that were made prior to the HDMI revolution.

Using the VERY nice LCD screen on the camera to navigate scenes and select them as you would a DVD shows the real benefit of using a HDD as the storage. Instantly access or delete the scenes you love or hate. No more waiting on tape to rewind or fast forward.

The hard drive holds maybe 5 hours of the highest res footage. This doesn't sound like a lot but in most cases you aren't going to shoot 5 horus of footage before you are back in a place that you can off load it for storage and backup.

The battery on this camera could be a little better. As with all batteries they never last as long as you think. This is probably the most negative feature to me. I would say that I got anywhere from an hour to maybe an hour and a half of shooting on a full charge. I would certainly recommend having a second battery on those long shooting days.

The biggest feature of the camera is the AVCHD compression it uses. Everyone talks about if this format will take off or not. It really doesn't matter if it does or if it doesn't as applications like Pinnacle Studio 11 take the AVCHD format and convert it in to the current formats of HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. AVCHD uses a lot of processing power and Ram when it is rendering to whatever format so make sure you have the horsepower on your machine before you being editing. Pinnacle Studio 11 lets you output to HD-DVD on standard DVDs giving you up to 25 min of HD Video on normal DVD. This is great for the average user as most videos are less than that length. This is very cost effective as standard DVD's are very cheap now and the availability of HD-DVD burners and media are both expensive and hard to find.

I have owned many cameras over the years and so far this is by far the best one I have used. I always loathed having to transfer tape to my machine to edit. Now with the HDD it is painless and very fast. You can get to editing quickly. Just expect many many hours of rendering when you are ready to produce that Final Disk of your content.

I FULLY recommend this camera to anyone. At just under 1000.00 it is a bargain for what you get.

Viva La HD Révolution!

super sharp LCD screen, better than HV20
simple intuitive menu
decent still photo quality - don't need to carry seperate camera to amusemanet parks any more
excellent video quality even at lower resolutions
build quality is excellent
love the hard drive

I just got it - love it. Will start converting all of my DVC video to DVD's and from now on its High Definition for me! This is a very compact unit, installed immediately and worked with iMovie 08 via USB no problem on my Mac OSX computer. Unable to use Final Cut Express HD 3.4 - may upgrade to see if that works. No worries though, I can pull in video using the canon utility or iMove and edit later.

I bought this item for my wife and it exceeds what she really needs it for, I got her this because I want to use it as well. I was a little disappointed that it didn't come with a night vision mode but I can live with out that, it would be nice to be able to decide where my files are to be writen (hard drive or sd card) I still have not seen what the recordings look like on a hi-def screen because I'm in Iraq and we're short of those here so I'll hold judgement on that. Easy to use but the menus are not beginner frendly.

The Canon HG-10 is a superb follow-on to the top rated and highly acclaimed Canon HV-20.
We could not be happier. This is a gem of a camcorder. Obviously each reviewer has their own specific reasons for purchasing such an advanced camcorder.
This is our third camcorder and we have been shooting family events, vacations and even hurricanes for close to 20 years. We burn our captured footage on a number of DVD's and share with family members (many who live a great distance away). We have two HDTV's and are about to buy a Blu-ray player. Our Sony camcorder died in The UK this summer and instead of buying another SD camcorder, we decided it is time to step up.
Why now?? Although SIMPLE HD capture and burning software and inexpensive High Def DVD burners are behind the curve at the present time, they are going to happen. Sony, Panasonic, Canon and all the rest...will make it happen. This is too big a potential market to ignore -so we decided to shoot in High Def now, save the backed up video on our hard drive and/or off- line storage, and burn in Standard Definition now. When the software makers and DVD burner makers decide to catch up and make it easy to burn family movies, we will have our (saved) high def files ready to convert to Blu Ray or HDDVD or both.
There are a ton of very technical reviews on the HG-10 on this and other websites. CNET and Amazon provide a great deal of information, Camcorderinfo.com and smartguider.com are just two of the many others. We think any buyer should review them all and also do a web search on
"Canon HG-10 reviews"

After days of reading reviews virtually every web review and visiting at least 7 retail stores we came away with some interesting observations. You are not going to get much technical help at the major retail outlets. You can get hands on and see what works for you. When comparing the HG-10 to the CanonHV-20, there was no comparison as to the ergonomic superiority of the HG-10.
For the technical data you will have to hit the web as the folks in the stores just do not have the depth you need to help you make this kind of buying decision.
We found a few very helpful "gems" in selecting this camcorder.
1) We went to the Canon website.... www.usa.canon.com and downloaded the HG-10 manual in .pdf format (yes it is 118 pages) but if you print the pages in short batches, you will have an excellent and VERY readable document to review BEFORE and after you purchase the HG-10. The manual that comes in the box is very small and hard to read. It would also be a VERY wise idea to also download the .pdf file for the Corel Application Disc Version two.
2) This Corel Guide is a much shorter manual -just 16 pages long. You really want to read this one cover to cover before you buy, and particularly Page 3, where they discuss needed PC systems requirements. You may want to talk (or email) with Canon and/or Corel regarding your PC versus their "recommended size of the PC system". We have a Core 2 Duo Dell so the Corel software posed no problems.
3) We called Cannon Tech support while reviewing the manual. You will be delighted to find out their 800 number ( 1-800-828-4040) is located Virginia, they are very well trained and if you have a problem..they can immediately lay their hands on an HG-10 and go thru a process step-by-step with you. They were even available on a Saturday afternoon.
4) We cannot say enough good things about Canon support. Having spent untold hours since the early days of the IBM PC, on support lines, trying to get help with hardware and software, we think Canon really got it right. A couple short calls to Canon to clarify some questions made it easy for us to choose the HG-10.
On the HG-10 --all the controls were when we really liked them. The HG-10 borrows a lot of its technology from its tape driven HV-20 sister but after living with internal tape transports in many worldwide (hot, cold and dusty) climates and situations over the years, the hard drive was a very logical choice. The 5 and ½ hours of HXP (full 1080) - highest format is plenty for any vacation. Realistically, how many folks want to sit through even a three hour home movie? We have learned from Hollywood.. Keep it short..Keep it snappy..Keep it interesting. Five and ½ hours of High Def video gives you a ton of material to work with from any vacation. When you get home, the Corel software that comes with the Canon allows you to immediately back up your video files and you are ready to initialize (format) the Hard Drive and you are ready to go with a fresh 5 ½ hours of HXP.
Going through the HG-10 manual provides many happy surprises - the camcorder has more features than you can believe and most reviewers do not have the time or space to address all of the abilities of this camcorder. This camcorder takes better still photos than our Sony Cybershot H-5 (which suffers from chromatic aberration in certain situations).
We purchased a 1 GB (Canon recommends no bigger than 2GB) Sandisk mini-SD card that also comes with an SD adapter. If you already have Still Photo capture and edit software, you may not need to load the entire very voluminous still photo (Digital Video Solution Version 27.0) software that comes on a CD with the HG-10. We went through the manual for that disc and it was all about STILL photos. Having more still photo software than we can ever use already on our PC, we skipped that installation.
Why not get a USB-based Media card reader for your PC (if it does not have one) for under $25. When you take still photos just remove the card from the HG-10 and insert it into a USB media card reader. While, we did not by this camcorder for still photos we are more than delighted with the stills that we can capture in Camera mode.

