Canon’s highly anticipated HV10 will be the world’s smallest and most affordable high definition consumer camcorder.
By Starla Gonzales

The world’s eventual transition into high definition video is inevitable, even if the wait has been long and continuously extended.

Although this will eventually be a costly exercise what with having to replace everything from the television set to cable box, DVD player, DVD collection and camcorder, take heed now because its already worth trading in the old telly.

With high definition televisions (HDTV) becoming more common, the race is heating up. A tentative deadline of 2009 to cutoff all analogue television broadcasts has been set.

Besides a television, also worth considering is a high definition camcorder, which has the ability to make any home video look like a dream-screen hit, with four times the resolution of a standard television picture and a widescreen shape. The clarity, colour fidelity and detail of good high-definition video is simply breathtaking.

Sony’s HD camcorder series has offered consumers the opportunity to record their life’s best memories in high definition since 2005. However, the soon-to-be-released Canon HV10 is poised to become the world’s smallest and most affordable high-definition tape camcorder. Canon seems to have used the same tactic as when launching its much anticipated digital cameras: It waited for its forerunner’s errors to surface and then learnt from them.

Both camcorders have built-in, automatic lens caps and immobile, non-extendable eyepiece viewfinders. Both record to MiniDV cassettes in 1080i format, editable on Apple’s iMovie and many Windows programs. Neither have headphone or microphone jacks.

What distinguishes the Canon HV10 from its competitors, besides the size and price, is the image-quality, which is just little short of brilliant. A number of technological advances were made to counter the camera shake that becomes so much more obvious with such sharp image definition. A sensor in the front of the camera refocuses swiftly when the aim of the camera is changed, while for fine-tuning there is a standard through-the-lens system. Ironing out the last bit of fuzziness is a gyroscope inside the lens, which is far more efficient than any of the electronic stabilizers commonly used today.

In addition to this advanced stabilizer and focusing system, the Canon also functions well in low light and has a built-in video light allowing for night-time interviews. Also, the camera can convert analog video, including VHS and 8-millimetre tapes, into digital form – although not high definition.

For playback, the Canon goes straight into the high definition television. It will still be some time before high definition DVD recorders graduate from being a concept to a consumable. There are a couple of rare high definition VCRs floating around, but DVD has long won that format war.