Compare Prices : Canon HV-20 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: Canon's HV20 is a breakthrough video camera: it hits a trifecta of high quality, reasonable price, and small size that will make it a winner in the consumer market. The video quality is excellent, and while it lacks an exposure control to help with ...

Pros: 1080/60i quality in a small package ; Excellent image quality and colour ; Certified for Windows Vista ; Surprisingly good still photo capture

Cons: Small, awkwardly-placed zoom control ; No exposure adjustment/override ; Ridiculous that no Firewire cable is included ; Spartan out of box experience

Verdict: Canon's HV20 video camera is an impressive piece of hardware - getting true 1080i video in a small package, all for under $1000 USD, is an impressive feat. When paired with Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, the Canon HV20 really ...

Review summary: With so many HD camcorders hitting the market, it may seem to be an overwhelming decision to narrow your choice down to one. Thankfully, Canon has come out with the HV20 HDV camcorder, which may just be the lifeboat you need to stay afloat in a sea of ...

Pros: 24P Easy menu navigation Good color reproduction and image detail

Cons: Hand strap is awkward Manual focus dial is small

Verdict: The Canon HV20 is an easy-to-use camera with good image quality and true 24P, which really separates it from the pack

Pros: Excellent cinematic mode, plenty of different modes, great picture quality.

Cons: Finicky interface, a little bulky for our tastes.

Verdict: The Canon HV20 offers an affordable introduction to high-definition video. While not particularly outstanding, it performs solidly in every area and will satisfy the majority of users.

Review summary: A lot has been packed into the HV20, but it's far from bulky

Pros: Good lens ; Strong audio ; Easy to handle ; Impressive performance

Cons: Bulky ; No lens rings

Verdict: If you're looking for great value high definition without sacrificing functionality, the HV20 is a great place to start. Its comprehensive connectivity coupled with fantastic user-friendliness and superb playback quality make it the leader in its class

Review summary: Compared to Panasonic's sleek HDC-SD1, the Canon HV20 HD camcorder looks a bit ungainly, mostly because it has a large MiniDV tape mechanism grafted onto one side.

Verdict: Since the HDV format demands less computing power than the AVCHD format does, we would steer clear of AVCHD models unless we had an extremely powerful PC. And the Canon HV20 is one of the better HDV models on the market, at a pretty good price to boot.