Canon Vixia HF S100 Camcorder Review

The HF S100 (along with its sister model, the HF S10) is Canon's new flagship HD camcorder for 2009. The camcorder has large shoes to fill, as it represents an upgrade over our winner of 2008 camcorder of the year—the Canon HF11. Canon has packed quite a bit into the HF S100 in designing this upgrade, including a sizable 8.59-megapixel sensor, plenty of new controls, and a much larger lens than the previous models. Even with these upgrades, the high-end consumer HD camcorder market is still crowded. The HF S100 is a strong contender, but equally impressive models from Sony (the HDR-XR520V), Panasonic (HDC-TM300), and Sanyo (VPC-HD2000) are making for some tough choices among consumers. The HF S100 is currently available from Canon for an MSRP of $1099.

The HF S100 records exclusively to removable SD/SDHC memory cards, which are sold separately. Its upgraded sister model, HF S10, is essentially the same camcorder as the HF S100, but with 32GB of built-in flash memory (for an extra $200). With camcorders becoming smaller every year, the HF S100 may appear a bit chunkier than most current models. For all its size, the HF S100 also still feels very good in the hand and fits nicely into your palm with a tight grip. The hand strap is top-notch and comfortable.

The biggest addition to the HF S100 is its fantastic custom control dial located just under the left side of the lens. This dial, which is eerily similar to the Cam Control dial found on Sony's high-end camcorders, allows for smooth adjustment of a variety of manual controls. The dial is thick, well-placed, and can be comfortably adjusted using the tip of your thumb. The dial also has one glaring weakness—you must go deep into the camcorder's menu to set the desired function (i.e. controlling focus or aperture, etc.). This effectively weakens the dial's ability and makes switching between functions annoying. Nevertheless, the dial will still be appreciated by manual-control lovers and people who miss using a lens ring to manipulate settings.

Speaking of manual controls, the HF S100 has loads of them. In addition to the aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes found on other Canon models, the HF S100 packs in an auto gain control limiter that allows you to set the camcorder's maximum gain boost. There's also numerous color modes, plenty of white balance presets, three zoom control speeds, two zebra-pattern exposure markers, and a bunch of peaking and focus assist tools. The camcorder also offers manual audio level adjustment as well as color bars and an audio test tone for calibrating your footage. Canon continues to offer its 30p and 24p frame rates on the HF S100, which are excellent inclusions for people who want to achieve a slower, film-like aesthetic. With the addition of the custom control dial in conjunction with all these features, the Canon HF S100 has positioned itself as the best choice for consumers looking for a manual control powerhouse.

One drawback that may scare away traditional camcorder users is the Canon HF S100's lack of an electronic viewfinder. The camcorder's glossy, 2.7-inch LCD screen looks beautiful under controlled light, but may pose problems when trying to shoot in high-glare situations. It is true that electronic viewfinders are becoming a rarity on consumer camcorders, but both the Panasonic HDC-TM300 and Sony HDR-XR520V include one.

The HF S100 is not the best choice for beginners. Its plethora of controls are spread out amongst three different menus and the navigation can be a daunting effort. The lack of any built-in or internal memory also makes things a bit tricky for people who aren't used to backing up their footage regularly. The model does include an easy mode, called "dual shot" by Canon, but there is no help or information feature to provide assistance while you traverse the menu system. The port placement on the model is also very poor, something that is accentuated by the fact that the external microphone jack is completely unprotected on the front of the camcorder.

Performance (read in-depth lab performance at CamcorderInfo.com)
With its large lens and gigantic 8.59-megapixel sensor, we expected the Canon HF S100 to dominate the competition as far as video performance is concerned. The camcorder didn't quite lead up to these expectations, however, and it gave a relatively poor performance in low light compared to top-of-the-line camcorders from other manufacturers. In bright light, the camcorder produced a spectacularly sharp image with good color accuracy and strong detail. The camcorder captured motion very well and the 30p and 24p frame rates looked terrific. The HF S100 was also capable of taking very sharp still photos at a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2456.

Our low light testing showed a below average performance for the HF S100, particularly with color accuracy and noise. We also found its low light sensitivity to be slightly worse than last year's Canon HF11, HF10, and HF100. The HF S100 did produce much better low light results when recording with its 24p and 30p frame rates. So, if you plan on shooting most of your footage in one of these alternate frame rates, you can rest assured the HF S100 will do you well in low light. If you are going to be shooting at regular 60i (the default mode for the camcorder), you're going to be stuck with a sub-par performance in low light.

Comparisons (read in-depth comparisons at CamcorderInfo.com)
It doesn't look like Canon is going to run away with the top camcorders in 2009 like it did last year. The HF S100 is a very good camcorder, it has strong video performance, and the addition of the custom control dial makes it a terrific choice for manual control lovers—but there are a number of other models giving Canon a strong fight. The Sony HDR-XR520V has an equally impressive performance compared to the HF S100 and its similar control dial has a better overall design. The HDR-XR520V also includes an electronic viewfinder, a larger LCD screen, and a 240GB internal hard drive compared to the HF S100's memory-card only capability. The difference in price between the two camcorders is significant (the XR520V costs $400 more than the Canon), but they both represent the top-of-the-line products of their respective manufacturers.

There's also competition coming from the HDC-TM300, a flash-based camcorder from Panasonic that includes 32GB of internal memory. On the TM300, Panasonic added a number of automatic controls, implemented a new touchscreen system, and kept around the much-praised lens ring for manual control adjustment. The HDC-TM300 also put up good numbers in our low light testing, suggesting it may succeed where the HF S100 failed to shine.

We've also seen a surprise coming from the Sanyo VPC-HD2000, which is a far cheaper camcorder than the HF S100. While most high-end models cost upward of $1000, the VPC-HD2000 offers excellent video quality for a price tag of around $600-$700. The HD2000 also has lots of manual controls and can record full-HD video natively at 1080/60p. The camcorder does have its share of quirks, however, and its upright design definitely isn't for everyone. Still, in this rough economy it is definitely worth a second look.

For a more in-depth review, visit the Canon HF S100 Review at our partner CamcorderInfo.com