Digital Trends

We reported on the first wave of 2008 camcorders with our recent review of the very good JVC GZ-HD6. That hard disk drive 1080p video maker did a wonderful job recording accurate colors that really popped off the screen of our plasma HDTV. In keeping with the trend away from DVD- and tape-based models, the new Canon Vixia HF10 saves video to 16GB of internal flash memory as well as optional SDHC memory cards (up to 32GB, the current maximum for the format; it will handle even bigger sizes once they’re available). Given there’s not even a HDD—God forbid a tape or disc—to weigh it down, the Vixia HF10 is unbelievably small and compact. In fact it’s just a shade smaller than the Sony HDR-CX7, another high-def camcorder that only records to Memory Stick Pro Duo memory cards. You will be amazed at the size of the HF10. The fact this AVCHD edition records 1920 x 1080i video is pretty sweet too, an increase over last year’s 1440 x 1080i. Cute is good, but how does it work in the big, bad ugly world? We couldn’t wait to find out…