 Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Daniel Russell here today is a very very very very exciting day for me Because after weeks of protracted agonizing, I have upgraded my camcorder from my trusty Canon Vixia HF-R800 I've made a ton of videos. I feel about this camcorder and I absolutely love this camera to bits It's been I was an amazing purchase I've owned this guy for approximately three years at this point Perhaps a little bit less maybe two years, but between two and three years It's an entry-level consumer camcorder and I bought this when I was just thinking about getting into video as a Not really defined as a hobby potentially potentially bleeding it into my professional work and marketing and it was a conservative purchase It was about like 200 bucks. So really kind of as cheap as you can get While buying from a reputable brand and having a 3.5 mil input. That was really important to me I also really really like the idea of buying a camcorder and a camcorder people kind of get hate these days because you know DSLR and mirrorless Have become so trendy and people like to laugh at camcorders. I mean like dads at Birthday parties, but camcorders still have a lot of adherence and they still actually dominate in Stuff like ENG which stands for electronic news gathering. So in other words when you see camera crews on the street When was the last time you saw a professional news crew using a DSLR mirrorless? It might happen I've never seen it. I always see them with professional camcorders And that's what this is what I've upgraded to the XA40 is basically as kind of cheap as you can go while buying a reputable professional camcorder So, yeah, I'm gonna talk about sort of why I made the upgrade I'll just talk a little bit about camcorders why I actually do really love camcorders what I'm doing with video currently I'm running a YouTube channel for fun. My background is in if I've never talked about this before I'll talk about it just for a minute. My background was originally in journalism I did is I have a degree in journalism. Actually, I got really involved in it in university and then started doing a lot of writing then like a lot of Journalists who encounter today's crazy job market shifted into communications specifically marketing tech communications and So my kind of journalistic aspirations kind of just like segued out there Video always intrigued me. I did a little bit of audio work professionally in terms of When I was doing freelance reporting I gather some audio packages and edit them and when I had a choice between audio and video in my journalism degree Which was a master's degree in city University London I chose audio and the reason I chose audio was because Even though we had an amazing video studio on campus that students could use I thought video was so scary I thought it was good. I can never afford to get into video. I can never afford to You know to pick up equipment and I don't know even though I'm like quite technical There was a part of me saying I'm not smart enough for video I'm not cool enough for video because video people are super cool So it was as much a mental and anxiety thing as it was, you know, something else So getting into video and what I'm doing right now. I'm doing this YouTube channel I'm selling some stock videography and I'm making a little bit of money out of that and my aspiration is definitely to Do kind of more like documentary work. I would love to produce mini documentaries. That's kind of my Long-term vision right now. I love documentaries. I love storytelling and I live somewhere really interesting in the Middle East That has so many stories happening all around. So even if it's just a hobby for me It's bringing me a lot of pleasure. So this was my initial camcorder. It's the canvixie hf-4 800 I've talked about this to death. Well, let me just say why if you're thinking about upgrading from a consumer camcorder To a prosumer or pro camcorder what you're gonna get the differences are so the first limitation That really drove me crazy was the lack of a cold shoe So I ended up actually buying an adhesive cold shoe and more practically, you know I kind of put the camcorder on one of these scorpion grips. There's also L brackets and That will get you your cold shoes. There's three cold shoes here. So you can put on a light. You can put on a External microphone You can't actually monitor from this camcorder just FYI from the Vixie hf-4 800. It does have It does have a ight, but if you can't actually monitor from that You can you can use it as a webcam, but you can't record while monitor record on the camcorder While driving an external monitor if that makes sense if you know about monitors, it doesn't make sense to you There's a little LCD screen and you can get these kind of sun shades given that I live in Israel in the summer It's super sunny and these things are actually very useful What I'm upgrading to or what I've just purchased the xa-40 Does have a it's called an oh, I think it's called an OECD an optical electronic viewfinder oEVF a viewfinder basically So yeah, the Vixie hf-4 800 great camcorder Unfortunately only does 1080p has a very small sensor. So the low light performance is not great The low light performance on the xa-40 is not going to be that incredible either and the reason is that It's to do with the sensor size. So to get the one-inch sensor you need to upgrade to the xa-50 That was another like $800. So given that I'm not really monetizing my video currently Although I aspire to figure some way to do so. I