I bought the Canon HV20 as soon as it came out. I also bought quite a few accessories for the HV20. Fortunately, as I pointed out in another post, all those accessories also work with the HV30. Probably the best of those is the portable battery charger and battery for the HV20, because who really […]

Canon is changing the video quality game for AVCHD camcorders. Previous high definition hard disk camcorders have been limited to under 20 Mbps in bitrate, which translates to fairly compromising HD footage. With the release of the HG21 and HF11, Canon is stepping up the quality bar, maxing out the AVCHD specification to utilize the […]

The Bogen Modosteady Camcorder Stabilizer looks a great deal like a miniaturized version of a Steadicam. Designed to support up to 2-pound camcorders it may work well in the consumer high-def niche, but a $185 price point may scare off many people who would otherwise find the stabilizer a great tool for their camcorder. One […]

The Panasonic HDC-SD9 continues the Panasonic line of AVCHD camcorders relying on SD cards for video storage. The most notable change between the previous model, Panasonic HDC-SD5, is the addition of a 24p shooting mode, which presumably is in response to the popularity of the Canon HV20, which was first to market with 24p HD […]

In addition to announcing the HV30 upgrade to the Canon HV20, Canon announced 2 new high definition camcorders that record to flash drives. The VIXIA HF10 has an onboard flash drive and support for recording to SD cards. The HF100 includes no internal drive and records to SD cards. One key new feature of both […]

In addition to adding 1920×1080 recording over the original features of the HV20, the new Canon HV30 also supports all the accessories of the HV20 including the all important wide angle lens attachments like the WD-43. Picture above shows that the HV30 has the exact same body as the HV20 with a different finish.

As editing AVCHD files is still something of a support boondoggle, it’s good to see that Sony is continuing to rev their software to support the cameras adopting their frustrating format. As pointed out in a post on editing AVCHD with Pinnacle Studio, it’s often easier to simply copy files between hard drives rather than […]

Watch the video below, shot recently for Robert Scoble’s Why Russian Technologists Aren’t Cool post. This video is so distracting from a technique standpoint, that I can’t ever make my own decision about whether I think Russian Technologists are cool or not (I happen to know some I consider cool)? The story you are telling […]

“What is HAD CCD? My Sony Handycam camcorder says it has an Advanced HAD CCD, but I’m not sure what that means.”
CCDs are one of the two common imaging chips found in camcorders (along with CMOS sensors). HAD CCD is a Sony specific product called a Hole-Accumulation Diode Charged Coupled Device. Sony claims their various […]

Things to Buy For Your Canon HV20
I love my Canon HV20. Video has great color and looks crisp. The HDV format is easy to work with. It supports external microphones. There are a few things that could make the HV20 a little better. Here’s my list of add-ons every Canon HV20 owner should have.
Canon WD43 […]