Gadgetory

flash-based camcorders have been on the market for a while but Canon recently joined the party I'm Brian Chong for cnet.com and today we're signing the product spotlight on the canon vixia hf 10 the vixia hf 10 is canons debut model for flash-based high-definition cameras and there's a lot to love the hf 10 has a sleek and compact black design that weighs just over 15 ounces and is small and light enough to fit in a large jacket pocket it's plastic body feels real solid too now some of the controls have been relocated with this design the function button and joystick which are used frequently to change settings now live on the LCD the hf 10 has 16 gigabytes of built-in flash memory and a slot for SDHC removable flash this camera records AVC HD video at a maximum of 17 megabits per second and that supports the full 1920 by 1080 high-definition for capturing just over 2 hours of footage you can also record to your SD card at the highest quality as long as you're using class 4 SDHC or higher now let's take a look at the lens it's a 12 X zoom which is a longer reach than most of the 10x lens from other cameras in its class it performs really well focuses quickly and stays locked in both dim and bright conditions there's HDMI and USB on this side on the back you'll have a mic in and an AV out and on the inside there's a slot for the additional SD card and component out and there's canons accessory shoe slot up here you'll also get an included battery which is rated for about 55 minutes of recording time but like most camcorders you want to consider picking up the larger double capacity battery even if it ruins some of the sleek lines what else should you guys be aware of well there's a manual focus mode that using the joystick and it's basically useless also the wind filter is not as dependable as previous models and I've never had a chance to see this in action but if you live in a place like San Francisco that could be an issue but overall this camera does everything you could ask for in its class i'm brian tong for cnet.com and kennen may not have been the first out of the gate with a flash-based camcorder but the vixia hf 10's well-rounded feature set great video and performance gets it right the first time