Canon VIXIA HF11 Flash Media Camcorder Review

I looked for a video recorder for nearly a year, first eliminating standard-definition camcorders then carefully examining every bit of info on consumer HD camcorders. For one reason or another, I focused on the Canon Vixia HF11. What did it for me was that the Canon HF11 has 32 GB of internal flash memory (not a hard drive) and a slot for an SD card for additional memory. I bought a 16 GB SD card, so this gives me 48 GB of storage in the HF11. That's good for more than four hours at the highest quality level.

I paid about $900 for the Canon Vixia HF11 from Amazon. It shipped quickly and it arrived in perfect condition.

What it is

The Canon Vixia HF11 is an HD camcorder with a CMOS sensor that has a native format of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The camera records in 1080i HD format using AVCHD coding. AVCHD is an offshoot of MPEG4 encoding and it is a more efficient coding standard than MPEG2, which is what the competing HDV format uses. Other than a 12x zoom lens, the Canon HF11 has no moving parts -- all recording is done on solid state memory, as I mentioned above.

The Canon Vixia HF11 is the first AVCHD camcorder to have a recording rate of 24 Mbps. Up until now, AVCHD camcorders had a maximum rate of 17 Mbps. Of course, the more data you use, the better the quality will be. However, the quality is pretty darn good at 17 Mbps, so I've been using that. At 17 Mbps, my Vixia HF11 with 48 GB of memory will record more than six hours of HD video.

A 2.7-inch LCD viewfinder folds out from the left side of the HF11. This viewfinder is bright and clear, and next to it are buttons and a joystick to control playback and make menu selections. It's fairly intuitive, although not perfectly intuitive. The entire camera is tiny -- about the size of a Coke can -- and it can easily fit in a jacket pocket. It weighs about 15 ounces ready to roll, with battery and memory loaded. The front of the camera has a tiny LED video light that works up to about six feet or so, helping to light where ever the camera is pointed.

The HF11 will shoot both HD video and decent-quality still images. Stills are at 3.2 megapixel resolution, which is more than enough for respectable snapshots and e-mailing. Couple that with a 12x zoom lens and you get a fairly competent still-image camera. There is even a flash and it works well. The Canon Vixia HF11 has optical image stabilization that works very well for both still and video images.

Shipping with the camera is a single battery, as well as some software for processing still images and editing video. The video editing software is called ImageMixer 3 SE, and it's pretty minimal. The camera also comes with various cables to connect the HF11 to an HDTV to view the images, and to connect to a computer to load images/video for further storage and processing.

Using it

The Canon HF11 is ready to shoot in three or four seconds. The strap on the right side of the camcorder holds my hand well, placing the lens' zoom control at the tip of my index finger. The start/stop button for recording is by my right thumb. For still images, the shutter button is just behind the zoom control, a slightly confusing location. For most of the shots I took, I supported the camera with two hands: Right hand on the main body of the HF11 and left hand on the viewfinder. This worked well and made for fairly steady shooting.

I found the zoom control a little touchy. It can be controlled so that zooms are slow and elegant, but just a tiny bit more pressure sends the zoom rushing along. I did enjoy the 12x zoom however, and the lens is clear and sharp.

Video recorded with the Canon Vixia HF11 is surprisingly clear. Anything in daylight looks particularly sharp and colors are natural. Noise is pretty much non-existant in daylight shots but the standard exposure on my camera is a little high out of the box. White objects tended to be blown out with little detail. I reduced the exposure by two notches and it's a little better. In a dark interior, visual noise rises quickly. Shots are still usable, but you will definitely see noise.

The Vixia HF11 records stereo audio with two small front-facing microphones and it does a good job. However, wind will make a lot of rumbling that drowns out what you are recording, and there's not much you can do about it.

The tiny battery lasts for a good while. I shot short clips all day a couple days ago, often using the on-camera LED video light, and still had plenty of battery life left. I also didn't come close to using up the storage space.

Editing

I have a difficult time loading images from the camera into my computer. My fairly new and powerful Windows Vista computer will not recognize the Canon Vixia HF11 when plugged into a USB port, so I have to move all the files onto the SD card and slip the SD card into my computer's reader slot. This is a valid workaround, but it wastes a bit of time. I contacted Canon support to get assistance with my non-recognition problem and got a quick and polite response. However, it hasn't helped and the last contact was that the fault was probably in Windows Vista. Since this computer will recognize other USB devices, I can't help but think the problem is Canon's and not Microsoft's.

ImageMixer 3 SE that comes with the camera is very basic editing software. I have some previous video editing experience and figured out ImageMixer fairly quickly. Its capabilities are modest but you can use it to string shots together into a finished program. (Keep in mind that you will need a powerful computer to edit the HD video from the Canon HF11.) The biggest problem is that edited videos are saved as AVCHD format files, which are difficult to share with people. No way is supplied by Canon to convert AVCHD files to MPEG2 or Windows Media files, which would be much easier to share with friends and relatives. I think the Canon Vixia HF11 should come with some way to convert files to a format that others could easily view, even if this converted format was not as high quality as the original AVCHD format.

Note: I kept trying to get Windows Media Player to playback an edited AVCHD program and finally got it to work. So it is possible for Windows Media Player to playback AVCHD videos. It just took several tries and some fussing.

Summary

I like the Canon Vixia HF11 and love the size. It takes beautiful and clear pictures, although the exposure can be a little high. Loading files into a computer can be problematic and the editing capability supplied with the HF11 is minimal. Finally, there is no convenient way to distribute the video you've shot and edited. However, the ergonomics of the camera and its image quality are very good.

I recommend the Canon Vixia HF11. It is just the size I'm looking for and image quality is quite good. However, keep in mind that you may have to fuss some to get images into your computer and that you may want to look for a more powerful editing solution. In another year, better editing and easier sharing possibilities will be more common. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the heck out of the pictures I'm taking.