Regarding connections (page 83 in the HG-10 manual) we love displaying the HXP High Def. video footage on our HDTV. We connect the HG-10 to the HDTV via the (optional) mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. The Canon manual calls this an optional HTC-100 HDMI cable. Sony sells a VMC-15MHD HDMI Mini to HDMI that works very well. Canon does not provide this and you will not find these cables in most stores at the present so you may have to order one over the web.
As many highly regarded reviewers have noted, use the HDMI connection whenever you can for the best quality.
Our HDTV had only one HDMI input (already being used) so we purchased a Belkin HDMI 3 to 1 Switch box that allows us to now plug in HD Cable, the HG-10 and a future Blue ray player. We keep the HG-10 HDMI cable always plugged into the home system and by attaching the mini HDMI to the camcorder we can see 1080 HD home movies in an instant.
A couple of user plusses on the HG-10 are the LCD display and the image stabilization. Both are excellent. The size of the HG-10 is amazingly small and it is incredibly light. We cannot believe they pack that much technology into such a small package. The electronic reminder messages on the screen are quite helpful as we all make mistakes. We like the quick start and the Instant auto focus features. We would suggest buying the optional carrying strap and also a second battery when you order an HG-10.
We plan to add more information to this review regarding burning video and creating AVCHD discs but at this time we think this is the perfect camcorder for our needs.

I confirmed with Canon and they said it records at 1440x1080, not 1920x1080. They expect the HDTV to upconvert it the rest of the way when viewed directly from the camcorder via HDMI. That bothered me which is why this is 4 stars and not 5. The bundled software is not very good but it gets the basic stuff done and I guess that's fine. People who need better will have or buy it.

I feel I got my money's worth although I bought it elsewhere for cheaper.

I've tried other AVCHD camcorders and was hugely disappointed. I think it's wrong that they are allowed to call this High Definition. First, most of these camcorders down-res to something like 1440 x 1080, even though they advertise meeting the full-HD spec of 1920 x 1080. Second, the compression used to accomplish this is fierce, and has very visible artifacting.

So, in essence you have a class of camcorders, advertised as HD-quality, that can ONLY produce true HD in very good lighting with almost no motion. Think test patterns here, or landscapes. Poor lighting and motion in the picture give most of these camcorders fits, as the AVCHD codec just can't handle the extra work imposed by video noise from low light situations or any motion-induced artifacting.

What to do? Well, in typical Canon fashion they sat back, waited to see what everyone else produced, and then released a product that is the best of the genre. Sure, you can get larger drives on the Sony -- up to 80GB. The Sanyo may tout it's tiny form factor, and make exaggerated claims about its' image quality. I owned the Sanyo HD1000 and promptly sent it back; both the quality of the device itself AND the quality of the images it produced were lacking.

The Canon gives the best image I've seen on an AVCHD product. Though not perfect and nowhere close to their own HDV-based HV20, I wanted something non-linear to make working with video a little simpler on my Macs. The HG10 has great image stabilization, wonderful optics, intuitive controls (I especially love the multi-speed zoom control), superb colors, and less of the AVCHD nasties than any other AVCHD camcorder I've seen.

So, if you must own a camcorder that uses AVCHD, this is the one to have! On absolute terms I'd give it three stars, but compared to other AVCHD camcorders it's a five, so four stars overall felt about right...

Really great product. I have an LCD projector with a 10' screen and instead of looking grainy like the standard video camcorder this HD camcorder looks perfect on it. Only problem is that most of the editing software doesn't support AVCHD yet and most people don't have HD players so the only practical way to show final videos (for now) is by hooking the HG10 directly into your TV or projector.

Recently got my HG10. I love this masterpiece.
Image quality is excellent. No problems in transfering image to my laptop.
Zoom rocker rocks. LCD is very good. Quick start button is very useful sometimes.
Still trying to grab all its features/ options.

I am not going to tell you about the specifications and capabilities of this JEWEL. You can find plenty of other places for that. What I will tell you is this.
First, if you want to see broadcasting quality video with images you actually shot, you owe it to yourself to get this camera. It is solidly and beautifully built. Very easy to use, but, most importantly, it records the most eye-popping images previously unknown to the amateur user. I tell you about the video quality simply because that is the single most important reason you want to capture video ultimately. When you look at video memories you do not think about the camera you used to capture it. It is the quality of the video that stays and makes you remember, not whether the camera that took it came with shoulder strap or not (I can not believe someone made a point about that!)
Second, you can view the video files you capture as soon as you stop recording. No need to rewind anything. If you like it, keep it; if you don't, then delete it on the spot--just like you do with digital cameras, except with video.
Third, to make movies, the camera is bundled with software which will allow you to download the videos to your computer for editing and burning your videos in DVD quality. To get started, all you have to do is to plug the camera to your computer with the USB cable provided. However, if you want to burn HD home movies, you have to purchase software separately. I recommend Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus (you can read my separate review). AVCHD is not a problem at all.
I absolutely love this camera. I am certain you will too.

I did a lot of research before buying this and I would probably buy it again. I don't know what else I would buy.
I bought this so my in-laws could "be there" during the first few days of my firstborn's life.
The set-up was simple. I haven't transferred any video from it to my computer yet, but I took it to work and let our IT guys play with it and they transferred very easily, the video looked superb, great color, and that was just on auto settings inside an office.
So far it's been great. I haven't really had a chance to use it much yet, but what I have, it's very simple and seems to be of good quality. I think the nicest thing to have on it is the hard drive. I never have to worry about tapes, discs or anything like that or how much time or space the video is going to take up even. If I don't want the video there anymore, I delete it.
I think the only complaint I would have is that it doesn't have a firewire plug-in. That would make the transferring oh so much faster than USB2.

I got my Canon HG10. Harddrive AVCHD. It is a nice unit. Easier to use than my Old Sony minidv ergonomically, esp the zoom...really nicely calibrated for touch. Also, Canon does not use touch screen. Has a jog wheel which is just OK..kinda small. Hard drive is totally silent...no tape mechanism noise thru the microphone. Kinda wide/chunky body due to the hard drive.

Likes:
Hard drive classics. No rewind, fast forward, write-over for deletes.
Instant access via thumbnails, etc.
Move files straight to PC as files using the included software....(no sequential real-time transfer like tape)
Good quality HD and SD DVDs
Transfer is via USB...firewire not required.
Seems to be of nice build quality compared to HV20

Dislikes:
No "natural" tape archival, of course, But easy to archive to a DVD
It makes you use the AC adapter to transfer...it is afraid of power loss and harddrive corruption according to Instructions.
Files are huge
Mini SD and Mini HDMI are extra costs since most don't have either
You cannot just access the files on the Hard drive. You must use the included transfer. I would have thought you could see the files on the HDrive and have it treated like a USB drive. It even warns you never to do this.
Low light video is grainy.

