Canon Vixia HF S11- Great Performance, Superb Video Quality

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great performance, excellent video quality, battery charges quite fast.

Thumbs Down:

There is no eye-level viewfinder, a bit expensive.

Inside the Trunk:

Drivers & Utilities Pixela ImageMixer 3SE software, Remote control – Infrared, cables included A/V cable, component video cable and USB cable.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The camcorder is capable of taking 1080p resolution videos, which are stored in H.264 or MPEG-4. Special effects are vivid, skin detail, neutral, low sharpening. Max Shutter Speed is 1/2000 sec. Shooting programs are beach, snow, sunset, low light, fireworks, spotlight, sports mode, night scene, portrait mode.

White balance presets include shade, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent light (cool white and warm white), tungsten light. Exposure modes are program, manual, automatic, aperture priority and shutter priority. Flash modes are fill in mode, auto mode, red-eye reduction and flash off.

Camcorder has sensor resolution of 8.59 mega pixels, effective video resolution of 6.01 mega pixels, camcorder effective still resolution 8.02 mega pixels

Images are stored in JPEG format and the resolutions are available are  640 x 480, 1920 x 1440, 3264 x 1840 and 3264 x 2456.

Lens features -  Zoom lens – 6.4 mm – 64 mm – F/1.8-3.0, Focal length is 6.4 mm – 64 mm, lens aperture F/1.8-3.0, 10x optical zoom. Minimum focal length is 6.4 mm, maximum focal length is 64 mm, minimum focus range is 0.4 in. The camcorder has 64 GB internal flash memory and you can expand it by SD memory card.

Additional features direct print, exif print 24p cinema mode, date/time stamp, contrast control, brightness control, saturation control, progressive scanning, backlight compensation, face priority AF function, take photos while movie recording, face detection, support, built-in speaker, histogram display, PictBridge support, accessories hot shoe, USB 2.0 compatibility, RGB primary color filter, display brightness control, Dolby Digital AC-3 recording (2 channel)

Connector Type 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x Component video output, 1 x HDMI , 1 x Microphone, 1 x Headphones, 1 x USB

Battery li-ion rechargeable battery

Razzle Dazzle:

The Canon Vixia HF S11 weighs about a pound which is some what light considering this is a camcorder. We liked the functional design and the controls which were ergonomically laid out and also the interface which was user friendly. The size is large but this is probably done so that it will be easy to hold while using.

Inside Dope:

Tape disks have disappeared in to the oblivion and hard disks are too following the suite. Mini DVD camcorders will be gone by 2012 and all these three are now being replaced by flash based drives which allow for lighter devices and more battery life. The low cost of these flash drives is something that makes it popular amongst the manufacturers and the consumers as well.


This is the third offering in the Vixia S1X family other two being HF S11 and S10. All three of these give you full HD recording at 1920X1080 pixel resolution and all these three models share the same features such as faster, larger f1.8 10X HD lens, high resolution and relatively large 1/1.26 inch 8 MP CMOS sensor, which also has high end capabilities, like the capacity to boost manually gain up to 18dB, fixed 100 and 70 IRE zebra stripes, color SMPTE bars, a button which is user assignable which is also the dial control. The only thing that is different is the internal memory. HF S11 gives us 64 GB of memory, HF S10 had 32 GB and HF S100 had none at all. Other than the additional storage space, this camcorder has features like Dynamic SuperRange OIS, which gives you better quality while at wide angles and walking and a mode for Advanced Snapshot which gives you the capability to pull 4 second clips from the playback and capture mode in videos.

There are pair of micro phones which are house on either side of the barrel of the lens. We thought that this would attract a lot of background noise while shooting and our voice might not be properly heard in the video. We tried shooting and were surprised to see there were no such problems. There is a 3.5 mm jack if you want to hook up a bigger microphone, other connectors include Mini-HDMI, component, USB which are housed in the compartment beneath the strap. The strap will get in the way when you try to hook the peripherals.

Custom dial is a new feature in this camcorder and it is quite similar to the control dial which we are used to seeing on Sony’s prosumer products. Pressing the button once will enable it and then you can use the dial for whatever you want like mic level, focus, exposure, automatic gain control limit and assist functions. We liked this dial in Sony and we will say the same about this device.

The biggest turn off for the unit is the lack of eye level view finder, which certainly won’t go well with high end users. There is a photo button and zoom switch on the top of the unit, and it will go beneath your finger when you use it. Besides the mode button there is a 3.5 mm phone jack and power connector. The power button is a bit recessed and it is difficult to press it. We think Canon has done this to avoid accidental presses but reaching for it down there is a bit challenging.

You will find most of the shooting on controls on the bezel of the LCD screen. There is a function button which gives you settings that you will frequently use and also the full menu system. Apart from the usual features like image effects, white balance, still photo size and video quality, digital effects, scene modes and program you get real aperture and shutter priority shooting modes which give shutter speed of 1/8 to 1/2000 second and the aperture options have range from f1.8 to f8 which gives you capability to control more over field depth like in prosumer products. We also the like the menu which is revamped to give it a fresh new look and make it more user friendly. The 2.7 inch LCD screen has a display which gives you low resolution but you don’t really need a high resolution screen here. It performs better than standard LCD which breaks down in bright sunlight but reading text will be a bit hard due to the small fonts.

While shooting if you navigate down on the joy stick you get a menu which gives you options of digital effects, video light (which will also work in still photo mode), 3-second pre record, exposure compensation and backlight, mic level, manual focus, digital teleconverter and face detection. In the still mode the option are a bit different you don’t have access to the teleconverter and mic and you get flash.

You can shoot 4 seconds clips and make up a ‘highlights reel’ but using this can be a bit tough because the button which is used for Video Snapshot mode is hard which makes it difficult to press. We would have liked an option on the dial mode for this or a separate button for record.

Quality of the videos and performance is the best on the HF S11 both on 17 and 24 MBPS record mode. You get options for 7.8 minutes per gigabyte and 5.5 minute per gigabyte. Focus features of the camcorder was good even in dim light conditions. Battery life of the HF S11 is average but it makes up by charging quickly. Optical stabilizer too is excellent. Videos taken from the camcorder look sharp with excellent exposures and saturated colors. Recording of audio is clear and crisp. We found the video quality dropped a bit when used outdoors.

Nitty Gritty:

Canon Vixia HF S11 is a good option for you, if you are a camcorder enthusiast and are looking for portable and cheap equipment. If you are on a stiff budget we recommend going for HF S100 since price of memory is constantly dropping. But HF S11 fulfilled all our expectations when it came to performance and quality.