Canon VIXIA HG10 (40 GB) Hard Drive Camcorder

Pros: Video and audio quality; size and weight
Cons: Software; battery life

Quick Summary Very high quality video; small, lightweight camera body; nice feature set; good low-light options; funky, piecemeal software bundle. Overall, a very nice camera. What’s in the Box Camera, battery, AC ...

Pros: Great video quality, ease of use, very compact and very competitive price
Cons: poor software support by Canon/Corel (Sony no better), sound quality has too much background hum

As a new HG10 user agree in total with the review by f8ster. Very accurate. I am a Mac Power PC user (Mac Intel users can read .mts format) and was initially frustrated till I found Voltaic - http://mac1080hd.com/ which allows a conversion of the .mts files to Quicktime. Only downside is the files at almost four times larger than the .mts. Results are good though and editing easy in the regular Mac formats. Have tested a demo version of Sony Vegas on my PC and it maybe worth getting a copy since it has a lot more control and reads .mts files with no fuss.

Acquired a used Canon DM-50 mike but results do not seem much better than the built in mike - quite a lot of either camera or ambient noise. A handheld mono mike produces clearer sound - will likely buy a good stereo mike.

Overall very happy with the camera which was acquired for a good price. Have previously owned 4 camcorders of various types original Sony beta portable, a Sony video8, a Sony videoHi8, the original Optura digital- this is by far the best.