Canon HV20 Expert Reviews

Here it is! The king of castle. The Canon HV20 ($1099 MSRP). This camcorder packs in a beautiful image, superb ease of use, and a hearty cluster of manual controls. If you can look beyond its imperfect design and awkward handling, you will be treated to t...

Review of the Canon HV20 high definition camcorder. The Canon HV20 won camcorder of the year - read the review here.

Old-school HDV shines and stumbles at the same time.

buttah-smooth video, crisp and vivid in bright light.

Cheap-feeling plastic, stuck with miniDV tapes.

The consumer HD camcorder to beat.

Amazing image. Works with external mics. Smallish form-factor. Footage works with all video editors. Great value for price. Tape will soon be obsolete.

Tape will soon be obsolete.

. Ready to take the dive into HD video? You won't go wrong with the HV20.

When it comes to HD cameras, call us hopeless romantics. We'd love to find a shooter capable of taking beautiful footage but without the bulk of a professional cam. Canon's new HV20 got close, but eventually it just broke our hearts. Here's why: We took t...

Super clear, super clean, super colorful 1080i video quality. Tapes eject quickly and cleanly. 10x zoom and rapid auto focus. Compact size and light weight (1.3 pounds!) make transporting the cam second nature. Top mounted mic cancels out ambient noise li...

Holy design flaw! The electronic lens cover sputtered and failed to open right out of the box; we had to prop it open with our fingers. Poor menu configuration - especially with playback functions. Image stabilization has its limits: 10x zoom requires a t...

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 those

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

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

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 shines...

The Canon HV20 is the company's second HDV model, following on the heels of the HV10. Note: the HR10, the company's first AVCHD camcorder using mini DVDs, will be introduced...

Excellent HDV video, OIS, nice form factor

Bulky tape-based format; editing software is not included

This high-definition camcorder is a bit heavy and bulky, but it's a good performer with lots of features.

Many features, including accessory shoe, Very good battery life

Some tiny controls, A bit bulky and heavy

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