Canon HV20 Video Sample

Here's my video just at a higher resolution in case anyone wanted to see it.

http://www.vimeo.com/741408

So I just received my Canon HV20 and I took it to a local park to shoot a little test video with it. I captured the video using HDVSplit into .m2t format and then imported into Adobe Premier 2 to do my edits.

The video was shot in 24p however the 24p video stream is embedded in 60i. In order to get the 24p video you need to perform a 2:3 pull down to extract the 24p video from the 60i stream. I didn't get around to doing this but I'll try to mess around with that and upload it in the future.

This video was exported as a 640x480 .wmv however I kept the picture in the same 16x9 aspect ratio that the HV20 natively shoots in. If you have any questions or comments feel free, I'd love to discuss this camera with other Canon HV20 owners.
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UPDATE:

So I've been asked a lot about my opinion on this camera since posting this clip and I thought I'd add my response to a fellow youtuber who asked me this very question.
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What I can tell you is that I've been VERY impressed with the HV20. At the time that I bought it I must have downloaded every uncompressed video clip from every HD camera in the price range of the HV20 and read every thread talking about the camera. I even went down to Best Buy and held it in my hands and at the end of the day I decided to go with it over all the other cameras on the market.

Here are a few of my reasons for buying the camera....

1) It uses Mini DV tapes: I shoot A LOT of video and storing even compressed HD video can take up lots of hard drive space I have 6TB full of SD and HD videos! Mini DV tapes can be bought for a buck or two a piece and you always have a backup of your video once you've got it on your hard drive, just in case your hard drive ever crashes (which I've had happen and having tape backups is VERY nice!)

2) It has a hot shoe so you can plug in canon's shotgun mic and it will use your cameras batteries and record directly to the tape, no wires or anything. I compared a lot of shotgun mics for the camera and in the end I went with Canon's shotgun mic built for their cameras just because it wouldn't require extra batteries or wires and its worked more than adequately for me.

3) It has external mic inputs. Sometimes I shoot with wireless microphones and it's nice having mic inputs.

4) In the end it shot better video than every other HD camera in this price range at the time. I can honestly say I haven't regreted getting the camera EVER! I love the video it shoots and it's just been a really great camera. Oh and the LED light on the front is pretty nice, I've actually used it quite often for evening shooting just to highlight the persons face that I'm shooting. I really love having it and I can't imagine having a camera without a built in light now, DEFINITELY an added bonus.

I think the only complaint that I have with these line of HD cameras is the lack of a better manual focus ring. The manual focus wheel they have on the side works, but its hard to get a nice smooth transitioned focus. If it were a ring that you could turn with your hand it would be really nice. Other than that, I think that's my only complaint.

If you haven't heard about it there's a nifty adapter that lets you add camera lenses to get some really awesome depth of field shots. The adapter is called the Letus 35

http://www.letus35.com

Look for videos on here shot with the letus and the HV20, it will blow you away :) Here's a video that a guy shot using that setup.

http://www.vimeo.com/371492

I didn't have the original video on my hard drive anymore so I blew up the file I uploaded to youtube to fit vimeo's hd specs so the video has been stretched pretty far, but I think it still looks half way decent. Hopefully now that I found vimeo and can upload HD clips I'll get some more examples up on my vimeo profile :)

Anyhow, I don't think you'd regret getting this camera, and since it's got virtually the same specs as the newer cameras from what I can tell but is their older model, you can probably find it for cheaper.

Great camera for it's price!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Canon
• HV20
• Video
• Sample

[iamcharming2008]

Canon sucks balls. The image is blurry and the colours... there are no colours, they look like shit. Today's photo cameras have 10 times better video picture quality than that shitty SD video cameras.

[warkilla]

@iamcharming2008 Do your research before commenting on a product you know nothing about, this is an HD camcorder.

[BiltmoreEtc]

Wow, that little flick looked great. I just scored an HV-20 on CL for $250. I am used to recording my interviews for my show directly into my computer with a Logitech webcam Pro 9000, which has its own software. With the Logitech I just plug in the usb and go. With this new camera from Canon I am going to have to learn how to use this new device, but clearly the results are well worth it.

[warkilla]

@BiltmoreEtc I'm not sure if your interviews need to be streamed live with a webcam? You can hook the cam up to your computer and fire up Adobe Premiere and go to record mode and Premiere should see what the camera is seeing and you can record digitally to the comp with Premiere instead of capturing to tape first and then transferring.

[Markaes]

the picture quality is better than the vx2000 cause no MiniDV, but i dont think the colours are better.. but you can correct them for example with adobe after effects

[TheBTBproduction]

@iamcharming2008 i think its time we grow up. its good to be critical. However, it is not good to be a dick about your criticism. 

[Vinnypoo]

@iamcharming2008 yeah i'll admit you don't sound like you know what you're talking about. for one the image is pretty good and so is the colour, its no d-slr, but still a great cheap camcorder with a mic input and a manual focus dial (though not very practical because it is too small) but the point is that in order to make a film you shouldn't solely rely on image quality but on shot composition and good direction.

[2VisionsPhotography]

@iamcharming2008 i think its because the video converter on the pc.

the raw video is awesome. I can say that because i have a similar camera. And its awesome!

[KrazyKali69]

i got some good macros with my hv20

[warkilla]

@T3FilmStudios Glad you figured it out!

[T3FilmStudios]

@warkilla

thanks for the reply, it came a little late though :P I managed to fix my problem by resetting the camera to factory settings. Turned out I had HDV output disabled, which was why Premiere Pro CS4 couldn't recognize it.