The thing came with ULead DVD Factory SE by Corel. Basic. It has utilities to backup Camcorder to PC, Author, or move files back to camcorder.

I was able to move files to PC, Author and burn a DVD in widescreen Standard Def. It allowed me to slice and dice clips, create menu and chapters...the basic stuff....real simple. My DVD output Quality was very high for SD...higher than what I get from Sony minidv digital camcorder (non-HD). The audio was Dolby Digital,but only 2.1 on my burned DVD. Not 5.1. Will have to look into that..not that it matters since I don't have 6 microphones for surround sound. I use a Quad Core Processor, 3gb of ram...runs OK.

It also came with a special WinDVD Intervideo Player SE to play AVCHD files in HD...so these files from the Camcorder are playable in HD on the PC. Those files look better on my HDTV than on my PC. The PC is a little shakey...could be my video card...which is a Nvidia 7350.

The files are .M2TS files.

Strangely, Windows Media says it cannot play. But if you say "Try", it does play the AVCHD file video...not audio. I bet they will fix that. Until they do, we won't be sharing HD files with buddies!

I do not have Blu Ray or HD DVD player, so I did not attempt to author a disk of that format. But it's good to know I can work with AVCHD files and not the challenge they were a year ago. I suppose Pinnacle, SonyVegas, and Adobe software will advance this rapidly.

I tried 24p and 60i. The pans using 24p are jittery, as some report. They are bad enough that I would not use.

I'll be blunt, this is a long review, cause that's the type of review I would like to read myself, just a simple THIS CAMERA IS GREAT A+++ doesn't tell me much... Anyways, I chose this camera over the cheaper HV20 because (well I got it for 699 no ship/no tax so not much diff.) it looked prettier, and because it had better imagery and manual controls over sony's sr5 at the same price. I also like the large lens, just simple math can tell you a larger lens allows more light to enter, and this has a pretty big lens compared to the new tiny consumer dv cams out there.

For those of you pitting this HG-10 vs. SR5, the adv is many...: 1) mic in (essential for good mics out there, accessory shoe is gimmick really, only good for mounting the mic), 2) Manual controls = awesome interview, high shutter slow-motion, special effects footage, 3) viewfinder (though i think it's a pretty bad one), 4) OPTICAL image stabilization, 5) Head-phone out which is really essential for monitoring your audio during shooting, 5) 2.1 megapixel effective vs. 1.4 MP sensor, don't even talk about the JVC or Panasonic 3 CCD sensors with about 0.5 MP each, go to camcorder info.com and you'll see how bad they are.

For those of you deciding between HG-10 vs. HV-20: 1) It looks much less el cheapo at the same price, which is oddly very important to me 2) HARD DRIVE! I shot an hour of interviews and I still have about 5 hours left, without worrying about changing tapes, NICE!, 3) Handling is awesome, hands and fingers go where they should go and zoom rocker is good for doing fixed zooms, 4) Shorter; scroll wheel is good concept, 5) ingesting an hour of raw footage to external hard drive took ~15 minutes and took up 4.3 gb, NICE, try doing that with miniDV

Common Issues/FAQ:
1) Isn't MiniDV recording easier to archive? I'm going to take someone's excellent argument for this, look at it this way, my 1 hour of footage takes up 4.3 GB of hard drive space in raw AVCHD format, let's say I have a 500 GB external that I got for $80, that external can then hold ideally 116 hours of video. So at the going price of $3 per miniDV tape and an hour per tape, you would be looking at ~$350 to match what the $80 External can do, and... hard drive space is only going to get cheaper. Plus the advantages of random access to 116 hours of high def video is clear vs. who in their right minds will look through 116 miniDV tapes, digital camera vs. film camera argument anyone?
2) AVCHD is too compressed to be good quality = not so, I think this footage is comparable to the Panasonic HVX200, and this is saying something since I've only shot in low-light situations.
3) I'm going to run out of footage space because I can't get another hard drive! Well this is like the chicken and egg argument, sure you may only have 6 hours of footage at highest quality mode and only 10 hours the next step down, but you're still ultimately limited by the 1 hour battery life, so you're well on your way home to recharge by the time you hit that ceiling.
4) Canon Camcorders Suck! : Herm, don't quite know what to say here, get a Sony then and all the power to ya

Pros from use:
1) automated lens cover is handy, especially when you hand it to a stranger to preview a video, it automatically closes
2) Hard Drive Capacity: 6 hours at highest quality is a dream, 15 hours at lowest is also awesome, I may never have to buy media for this camcorder (yeah i know, technically I can't haha), or log and capture from miniDV... ugh
3) I may be repeating myself, but this camcorder is beautiful, the gray areas are kind of a dirty gradient of colors that looks like a slab of marble, and the mode toggle has concentric aluminum ridges, the zoom toggle is beautiful and the dimensions are trim.
4) Batteries are the same as many other canon camcorders, so after market ones are very inexpensive
5) After market mics are really inexpensive also, I saw an ATR stereo one going for $35
6) Monitoring audio with the headphone out is VERY useful in any situation, especially interviews or anything shot outdoors
7) I must say, low light performance is really good. Want to know how good? For an interview, I had a single 60W table lamp shining on my subject and I was zoomed in with an aperture of f2.8, very sharp image and background is appropriately blurred, who needs lens adapters! (http://thaid.bol.ucla.edu/Dad.png - I was going for that Band of Brothers effect)
8) LCD is pretty sharp, so focusing is easy, color accuracy could be improved though
9) Backup Ingesting is fast!
10) Each start/stop scene automatically becomes its own file, vs. manually logging a scene to capture it with miniDV
~) In the end, it makes you feel damn good that your camcorder looks good and can do the things you want from it

Cons off the top of my head:
1) camera should be able to record pictures on the hard drive also, instead of just the miniSD (which I DON'T have!)
2) There should be more mac software bundled in than just the image downloading one, I don't want to boot up windows everytime I want to quickly ingest raw footage (ingesting through iMovie and Final Cut Express is 1/3rd longer than real time), on Macs the camera appears as a hard drive but you don't really expect Mac users to know that you can perform a backup by copying and pasting the data do you? Though the software landscape for AVCHD right now is not too pretty either, this I know will change so hooray for AVCHD.
3) What they say is true, 24P is not pretty, though yes it allows for more light
4) Doesn't have analog pass-through so you can't hook up a vcr through this camcorder and record the footage to your computer, I've done this before so I kind of miss it.
5) AVCHD is a pain to encode to something useful vs. miniDV, though miniDV is a pain to import, and even then AIC's HDV implementation is slow to edit, DVCPRO is more awesome but then you'd have to buy something like the HVX200.
6) No firewire = no live-capture and monitoring with your laptop or desktop, I really do wish they could've included firewire.
7) They might as well have left out the viewfinder, its lower res than the lcd panel and doesn't swivel up, not to mention you can't control anything when the lcd panel is closed
8) Ports are fragile
9) Top mounted microphones are the worst idea since the invasion of Iraq
10) Everything should have been controlled by the scroll wheel, but instead its use is limited and the directional pad takes over too often
11) Cat-eye record button = a really strange, non-ergonomic design choice
12) USB port inside the LCD cavity, why oh why am I exposing my lcd panel to damage during the lengthy ingesting process?
13) Manual focus sucks on camera since you'll be making a loud scrolling sound, but oddly silent and intuitive with the remote
14) Ahh, 1080i video takes up too much space, my laptop's lcd can't even display that many pixels, give me the option to record in 720p or standard definition please!

