The "Official" Canon HFS10 / HFS100 Owner's Thread - Page 8

thanx!! Where did you get your 32GB card at?

Okay, just got back from a family vacation, and I've used this camera (HFS10) for a LOT of footage.

I had an HF10 before for a year, so I can also comment on comparison of the two.

My main viewing is on a 110" screen through an Anthem D2v and Sony VW60, using a PCHA110 as the streaming device. All my recording has been at 24mb/s and mostly at 60i (see below).

Feedback - The GOOD:

- Colors and detail are amazing. Only slightly better than the HF10, but now that I've seen a lot of footage, it's clear. It's almost like it has better contrast or something, as the picture is more realistic (and the HF10 is really good to begin with).

- The on-board editing of video comes in handy when you record too long by mistake, or your daughter says something untoward at the end of an otherwise good shot. Just split the shot, and delete the bad part!

- Face recognition for video focus is good. It's fairly quick to find primary and secondary faces, and focus on them. It also seems fine when there are no faces, and just does normal focusing priority.

- Low-light performance is okay, not quite as good as the HF10, but good enough for me. I recorded inside some very dark Disney rides to test it out, and it worked fairly well.

- The on-board light is actually very good for close shots of people and such.

- Size and weight are great, although slightly bigger/heavier than the HF10. Nearly perfect for carrying around in your hand for constant on-the-ready shooting.

- Camera stills are also good, but I always had a still camera to do that work.


Feedback - The BAD:

- 24p and 30p aren't really what they say. Everything is recorded as 60i, with added frames and interlacing added by the camera if needed. So you need a good program to turn these into true 24p/30p source files. As a result, 60i makes the most sense for nearly all recording.

- Manual focus/etc. seems okay, but caused more problems than help. I hit the button a couple of times unintentionally (due to the location) and couldn't figure out why it wasn't focusing! Be careful of the button, and perhaps disable it by default. Almost never useful for the average person. (Although I should have used it for some nighttime shooting of a show, to keep the focus stable.)

- The internal memory (HFS10) got corrupted! I used my 16GB card initially, but it got full so I switched to the internal memory for the last couple of days. When I got home and plugged it into my computer, it was a RAW partition. Then the computer and camera wouldn't recognize it! I freaked out all night trying to fix it, then I seached download.com for the top-rated disk fixer. Fortunately, it worked like a charm and I recovered all of the 9GB I had recorded on the internal memory.

Overall
A great camera, and worth the upgrade from an HF10 if you don't do a lot of low-light shooting (and money isn't a big deal).

HOWEVER - Heed my warning about the internal memory! I'd recommend at least doing a full initialize of it before using it, and I'd avoid using it completely. With the SD card, you can pop it into your computer directly, but with the internal memory, you need to plug the camera into the computer, adding a layer of potential issues. FWIW, after I did a clean initialize (had to do it twice), it seems fine, but I'll never use the internal memory again by itself, and will always use the "copy to SD card" if I have to use the internal memory for some other reason.

Love the camera!

EDIT: Note that I went through security 4 times (twice both directions, camera in my carry-on), so perhaps that had something to do with the internal failure? Although I did record some footage on the last leg of the flight, so it was working at least a little while after the last security check... Anyway, I think it's just a bad idea to use the internal memory if you care about your videos!

For those of you recommending Class 6 cards for recording in MXP mode,

I have both a class 4 32 GB card and a class 6 16 MB card. I don't notice any difference between the two as far as recording goes. I suppose if you were transferring data to the camcorder it would be faster with the class 6, but I was wondering why you are recommending the more expensive card if you don't necessarily need it. As long as the data rate of the card (Class 4) is sufficient the data would still get completely recorded right?

Correct. You're far better off getting a name-brand Class 4 card than an off-brand Class 6. You want/need these things to last, so quality matters most.

I got them at newegg.com and looks like they are $89 right now. I figured I would get the S100 and spend the $200 difference on two 32GB cards, rather than pay for the overpriced internal memory of the S10. It is sounding like that was a good idea.

It is! I would have done the same, but I could only find the HFS10 in stock when I needed one.

Hi All,

I've had a couple of issues with my HFS10.

1. Using Vista or Windows 7 (32/64bit) I was unable to read the memory on the camcorder. Windows detects it, and installs the driver. A new drive appears in My Computer, but when I try accessing it, it just sits there and stalls. Using it under Windows XP works fine.

