Canon Vixia HF M40 16 GB Camcorder - Black

There is one feature of the Canon Vixia HF M40 that sets it apart from and and above any other camera in its price class. That is the low light performance of the 1/3" HD CMOS Pro sensor. The videos and photos this camera takes under real life lighting conditions are wonderful, satisfying the most important requirement I had when selecting a camcorder.

Canon has stripped the camera of some features found in competitive models to make this performance possible. Most notably, the still photo resolution is only 2.1 megapixels. According to my research, the relatively low pixel count allows Canon to pack larger pixels onto the chip, resulting in the dramatically higher light gathering ability. Using the whole sensor for both HD video and still imaging gives the camera its excellent sharpness and image quality. I had a recent need to capture some available light stills for web publishing recently. I struggled with my Nikon SLR for several minutes before it occurred to me to snap the pictures handheld with the Canon. Voila! Beautiful, blur free photos, more than adequate at 1980x1080 for my purposes.

Presumably to keep the lens speed high, Canon has chosen to put only a 10x optical zoom on this camera. This tradeoff I find a little limiting, both at the wide and telephoto ends(the 40x or 200x digital zoom capability notwithstanding).

The camera is a little larger than most of its price peers, but still feels light and compact in your hand. The touch screen is best accessed with a fingernail or the included stylus; it does not respond well to my fingertip. There was a bit of a learning curve but, once I got the hang of touching and scrolling, navigating the menus was fairly easy.

The editing and effects capabilities are excellent. There's a nifty storyboarding function, green or blue screen image overlays, sketch, animations, icons and titles, all via the touch screen. There are several convenient ways to group and display scenes and photos. My particular camera, a refurbished model, did not come with the Pixela software so I can't speak to the ease of editing on your computer.

The multiple memory options and 5 recording modes allow for a lot of versatility when it comes to recording time and media. The default SP mode (7Mbps) lets you record up to 5 hours in the 16GB internal memory. With 2 32GB SDHC cards in relay recording mode I can get roughly 24 hours of continuous recording. The highest quality (24 Mbps) mode uses about 16GB per 90 minutes.

The included battery lasts the advertised 120 minutes of recording time, but is a little weird in that it doesn't fill the battery cavity of the camera. This is both aesthetically and ergonomically awkward. My first accessory purchase was the double life battery, which ends up flush with the camera back.

Overall, I am thrilled with this camcorder. It is better than anything else I have tried for my basic requirements and has some nice bells and whistles.

This is an excellent unit from an excellent vendor. I was a bit concerned because it was overhauled by the manufacturer rather than new, but you cannot tell in any way. It was packed perfectly with all accessories and has worked perfectly right out of the box. Picture quality is outstanding and it is a very capable unit with many features.

I purchased this as a backup camera. I began filming with a Nikon D7000 DSLR in a studio setting. I purchased a set of 5 filters for the M40. On the first shoot I wound up using the movie from the Canon M40 instead of the DSLR movie. The ability to set up the camcorder and use custom filters was important to me. The low light capabilities of the 'Pro" CMOS is another feature that was important to me. The Nikon will only record for 20 minutes per clip. Recording a training seminar with the Canon M40 does not have that restriction and until I get the DSLR movies figured out the Canon has the quality and versatility that I need. The built in microphone worked quite well indoors.Excellent quality, value priced.