I'll write more shizznits when I spend more time with it, but now I need sleep see ya

I purchased this camera for myself prior to a trip to Europe, and, although my review is based on preliminary observations, I have to say, I am really impressed. The camera is easy to operate - it takes the hard drive about 3-10 seconds to warm up. The flipout LCD's menu is intuitive, and the picture is *fantastic*. I was considering the Sony hard drive based camera, but I'm really glad I chose this one and saved a considerable amount of money.

I've been using my new HG10 for the past couple of weeks and absolutely love it. The image quality is stunning and the manual controls are great. At first I thought the images on auto were oddly compressed and not that good, but once I read through the instructions and switched to the cine mode I've been set. The cine mode using 24 fps is great and looks amazing. I've also loved the fact you can adjust the shutter speed and aperture, which is great. Definitely get to know the manual controls. I do have to upgrade my computer as it's getting a little old to deal with HD and I've yet to find a way to use the .mts files it writes out to, but it looks like the mac programs can handle it well. I'll be figuring it out soon, hopefully. The main thing is the image quality and control which is absolutely stunning.

Great little camcorder. Picture quality is great. Sound is so-so at best. Easy to use right out of the box. Super compatibility with Mac.

After reading all the positive reviews on this site and doing ton of research I figured out there are no really good consumer camcorders that were released in 2007. I did not want to wait till next yeat for a better model coz' I needed something for my trip next month. All the available makes and models had some flaw or the other. So I decided to settle down with Canon Hg10 coz' it had some of the featues that the other cameras were missing like the inbuilt light, wind filter etc.

But now after having it for a month, I'm not happy with my pick.
The camcorder works really good but it is missing a really important feature and that is "shooting in slow motion or 240 fps shooting mode".
They say you can achieve this using some editing software but the software doesn't create smooth flowing slow motion clip like we see in the movies and here on youtube.
Sony SR7 has that mode and many other camcorders has that. This option lets you shoot some really cool slow smooth flowing videos. Canon hg10 has only two modes 60i ie. 30 fps and the most hyped 24p.
I was really disappointed coz of this and now since I had this camera for over a month I can't return it. So if you guys are into slow motion videos, then this camera is not for you. Also the software that comes withe the camera is very cheesy, pretty basic. I guess they want you to go spent few hundred extra bucks and buy a good software.

24p is highly overrated. I did not see any huge difference. I was sold by this feature but I now realise that it was a marketing gimmick. Don't let this be a deciding factor in your purchase.

Hope this review helps.

I read several reviews on several cameras including the HG10. I have not found any problems with the HG10, it does everything I want it to do.

I used the Canon HG10 Camcorder to shoot a Bridal Shower, and the video was very clean. Before I bought this Camera I read some of the reviews concerning the on board mic, that it did not pick up sound so well, so I bought an external mic, and the sound is just fine.
I will also suggest a brighter external video light, the VL-3 or VL-10.It would be good to invest in another Battery,
BP-2L24H.

I got this one from one of the Brooklyn Stores. These stores follow business practice. But luckily for me I had no issues , the product was original and everything worked fine.
I was shopping for hard drive based HD camcorder for last few months. I almost made my mind on Sony SR7 after a using my friend's camcorder. Sony is excellent in bright light and outdoors , but its grainy and below par sharpness when shooting indoors.
I would give my points as below

Outdoors
Sony SR7 is about 9 /10
Canon HG10 is 8/10
Indors

Sony SR7 4/10
Canon HG10 6/10.

One feature that I found very useful in Canon is that indoor light ( not flash). This camcorder has a flash and a indoor LCD light to shoot in low light conditions. The range is about 5 ft for this idoor light. Though I bought that external Canon video light , I think this inbuilt light is adaquate for my needs
Sony SR7s colors are manipulated , Sony tinkers with the image processing to make it brighter, but these are not true colors. For HG10 , the colors are exactly the same as seen with naked eye. A light green is a light green in Canon HG10 , butit becomes a big brighter thick green in Sony SR7. If you like overly bright outdoor pictures then SR7 is your choice. But having used both, I can say overall ( indoor and outdoor) Canon does a better job.

The three things that are important in buying this over SR7

Price ( at least 400 cheaper than SR7)
Inbuilt Video Light.
Indoor Picture quality.

My last camcorder was circa 2002 -- tape based, and looks similar to SDTV. A very simple setup, but the videos were showing their age between the multiple upscales when watching on HDTV.

This camcorder looks amazing when connected to my HDTV. When plugging this in the first time, it looks so similar to HDTV broadcasts (or HD-DVD), that you'll be blown away with the quality. Let's look at the pros/cons...

Pros:
- HD based. No rewinding, no waiting for tape to spin up, easy edits on the camcorder to quickly remove sections, etc.
- Length of recording. At the highest resolution (~15MB/sec), this camcorder can do >5 hours of HDTV. Medium is about >10 hours (~10MB/sec) and low is >15 hours (~5MB/sec). Much better than my previous tape setup
- Good low light pickup. My home isn't the brightest of all homes, but it did pickup my indoor shots at night better than my previous.

Cons:
- Editing is much longer than before. Since the video is in AVCHD, my iMac has to decode to something it can use, then re-encode to be used in other apps and encoded once more in order to fit onto DVDs. While the product is amazing, it's easily 4+ hours of wait time in order to get a DVD burned. A tape system would be better for immediate import, but I knew this going in and could bother some people buying this to convert to DVDs.
- Handle was a bit large to grip. My hands are a bit big and this camcorder seemed to fit fine in my hand. Some of my relatives felt the handle was a bit too big for them.
- HD based. Yes, I listed that in the "pros" section as well, but it belongs here due to the additional time and effort it takes to edit the video. There are flash based devices like this, but their capacity is much shorter (if you import often, this can be an advantage)

Now that I've got my feet wet with this baby, I've recommended it to a few people that are looking at similar.