2. When I use Nero Vision to make a AVCHD disc, my blu-ray player (Sony S550) has trouble playing it, the video is choppy. I also used multiAVCHD with the same result. I then used Pinnacle Studio, which I gather does some re-encoding as it takes heaps longer then Nero/multiAVCHD. This plays fine. Also normal DVD's worked fine out of Nero. I think maybe my blu-ray player doesn't have enough grunt? As my PC plays all the discs fine.

Well, I don't have an S10, but I could not get Vista (64-bit) to read the SDHC card from the camera unless I plugged it into one of the USB ports on the back of the computer. For some reason it doesn't like the front ports.

Thanks it worked like a charm! I was using my front USB ports.



What does every use for editing? Pinnacle Studio? Nero Vision?

I use the pixela that came with the device for minor editing then export that to Adobe CS4 Premier for pro quality editing.

Check out this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=880825

Lots of info there.....some say CS4 does not recognize .MTS files but they just haven updated their software....heh.

My HFS 100 will be here Monday. I have a Dell XPS M1530 laptop with a Blue-Ray burner and Pinnacle Studio 12. Will I be able to transfer the video from the camera to the laptop and burn Blue-Ray dvds with the Studio or Pixela software?

Thank you for the input.

Yes...Pixela will do it just fine and my honest opinion is the best for burning. Studio 12 you can edit it...then export it to Pixela to burn.....it just seems to burn faster in Pixela then in Studio 12.....but not sacrificing quality either! I use Adobe CS4 then export to Pixela to burn to AVCHD.

Thank you for your quick response. I can hardly wait until Monday. We are going on a cruise to Alaska in August so I want to be familiar with the camera by then. By the way is it tricky to export from Studio to Pixela?
Thanks.

No problem! We are goin on a cruise too...to Spain, Italy, and France July 17th - July 27th. I always wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise.....let us know how it went and the footage you got. Like you, I have to get used to the HF S10....I have spent many hours messing around with it. It is not tricky to export back and forth...my suggestion is to try out Pixella first....it has some great features some of the more expensive programs do and you may find it very appealing to your needs. I really dont need anything more than that but when I get something new I go all out and get the best of the best and in my opinion thats Adobe CS4. To export from Studio to Pixela you can keep it as the native .MTS file or AVCHD file when saving it...click [SAVE AS] while in the Studio and there should be a drop down menu with the different extentions you can save it as. Pixela will recognize many. Some of the files Pixela will recognize are the common .MPG, .AVI, and .M2TS, .MTS ect... I just [SAVE AS] to the desktop or in a folder you can easily find then drag it to the program I want or open it in the program of choice. Remmember to back up the original off the SDHC card to a safe place then edit a copy of that file...just in case you do something you cant repair...you always have the original....I hope this helped out a little. If you need any more help just let us know. I check the thread a couple times a day...so any question you have I will do my best to answer them quickly (besides when im on vacation heh).

Thank you very much for the explanation and I hope you have a fabulous time on your cruise. Hope to hear from you on your return!

OSGCN and maybe others have purchased the DM-100 Hot Shoe Microphone.

http://digitalchumps.com/gamingnews/...ne-photos.html


Can you tell us about the performance of this Mic? Does the camcorder give you the option of selecting the internal mic or the DM-100, or would you even want to once it is attached?

Finally, since this is an S Mini Advanced Hot Shoe camera (HF S10) does anybody know of ANY other Mics that will fit in the mini shoe (hot shoe or cold shoe)?

Basically, the mic in question is, in my opinion, one of the best omni directional mic's out there in such a small size. Being that the HF S10 is so new there are few accy's that fit the device. As far as giving you the option of selecing the internal mic while the DM-100 is attached, any mic attached to the hot shoe will trump the internal and you will not be able to select it. But like you said, you wont want to use the internal if you have the DM-100 attached. As far as cold shoe...there is a mic that is a "boom mic" with the wind canceling fuzzy cover that actually work wirelessly. The device that plugs into the shoe has a little antena on it that communicates with the boom that can be up to 100 feet away. This I have seen at the CES convention 2009. It will be for sale in December 2009 for $1600 US. more than the HF S10 haha...there also will be flashes, strobes, led cluster lights, and a few choices of different types of devices that have to do with the wireless transmition of your video to your wireless router that stores the video on a external HDD hooked up to your wireless router...its called EYEFI...however it is still in the works to get 30 mbs transmition...and you must have a wireless N router hooked to at leat a 1TB external HDD. That was also at the CES 2009 convntion. That should be out for the HF S10 by late December near Christmas 2009.

And while the DM-100 mic is on topic...

Can it be used as a remote (boom-style) mic?

