Canon Vixia HG20 review – Excellent video quality
Thumbs Up:
Canon Vixia HG20 has understated and attractive design with 60GB hard drive and microSD card slot for external storage. The photo and video quality is excellent.
Thumbs Down:
Wind-filter does not work well and manual focus is useless.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Canon Vixia HG20 is a 3.3-megapixel 1080p camcorder that offers 200x digital zoom and SuperRange Optical image stabilizer. Its CMOS optical sensor is of 1/3.2” size and has 0.2 lux minimum illumination. Maximum shutter speed is 1/2000 second and minimum is 1/2 second. The HG20 has digital photo shooting mode. Its shooting programs are Portrait mode, Sports mode, Night mode, Spotlight, Fireworks, Sunset, Beach and Snow. The camcorder has 60GB internal flash memory and a micro-SD expansion slot.
2.7-inch LCD display is based on TFT active matrix. It also works as rotating electronic viewfinder of 211,000 pixels resolution. Canon Vixia HG20 has inbuilt stereo microphone and slots for mini external mic and headphone. The flash is also inbuilt and flash modes are Red-eye reduction and Auto modes.
White balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. Its presets include Fluorescent light (warm white), Tungsten light, Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy and Shade. The exposure modes are Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Automatic, Manual and Program.
The zoom lens has a focal length of 4.8-57mm with an aperture of F/1.8-3.0. It provides 12x optical zoom and nine auto-focus points. Canon Vixia HG20 has inbuilt lens shield and TTL contrast detection auto-focus. The zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment modes are Automatic and Manual. The minimum focus range is 0.4-inch and the size of filter is 37mm.
Canon Vixia HG20 captures still photos of JPEG format. The image storage resolution options are JPEG 640×480, JPEG 848×480, JPEG 1440×1080, JPEG 1920×1080 and JPEG 2048×1536. The camcorder records video of ACHD format.
The additional features of Canon Vixia HG20 are Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording, ability to capture photo while video recording, RGB primary color filter, Backlight compensation, USB 2.0 compatibility, Progressive scanning, Accessories hot shoe, PictBridge support, Histogram display and Direct print. The camcorder also has self-timer delay function and Low Lux/night mode.
The connectors for Canon Vixia HG20 are 1×Component video output, 1×Composite video/audio output, 1×Microphone, 1×Headphones, 1×USB and 1×HDMI. The software provided inside the disc are PIXELA Image Mixer, drivers and utilities. Accessories supplied inside the box are stereo video cable, component cable, USB cable, wireless controller, software disc, power adapter and battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
Canon Vixia HG20 is 3 inches high, 3.1 inches wide and 5.4 inches deep. It weighs around 17.6 ounces. The HG20 is big in size and has more weight as compared to the Vixia HF11.
Inside Dope:
Canon Vixia HG20 is easy to operate, excellent and good looking camcorder. The Vixia HG20 looks and has same features like the Canon Vixia HF11. However, the HG20 has 60GB hard drive that is more than 32GB memory of the HF11. The Vixia HG20 also has SD card slot for external storage and eye-level viewfinder unlike its predecessor. Its performance is good, but not as good as Sony Handycam HDR-SR11. If you need a camcorder with large flash memory and good performance, then you can go for new Canon Vixia HG20.
Canon Vixia HG20 has a 2.7-inch LCD display. A Function button and five-way joystick sits on the bezel of LCD display. The other controls are located beneath the display. We found it difficult to adjust the focus with joystick.
The input/output jacks and controls are positioned in an easy-to-use way. The dial to switch from still/video playback to still/video record sits on the back. Canon Vixia HG20 has large and easy-to-operate controls. The inbuilt stereo microphone is located beneath the lens.
Canon Vixia HG20 records video at various rates from 5Mbps to 24Mbps. The high bit rate supports full 1920×1080 pixels resolution, which is good as compared to other camcorders offering 1440×1080 pixels at highest rate of 12Mbps.
The zoom lens has an aperture of F/1.8-3.0 to provide 12x optical zoom. It is better than 10x optical zoom of other camcorders in the same class. The settings for video recording are wind-screen filter, Instant AF, video light, shutter- and aperture-priority exposure modes, and 3 fixed/1 zoom variable speed options. You can also record videos at 60i, 24fps and 30fps. The sill photo settings include flash, exposure and burst bracketing options, and exposure metering. Canon Vixia HG20 has five connectors: mini-HDMI out, component video, USB port, and mini-headphone and mic jacks.
The working and performance of the lens are good as it focuses quickly and holds the locking position in light and dim conditions. The SuperRange Optical image stabilization works well even for fully extended lens. We captured some images through the camcorder for testing. The images were sharp, but it showed some fringes on high-contrast. The inbuilt microphone delivers impressive audio quality and its attenuation (zoom mic) also works fine.
We recorded some video clips through Canon Vixia HG20 for testing. The recorded video was good, completely exposed, sharp and nicely saturated. However, the video exhibited some noise and tonal range in low light. Still, the video quality of the HG20 is good as compared to other camcorders of same class.
We could easily differentiate between 17Mbps and 24Mbps recorded video in low light, while viewing at big-screen plasma TV. The high bit rate video showed more noise than low one. However, the difference between low and high bit rate video was not noticeable on small VGA/CRT display.
Nitty Gritty:
Canon Vixia HG20 delivers perfect HD video quality and the performance is good as compared to its flash based predecessor, the Vixia HF11. It has large hard disk which can be used to storing lots of videos. This makes the HG20 better than the Sony Handycam HDR-SR11. We would recommend the HG20 if you need large internal memory up to 60GB and micro SD card slot.