If you are a Mac user, you MUST have an Intel-based computer to get video off this camcorder. If you have a G4 or a G5 (as I do), you cannot download video from this camcorder. No third-party software, no workaround. Had I known that before, I would have bought something else. I have to use a Windows-based PC at work to download video. The camcorder is great otherwise, easy to use, good results, but I would prefer to be able to use it on my home computer. I have many Canon products and have been happy with all of them, but they really should make it clear that the HG10 requires an Intel-based Mac.

Easy to use, I thought the menus were pretty straight forward for the novice user. Uploading to PC was difficult, several different CD's come with the camcorder and it's not clearly explained which program does what. Once I did figure it out and uploaded a short clip, I was disappointed to discover that my PC (1.6 GHz) was too old to properly play back and convert to meaningful format for sharing. The audio and frame rate are out of sync ... which means I'll have to probably upgrade to faster processor.

Probably should have done more research before purchasing. So if you have a computer that's 3+ years old, I would be weary.

First a little background then a detailed review. I am a serious casual video user and a more serious amateur still photographer. I have had two previous camcorders, a full size VHS and then a Sony Digital 8. Going on vacation for two weeks to the Philippines I decided to get this Canon HG10 after reviewing everything I could find on the Net. Bottom line, Sony's were too expensive for the same thing.

I had my concerns about going Hard Drive but this thing worked flawlessly whether it be from bumpy automobiles, small boat rides, or walking and banging on my hip (for a few minutes when I accidentally left it on). And after two weeks of filming on high def setting, I only used 10 of the 40GB.

I've viewed the HD video two ways; directly connecting the camcorder to my HD TV through the HDMI connections which is the most convenient; and making a HD AVCHD DVD and playing it through a HD DVD player connected again to the HDMI ports. The video quality is stunning, as true to life as you can get and I appreciated that especially when filming relatives and really beautiful places like the white sand beach and crystal clear waters on Boracay Island). I've tried viewing via component video set ups and they are not bad either.

I had three batteries and if all I had done was film, I think they would have lasted the entire two weeks but I did a lot of reviewing and playing back which really used up the batteries. The size of this camera is just right, it fits in a medium sized shoulder bag with all my other things and no one around me would ever suspect I was carrying a camcorder. It can even fit in a large pants pocket but that would be too conspicuous and then the thieves would notice. The controls were easy to use and I like the jog wheel on the side of the viewing screen which then stayed clean the entire trip. Tip: this camcorder fits perfectly inside a quart-size ziplock bag which really helped to keep it protected from dust, sand and water.

A feature I never had before was taking still photos and it performed better than I expected. I was most impressed with the lack of shutter lag and the brightness of the built in flash. I didn't miss bringing a digital cam along at all and had so much fun taking video I didn't take all that many stills anyway. I had it set at the highest setting and didn't come close to filling the 2GB memory card.

One little quirk, if the zoom is set to variable setting, the speed of zooming out is much faster than the speed of zooming in using the same finger pressure for each. I don't know if this is on purpose or if my camera is set improperly but I can deal with it by either remember this or switch the speed setting to either slow or fast fixed speed instead of variable which is what I did. I don't like to zoom that much anyway since zooming in and out is often overdone.

All in all I am very satisifed with this camcorder and my purchase through Amazon. I hope this camcorder lasts me a long time. I will never use tape again.

Andy
San Jose, CA USA

Excellent Hi Def Camera. I wish it had a firewire to use with my MAC. You can only download recorded video using USB. It would be nice to capture streaming video as it was hooked up to my computer.

When we recorded our son's chorus and watched the video on TV, we knew it was time to replace our old Hi8 camcorder so as not to lose any more precious moments. I started with Consumer Reports and after reading the pros and cons of different types of camcorders, decided a hard disk based one was what I wanted. In 2007 December, when HD TV is so prevalent, why not invest in a High-definition camcorder? The best buy Panasonic hard-drive based camcorder HDC-DX1'S price was attractive but was too bulky. I generally don't carry a camcorder with me due to it additional bulk. As I read and read reports on Amazon I converged onto the Canon HG-10, due to a combination of price and the 40G hard disk capacity. The reviews were pretty good on sites such as camcorderinfo.com. I read the only drawback was its low-light performance. After using it for nearly 3 1/2 weeks, here are my impressions/findings:

Why I love the HG-10?
=====================
- Small size. It fits into the palm of your hand. However, it is not so small that it detracts from getting a steady shot.
- The image stabilizer got the best ratings among HD camcorders on camcorderinfo, which is a great plus due to the smaller size.
- The bright light clips are awesome. The quality is unbelievable compared to the quality I used to see among Hi8s. It is just another whole new level of details. As I went beyond the woods and got a shot our home, the details of the bare tree branches through which I was seeing the home was incredible.
- You don't need a separate lens cover. Once you turn the camcorder on, the shutter opens by itself and closes when you switch off. Nice.
- The scroll wheel based menu navigation needs a bit of getting used to, but is convenient to flip through a lot of clips at a time (to get to the one you want to amongst many hundred clips that you have recorded).
- The LCD view finder is compact and flips and rotates like many others.You can flip it and make it sit smugly on the side, so that others can see what is being shot.
- The 3.1 mega pixel camera is definitely handy. I don't have to carry a separate camera. All these built-in cameras do not provide the same quality as a comparable digital camera, but I find that we rarely print digital photos. To see on-screen, this is more than enough for us.
- You can choose between Auto and Manual mode. This will work well for those who want to tweak the settings themselves, but I rarely have used it except trying out in low light conditions.
- The menu for the video is fairly simple; but the camera's menu options can need some time for getting used to.
- Transferring videos to your computer via a USB cable is fairly easy. The provided software is more than adequate to transfer. You can also backup and restore the videos back to your camcorder.
- I haven't seen the videos in high def as I don't yet have a HD dvd player or not yet ordered the mini HDMI-HDMI cable. This camcorder only supports variations of Blueray HD. The video quality burnt onto regular DVDs were quite impressive, especially those shot outdoors or in bright light.
- It comes along with software to edit your movies that work, given the many complaints I read about editing HD movies. The ULead DVD Movie factory . I found I was able to joins clips, add music, tittles and chapters and burn DVDs aftermy first two videos in a relatively easy way. But I am also computer savvy, working with them for daily bread!
- The ZoomBrowserEX software for transferring still images is a more mature application that the DVD Movie factory. I don't use all its features, except for transferring I admit.
- Price (about 750) is reasonable for a High-Definition, 40 GB near top of the line digital camcorder. For my first Hi8, I had paid nearly 1500 with unnecessary additional insurance. Of course, the price will drop in two months, but that is inevitable.
- The battery gives you about 40 minutes of recording time. You may want to carry the supplied adapter along which shouldn't be a problem due to the smaller size of the camcorder itself.
- The 40 GB hard disk records about 5 1/2 hours of high definition video at the highest resolution. I could no t be happier as I rarely shoot 2 hours video in a month.

