Canon HF20 / HF200 Official Owner's Thread - Page 5

Anyone?

Hey guys im new hear and found this site while researching for a video camara.

Maybe you guys can tell me if im getting in over my head, I will start with what it will be used for mainly is my son plays high school football and family events etc. and he wants me to start to video the game's. A friend of mine took some video of one of his games with a non-HD camara and i was not impressed.

I really would like "simple" as in easy to use, easy to burn to disk from my laptop not so worried right now about editing for movies or burning blue ray I do have HD TV's, my laptop is a Gateway M250 its alomost 4yrs old now it had Windows Xp, 1.60Hz processer, 590mhz, 1gb of ram, and think it was 40GB or 60GB of hard drive my computer is just used for email and surfing.


I was not looking to upgrade laptops as of yet i was trying to squeez another year of service out of this one, thinking of doing some upgrades to keep it going.

Tell me what you guys think, is this the HF20 good for a noob? Its in my price range, I like the style and the size.

Any info would be great.

Thanks Jeff

So after some experimenting, the ugly solution is this:
If you move mts files off the SD card using a standard card reader out of the folder E:\\PRIVATE\\AVCHD\\BDMV\\STREAM and then place the SD card back into the camera, you will see question marks for the videos moved off the card.

I believe this is due to not using the software to move these files off camera as this method doesn't update the index.bdm and movieobj.bdm files in E:\\PRIVATE\\AVCHD\\BDMV and thus the camera doesn't know these videos have been removed. I also do not touch the corresponding .CPI files in E:\\PRIVATE\\AVCHD\\BDMV\\CLIPINF.

You can then move .MTS files back into E:\\PRIVATE\\AVCHD\\BDMV\\STREAM and have them playable on the camera so long as you do not touch the index files in E:\\PRIVATE\\AVCHD\\BDMV as mentioned above. This means not deleting the question mark videos using the camera interface.

Ugly because in the end in your playlist on the camera, you will see all the videos you've ever taken as question marks except for those you have yet to move off the SD card. But it works.

Too bad the Pixela software doesn't do what's advertised and provide a clean solution for moving these videos back and forth.

Note that this will not work for videos that you have not taken with the camera since the index will not include said video.

If anyone comes up with a better solution to using their camera as a player for MTS files, I'd love to hear it.

Hey ya'll, haven't dropped by in a little while. Just wanted to report that I've ordered a wide angle lenz for my HF200 and it should be here in a day or two. Some of you may laugh when I tell you which one I ordered but I went with the cheapest of the cheap The Zeikos ZE-WA37S 37mm 0.45X Wide Angle Lens. It's costing me a whopping $9.75 plus $6.68 shipping and handling for a grand total of $16.43.

Now you might be asking yourself why I went with such a cheap lens. The answer is because of all the lens's I've researched from this Zeikos to some like Raynox that cost upwards of $100.00, the reviews all pretty much say the same thing... And that is the lenz looks good zoomed all the way out but then gets distorted when you zoom in. The only exceptions to this seems to be the Canon wide angle lenses that cost between $160.00 and $260.00. And even then there seems to be alot of disappointed people, when it comes to zooming.

I will give you all a fair and no punches pulled review on this lens after I test it a little while. Because I'm sure there must be other people out there wondering if a cheap lens like this can be of any real use. See ya'll later...

I'm going to be watching for your post!! I have 2 wide angle lenses....
a .45 and a .5.. BOTH have problems
Out of focus edges when you zoom in..
Both go soft at max Zoom in... the .45 less than the .5
Both put angles on vertical edges....
the .45 has lens corners in picture, and with that you can see the anti-shake work...
The MFG names on the ones I have:
.45 no name "DIGITAL HIGH DEFINATION 0.45X WIDE ANGLE LENS WITH MACRO Kinda looks like the Zeikos
.5 Opteka .5x High Def Wide angle lens OPT- 05W China

The .45 is better but defocuses corners

I shot several outdoor scenes using a tripod and recording the same scene with different setings on the camera. Looking on 61" Samsung DLP (720P), I can't tell the difference between the 2 highest settings, so I use the 17mbps setting. Using windows & premiere elements 7, can't tell the difference either when burned to dvd format.

Rendering those mts files using premiere elements 7 on a core 2 duo 2.33 ghz Dell 530 with 4 gigs of ram takes a long time. Can take a couple of hours to do a 1 hr dvd, and I just record in the 17 mbps mode, and not the high rez 24 mbps mode. I start the big rendering/burn jobs when I go to bed.

AVCHD is very intensive to record to DVD....

Also to Blu-Ray, especially when you are using dual pass encode, with 40Mb settings!

I ordered a Canon HF20 seemed to meet my needs price/quality ratio. HD files on youtube confirmed my concern regarding detail and zoom concerns. I would expect the detail will be somewhat better when I connect HDMI (mini)to HDTV (1080P) on TV.

One question I had but couldn't find an answer in the manual? Is it possible to move files from the 32GB internal memory to a SDHC 16GB (Class4 or better) installed in card slot? I would then remove the SDHC card to PC rather to transfer files using USB cable. Probally no faster, just more convenient.


