Reviews

Home > Consumer Camcorders > Camcorder Reviews > Canon Camcorders > Canon HDV Camcorders > Quick Review Camcorders: Canon HV20

Quick Review Camcorders: Canon HV20

by Michael Perlman
Published on May 10, 2007

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 the magical world of 24P video.

A massive 1/2.7” CMOS sensor lies within the camcorder’s core and spews out 2,900,000 gross pixels. The Canon HV20 shoots both 1080/60i and 1080/24P. In bright light (3000 lux) during 60i, the HV20’s image is sharp as a tack, and rife with Crayola-grade color. In 24P mode, the colors are even more saturated and brilliant. In low light, the HV20 is a warrior. At 60 lux (our higher low light setting), the HV20 produced less noise than the HC7. While the Sony HDR-HC7 faded into oblivion within the dimly lit confines of our testing room at our lowest setting (15 lux), the HV20 retained its color balance and sharpness. The HV20’s 24P mode stepped it up a notch and displayed a minimal amount of noise at 15 lux, trampling all over the HC7’s burry mess of an image.

Handling the HV20 is another story. It is devoid of a retractable viewfinder, has a flimsy, low-strung hand strap, unfinished zoom toggle, and a manual focus wheel that is almost as vexing as the one found on the HC7. The HV20, despite its architectural flaws, is light and portable. It has an automatic lens enclosure, accessory shoe, and side-loading tape hatch, which eliminates the need to remove the camcorder from the tripod in order to swap out a tape. One of the pinnacles of the HV20’s design is its rear-mounted joystick with neighboring function menu button. This enables one hand menu operation and puts side-mounted menu buttons and touch screens to shame. No careening your neck or smudging up the LCD screen here. At the finish line, we’d have to hand over the trophy of sound design to the HC7. It’s just built better.

The HV20 offers a veritable slew of automatic and manual controls. When the camcorder is switched into auto mode, certain manual adjustments like white balance and exposure are disabled. The HV20’s image in standard HDV (1080i) is excellent in auto mode, allowing the shooter to safely coast along while the camcorder does all the work. The HV20’s manual controls aren’t too shabby as well. When the camcorder is switched into P mode, exposure, shutter speed, white balance, and gain are available. The manual focus wheel is annoying to use, but accurate once you get the hang of it. Some additional perks include a manual audio level control, zebra striping (for highlighting overexposed whites), and a three speed zoom settings.

The HV20 records to MiniDV tapes in the HDV format. MiniDV tapes beat the pants off of DVDs and SD cards thanks to their long recording times and compatibility with a plethora of non-linear video editing programs. Most editing software, even free and cheap programs, can work with HDV by this point.

Canon sacrificed construction for stunning video quality with the HV20. In 24P mode, the image rivals even the most refined prosumer camcorders. Sure, Sony’s HC7 will feel great in your hand and churn out more style. But at the register, it’s a different story with a $300 gap between the two. Our advice: save your cash for the HV20. It will take your breath away. This is one of the best camcorders we have seen a long time.

Canon HV20 - THE BOTTOM LINE
Rating: 307.23

Likes

- Great Image Quality
- 24P Mode
- Good value

Dislikes

- Cheap construction
- Handling

Canon HV20 Compared to the...

Canon HV10 Rating: N/A	Sony HDR-HC7 Rating: 286.09	Panasonic HDC-SD1 Rating: 218.05	Panasonic HDC-DX1 Rating: 217.85	JVC GZ-HD7 Rating: 209.01

Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-Portability	-Handling	-Handling -Zoom Ratio	-Zoom Ratio	-Manual Controls -Handling -Ease of Use
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
-Handling -Zoom Ratio -Video Performance -Automatic Controls	-Zoom Ratio	-Ease of Use	-Ease of Use	-Zoom Ratio
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
-Lowlight Performance -Manual Controls -Battery Life -Ease of Use	-Video Performance -Low Light Performance -Automatic Controls -Manual Controls -Battery Life -Ease of Use	-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Automatic Controls -Manual Controls -Battery Life	-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Automatic Controls -Manual Controls -Battery Life -Handling	-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Automatic Controls -Battery