Lows:
=====
- Low light performance is a deterrent. First I thought I don't shoot in low lights. But we all do. Your home on the inside during evenings with the fluorescent or incandescent lights on. This is low light for the HG-10. I found pictures to be grainy. Not much of an improvement here compared to the old Sony Hi8 I had. But at an indoorplace such as Arnold's Go karts, where the lighting was bright, the quality was not an issue.
- The movie editing software is fairly basic, which is okay as I could burn DVDs with it which is all I want to do with some music. BUT, the application crashed twice when I had too many chapters. The application is also a resource hog. Of course, we are editing videos. My 2 GB, dual core, 9100 Inspiron (laptop) took more than 7 hours to burn a DVD with about 40 minutes of edited video. Just be aware you need a nice, geek-impressing desktop to do video edits. Once upon crashing, most of my video edits were lost. After I removed many chapters (every clip becomes a chapter) the application was more stable.
- The user manual for the DVD Movie factory is just fair. It doesn't explain the process of editing using the application well. The context sensitive help is something that a school boy would have written better. It looks like a hastily written user manual.
- You want to order a mini-HDMI to HDMO cable if you want to see the video in High Def. The component video cable is provided.

Overall I am happy realizing no camcorder will be without drawbacks in the price range, I as a consumer/amateur, is willing to pay. At least with a high definition camcorder I don't have to worry about getting outdated in the next several years. The Canon HG-10 is a delight overall.

As a sound engineer I am interested in sound quality first. I do not know much about video. When I picked up my HG10 from B&H video the first thing I did was testing what I can do with audio files. Apparently, HG10 creates about 2GB files in size which cannot be combined seamlessly in post production editor. So, if you are shooting 15min episodes or shorter that shouldn't bother you but when it comes to filming concerts and shows this camcorder is not your best choice because at the point where the file was cut you will hear sound dropouts. This limitation is casually mentioned in the manual. I guess, I will be getting some other camcorder because I need to film concerts, recitals and stuff like this.

This camcorder's image quality is outstanding. It suffers quite a bit in low light situations, but other than that it is beautiful. Problems arise when you try to edit the footage. I tried to use Nero, and it does a good job rendering the AVC files into MPG, but it has almost no editing options. I tried pinnacle studio, Ulead movie factory and studio, and had varying degrees of success. I could not find a way to get adobe after effects or premiere to recognize the files. Finally I tried Sony Vegas pro 8. Wonderful results. Unbelievable quality was attained in NTSC DVD, PAL DVD and mpeg high def. formats. WOW. I don't like the ergonomics of the grip and positioning of the zoom toggles or the start/stop button. It makes my big, skinny hand cramp. I don't like the fact that you have to have the camera plugged into the wall outlet power source before you can hook the camera up to your computer. I haven't tried the 24p settings, and I don't care if they work well or not. I haven't figured out a way to get my videos to have the time/date displayed on the video, but there MUST be a way. I think the standard microphone is almost worthless, as it picks up the cameraman's voice too easily, but hardly picks up the subjects voice unless they are yelling. But all is forgiven due to the wonderful video images. AWESOME!

Canon HG10 AVCHD 40GB High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom. This unit has great low light capability, and the 40 GB HDD provides for ample recording time. It records in 1080i not 1080p, this is the only drawback. The stills quality is also good at 5Mp.

This is a great camera at a great price. It normally sells for $1300 so $760 or whatever is a great price. First of all it looks even better in person then it does from the pictures. If you are used to a touch screen display, like me, then it takes a few minutes to get aquatinted to the dial. The video speaks for itself. It is amazing. It is easy to get onto a mac using final cut and I'm sure that it is just as easy to get onto a pc. I took some videos in both good and low light and played them on a "standard definition" tv and they looked amazing. I can't even imagine what the quality is on an HDTV. If you are even considering breaking into the world of HD video like I was this is a great camera. It shoots high quality video (full HD) and is selling for cheap! I haven's used my microphone with it yet, but the mic on the camera is pretty good at cutting out ambient noise. Overall, great.

I bought this camcorder mainly to use for videoing wildlife in the field. After 2 months of use I can say that it does a good job but has a few minor problems. My first concern was the auto lense cover, I like it over the manuel cover but it is a bit noisy when you turn the camera on and off. I have had close game react to it on quiet mournings. It also is exposed to the elements, so I would recomend a filter to protect it from dust, drops of water, and twigs. The filter also muffels the noise of the lense cover operating, a little. The camcorder is capable of some extremly sharp stills and videos, when the camera is focused properly, but I noticed that the auto-focus was a little off at times, not much, but enough to notice when you print it out. Like all other small camcorders I have used, the image stabilization is a bit overrated. It is ok but at higher zoom levels it doesn't seem to be much diffrent than any other small camcorder. The camcorder was not very impressive taking telephoto video under low light conditions ( 20 munites before sunrise or 20 min.after sunset ). It was able to record, but if you tried to record at any zoom distance the recording came out distorted and out of focus. It did do better than my friends sony sr-1 that at the same time wouldn't record at all!
The thing that I really liked, mainly the reason I chose the hg-10, the hard disc drive with 5.5 to 15 hours of recording time. I set mine to the next to highest (7.5hours) with excelent resolution results. The life of the battery. I recorded about 2 hours a day and would recharge the battery at night, I didn't even need a spare battery. The 3 position adjustable zoom speed. The still image transfer from captured video, I was suprised with the quality of the still images that were transfered from the video to the sd card. The size, it is small and lightweight real easy to carry I found that it will fit in a quart size zip lock plastic bag for protection in case you get caught in a rain.
Like all new gadgets,it will take time reading understanding and use to gain it's full potential. I have worked a little with downloading and printing a few still pictures with good results. I am having a little trouble downloading video to my computer. I don't know if it's me (probably), the program, or the acvhd format, time will tell. I have used other camcorders (3 diffrent brands) and consider this camcorder to be well worth the money for my use. I would recommend it to anyone. (it works well indoors too) My big problem now is that I have to buy another one because my wife now wants me to buy her one also.

Borrowed this camera from a friend to compare to my 3-year-old HDV-based Sony. Here's what I found:

1- Shoots great HD. Easy to use and very functional.

2- Plugs into my intel-based iMac via usb. Transfers easily, but TWICE as slowly as from my Sony.

3- Since the format is being converted to allow the files to play nice with iMovie, the end result is that the AVCHD is dumbed down a bit, just as with HDV. Side by side comparison of the final product (DVDs made in iDVD) is that they both end up looking just about the same.

So, I'm sticking with my antique HDV tape-based rig and waiting for someone to come out with a consumer HD camera that creates a format compatible with Quicktime without having to modify the files.

Are you listening Canon? Make a camera that allows me (and everyone else) to drag and drop the digital files into iMovie or FCP and i'll be first in line to buy it!!