didn't think it was justifiable for me to spend another 800 books Just in order to get you know one inch sensor versus whatever sensor 1 over 2.3 the xa-40 has so This is going to like solve a lot of problems this camcorder has number one Rigging this has a cold shoe. It has a double shoe and it's got a top handle So the rig is already kind of there All you need to do is and it's got a little shotgun mount for Putting on a shotgun microphone and you can put a light on the cold shoe. So Every time I go out shooting with this guy, it's always a question of do I want to bring out the albracca? Do I want to bring out the scorpion? Do I want to go handheld? Do I want to put on the gimbal? Increasingly, I'm not using the gimbal because I think that there is an art and a skill in Getting good at handheld stabilization bringing it up close to your body keeping it close to your face And I actually find that much more Enjoyable, not only does it make your camera bag lighter It's kind of fun to master the art of handheld shooting you use your body and you get good at using your body for it the other limitations regarding this is The battery is small and it's only got 3.5 mil so basically there's a for what I can tell like a lot of technology There is no hard and fast distinction between what's a consumer camcorder and what's a professional camcorder? But it's expected that pro level Camcorders are gonna have a few things that your consumers won't number one is going to be multiple audio inputs and XLR inputs the This camcorder the x840 which is basically now The base of the XA range so you know you've now got the XA 40 50 I think there's sorry XA 40 45 50 and 55 and I think Canada going to discontinue the XA 30 etc So what you have in these guys is to XLR inputs and they can actually give phantom power, which is awesome. So One of the biggest frustrations with people owning the Vixia is that the 3.5 mil now I know I'm sending super geeky now and giving all the tech stuff But I think people who are Interested in camcorders hopefully will Well, I won't be going into too much unnecessary detail One of the annoying things about this camcorder is that the 3.5 mil mic input. It does have a 3.5 mil I put for monitoring, but the input is unpowered. There's no voltage whatsoever So that means whenever you want to use a microphone with the Vixia HF for 800 You need to have something that has a built-in battery basically so that rules out a lot of otherwise great microphones Especially ones that are not super expensive The XA 40 solves all your audio issues in one fell swoop You've got 3.5 and the 3.5 gives out some power You've got XLR and the XLR can give out phantom power 48 volt and you've got two XLRs. So basically This Does not have SDI. That's the difference between As far as I know the 45 and the 55 that five in the product sequence Will give you SDI personally as I'm not working in a professional broadcasting environment I don't have any use for SDI and as I mentioned while I definitely see enough value in video that I'm prepared to spend money on it There's a limit to how much money I can or should spend on it So I figured this was kind of a really solid purchase. It'll hopefully last me Get me another few years and then perhaps at that point. I'll go for an even better camcorder, but This one I'm sure this this could get me a lot further than it already has It's more a case that for me What I'm thinking about going out to shoot and create at this point having learned about all different stuff regarding lighting and microphones I wanted something that just had all the options. The camcorder is not a limitation with this You've got your XLRs. You've got your XLRs with phantom You know, you've got your 4k recording capability. You've even got a little infrared light filter and you've got your shoe So all these things that I've worked up very hard to work around on the Vixia you've got in there Okay, so it's that out of the way. Let me go ahead now and unbox the Canon X840 This is gonna be not a super intense unboxing video I'm not gonna go through it So I bought this in Israel firstly. Now what are prices like in Israel? They're not as cheap as US unfortunately So if you are watching this in the US and you have B&H photo video consider yourself lucky in Israel stuff tends to be more expensive But I shopping around Was able to find it for a couple of hundred bucks more. So it wasn't like a Crazy difference. I am actually going to the US this summer And I figured it would be better to have my big camera purchase done now. Okay So This is the European model firstly, so we're gonna be getting hopefully a European charger Like most tech products, I feel like there is an awful lot of box and awful lot of plastic unless on the inside there's an awful lot of you know Instruction manuals that I the first thing I do is find can I get this as a PDF? And as soon as I have it as a PDF, I throw this in the bin because I don't like keeping paper if I can avoid it Okay, so In terms of the actual Camcorder, I can see it. I can see it. It's hiding within a Cloth within a cloth. Okay, here we go. So it's everything I expected it to be it's not Super big and this is the base unit. This isn't the top now at this point I probably watched every unboxing video on the Canon XA40 that's that's like ever been put on YouTube So nothing about this is surprising to me, which is like when I bought the first First time I was Vixia. I didn't really know what to expect. So this is like, oh, yeah, I remember this on YouTube I'm not gonna go