Brett Noe Productions

In December, I got a Canon HG20. I chose the HG20 over the HF series because of the hard drive. This lets me do longer things such as live event video. It also has an SDHC slot for additional storage. This means almost unlimited storage.

I find that I like the AVCHD format. I don’t recommend it for everything but it works for a lot of things and the average consumer probably can’t tell the difference anyway. It works especially well if you are down converting to SD.

The camera also has 30p and 24p recording. This is recorded via telecine inside of 60i. This means you will need to use JES De-Interlacer to extract a true 24p file. Same thing you need to do with the HV20, so no big deal.

The biggest problem with all Canon’s consumer cameras is the lack of zebra function! This means it is difficult to use unless you are in automatic mode. Unless, of course, you know how to ISO rate a camera so you can use a light meter. Fortunately, I do know how. It seems that the consumer Canon’s rate at an ISO of 80. That is incredibly low, but usable. It would be better if they just brought back zebras! IMO, very shortsighted to remove this function.

An additional note for Redrock Micro M2 users, the original not the new M2encore, it rates at ISO 35! That means a whole lot of additional light.

I like the cameras but bring back zebras. As is, I’m going to use a meter to get better quality images.