By this I mean - can you run a lead from the mic on a pole over some actors heads, to the mic-in socket of the camera across a room?

I have a sony external mic that has a tripod thread underneath the shoe mount. great for mounting on a monopod/threaded pole to catch dialog.

Can I do this with the DM-100 ?

Hello guys,

I have a quick question about this camcorder. I'm sorry if this question was already answered from previous discussion...

Anyways, I just received my Canon HF-S10 today and I noticed that when the lens cover is closed, it makes pretty annoying noise that it feels like something is very loose inside. I don't even have to shake the camcorder to catch this sound even just tilting it side to side makes a lot of noise... it feels like a ball is rolling around inside Does everyone have same problem? I'm just worried that the cover might get stuck or something after several months because of this loose lens cover.
Thanks in advance.

That noise is the image stabilizer. No need to worry.

I just got an HFS10 and made some trials. The picture looks sharp, but it shows a lot of camera shaking. I use to have a Canon MV200 mini DV, and I don't recall having this issue. Unfortunately I don't have the old footage available to compare.

I made some test: with camera seated on a foam/sponge surface and connected to a high definition TV with a HDMI cable to get the live picture, I (easily) tapped with the finger on different locations on the camera body. I tested with image stabilization on and off and I couldn't see any difference between the two modes, the image shown on TV moves the same, even at the softest touch.

The question is, before I decide to send the camera back for repairs, is the image stabilization working or not? Is there a better way to check or test it?

Thanks

I will say this... In my testing, the OIS for these cameras was very poor. It was truly unfortunate, too, as the lens is very sharp and gives out great picture.

Thanks a lot Larryad! I'm glad that rattling lens cover while it is shut is supposedly normal. On the other hand, I'm little worried if it is going to be safe in the long run. To me, I just don't like any loose noise in highly invested toy like this. Anyways, is image stabilizer that bad as what vp-avs said? I haven't really had a chance to play around with mine yet When I saw pre recorded scene from Sony XR520V, the person was literally running with his camcorder and the image was still pretty stable. The only reason I didn't pick Sony was that it has HDD rather than SDHS and hoped to see similar image stability from Canon. Well, I'm not gonna run around with my camcorder but still hope it won't look so bad

Image stabilization on the canon deals with how steady the image is when zoomed all the way in.

Picked up my HF S10 last week at BB for 999 + 199 protection Package including taxes. I dont know how they forgot to charge taxes since the system does it automatically. Anyway I shooted some movies and then installed Pixela SW onto my Vista ultimate 32 bit desktop. the installation was smooth; I tried to connect the S10 but the system doesnt recognize it; Message: "No camera found" when I tried to launch Pixela. I tried connecting it to my Macbook but it doesnt get recognized there either. There's no separate drive seen on the explorer either. I tried initializing the internal drive but no use except for the fact that I lost all my newborn videos taken in the last 4-5 days.

Either I'm stupid missing something important or there's something wrong with the S10, help please!

Kumar -

Make sure Power is on, camera is plugged in to power, camera is connected to back of PC USB port (not front), camera set to display operating mode (rather than record).

RSL

Only thing I missed here is pluggin it to power. I tried all the options, LCD open/close with power on of-course. front USB and then back USB on my desktop. Let me plug it into power and see if it works.

Update: It dint work. Any suggestions?

Kumar -

You didn't say whether you had touched the record/display button on the LCD to ensure that the camera was in the display operating mode. It's the button on the far right.

It seems odd to me that the darn camera must be in a certain mode to have the USB turned on, but it does. One might also question why the power must be plugged in to use the USB! That seems unnecessarily paternalistic to me.

When you plug in the device...open the LCD screen and choose "computer" and press the joy stick in....then your device is in USB mode and you can transfer your stuff over...Be sure to have it pluged in...apparently the battery power is sufficent but to ensure smooth operation you must have it plugged in to the power outlet...sorry to hear you lost all your footage...that truley sucks....heres what I would do from now on....put everything on SDHC card...then you can just take everything out to transfer through a card reader....only use the internal memory for backup if you run out of space on the SDHC. Im sure you know this now but when you initialize any of the memory it basically formats the memory for the camera to use....Best of luck in the future! Im off to Spain, Italy and France today!! So I will not be able to answer things for a week....however I prob will sneak on when the wife is asleep..haha....talk to you all soon!

RSL- Thanks man, you made my weekend. You just walked me through the process. It was the record/display button that I was supposed to press and connect the USB cable to get the screen that asks me to connect to the computer. how dumb of me!