Canon Vixia HF M32 – Respectable Camcorder With Acceptable Video Quality
We loved:
The Canon Vixia HF M32 delivers decent lens performance, and immense quality photos at its highest quality.
We hated:
The Canon Vixia HF M32 has a disappointingly designed touch-screen menu system; defaults to low-quality video mode and really small battery life.
Introduction:
The Canon Vixia HF M32 belongs to the M series camcorder by Panasonic, and after seeing the yesteryears Canon flash HD camcorders, the HF200 series, we were very doubtful about this series. The reason behind our doubt being the fact that it was Panasonic’s attempt to upgrades it mainstream camcorders, which already delivered rock-solid performance and respectable video quality.
The M series camcorders come with in comparatively small bodies, and are lightweight. Though the body of the camcorders is made up of plastic, but it still feels well-constructed. Also, these camcorders are simply too small to be held comfortably by consumers with large hands. Canon offers a physical switch to switch between the complete auto modes and manual modes. Apart from this there are some other minor flaws as well.
Build and Design:
The top floor of Canon Vixia HF M32 hosts the photo button and zoom switch, which are contentedly located under your forefinger, and it’s a lot easy to control the zoom and to maintain a steady rate. Positioned behind this is he mini accessory shoe of the camera. The only control positioned at the rear end of the camcorder is its record button. There is an 890mAH battery flushed with the rear end of the camcorder, and which means that if you go for a higher capacity battery, it will jut out from the rear end of the camera awkwardly. Also keep in mind that the camera has a mediocre battery life and hence you anyhow will have to go for the higher power battery.
The LCD bezel of the camcorder has a single button that enables Power IS mode for down converting videos to Standard Definition quality and for shooting at the telephoto end of the zoom range. The LCD recess here hosts the playback/record toggle button, battery release switch and display options. The one good thing here is that opening the LCD does not turns on the camcorder on (except when you are in standby mode), the location here offers comparatively less of a problem, than what we’ve seen on Panasonics other models.
Apart from the SDHC card slot, the headphone and mic jacks of the camera are also positioned in the LCD recess; and the USB, component out and miniHDMI connectors are all positioned under the hand strap.
The menu interface for the camcorder is the same that we’ve been seeing in its higher-end siblings, but the touch-screen implementation here is a much better here, in its smaller and less sensitive display, then what we’ve seen in other camcorders. But the good thing here is that the camcorder has a nice manual feature set, which is nice because you surely don’t want to get to and use the features as it’s frustrating.
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Canon USA
Part Number: 4743B001
Price: $999.99
Product Type: Camcorder
Weight: 0.8 lbs
Dimensions (H x W x D) in inches: 2.4 x 2.7 x 4.8 inches
LCD size: 2.7-inch
Optical Zoom: 15 x
Digital Video Format: MPEG-4, H.264 and AVC
Software: Pixela ImageMixer 3SE and Drivers & Utilites
White Balance Presets: Daylight, Automatic, Shade, Cloudy, Fluorescent H, Fluorescent, Manual and Tungsten
Additional Features: Dolby Digital recording
Focus Adjustment: Automatic
Included Accessories: Stereo video cable, Wireless controller, Compact power adapter, USB interface cable, Component cable and Battery pack
Connector Type: 1 x HDMI , 1 x USB 2.0 , 1 x Composite video output , 1 x Component video output , 1 x Microphone , 1 x Accessory shoe and 1 x Headphone
Shooting Modes: Portrait , Smart auto , Snow , Sports , Sunset , Beach , Low light , Night scene , Fireworks , Spotlight , Surface and Underwater
Cables Included: 1 x Stereo video cable, 1 x Component cable and 1 x USB cable
Battery: Canon BP-808, Li-ion battery
Performance:
The simple word to explain the performance of the Canon Vixia HF M32 is “Mixed”. We don’t have any complaints about the autofocus of the HF M series. The system on a whole does a decent job by adjusting itself by differentiating smartly the subject from the background. The image stabilization here is definitely dependable, but there is a little fringing in the photo quality. Though, the battery life for the camera is really a problem, and even the LCD becomes hard to see in direct sunlight, and finally there is the too low-resolution for accurately judging and focusing. The audio recorded from the camcorder is also of decent quality.
The video quality for the camcorder largely depends on the modes in which they are being shot, and at 24 Mbps the video shot looks really decent. The low light video on the other hand was just satisfactory.
Expert Comments:
The Canon Vixia HF M32 along with its other siblings M300, M30 and M31 delivers really acceptable blend of features, video quality, and performance for its price tag. Though, the touchscreen interface could be frustrating for some, and the battery falls devastatingly short here.
