to help fellow hobbyist, let's list our likes and dislikes from the HV-20. The list will be updated regularly. Please list objective points only. Not liking the grip, for example, is subjective.

LIKES
24p option
best IQ thus far
Instant Auto Focus (bcatwilly)
Competitive price for feature set (lobato)
Good manual control of aperture and shutter speed (lobato)
Universal accessory shoe (lobato)
Mic input (lobato)
Good battery life (in comparison with similar camcorders) (lobato)
Good color reproduction (lobato)



DISLIKES
no S-VHS out
no LANC
chintzy material
doesn't come with miniSD

For me I would like to see the future HV30 record the whole 1920x1080 at 30p and 5.1 sound onto a 32GB SD card something like Canon's TX1 is doing. If they can increase the band width hopefully they will be able to add more dynamic range to the color and grayscale so we won't see any of those highlight blowouts on HV20 in its auto mode.

For me I would like to see the future HV30 record the whole 1920x1080 at 30p and 5.1 sound onto a 32GB SD card something like Canon's TX1 is doing. If they can increase the band width hopefully they will be able to add more dynamic range to the color and grayscale so we won't see any of those highlight blowouts on HV20 in its auto mode.

Then it will no longer be on tape because the bandwidth is already maxed out at 25 Mbps and it will also no longer be HDV standard.

Please list objective points only

Isn't this pretty subjective? :p For example, I'm glad that it didn't come with a miniSD. Supplied miniSDs (with the exception of those supplied with miniSD-based camcorders) are generally smaller capacity than ones I already own. That means I toss the supplied miniSD in a drawer somewhere and forget about it. I also think no S video out is moot since it has component out.

Anyway, here are some additional ones. And mind you, some of these are subjective but are important to me.

LIKES
Competitive price for feature set
Good manual control of aperture (and shutter speed)
Accessory shoe (that's not proprietary)
Mic input
Good battery life (in comparison with similar camcorders)
Good color reproduction

DISLIKE
Not pocket-sized (like the HV10 is)

Amen, let's lose the tape and limited HDV format in the next incarnation of this product. I'd like to record true 1080p AVI clips to flash memory with 48 KHz stereo audio at 24, 25 or 30 fps in MJPEG or XviD format with selectable quality levels.

I'd rather have a flash-based camcorder that records stellar 1080p using a 3-chip sensor with NO PIXEL SHIFT and NO SCALING than a hybrid camera that takes decent pictures but records fuzzy video due to bandwidth problems scaling from a >3MP sensor. But if Canon can make a camera that does both well, that'd be great.

I can't see much value in providing the space for an S-VHS output when we're talking about an HD camera.

LIKES:

- Ridiculously awesome HD picture quality for a consumer camcorder, have yet to see anything touch it.
- 24p mode
- Instant Auto Focus - really does seem to make a difference with HD shooting when I see other camcorder videos

DISLIKES:

- Wish it was black and built like a tank (similar to my Olympus digital camera) so that I didn't have to hear any comments about "builld quality"

Picture quality trumps everything for me, whether I have shown someone captured raw video on my widescreen laptop or on my HD projector, people are amazed at how great it looks.

I can't see much value in providing the space for an S-VHS output when we're talking about an HD camera.

Space shouldn't be an issue, the multi-cable (now utilized for component) can be made switchable to S-VHS multi-cable a'la the older higher-end Canon camcorders.

Yes, it doesn't really make sense when we're talking about HD camera, but if we want to use that logic, then composite shouldn't be included either. :)

Amen, let's lose the tape and limited HDV format in the next incarnation of this product. I'd like to record true 1080p AVI clips to flash memory with 48 KHz stereo audio at 24, 25 or 30 fps in MJPEG or XviD format with selectable quality levels.

I'd rather have a flash-based camcorder that records stellar 1080p using a 3-chip sensor with NO PIXEL SHIFT and NO SCALING than a hybrid camera that takes decent pictures but records fuzzy video due to bandwidth problems scaling from a >3MP sensor. But if Canon can make a camera that does both well, that'd be great.
you would think that recording to flash mem on an HV20 would be totally feasible with Canon's technology. It seems that all Canon has to do is compressing1920x1080 image out of HV20/HV10's CMOS chip to a 34mbp MPEG2 instead of to 25mbp for HDV and recording it to a flash mem like Canon's TX1. Honestly after seeing what one chip CMOS can do in HV10/HV20 I can care less about the three chips.

I love everything about this camera. As long as it keeps outputting stellar HD video, I can overlook any minor build annoyances. I just hope it turns out to be reliable in the long term.

Likes:
Amazing picture quality
Small size
Low-light ability
Actually functions as a pretty decent camera with built-in flash
HDMI makes connecting to TV easy
Accessory shoe is great
Autofocus is excellent
Price!

Dislikes:
Camcorder is somewhat ugly
Sound quality of the mic is mediocre
Button placement/size is awkward (record, zoom, focus)
No infrared receiver on the back
Viewfinder is useless

you would think that recording to flash mem on an HV20 would be totally feasible with Canon's technology. It seems that all Canon has to do is compressing1920x1080 image out of HV20/HV10's CMOS chip to a 34mbp MPEG2 instead of to 25mbp for HDV and recording it to a flash mem like Canon's TX1. Honestly after seeing what one chip CMOS can do in HV10/HV20 I can care less about the three chips.

I actually bought this unit because of the use of tape. It's going to be very difficult for me to buy a laptop to download all the files on a daily basis or if I choose to carry lots of SD-HC it's going to be very expensive. During my trips I average about 5 tapes per week and my trips are at least 2 weeks long.

10 SD-HC? buy a laptop? I'd rather spend the money on better optics, mic etc. But this is very subjective ;)

I just realized that I can't shuttle-search to the end of a scene in the camera mode. Am I missing something or is this a 'missing' feature from this camcorder? (all of my Sony home camcorder have this feature where I can shuttle to the nearest second to edit a scene without going to the play mode)