Update: Found answer can be done, there's and option in play back functions menu.

I tried this with Canon FS200 and worked like a champ, but these were .mod (mpeg2) files. I could access also them with WMP 11.


oth

Hi,

I just picked up this camera along with premiere elements 7. I'm having a hard time choosing between which encodings to convert my videos to.

I mainly want to upload them to the web in HD. However, the h.264 and MPEG 2 encoding options are creating 400mb-900mb files which are just too big.

Are there any others formats that will produce good quality HD footage without the massive file size?

What do all those folks on Vimeo use?

Hi all -

After a good bit of research, I purchased an HF200 yesterday and used it last night to record a 40 minute high school choir performance. I will be doing some minor edits and burning to DVD for the school's archive. Since I'll be burning to DVD, i recorded in FXP mode.

As soon as I got home, I imported the video into iMovie '09 (import process was just about realtime - took about 40 minutes). I know I don't want to use the imported file as my archive as it is much bigger than the original AVCHD data.

So how does your AVCHD archiving workflow go? With my previous camcorder (only standard def, but also flash), I just copied the .MOD files into my video archive folder, which is then backed-up automatically by Time Machine. I'm thinking of just copying the entire AVCHD into a folder in my video archive folder. The folder would be named after the event in which the video was created ("2009 Choir", "Around the House", etc.)

Does anyone archive the imported files? I guess there's nothing wrong with this, as long as you can afford the diskspace, but I'm thinking as long as I have the original AVCHD, I can just re-import.

Thanks!

Right, the iMovie import transcodes the H.264 into Apple Intermediate Codec, to make it easier/possible to edit, this can result in very large files. You do have the choice of either importing at full resolution or 960x540, if you are going to SD delivery. These will be half the size or less of the HD AIC, but still much larger than the H.264 MTS files. I don't think too many end-users have the space to store the AIC files, unless needed in the near future. Like you said, you can create a new folder on your hard drive, call it "2009 Choir" and drag the AVCHD folder into it. Then, if in the future you want to use this material again, in iMovie, go to File>Import>Camera Archive, and that folder. You then have a choice of importing all the clips or only some, and at what AIC resolution.

Here are some more tips:
http://mickwest.com/2009/07/06/imovi...and-solutions/
Bottom line: Never change anything inside an AVCHD folder!

Thanks, keel. I guess something I'm wondering about are my iMovie and iDVD project files. Say I import the AVCHD into iMovie, and I do all my editing, then create a DVD. I guess theoretically, once I've created my DVD "master", I can delete the iMovie project and clips. I'm just worried I'll want to do some re-edits later on and will wish I had kept the project files and clips. Is this something people just don't worry about? Heck, it's not like I'm doing this for a business and have to worry about a client coming back asking for re-edits in the future. :-)

Come to think of it, with Time Machine automatically backing up my files every hour, I guess I could just restore the iMovie project files and clips if/when I need to do some re-edits in the future. Hmmm....

Sorry, I have not used Time Machine enough to confirm that it can do what you want...maybe test it first..
Also be careful deleting iMovie files that are used in iDVD. Have not used the latest iDVD with the latest iMovie much, but in the older versions if you deleted the iMovie project you could not burn a new DVD unless you had used File>Archive Project.
It was odd, as the iDVD normally saved file would be 3 GB or so, so you knew the encoded assets were in it, but it still needed the iMovie project to burn.
Well, hard drives are getting cheaper all the time, and you can now get 2 TB ones, so if an iMovie project is important you can always save it with the AIC files. Good luck.

Well, I just ordered a HF20 from Amazon and I am excited about my new purchase.

I certianly expect that it will put my old mini-dvd Hitachi (it is the 350) to shame.

-T.Wells

While shopping/researching, anyone bump the HF20/HF200 against the lower priced Samsung equivalents (HMX-H100/104/105/106)?

Amazon has the HMX-H100 for $399.99, which seems like an incredible deal...

Thanks all! I am looking to upgrade my 10+ year old Sony Hi-8 analog boat anchor

i have the HF20, . . . and i love it, it is a great camera, in conjunction with my late '08 model 15" MBP and FCS-3
i have a question though, i am going to do a video where i will be interviewing people, . . . any suggestions on how to capture the audio?
should i just use the mic on the cam? should i buy the canon mic? or should i record the audio separately and add it in in editing? and if separately any ideas for a cheap solution?
thanks

Question on the best setting for low-light situation:

Most of my shooting needs are indoors; typical lighting is 4 bulbs of 23 watts (CFL ~ equivalent of 60 watt bulbs). Mind you the room is pretty bright to the human eye but there is a lot of noise. It is horrible on the full auto. It reduces in the Cine mode. I also tried the Tv mode with 1/24 & 24P.

Are there any better settings than these to get better low-light performance for my type of situations? I like the camera in most other ways but if this is what I am going to get in low-light situations, I am going to try either the Sanyo FH1 or the Sony XR500/ 520.

