Canon VIXIA HF S10, THE PERFECT Camcorder For the HOME MOVIE MAKER

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very high Quality camcorder

Cons: Not very cheap

The Bottom Line: 
This is a High quality Camcorder that has many great features, software's, and high quality Image.

Author's Review
Quick Summary
Professional Movie Quality! Incredible Images! Cheap for Technology
The Cannon VIXIA HF S10 is overall a great camera. This camera is not for those that have huge trouble with modern technology.The S10 is meant for the more experienced camera man. If you want a very high quality camera this would be a great pick, this is as good as It gets unless you move up to the Professional camcorders.
The lens provide a excellent image for your pictures or movies. The DIGIC DV III image processor provides 1920x1080 recording at 24Mbps. There is even a feature that allows you to make cinema movies. This provides very high quality home made movies.

It is a easy to grip camcorder, and does not weigh very much, It's not very large but it is still a decent sized camera. The S10 has a lot of newer technology in it, making this a more expensive camcorder, but not that expensive for It's tech. The S10 provides very good image quality, as well as sound quality, the camcorder itself is very quite you can barely hear the thing work.

It provides a 32 GB memory which can hold 12 hours of video. For the things you can do with the S10, the menu is fairly easy to use. Overall this would be a great camcorder to add to the collection, fairly expensive, but up to date on the tech. Not the easiest to use but has many awesome features. The S10 can also last for almost up to 3 hours before it dies, this is a good length for a battery to live. It also makes it relevant for saving movies, you can save your movies on the hard drive, or a memory card, or both at the same time.

Design and Controls

The design of the S10 looks very nice. It has a nice body not appearing to be ugly. I really like the way the camera looks, I half to say I get a lot of comments when using the S10. The S10 is fairly small and can fit in most of your coat pockets, making this a very easy camcorder to haul around. This is a camcorder that sticks out from the rest, unless you have a professional camcorder. On the front you have your Lens and censers. On the right of the camcorder is a adjustable strap, component compartments for USB and HDMI. On the left is the 2.7 inch LCD screen with a 211K pixels. This is where most of your controls are.

The control buttons are layed out very nicely, they are in plain order so it makes it easy to know where your going. The controls contain a 4 way plus a middle controller setting, this is where you enter your menu options.  A Function key button, start/stop record button, zoom adjustments, and a playback button as well. These controls are on the top of the LCD screen making it easy to use and access. The controls are easy but It's lacking some popular buttons as well, white balance and exposure must be picked through the menu along as other popular features. Zoom functions are easy to use and provide great quality.
I didn't have much trouble finding the button's I needed. It takes about 30 minutes of playing time then you start getting the hang of it. I have to say the style of the S10 is really slick. This is definitely the coolest looking camcorder I have ever seen. For the looks and layout of the button I give the S10 a 9/10

Image and Movie Quality
 
When it comes to the Image quality the S10 takes the cake. The image quality is awesome on the S10 this is definitely the best graphics I've seen, besides really expensive TVs. The screen itself is in 1920x1080 HD format and backed by its 1/2.6" 8.59 Megapixel HD CMOS image sensor. This image sensor gives you very rich colors and very sharp images, and natural tones.
The S10 also has a Cinema mode. This mode shows your films in a clear HD picture. Your movies have the image quality of a movie you might see in the theater. The S10 also comes with a very powerful image processor. Helping the great images of the camcorder. The S10 can take a crisp 8.0 Megapixel photo, this will out stand even the best of us. Overall I love the image quality of the camera. Movies in 24Mbps quality will always come out looking very good.  I have never seen a camcorder with this much image quality in it. My movies come out looking great with no blotcheness or delays. I would give the image quality a 11/10, because I am very satisfied in the highly done quality that goes into my images.

Battery

The S10 comes with a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. The battery life will last for about 2 1/2-3 hours depending on what your doing, but if your using some serious power the camera may only last to 2 hours. The standard battery is pretty good, but I've looked at some batteries for the S10 that can last a very long time. The charging time takes about 2 1/2 hours when the battery is very low on juice. When the camcorder is not used for 5 or more minutes the S10 will shut off. But before this happens you get a warning 30 seconds before it shuts off. So it wont just die without telling you what It's doing. I enjoy the fact that the battery signal is accurate. The signal will not say half full and then say almost empty 20 minutes later. The battery is pretty good in the S10 I will give the battery quality a 9/10 rating.  

LCD Screen

The LCD screen on the S10 is 2.7" wide screen LCD screen that uses 211,000 pixels. You can rotate the camera 90 and 180 degrees allowing multiple ways to view. The screen image is very high quality, this screen kicks but. It's like your watching a small section of those classy HD TV's in the Electronic stores. There is a feature for brightness control as well. The screen is not to hard to see in sun glare, but sometimes it can be hard to see when there is a strong glare. Overall I think that the LCD screen is very great on the S10. It is not very small and provides excellent image quality. I will give the LCD screen a 10/10 for being very nice to look at.

