Sum and Substance

Thumbs Up:

Manual feature set is really good, the device has two SDHC slots, design of the interface is user friendly.

Thumbs Down:

Touch screen system is not well designed, short battery life, the default setting is low quality video mode, SDXC cards cannot be used on this device, the camcorder is a bit expensive as compared to other such devices in the market.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Canon Vixia HF S200 is a 1080p camcorder with 200x digital zoom, it has 8.59 megapixels resolution. The optical sensor size is 1/2.6”, Optical Sensor Type is CMOS, Min Illumination is 0.3 lux, Analog Video Format is NTSC, Digital Video Format is AVCHD, Special Effects includes Vivid, Skin Detail, Low Sharpening, Soft, Neutral, Custom Effect. Image Stabilizer is Optical (Dynamic SuperRange). Digital Scene Transition options are Sepia fader, Wipe fader, Black & white fader. Min Shutter Speed is 1/2 second, Max Shutter Speed is 1/2000 seconds, Shooting Programs include Beach, Snow, Sunset, Low light, Fireworks, Spotlight, Sports mode, Night mode, Portrait mode.

White Balance options include – Presets, Custom and Automatic. White Balance Presets options include Cloudy, Fluorescent light (cool white), Shade, Daylight, Fluorescent light (daylight), Tungsten light. Exposure Modes options include Program, Shutter-priority, Automatic, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Aperture-priority. Exposure Metering options include Evaluative , Spot and Center-weighted.

Camcorder Sensor Resolution is 8.59 megapixels, Camcorder Effective Video Resolution is 6.01 megapixels, Camcorder Effective Still Resolution is 8.02 megapixels, Image Processor is DIGIC DV III, Auto Exposure Bracketing is 3 steps in 1/2 EV step. It also has face detection feature. The image are stored in JPEG format. Supported Resolutions are 1080i and 1080p. Camcorder Features include SMPTE Color Bars and Zebra pattern. For storing photos, there is SD memory card slot.

Image Storage options include JPEG 1920 x 1440, JPEG 3264 x 2456, JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 3264 x 1840, JPEG 640 x 480. The device has Zoom lens – 6.4 mm – 64 mm – F/1.8-3.0 with focal length of 6.4 mm – 64 mm, lens aperture is F/1.8-3.0, optical zoom is 10x. Minimum focal length is 6.4 mm, maximum focal length is 64 mm, Filter Size is 58 mm, Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera is 43.5 – 435 mm, Focus Adjustment options include manual and automatic, minimum focus range is 0.4 inch. Additional Features include self timer, self timer delay option of 2 seconds or 10 seconds. Search Modes includes Date search and Face index search.

Additional features include Direct print, Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording, Face detection, Relay Recording, Built-in speaker, Contrast control, Histogram display, Sharpness control, Brightness control,, Progressive scanning, 24p Cinema Mode, Saturation control, RGB primary color filter, Video Snapshot mode, Accessories hot shoe, Touch-screen control, 5.1 channel surround sound ready, YouTube capture mode, USB 2.0 compatibility, Backlight compensation, Digital tele-converter, PictBridge support, Touch & Track technology, HD-to-SD downconversion, Face-priority AF function, Scene Detection Technology, Display brightness control,, Takes photos while movie recording.

Software includes Pixela ImageMixer 3SE and drivers & utilities. Included Accessories are Stereo video cable, Compact power adapter, Component cable, Wireless controller, USB interface cable, Battery pack. The display is three inches big. Connectors include Composite video/audio output, USB , Headphones, Microphone, Control-L (LANC), Component video output, HDMI. Cables Included are USB cable, A/V cable and Component video cable. The device has Canon BP-808 lithium ion battery. The manufacturer gives a one year warranty for this device.

Razzle Dazzle:

Canon Vixia HF S200 is quite heavy and this also makes them easier to hold in the hand. There are rubber bunpers on the top which make it quite comfortable to hold in the hand.

Inside Dope:

Canon Vixia HF S200 has a big LCD and the virtual buttons too are relatively bigger. The interface is quite user friendly and we think this is the best one we have ever come across in a camcorder. The screen can be easily viewed even in direct sunlight but you will have to fiddle with the angle for a bit to find the sweet spot. The interface falls short only in the menu system because it is quite frustrating to use. The scroll area is located on the inside edge and hence your hand will block the screen when you scroll. We also had a few complaints about the multi touch scroll operations which make it quite hard to move through a single entry at a time accurately. In our tests, we often scrolled past the one we wanted and finally ended up selecting the wrong entry. You will certainly need some time to get used to it but it might drive you crazy too. We recommend you to test this camcorder before buying it.

The EVF has a low resolution but still it is better than having nothing. The HF S20 also offers this and it is a bit coarse for manual focus. It is still usable between the edge detection peaking and focus assist magnification. Setting up the diopter is a bit annoying because it is not located well. On the bright side, the zoom is quite nice and maintainning a steady zoom rate is quite easy. I had a few frustrating moments where the subject wasn’t guessed correctly by the autofocus. It usually reverted to the background irrespective of the space taken by the foreground subject. Zooming in, in these situations was a bit problematic. Once the correct subject was locked, it wasn’t lost. This problem might be due to the AF speed which is quite fast and hence bound to compromise on accuracy.

The default setting for the video quality is 7 mbps one, which is the second worst setting. The resolution you get here is 1,440×1,080 pixels. If you shoot at this setting, the quality will seem like video taken from a sub $400 camcorder. This is quality is acceptable if you are just going to upload it on the Web. The second based mode is 17 Mbps where things improve a bit and the best quality is 24 Mbps.

Canon says that the sensor is tweaked for better quality in low light conditions. The Digic DV III processor is also enhanced for better rendering of purples and blue. In our tests, the video of sky looked better. The video quality was quite good in the best and second best mode. Clips looked sharper than what you have in the competition but the improvement is not drastic. It is not good in reproduction of deep pink and red and the color is quite pleasing. In low light conditions, the brighter exposures gave more saturated colors as compared to Sony camcorders. Video also looked noisier as compared to Panasonic or Sony models. The audio is recorded with good clarity.

Then we tested the Canon Vixia HF S200 for image quality and they looked overprocessesed. The quality is still better than the Panasonic and Sony’s interpolated photos taken from low res sensors. We would recommend this device to you if taking videos is your hobby. However, if you don’t need the manual controls like shutter speeds below 1/15 second or Zebra stripe level choice, then this device is a bit expensive. If you can let go of the EVF, we would recommend you the HFS200 which is the cheapest amongst the three.

The manual control on the Canon Vixia HF S200 pretty similar to that of Sony. Long press the middle button and you can select the dial operation which includes mic level, manual focus, aperture or shutter speed, auto gain control unit and exposure compensation. The auto gain feature puts a limit on signal boost for minimizing noise in low light conditions. All these options are there on the touch screen too. For the frequently used settings, there is the function icon. Apart from these standard features, you get control over shutter and aperture too.

Nitty Gritty:

This camcorder is improved in quality as compared to the previous models but they are relatively expensive. We would recommend this only if you need the manual set of controls.

Similar Posts

• May 31, 2009 -- Canon Vixia HF20 Camcorder Review (0)