Good audio is harder to capture than good video. Always monitor with your headphones, at least at the start. I think it's a lot harder to add the audio later, difficult to sync with the video. But you may want to also record the audio separately for something important, as a safety.
No matter what mic you use, find a nice quiet location with good acoustics if possible (not too many hard surfaces). For an interview, lavaliers are best, as the distance between the mic and the speaker stay constant.
Are you going to be talking also? Sometimes simple is best, if you are not too far away from the camera the built-in may be fine. I think it's a pretty good mic as far as built-in go. Otherwise I think I would get a short shotgun, there may be some better than the Canon Mic, imho, though I have not tested it. You will need an adapter to go from the standard shoe to the Canon shoe.
No matter what you use, do some testing beforehand.

Just got my HF200 today.
Came home and popped in a 4gb class 6 card I picked up on the way home come my 8gb class 6's from new egg are late.

Camera ios telling me the card can't record MXP FOrmat. Basically won't let me record 24mpbs or 17mbps?

Any ideas what is going on here? It is Class 6..... They tell me I only need class 4 in the manual :-) Have formatted and initialized many times.

Frustrating.

Some of the cheaper cards aren't as fast as others in the same class. I would always buy a card that's known to work well with HD camcorders.

Which brand and model did you buy? Some Class 6 cards are internally Class 10 cards. Unfortunately, the HF20/200 line is misreading the class number on the card.

Hi all, Well my son is 7 months old and I feel that I've missed out on recording so many precious moments already. So I just ordered a HF200 from newegg tonight and I'm hopeing to get it before the holiday. I had a budget of $400-$500 and met the $500otd max. After researching and researching I feel that this cam at this price is about as good as one could get.

Being that this is really my first camcorder and it being HD, I'm a bit intimidated by all the chat about converting files and the strain it puts of PCs. I'm running a C2D 8200 overclocked to 3800mhz, 2 gigs ram, and a Nvidia gtx260. So I hope that's enough HP. I'm pretty computer literate though so I think I should be fine with the converting and stuff.

I am thinking of purchasing the hf 20. My biggest question is How is the stabilization. I record my kids games, and dont use a tripod, as I am moving around a lot.

Hi Everyone,

I purchased an HF200 recently and am planning on using it to record boxes full of old family movies (on 8mm and Super 8mm film) so I can preserve them on DVD and ultimately on BlueRay.

I've found plenty of information on the net about setting up the movie projector and camera but I have no idea what would be the best settings on my HF200 to get the best quality out of the movies. What frame rate (60i, PF30 or PF24)? Should I record in Cine Mode, Night Mode, or some other mode?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I just placed my order on Best Buy's website this morning for my very first camcorder. I went with the HF20 and got it for $525 after tax. I'm sure most will agree that is an excellent price. Really thankfull for black Friday. I already plan to purchase the Canon BP-819 Lithium Ion Battery Pack and Canon 2590B002 CG-800 Lithium Ion Battery Charger from Amazon.

My question to all you is what brand SDHC card should I purchase in addition to the internal memory? I want to get a 16gb card to start with. I know I can use class 4 or class 6 but, have read a lot that certain brands do not work well such as Transcend.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated. If it weren't for these forum's most folks would be left in the dark using trial and error. I figure who better to ask then the people who already have the product. Thank you.

How did you get that camera today? I was up at midnight, when I was told they would put more in stock online, and never was able to buy it at $500. Its a great price and I went to the store this morning, CRAZY, but they dont even stock that model!!

I got it today too for $534.99 with tax at Best Buy. I waited in line since 11:30 pm and when the store opens at 5 AM I had to scramble to get one while its so cold outside.

They didnt have it on display and they ask me to go and check the front desk and they have 3. All gone within seconds.

Now playing with it. I order me the mid size bettery also for $73. I bought the original.

I notice the grainyness in low light and already try the Cinema mode and it work.

Looking for more tips here.

If you go to Canon website and read on the Spec, it will tell you what SD card to get.

I copy it here:

Note: Note: 1920 x 1080 movie recording requires a Class 4 or higher memory card. For other recording formats, a Class 2 or higher card is recommended. Also, movie recording requires cards with 128 MB of memory or more. Cards made by Toshiba, SanDisk or Matsushita are recommended. No particular restrictions apply for still images.

1. I dont understand why I need to convert and render it?

2. I am looking for a software can can make all my movies into different chapter and you just click the number. I use to do this but it was many years ago. I remmeber using Nero. Is Adobe Primere or Sony Vegas good to use?

3. What DVD player can play in HD beside blu-ray. Thats another question. The reason is because if I burn in HD, then no DVD play can use it anyway beside a blu-ray player.

Very confused.

I copy this one .mts file into my computer and it plays with audio.

I see alot of other folders on there and no idea what they are.

I use Klite Codec with the Window Media Classic. You can use VLC Media player.

My computer plays my recorded to my HDTV thru the HDMI.

Easy. What is there for editing software?

I use the SanDisk Extreme III with 8 GB and it record in HD. Bought 3 of them last year on BF for $1.50 AR each.

I was hoping I can plug my USB in and see the HF20 memory from the Window Explorer but no. I have to install a software?
Edit: I have figure this part out. Click Play and choose Compuer and it auto install the USB driver and I now can see the internal memory structurer.

All you need is the .mts file