Camcorder Review – 12/14/09 – by Johnston Blakley
Many investigators will cruise a store’s camcorder shelf, come across a camcorder such as the Panasonic SDR-H80 with 70X optical zoom and say, “Wow, I need that camcorder.” They will take the camera home and then figure out the specs and capabilities. The investigator who follows suit with this impulsive herd will run outside with the camcorder, zoom in on some distant object and then realize that the camera is shaking too much at 70X. He/she will set the camcorder down on the hood of a car, re-zoom in on the object and then notice how everything has a fuzzy, ghost-like glow. With the camcorder’s tiny little 1/8 inch CMOS video chip, everything from 10 feet to the moon is in focus but……a very soft focus. The video compression makes pixels move around like ants that go into a feeding frenzy on a discarded donut.
Good investigators not only investigate cases, they investigate equipment before the purchase.
I have picked out three HD camcorders that I believe are contenders for the top job of video surveillance. The Canon HF 20, the Sony HDR-CX520/500V and the Panasonic HDC-TM20 (Panny) are all solid state, 1920 X 1080 camcorders. I wish that they could switch to 1080 X 720, a much better HD format for your client’s wimpy computers, but I’ll have to suffice with rendering the video down to the smaller size before putting it onto a thumb drive. The Sony is in a higher price category than the others but the matching Sony line is terrible.
| CHIP SIZE bigger is better. | The Sony wins with a 1/2.88 Exmor CMOS sensor. Canon is second with a 1/4 CMOS RGB. Panny is third with a 1/6 CMOS (camera eliminated). |
| MIC PLUG to turn off audio | The Canon wins and also has level adjustment.
|
ZOOM (35mm equiv) For distant shots |
Sony has 43 – 516mm (12X) Canon has 39 – 592.5mm (15X) starts wider angle Panny has 44.1 – 706mm (16X) The Panny’s tiny chip will not allow you to zoom too far into digital zoom before it starts to ‘break up’. The Sony’s huge chip (and many pixels) will allow you to go further into digital zoom before ‘breaking up’. I’ll stop talking about the Panny since I already eliminated it. The Sony and Canon are close but Canon may have an advantage with higher Mbps (Megabits per second) |
Mbps (compression) Higher the better |
Canon uses High Profile AVCHD compression up to 24Mbps. Sony (and Panny) uses a Main Profile AVCHD up to 17 Mbps. You will notice the difference in low light situations. The Sony’s, even though I would rate it better (more sensitive) |
| LOW LIGHT | The Canon loses - period. Its predecessor, the HF 10 was better. The Sony is average to good. |
| STABILIZATION | Both Canon and Sony have optical stabilization instead of the inferior digital stabilization. Canon has had superior OIS for years but I think that Sony may have come out with a new whopper of a stabilizer. Sony’s OIS handles the tiny hand twitches and vibrations exceptionally well. Canon’s Super Range OIS has very natural movement with virtually no lag when panning. Take your pick. Do not trust the reviews in this category as the reviewer is not handholding ultra long distant shots. Go to a store and try out both cameras through the store window. |
| PRICE | Canon wins. I saw it a few weeks ago for under $600 Sony $1000 plus. |
| CARD FORMAT | Canon uses the cheaper SD cards. Winner!!! Sony uses expensive proprietary cards. (Rumor has it that there is an adapter to use the SD cards in a Sony.) |
All have manual focus, exposure and backlight.
Conclusion: I am sticking with my Canon Elura 100 MiniDV camcorder for outdoor footage until:
I expect them to be within price range before mid-2010. For agencies with a low surveillance volume, the price may not be a factor but the price difference with MiniDV tape right now would cost a busy agency thousands of dollars more per year.
I would like to see how the successor to the Canon HF 20 will handle low light. I do not know when Canon will be releasing the HF 30. I am sure the company is aware of the low light issue by now and will not want the complaint with the next model. The image quality in regular light is phenomenal.
The Sony’s actual rival is the Canon S11. The S11 is the best of the breed in my opinion but is too expensive. It has a new extra stabilizer and a built in tele-converter that re-maps the video on the chip from 10X to 17X zoom. It also has High Profile AVCHD (24 Mbps) but you can’t throw it into your pocket like you can the smaller Canon HF 20.
The two cameras are tied if you can turn off Sony’s microphone.
A bit more telephoto on each would be nice.
Better ‘normal mode’ low light capabilities on both would make them more suited for the job.
Make absolutely sure that the camcorder you purchase has the function of displaying the time and date during playback without displaying all of the camcorder functions plus the time and date. Also, some camcorders will only display the time and date that the video clip started and does not advance each minute. If you record an hour of video starting at 12:05 p.m., then 12:05 p.m. will be displayed throughout the entire clip.
The above paragraph may no longer be pertinent as we are testing two possible software solutions for stamping time and date with AVCHD video.
You will need a computer with a good bit of muscle for HiDef video and especially for the AVCHD format but don't upgrade yet until I publish a video/article about how to process HD video on older or just plain wimpy computers.
PI Johnston Blakley