Canon Hv20 User Reviews Plse

[cjb]

Hi,
Anyone using the Canon HV20 ?
I have been reading lots of pro reviews and all give it a very good report.
I have been using a SD Canon for 2 years and find it quite acceptable , it even takes reasonable stills, so is it worth upgrading to HD for another £500+ ?
This would be my first HD cam and just wondered if 1080i is the norm at this level or should I wait for 1080p to become available at this price.
Any useful hands on reviews would be welcome.

[MarkE19]

It has been mentioned on here recently that the HV20 is basically the same as the HV10, but with a black case. Therefore I would think you can get a fair idea as to how users will rate the HV20 by looking at any user reviews of the HV10.

Mark.

[redsox_mark]

The HV20 has a progressive mode, and can shoot 1080p25.

What is your current Canon model?

I've only used a HV20 briefly, but I use another HDV camcorder (Sony HC1) extensively. The HV20 video quality is probably slightly better than the HC1; and I find the HC1 much better than your typical DV model.

[redsox_mark]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

It has been mentioned on here recently that the HV20 is basically the same as the HV10, but with a black case. Therefore I would think you can get a fair idea as to how users will rate the HV20 by looking at any user reviews of the HV10.

Mark.

Sorry Mark, I think you are off by 10... it is the new HV30 and the HV20 which are virtually identical. The HV10 and HV20 are different. But it is still true that there is little difference in quality between any of them.

[dvd.collector]

Originally Posted by cjb

Hi,
Anyone using the Canon HV20 ?
I have been reading lots of pro reviews and all give it a very good report.
I have been using a SD Canon for 2 years and find it quite acceptable , it even takes reasonable stills, so is it worth upgrading to HD for another £500+ ?
This would be my first HD cam and just wondered if 1080i is the norm at this level or should I wait for 1080p to become available at this price.
Any useful hands on reviews would be welcome.

I've my HV20 for around 6 months now. The video PQ is amazing although I've never used it for stills so cant comment what they are like.

I did have one issue with mine in that the firewire port didnt work and I had to get it repaired under warranty.. however its back now and working fine.

I'm no camcorder expert, I leave it in auto most of the time but I still find the PQ is brilliant. I find it easy to use, lightweight and the battery lasts pretty well. I actually prefer tape to the HD camcorders, purely for archiving the footage..

All in all I would recommend it highly

[cjb]

Guys,
The new HV20 is different in that it does have 25p apparently plus other bells and whistles. The spec is truly generous. My current cam is a Canon MVX450, which has been a good performer and still is.
I was thinking about upgrading to HD and the price for the '20 is now around £550 so is tempting.. but is the benefit worth £500. I only really use it for general shooting.
Just wondered if anyone had actually got one . The only negative point I have seen is low light performance, where my 450 is actually quite good.
I am a bit confused as whether its base 1080i output is the same as 1080p in the 25p mode..i.e is that the genuine 1080p HD.?

[glesgaguyav]

IMO as a user of the HV20 I am extremley happy with the quality of the video,having said that, I have no experience of any other make of HD cams.

As the OP states almost every review gives the HV20 top marks for video quality but the cam is not perfect, the build quality could be better and the manual controls can be quite akward to use, although if left on auto the cam does a great job of handling everything for you.

At the end of the day it's the video quality that counts, I would rather have a cam that shoots good video than one with lots of buttons and shoots poor video

[cjb]

OK Guys, it looks good from what you say.
Just want to ask again about the true HD output.. is 1080i the same as 1080p in its 25p mode and therefore genuine HD.

[glesgaguyav]

Originally Posted by cjb

The only negative point I have seen is low light performance

This is a matter of opinion, some say that the low light performance is one of the good points of the HV20 especially if you use the 25p mode, the problem in low light is the auto mode adds gain even though it's not really needed but there is a work around for this in the manual mode, see here:

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=180

[cjb]

Had a look at that link.. a lot of input there. Will have to look in more detail.
Thanks guys.

[redsox_mark]

Originally Posted by cjb

OK Guys, it looks good from what you say.
Just want to ask again about the true HD output.. is 1080i the same as 1080p in its 25p mode and therefore genuine HD.

Lots of people debate about what is "genuine". The HV20 is genuine HD in both interlaced and progressive mode. Some debate about the fact that in 25p mode, the information is still "packaged" as a 1080i stream. This is technically true but doesn't matter... when you tell your video editor that the footage is progressive, it should treat it as such.

[LicensedTaximan]

My previous video camera was an ageing, and eventually a non working, Panasonic S-VHS palmcorder, so any modern camcorder would (should) score miles ahead in terms of picture quality even though the Panny was a very good model and got rave reviews for its' s-vhs picture quality at the time.

What I can tell you is that the HV20 is a great product and in 25p mode the image is very film like and a joy to operate and own. I bought it especially for our holiday last year to DisneyWorld / Universal and then onto the St Petes Beach area and I have got around eight hours worth of footage to edit .
You won't go wrong with this camcorder for domestic use (or maybe even semi-pro usage) I would recommend it highly. The only thing I needed to get used to was recording in widescreen as apposed to 4:3 but that only took a couple of goes.

Eventually like most things at some point something else will come along and improve upon any model, but this is a good as it gets with mini dv technology now. This camcorder gave me all the requirements I needed and more, plus it is cheaper now than when I purchased it only a few months ago but I needed it then (so there you go)....buy in confidence.