VIXIA HF R20 Full HD Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory (Black)

Canon Vixia HF R20 I purchased this Canon Vixia HF R20 last spring. I now love it, but it has taken me a long time to figure out how to operate the thing since the printed book that comes with it is less than helpful. Probably if you have been working with camcorders in recent years, the step over to this would not be difficult, but the last camcorder I had was back in 1987, a Sony mini-cassette and the jump to this has been a steep learning curve. Having said that, and having spent time jumping between the PDF operating book on my computer and back to the camera, I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of the finished video. I can watch it at full res on my 32" TV and it almost looks like broadcast. But I do agree with many of the reviews of other users. But when you consider the price and the tiny package that produces so much, I am truly amazed. I can certainly use this to produce professional "for YouTube" videos for my clients. I use iMovie 11 and it easily imports the files directly from the camera, lets you manually select the clips or automatically downloads them all and easily lets you edit and create videos complete with multiple sound tracts, lift sound from one clip and paste it into another, adjust exposure, contrast and color and crop. You can mix in stills as well. It easily saves the movie into iTunes and YouTube easily uploads and converts it to their format automatically. You can then embed that video into your website where it then will appear as well. You can choose the viewable size yourself. Gone are the jerky pans of just a few years ago. So now that I have used the camera a while and gotten the various controls, settings, different placement of buttons and where to find controls and in what mode they show, I can say, this is a good buy but expect to spend time learning how to use it if you have never used one before. But it is also true that you could just leave it on AUTO and be shooting video out of the box. Suggestions: 1. Get a spare battery! Battery life is short and it seems to bleed out even when the unit is turned off. Always top it up before using. 2. The widest angle is more like a normal lens on a 35mm SLR. I bought the Raynox Angle Conversion Lens RAHD5050PROL HD-5050PRO-LE High Definition 0.5x Wide for $130 with shipping from B&H Photo [...] and it doubles the viewable field. So indoors, scenics, groups and everything that just does not fit into the standard range of the fixed lens becomes included. It also helps if you walk with the camera since it reduces the apparent camera shake. A very sharp image at all zooms except extreme telephone. And make sure the lens is clean before shooting as it depth of field is intense and at extreme wide angle, any bit of dust or spec shows up. Carry a lens brush and/or lens cloth in your camera bag. 3. I bought this version because it has a mic socket. The onboard mic is not bad but tends to pick up everything whether you want it or not (iMovie can help reduce background noise clutter too). My next purchase will be a mic but sadly there is no shoe for either it or a movie light. Probably because the plastic housing would not support it. So you need to buy a standard movie light/mic bracket that you screw the camera onto using its tripod mount. It has a solid hand grip to the side. Not a bad idea anyway since it also helps to hold this very lightweight unit steadier. A mono pod would help with that too. So as a professional still photographer working to add some video into his coverages for internet use, I can highly recommend this unit.

Just received this yesterday, and I've had a chance to experiment with it in a nearby park today, a beautiful, sunny day in Southern California. Let me first say that I have relatively big hands, and have no trouble whatsoever operating this unit. It's very lightweight and fits quite nicely in my hand, with shooting controls (start/stop, zoom, power) pretty much where I expect to find them. Despite some reviewers' complaints about difficulty using this camcorder, I've had no trouble getting it do what I wanted without referring to the manual much at all (although I found that when I did have a question about a more obscure control or setting, the abbreviated printed manual is not very useful and tends to refer you to the PDF version on the accompanying CD-ROM disc annoyingly often). A key consideration for me with this purchase is the ability to not only create very high quality 1080 resolution video, but also to have a way to easily watch the recordings on our 60" plasma TV and then store them on a shelf. The camcorder does have an HDMI port, but this is kind of a hassle when you want to watch your videos, as connections are not always convenient to make. So I wanted to make use of this camcorder's AVCHD function that allows a lossless transfer to DVD-R discs that will play on most Blu-ray players. To record an AVCHD Disc, you should use the FXD quality setting while shooting, which is the second highest bit rate (17 Mbps); using the higher MXD setting (24 Mbps) will require the accompanying PC software to scale it back down to 17 Mbps, so there's no point in using the highest setting if you want to make AVCHD Discs. Fortunately, the FXD setting looks great, and I was able to make a test AVCHD Disc without any difficulty using the "Video Browser" software that's bundled with the camcorder. Don't bother with the "Video Transfer" application that also comes with, as it's just a subset of the Video Browser tool and does not have as many features. While the AVCHD Disc function was a huge selling point for me, I also wanted to ensure this unit would do the job with respect to HD video quality. I experimented with a number of settings during my park outing, and learned some things along the way. According to the manual, this camcorder always records using 1080i (interlace), but offers two other frame rates: 30 frames per second (fps) and 24 fps. These last two appear to be synthesized by the camcorder from the actual 1080i recordings in the memory -- the idea apparently being that limiting the temporal (motion) resolution to 24 or 30 fps will make your videos look more "cinematic". They really don't in my opinion. I tested this with a relatively quick pan across a park scene, and while the 1080i/60 motion was smooth, the 30 fps setting just made the pan look less smooth and annoyingly "juddery". I will stick with the 1080i/60 setting, which is also what Canon recommends as "suitable for most situations". Outdoor use seems to yield the best results quality-wise. The few indoor tests I've done suggest that you'll need pretty good lighting to get rid of the noise and compression artifacts that become more apparent in lower lighting conditions, even at higher bit rate settings (MXP and FXP). This camcorder does not support an accessory light, but for $349, who can complain? 8GB of internal memory is sufficient for short recordings, but it's not really enough for a full day of use. So I also bought a 16GB Sandisk Ultra Class 4 SD card (quite a mouthful), which works fine and adds plenty of recording time. Recording on the SD card does seem to use slightly more battery power than the internal memory for some reason. In fact, based on my use today, I recommend getting a second battery if you'll be out in the field for very long. Battery life is not one of this model's strongest points, but this is most likely due to the very small size of the camcorder and its very light weight. Engineers must make tradeoffs like this when designing a product that is, by definition, intended to be highly portable. $70 for a second battery seems pretty steep, however, so this should be kept in mind when considering this unit; realistic battery life is less than one hour when using HD (FXP) mode and the zoom control fairly regularly. In summary, I would not hesitate to recommend this unit for casual high quality HD recordings during family events such as vacations, soccer games and the like. You can't beat the performance and high portability for the remarkably low price. I'm quite impressed and pleased with the unit.

Really wonderful camcorder. Lightweight. Excellent value

I have not as yet had a chance to try this camcorder out, I did bring it to India and the Philippines, so that is why I have given it a 3 rating. Hopefully when I return to India this August for a motorcycle trip up into the Himalayas, I will get to make some videos and will be able to give this camcorder a proper rating.

They make you use their own proprietary software to be able to transfer a video from the camera to the computer. I guess that the want you to use "their software" so much that you can not do a simple copy and paste from the memory card to the computer. They make the rendering process so difficult that my camera have been sitting on the shelf for month. Since then I bought another camera much easier to use.