Bought this camera about a month ago, what an awesome peice of electronics. Bought the HDMI cable to view on my 50" HDTV, very nice, I think the picture is as good as some of the HD shows on TV or even better. For the price, I feel the HDMI cable should come with it, but oh well what ya gonna do? Camera is so light weight that it's hard for me to keep steady while walking, but then I'm a bit heavy and not so light on my feet. The access wheel on the LCD is a bit awkward but not bad once you get use to it. I always tend to spin it past where I want to be. Bought a Tiffen enhancing filter kit and man did it bring out the colors. Built in mic is so sensitive I can here myself breath and can hear the hard disk motor when very quiet, definitely need to get the Canon DM-50 mic. Not sure which software suite to buy even though the software that comes with it is good enough to transfer video files and still images. Don't like the idea of having to plug in the charger each time I want to transfer files. All in all I feel it is a great hard drive camera with nice features, however I should of waited another couple months for the new HF-10. Now that camera seems awesome, with basicly no moving parts and removable flash memory to transfer files, 12X optical and 30P - WOW !! Next time !!

This is a great camera. The picture quality on a HDTV is stunning. I use it to film my daughter's soccer games and you can actually identify the players and see the ball. The picture quality is such an improvement from my old Digital 8. And I don't miss changing tapes in the middle of a game - the HDD is more than sufficient to hold several 1.5 hr games. One complaint is that the sound microphone is on the top of the device and can pick up your breathing, etc. Also, the included editing software is barely adequate and many third-party programs have not yet come out with AVCHD-compatible editing software.

This is a great camera, but it is not for the non-technical. The software shipped with this device does not work. Cannon will not support the software they ship with the device, and Corel will not offer technical support outside of a forum. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMCORDER is you are not a computer genius. It seems I bought in to early for diskless technology.

Before buying the Canon HG10 camera I was looking around and comparing various products from different brands.
My main considerations were:
- high definition standard (1080i)
- type of media used by the camera
- low-light performance
- price
- size
There are several HD camera models from different manufacturers available on the market which utilize different media: mini-DV cassette, hard disc [HDD], flash memory, mini DVD disc, even Blue Ray disc. The reality is, that only two of them are practical at this point - HDD and flash memory ones. From those two the HDD camcorders are cheaper, but they have movable parts and are rather gentle devices (in the sense that you should not drop your camcorder on the ground whilst the HDD is still spinning).
The flash memory camcorders do not have movable parts (apart from eventual optical image stabilizer [O.I.S.]) and are (in theory) more reliable. The cost of memory is going down, so one day "flash" camcorders of similar specs will cost about the same as the HDD-based ones.
I did not consider mini-DV because of time requred for capturing recorded video and transfering it on DVD for archiving (in many cases you will need to save the video stream in large .avi files first, then render them into .mpg).
HD on mini-DVD is a laugh - less than 15 minutes of record in high quality.
Blue-Ray is still an exotic format, and I have no plans to buy a player yet. At least not until one of the formats (or a third one) is a definite leader on the market.
When it comes to low-light performance, this is all about physics. Larger image sensor gives better picture. Period. HG10 sensor being 1/2.7", is considerably larger compared to 1/5" or 1/6" sensors found in other models. And it performs accordingly.
The price makes this camera a real bargain!
HG10 is not tiny (compared to some non-HD models on the market), but still quite small (especially taking into account that it is a HD model with 1/2.7" image sensor). Maybe it is a bit "fatter" than I expected, but surprisingly it is small enough to put both it and my Pentax *ist Ds camera in one small Lowepro D Rez AW40 bag.

As I also own an older mini-DV model from the same manufacturer (MV200i), I can compare them side-by-side.
When it comes to the level of detail produced with the HG10, especially in good light, it is just stunning.
The low-light performance of the HG10 is very good, even without switching to slow shutter mode. But do not expect the same quality as in professional models.
The O.I.S. in the HG10 works fantastic, a huge improvement compared to my older camera. Still be carefull if you want to get most of your Canon HG10 HD camera - you will need a monopod or a tripod much more often now to get sharp videos. Nothing is wrong with this model, simply the improved resolution allows you to see much more detail ...and imperfection.

Now a few comments about the things which Canon could have thought better about.
No. 1: Start/Stop button and the zoom switch. Those just do not fit my fingers. I have to figure out how to hold the camera. I am also missing a start/stop button at the front of the camera (like in my MV200i). It comes very handy when shooting from a low point and using the LCD panel.
No. 2: On/Off/Mode switch. Difficult to operate due to its size and design.
No. 3: Scrolling through menus and setting up different functions is only possible when you open the LCD screen, as the scroll-wheel is on the inner side of the LCD panel.
No. 4: Very small viewfinder, almost unusable for me (maybe I should take off my complaint No. 3 :)?)
No. 5: No shoulder strap? Canon, you are kidding!
No. 6: Canon uses the full HD sensor in this model (i.e., 1920x1080), however the HD output is 1440x1080. This is not clearly stated in the specs. Practically speaking, this is not a big deal, as tests show no visible difference between these two modes.
No. 7: The built-in lamp is balanced for daylight. It produces blueish tones, if the camera is set to a lower color temperature. This makes the built-in lamp quite useless in the real life.

I traded in my GL2 (Canon GL2 MiniDV Digital Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom a large Canon mini-DV camcorder with superb optics) which I loved, because I wanted to go high-def, wanted to make transferring video to my computer easier and wanted a smaller camera that I could take with me easier. The HG10 is all these things. You can find all the technical details by googling for reviews - I won't repeat them here - but what you read is borne out by the camera. It takes great video, is easy to use yet has ample scope for adjustments for those who want to go beyond automatic shooting and transfer to a Mac is a breeze. The sound captured is actually acceptable in most situations, but not that great with more ambient noise or at larger distances (>15 ft or so), and I am contemplating adding an external mic such as RODE VideoMic Directional Camcorder Microphone or Stereo VideoMic. I now take this with me to lots of different events and can take great video of my kids, and enjoy every minute of it.

The Motion artifacts were a disappointment. I am NOT a tech, but based on research, I understand the following:
1) [From United States Patent 5313280 Description] A typical television signal, when digitized, produces a data stream of about 100 to 150 megabits per second (Mbps) before compression. Compressed video data streams usually range from 56 kilobits per second (kbps) to 45 Mbps. The receiving codec expands or decompresses the digital signal, then converts it back to an analog video format for display.

The process of compressing and decompressing the signal introduces defects, called motion artifacts in the received video image. These artifacts are readily observable when the video signals are displayed. Such well known motion artifacts include (1) blocking, where the received video image has rectangular or checkerboard patterns not present in the original image; (2) blurring or smearing, where the received video image has lost edge detail present in the original; (3) image persistence, where an old or previous image remains on the monitor; (4) jerkiness, where the original smooth continuous motion is perceived as a series of snapshots.