Some Features

Cinema Mode
This mode allows you to see your movies in theater quality settings. At 24p you can expect really good image quality like a movie film. This changes the color's and tonal factors, these settings can be viewed singly or together.

Video Snapshot Mode
This mode allows you to take pictures and turn them into a movie clip. You can pick pictures and sound tracks and put them together to make a short movie clip.

Face Detection
This mode will allow the S10 to detect people's faces. The S10 will focus on your face, you can even set up primary "targets" for the camera to detect. The S10 will scan the picture and provide the best settings for that persons face. This is a great way to get a smile on film. The S10 can detect up to 35 faces and 9 detection frames can be displayed.

Dual Memory
One unique thing about the S10 is the option of saving your movies. You can save your files to the internal, exterior, or both at the same time. Another unique thing is the option to copy movies from your internal memory card to your portable memory card.

32GB Drive
This allows a incredible 12 hours of filming on your drive. I have never seen a camcorder that can record this much information. It makes it really easy to store movies and not having to worry about storage space. This makes it really easy to make your movies how you want them after editing.

Built in Electronic Lens Cover
The Lens cover on the S10 is electronic. This means that the Lens shuts and opens as It's turned on and off. So Instead of doing it manually the camcorder does it for you. Now you don't have to worry about loosing your lens It's built in.

Pixel Image Mixer 3SE
This is a software in the S10 that allows you to edit your work. With this software you can edit scenes, take scenes out, add music, reorder and so on. This is a great way to edit your movies, I enjoy the fact that you can do this, It really makes a huge difference on your movies, even for the best of us.
 
Wireless remote control
This allows you to control the S10 when your not at the S10. I think this is really cool, I haven't seen much camcorders with remotes before. It's a really easy way to control the S10 when you are in the middle of something. You can partake in the movie or use the remote as your setting something else up.

Hardware

A 1/2.6 " 8 megapixel CMOS is in the S10, this software really helps the image come out looking very good. There is also new Digic DV III processing, this processing is a good improvement from the last generating processing. There is also a 10x optical zoom 58mm HD lens stored in the S10, this is very good zooming quality. The 2 recording options make this a great camcorder when it domes to saving data. You can store 12 hours on the hard drive in the S10 and you can save data on a memory chip at the same time. There is also a built in stereo that gets the job done. It's not the best speaker but It's still pretty good.

My Thoughts

Overall I really enjoy using this camcorder. It's really easy to use once you get the hang of it. It is light and small, the S10 also has some work on the shaking. You don't get the same shaky movies when zooming like you do in most camcorders. Unlike most camcorders this can be used for good far away filming. The graphics are incredible it will be a long time before this tech is cheap. If you want to wait for the S10 to be 400$ you might as well by a 400$ camcorder right now.

I really enjoyed using this camcorder, the quality is great. I have to say that this is the best camcorder I have seen so far. The technology is great, this is almost as good as the Professional camcorders they use for cheaper movies. I thought control layout was a little confusing for the first 30 minutes of use, but It's not that hard to get the hang of, unless you are "technology challenged." It also has good handling like I mentioned earlier, there is just something about the "feeling" of the camcorder, It rests very comfortable in your hands.

The S10 made great movies, me and my friends really enjoy watching the stupid things we did while filming. It looks really cool when you put it in cinematic mode, this makes the movies look awesome. The sound also turned out really well. There is a lot of small sounds that you can hear in the S10, unlike most camcorders. The far away filming has good quality to, it is a bit patchy when zoomed in far for a bout half a second. Compared to your average camcorder this is really good. 

Although the S10 is great it is a bit spendy, 1,200$ is not very cheap. This is not your average camcorder, there is a reason the S10 is 1,200$. I have to say that for the tech and features it gives you it is definitely well worth It's price.  It's going to be a long time before this technology is cheap, It can only be cheap for It's class.

Recommendations 

I recommend the S10 for those that want a high quality home made movie. If you make a lot of movies this would be a good choice. I think if your going to make a lot of movies then you might as well get a camcorder that has very high quality films. Or if you can afford the S10 for occasional uses this would also be highly recommended. 

If your not going to use the S10 very often you might want to get a cheaper camcorder. You should also be some what up to date on technology. It's not hard to use, but It's not the easiest either.
If your not good at technology then you might want to get something more simpler and cheaper. The S10 is expensive so I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is almost broke, technology challenged, or someone that doesn't film often. 



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