The Vixia HG21 is almost identical to its sibling, the Vixia HF11.  It records to a hard drive, unlike HF11 that records essentially to internal memory.  There is a reasonable difference in the prices of these camcorders, mainly due to the 120 GB hard drive of HG21 and 32 GB internal memory of HF11.

The difference between the recording times is rather great, HF11 — 2 hours, 55 minutes; the HG21 — 11 hours, 5 minutes.  You can supplement both these camcorders with SDHC cards.  One of its added advantages is that it has an eye-level viewfinder.  When you compare the two with respect to size, the HF11 is definitely smaller and lighter at 2.9 inches X 2.5 inches X 5.1 inches and 15.1 ounces.  HG21 is 3.1-inches X 3 inches X 5.4 inches and it weighs 17.6 ounces.

There have been few alterations in the design of HG21.  One of the most noticeable ones is the dial that is used to switch from video/still record to video/still playback is placed on the back of the device.  In case of the HF11, it is on the left side.  It has controls that are easy to operate and large.

It sports a 2.7-inch LCD screen.  The frequently used settings sit on a five-way joystick and Function button; the two rest on the LCD bezel.  This placement may not be very comfortable, as it is difficult to concurrently change the settings and hold the camcorder in a steady position.  Few of the functions assigned to the joystick are difficult to use, E.g. manually focusing with the joystick despite of the zoom-view focus assist.

It records AVCHD video at a max bit rate of 24Mbps.  It holds up to 45 hours and 15 minutes of video at the lowest bit rate of 5Mbps.  It has five quality settings.  The higher bit rate supports full 1920×1080 capture.  Best quality video can record to SDHC cards provided it is a Class 4 or better SDHC card.  A Class 6 card would provide the best result.

The SD card slot provided by Canon is quite useful.  However, you have to connect the power adapter to the camcorder to transfer video from the HG21 to your PC.  This may pose a challenge in case you are shooting outdoors and do not have a power outlet nearby.  Nevertheless, you can shoot to an SD card and then transferring the video using an SD card reader.

It sports an f1.8-3.0, 12x optically stabilized zoom lens; it has a longer reach than a 10x lens, which is available in almost all the camcorders of this class.  Its other features include aperture and shutter priority exposure modes, three fixed/one variable zoom speed options, a video light, Instant AF and a windscreen filter.  For recording options, you may want to record either in progressive 30 or 24 fps, or in 60i.  The options available for still photos include metering, exposure and burst bracketing, and flash.  One of the other things included in the package is a complete set of ports and connectors; these include component or mini-HDMI out for direct-to-TV playback, mini headphone and mic jacks, and USB for downloading to computer.

Although good, the 1920×1080 still photos taken from the HG21, you would not want to take a print from them.

If you want, your video to have a movie theatre like look you may want to use the 24p Cinema mode.  This is also good for most of your recordings.  Although it is a good thing, that Canon also included the 30p support.

The lens performs very well.  It features a Super Range optical image stabilizer that is quite pleasing.  The lens focuses quickly and performs well in both, low and bright light conditions.  The images look sharp and have vivid and life-like colors.  Images that have high contrasts have a kind of halo effect.  The stereo microphone sits beneath the lens; it delivers decent quality audio.  In all the recent camcorders, Canon has changed the wind-filter option from a forced-on to automatic, which doesn’t seem to be very effective.

It has a 1/3.2-inch, 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, but even this small sensor performs well.  The footage recorded exposes properly, has good saturation and is sharp, too.  The low light videos are detailed and are as good as the others in its class.  The video shows a good deal of noise and a compressed tonal range in low light conditions.

It is difficult to distinguish the 24Mbps video from the 17Mbps, except in low light.  When you view this on a large-screen plasma television, the higher bit rate video showed considerably higher luminance noise than the video with a lower bit rate.  The video with lower bit rates looks soft.  The 24Mbps is the highest bandwidth available for an AVCHD camcorder, which not all the camcorders on the market support.

HG21’s user interface is a little technical but easy to use once you get a hang of it.  It has three menu systems, which all show on the LCD screen.  The navigation works with a small joystick, which requires a practice to master it since it is sensitive; it’s smooth to operate once you get a hang of it.  The manual controls that boot by pressing the joystick are difficult to understand at first.  You have to pay very close attention to the tiny arrows on the screen to make sure where exactly you are in the interface. Canon Vixia’s HV20, HV30 and HV40 all had an analogue wheel to navigate through the menu.  The set of manual controls was compromised on in the HG21 as compared to the previous models.  The near to flawless interface suffers due to the lack of ability to fine-tune the most important controls because you use a joystick rather than a wheel.

It definitely is a brilliant choice for hard disk based high definition recording.  When compared to Sony’s HDR-SR11, the HG21 seems to be a better choice, especially because Sony features a touch-screen interface.  Although a few mistakes, it is one of the better consumer high definition camcorders available on the market.  It has all the features that you may want out of a hard-drive camcorder.  Some of its positives are its high image quality, features and usability.  What Canon could have worked on- the manual features.  Over and above, it’s a good device to have in your possession.

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