For a given codec, higher compression ratios (lower transmission rates) will generally produce more noticeable motion artifacts. For example, when a signal is compressed to 56 kbps (a compression ratio of over 1000:1), the resulting motion artifacts are obvious to observers. At the lower compression ratio (about 3:1) that produces 45 Mbps transmission, most observers cannot detect the motion artifacts.

2) Canon HG10 is capable of 24 Mbps transmission, but for some reason limits it to 15 Mbps transmission. This requires a higher compression ratio, resulting in more motion artifacts.

3) When will Canon a) Increase transmission to 24 Mbps, or b) invent a better AVCHD Codec to be less lossy?

Can't speak for the MAC people, but I'm a PC user, and this camera had been working great for me so far. The video quality is good, although the picture may get a little grainy in low light. The camcorder also takes good snap shoot pictures. I feel bad that I had just spent $250 recently on a SONY camera that takes poor pictures in low light. This camcorder would have done the job. The software that comes with the camcorder is also useful in the sense that you can use it to convert the videos from AVCHD format to the standard MPEG format easily. The only disappointment with the software is that it is too simple and doesn't offer a lot of different features, but hey... that's where ADOBE comes in. I would definitely recommend this camera to other people.

This camera is very good and I recommend it for casual videography. The battery life is as advertised when shooting in HD mode, about a half days worth of steady shooting. The color and light metering are about all the amateur could ask for out of the box.

As was stated in the Wired magazine review which compelled me to buy this camera, the sound recording is poor in windy conditions. Even a strong breeze will cause a racket in any recorded piece.

Windows users, be forewarned: I bought a MacBook which I was wishing for a long time because of the bad Corel software include with the camera. The software is a dog, and a dead dog on an older PC. It requires a very new computer to work in my estimation. You need a better computer than the HP Pavilion 512MB with Athlon I tried it on, but the new MacBook required nothing to work.

Try to find this camera online, as I did at J&R, if you know even a little about video recording you will appreciate the lower prices of a "sight unseen" purchase.

This camcorder is everything for which I was searching! It has excellent video quality, better than what I expected for less than $650 dollars! The menus are easy to use and the features are great. I love having a hard disk, eliminating the use of tapes or disc! I just upload the video to my computer edit it and make a DVD. Construction and design are durable and efficient. I love this Camcorder!

Pros: 40GB Hard Drive, HiDef Recording without huge bulky files (AVCHD format), Good in low light recording, Advanced accessory shoe makes adding accessories a snap, Amazing color (RGB engine from canon), Easily accessible menus, Decent software to convert and limitedly edit video, Durable Construction, Attractive Design, Good Battery Life, Built in flash for still pictures, Canon reliability and trust.

Cons: Inability to edit video on Camcorder, Slightly heavier and larger than other HDD camcorders, Could include better software for video editing.

I have a 2.8 iMac with an Intel Processor. As I understand from doing research the HG-10 did not work easily with the Mac G5. The picture is crystal clear when transferred to my Mac. The reason i gave this 4 stars, and I plan to update this review later, is that the software that came with it did not work immediately. I had the camera plugged in and started the Canon application and nothing was recognized. I then went on to try to discover the camera in menus and then even went so far, (backwards order i know), to read the manual. Again, no immediate success. As I sat there, the Mac iMovie icon was staring at me. I opened iMove and wah-lah, there was the camera and the test movie of my kids running around. Great camera so far, software was probably works if you have time to figure it out.

If you need a camera will all the jazz - Touch screen, being able to snap stills while video recording, view finder that is super adjustable, 5.1 audio, do not even look at this camera. To factor in these, I have removed a star off my review (this is a bit harsh though as at $630, I feel I haven't even paid for these frills)

However if you are like me and itch to record in the HD just because that sounds (actually looks) cooler and want to pay not too much more than standard recording cameras, then you may very well grab this camera.

It seems that Canon wants to position this camera right with the standard definition cameras to flush the standard cameras out of the market. Unless it is true, how could a nice little camera like this loose more than 50% of its price tag within the first few months of launch?

I bought this camera for $750 2 weeks ago from Amazon and find it priced at $630! Holy S#!+ I am therefore returning this and repurchasing it. Another star has been taken off as Amazon doesn't have a price match policy and wants me to pay for the postage and lots more for a $750 insurance ($17 approx total).

I am not Cecil B. DeMille by any lights, and this camera is wonderful - perfect for recording the small things in life that, in the end, add up to everything that really counts! Great picture. Easy to use.

I am still in the learning stage with this camcorder. Last year I bought a Sony DCR-SR80 (non-HD, 60 gig HDD). I was generally happy with that camcorder, using it mostly for my sons' sporting events. Then I read where HD video, converted to mpeg, is a higher quality than a SD camcorder mpeg. I did a side-by-side comparison of both camcorders. The result: the Canon converted video was sharper and had truer color than the Sony SD. Also, the HD video (not converted) played through the camcorder into an HD TV is phenomenal. The disadvantage to converting to SD is that the downconverting (is that a real term?)takes time, and unless I'm missing something, is a multi-step process with the included software.
Issues: There is limited software that is available to do decent editing for the HD mode. This isn't a huge problem for me at the moment, because currently Bluray burners and media are a little too $$$ for my tastes, so hopefully, when the prices go down (hopefully by football season), more software will be available. I downloaded a 30 day free trial of ULEAD 11, but it is a bit awkward to work with. I also have Vegas Studio 8, which I am very happy with for SD video, but Sony hasn't released a version to work with Canon HD video. It does work with Sony HD Camcorders, but they (the HDD versions)cost around $400 more than this one. Also, I agree with those who are unhappy with the microphone. The wind noise on a breezy day is horrible.
Overall, it seems like a nice camcorder at a great price.

i started reviewing camcorders and realized that all the ones i wanted were out of my price range. i then realized that i was looking to have a lot of features that i probably really didn't need. i found this one and it seemed to have things i was interested in....hd, storage on the hard drive, small size and compatible with my macbook. i have only used it a few times, to record my two month old and so far it works great. i am able to capture her with such great detail, its amazing. i love that you can view all the scenes in playback mode and choose which one you want to see and delete it right there. no more ffwd and rewind thru hours of video. it also has a built in light which has been helpful in some darker situations. i would recommend ordering a mini sd card to capture still images and if you are interested a hdmi/mini hdmi cable to connect the camera right to your hd tv.

This is my first camcorder and I really like it. After spending weeks researching hi-def camcorders I decided on the HG10. 5 1/2 hours of hard drive storage is more than enough for the average vacation. Takes nice video, and when connected to my 52inch HD TV thru the Mini HDMI cable(bought separately) it outputs a fantastic picture. You really need a powerful computer, though, to use the software given, or any of the software for Hi Def for that matter. The software is the only thing I do not like. I highly recomend this camcorder.

I bought it from B&H. Very good camcorder for the bucks. Good image quality. Compact size. I like it a lot because a) good image quality, b) PC and (Intel) Mac compatible (work with iM