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The Vixia HF S21 is the new-and-improved flagship camcorder from Canon. With 64GB of internal flash memory, two SD/SDHC memory card slots, and a brand new touchscreen LCD, Canon appears to have put in quite an effort in revamping last year's HF S11. The Good: Automatic lens cover Color settings can be customized Excellent sharpness; multiple frame rate options, including native 24p mode, are good features to have. Low light sensitivity was better than last year's Canons. 64GB internal flash memory, 2 SD/SDHC card slots, and SDXC compatibility Good set of manual controls; improved auto controls with touchscreen interface Native 8-megapixel still photos; built-in flash Control dial, large LCD screen, and electronic viewfinder HD to SD downconversion; LANC terminal is a good idea to include External mic and headphone jack, manual audio level controls The Bad: Lens only has 10x optical zoom. Color accuracy and noise levels were not as good as the competition. Color accuracy and noise levels in low light weren't great. No standard definition recording option. Shutter and aperture cannot be set independently of on another. Noise levels on still images were a bit high. Uncomfortable right side; touchscreen can make menu navigation difficult Some playback controls and features are difficult to figure out; HDMI and USB ports are not placed well Mic jack isn't protected at allRead full review
I liked the idea of recording to RAM rather than having the occasional glitches on tape. I like this camera but for the price I paid for it I think it should have been supplied with a real battery. The mini one supplied only records for about an hour. I also think there should be a shoe to allow the camera to be mounted on a tri-pod. I bought it also because it has an external microphone input but my microphone will not drive it. I like all other aspects of this camera, although some minimal titling would have been a plus and one or two transitions available for its editing features. I would not buy another one at this price.
Upgrading from a DV tape camcorder. HD is visually much better. This smaller sized unit is easier to take along and yet has excellent image stability. One-touch tracking is nice. Love the LCD screen size and was able to quickly get used to using the touch screen to adjust settings. Having the eye-piece view finder has saved many outdoor shots since the LCD viewfinder is too washed out by the sun. To me this is more important even valuable than the extra 32GB of built in memory. I bought directly from Japan (Canon iVis Vixia Legria HF S21 Dual Flash DV NTSC Japan). It came in 10 days as promised adn eventhough it is set up in Japanese, I switched it to English and it's all good! Saved $300 bucks which I used some of it to buy a spare longer life battery and an mini-HDMI cable.
This is a great camcorder! It is easy to use, with on screen menu and directions. The only thing that I would change is for the camera to come with a battery that lasts longer than 1 hour. I had to buy the bigger battery to get more time. The color and HD quality is awesome!
You really need to buy extra batteries, but the camera is great! Wish it had time lapse or interval settings though...