Posted by Bob Noble on 12/27/07 02:10

Ah, the AVCHD thing. Hadn't thought of that.
This could be a valid point.
However, this is my first video camera, the HG10 and it has helped me take
some exceptional footage.
My knowledge of other cameras is rather limited, so I don't dare argue one
way or the other on much of anything about video cameras.

I will just state why I was attracted to this particular camera. Most of my
shooting is out of a kayak, which means I am always in motion, even when the
kayak is still in the water. This is because water is never still, it is
always moving, either sideways or up and down and sometimes in all
directions.
I was using still digital camera's, but always missing a lot of the action
shots, either because I was waiting for my camera after a shot, or the
movement of my subject or me was blurring the picture. Sometimes I was just
so into what was happening in front of me, I just stopped shooting.
I noticed as I upgraded to newer generation still camera's, I was getting
less blurred pictures, but still missing a lot of shots. Each of these
cameras always came out with improved stabilization or anti shake stuff.

Than the stars came together and the money and it was time to try a video
camera.
The HG10 caught my eye and it was due out in a month. What caught my eye the
most was the anti shake built into the lens and all the other anti shake
stuff built into the camera. It even has an anti shake thing built into the
digital 200x zoom. Canon says, to do HD well, one needs a very steady
camera, so that's why they built these features into this camera.
I was concerned about the AVCHD part, and did some research and decided what
the hey. The best way to find out about something is to buy it and use it.
An added plus I hadn't considered is the 200x digital zoom. Yes, I know the
digital zoom just blows up the digital picture and isn't considered as good
as a lens zoom. But before, a lot of times I'd see this water getting
slinged into the air a few hundred yards away and wonder what it was. As I
approached, it would stop.
Now, I can use the camera as a monocular and see exactly what is happening
and take videos of it that still come out quite good. If I want an action
still, I play the video on the camera and stop it on the frame I want and
push the still button and I have an action still I likely wouldn't have
gotten.

Now, as far as HD or AVCHD, I would have just preferred the HD as things are
confusing enough and it wasn't an option on this camera anyway.
I do find that the optics and technology built into this cam may help to
offset the drawbacks of the AVCHD. I haven't had the camera long enough to
get into a lot of editing yet and may find more of the AVCHD compression
artifacts showing up. But so far things look very well with the AVCHD. With
the kind of movement I can have taking video's, I'm sure I'd find bad stuff
while using any format.

I carry this camera on my chest with a neck strap. It's not waterproof, but,
so far, I haven't tipped over,......yet. I tried it in a water proof bag,
but getting it out to shot took too long and made too much noise. I'm on the
water about three hours, almost every day with it.
You are likely wondering what the heck I'm shooting?
A lot of it is seals chasing, catching and eating large steelhead or salmon
fish. Otters and other critters. We are just coming into this years
steelhead runs, so I hope to get better shots this year than I have in the
past.
I think with consumer cams taking on a lot of the professional cams stuff,
the differences are fast becoming not so important and the real skill will
just be how one uses his cam in an art-ee way to acquire pleasing video.
Thanks for your comments.

--
Bob Noble
http://www.sonic.net/bnoble
"PTravel" <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
news:5tccbjF1bp7auU1@mid.individual.net...
>
> "Bob Noble" <bnoble@sonic.net> wrote in message
> news:47705e80$0$84239$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>> Am I missing something?
>> What is the Canon HG 10?
>> Isn't it the model that replaces the HD20?
>
> It's not a replacement for the HV20. The HG10 is a hard-disk based
> machine that uses bandwidth-limited AVCHD compression and cannot shoot
> 24p. The HV20 is a tape-based machine that uses full HDV compression and
> can shoot 24p.
>
> The result is that better video is obtained from the HV20 than the HG10
> (fewer artifacts, better detail). And, of course, the HV20 is still
> manufactured and sold. The demographics for the two cameras are somewhat
> different, however. The HV20 appeals to amateurs and some professionals,
> who care about video quality and can use the camera for quasi-professional
> applications, e.g. short films, student films, wedding videos, etc. The
> HG10 appeals to the point-and-shoot crowd who only want a simple way to
> take "high-definition" video of junior's birthday party.
>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Bob Noble
>> http://www.sonic.net/bnoble

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