I just bought Canon HV30 (Amazon, Review) recently for my baby. Before buying HV30, I was agonizing over the selection between HV30 and Canon HF10 (Amazon, Review) (although I know that HF100 is better than HF10 from money point of view since the internal 16GB flash drive of HF10 does not justify the price difference, I do like the black paint job of HF10 and HV30).
Comparison of HV30 vs. HF10
So why I chose HV30 over HF10? The following is my comparison.
| Features | HV30 | HF10 | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | MSRP price is $999 in US and ¥10580.00 (about $1514) in China | MSRP price is $1099 in US and ¥14080.00 (about $2014) in China | The price difference in China is quite significant, which is true even for street price. |
| Performance | 1/2.7 in. sensor | 1/3.2 in. sensor | According to the review, HV30 has slightly better performance over HF10 thanks to larger sensor, however the gain seems to be marginal for most cases. |
| Functionalities | Viewfinder, Zebra, Peaking | ||
| Accessories | Standard accessory shoe | Canon proprietary accessory shoe | |
| Backup | Tapes are cheap for backup | Additional backup is needed since SDHC cards are expensive and will be reused. | |
| Community | A mature community (looking at hv20.com for example) | Situation will improve | |
| Form Factor | 88x82x138 mm (3.5x3.2x5.4 in.), 535 g (1.2 lb.) | 73x64x129 mm (2.9x2.5x5.1 in.), 380 g (13.4 oz) | HF10 is small and light, which is ideal for traveling. Normally the camcorder which you takes out often is the most useful one. |
| Media | Tape | SDHC card + internal Flash | Flash card is really convenient: just like small DCs. No hassles for rewinding and no worry for overriding. |
| Zoom | 10x optical zoom | 12x optical zoom | |
| Noise | Tape noise can be heard in silent environment | No such noise since flash card is used. |
Accessories
What I have:
- Battery and charger: compatible ones
- Camera bag: Lowepro Edit 120+
- CPL filter: Kenko 43mm
- HDMI cable
- IEEE 1394 cable: Belkin 4-pin to 4-pin
- Lens cap
- miniSD: Transcend 2G. Not sure whether 4G could be used (the manual only states that up to 2G has been tested).
- Tape: Panasonic AY-DVM63PQ
- UV filter: Kenko MC-UV 43mm
For future purchase:
- 35mm adapter
- Close-up lens: +1/+2/+4
- Mic: Canon DM-50, or combination of Rode Videomic and stereo mic. Maybe XLR adapters with XLR Mics?
- Neutral density filters: ND2/4/8
- Shoulder strap
- Steadicam Merlin
- Telephoto lens: Canon TL-H43 (any black version?)
- Tripod and fluid head: Manfrotto 190XPROB (tripod) + 701RC2 (fluid head) + MBAG70 (bag)
- Video light: Canon VL-3
- Wide angle lens: Canon WD-H43 (any black version?)
- Wrist strap
Final Words
After over 1 month's usage of HV30, I'm pretty satisfied with it. There is a lot of things for me to learn: how to shoot, how to edit, just to name a few. But all the efforts are worthy when you view the video clips produced from it.
Posts
If you have not held this wide angle converter in your hands, you need to be aware of the weight - it is VERY heavy, weighing roughly the same as the entire camcorder (including battery and tape). Putting this big hunk of glass at the front makes it an entirely different camcorder - twice as heavy and very unbalanced with all that weight hanging off the front. It is pretty big also, adding 3-4 inches at the front, but the weight and balance were the killers for me.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to like it, as this camcorder really could use a wider field (I am tired of backing up so much). It also looks very high quality (and if glass weight = quality, it must be great) but I never even tested it out because to me the camcorder becomes a different (and unusable) device with this on it. If you don't mind the weight (perhaps you only use it on a tripod, where the size and weight don't matter), give it a try, but I wanted to warn you first - heavy and unbalanced make for bad handheld shooting.
cdr vierge