through what this camcorder does Because I wanted to talk more about the pros and cons versus a Vixia then do an unboxing of this camcorder But yeah, basically it has everything here in terms of your your outputs on this side It's got your LCD screen here. It's got your viewfinder here Now compared to I looked up the weight before buying this the Vixia HFR 800 is super light even with the Scorpion grip. It's still very light. This is a little bit heavier This is kind of weighty enough in your hands and that should help with stabilisation So holding these sides to side you can see I'm gonna put them like this So you guys can kind of see the size comparison You can look up the spec sheets online to actually see the differences in weight and height It's not night and day now. I reckon the reason I'm doing this video I reckon there is a lot of people thinking about going from the Vixia HFR 800 because it is such a popular entry-level camcorder up to the up to the XA40 because I think this is kind of the obvious leap if you want to go from consumer cannon to prosumer cannon camcorders So this fits really snugly in the hand. I did cut off the grip. You may notice on my Vixia I'm definitely not doing that on this one I did that because I wanted it to be easier to get onto grips I'm probably going to be using this one handheld a lot more than I was doing with that because I don't need to put it on a Bunch of rigs to get my accessories on therefore. I'm definitely keeping this and it's also a nice Leather grip, so it'd be a real pain a real shame to do anything with it So it's staying right there, and yeah, that feels pretty nice as I'm just sort of panning Comes with the lens cover. Here is the lens now. This is 50. I believe it's 58 millimeters in diameter Versus the 55 here. It does not come with built-in ND filters So here's the lenses side by side just so you can see how much kind of chunk here We're talking about again I'd say it's not a night and day difference and in the realm of prosumer camcorders the XA40 is considered very small It's considered a compact prosumer camcorder, and I have my focus ring here as zoom ring. Sorry So some of the some of the nicer Prosumer camcorders and professional have three for iris for zoom and for focus. This guy just has focus This is the fancy shoe, and this is the cold shoe. I can't believe that after Three years that's been literally three years of trying to figure out ways to get lights and microphones on the Vixia and Ella bracket and a scorpion grip and a sea grip and a adhesive grip so much work has gone into this And all I don't know if Canon ever watch I died Canon will ever watch this But if they ever do please put a cold shoe on the Vixia series because it just I Guess they're just expecting people not to accessorize the camcorder But it's just such an annoying Limitation if you are looking to do that. I think these are probably the microphones here at the front and guessing I'm not sure what this knob does. I will be probably spending a lot of the rest of this week Geeking out and you know testing and doing all kinds of stuff like that now as we said I bought this in Israel and we use the same plug as The good folks in Europe, so therefore it's got two prongs It's a euro plug if you're buying this in the US you'll actually be getting a US plug Does come with a charger now one thing that I read on on the internet I probably never put so much research into a purchase as this so like I feel like I've kind of nothing here is probably Hopefully gonna surprise me. It doesn't come with a usb an external charger in other words So I've already actually ordered one of those from the internet oem and I'm gonna order an oem battery because The battery it comes with There is two batteries the BP a20 and the BP a28 You can get aftermarket aftermarket batteries that are beefier So this and disappointed by the size of this this is BP a20 Yeah, that doesn't look that big to me And you know, I think it's a couple of hours you get out of it So I'm just gonna slide it into the camcorder already Fits just as you'd expect perfectly snugly But yeah, that does not look like a very big battery to me and I'm expecting that and going to want to buy One two extra batteries. I'm gonna try and wrap this up fairly soon because the People below me are currently renovating and this is a rare break in the day without drilling going on. So Bear bear with the unboxing. So this is the rest of the charger component It is called and I always like to remember these part numbers because if you're looking for Replacements, it's a really good idea just as a recommendation for other cannon buyers I have a spreadsheet where like I write down the charger for the cannon a x a 40 is called the CA 570 you can see the product number there at the top just so you know, you're always getting the right parts It's got this thing which I believe has something to do with isolating Electrical interference. There's a I'm not gonna deal with this right now because I'm going out actually on a photo Video shoot in a few hours. So this is part of my professional work as well. Now. I'm starting to do video interviews for clients. So Most of the unboxing will be done later in the week. This is good. It comes with a lens hood And you know, obviously the more things that The camera comes with the less work you're gonna have to do and when you just buy something like this You don't have to say, oh, I didn't come with a lentil. What's the size of diameter? What's the part number? So I love when These things are included. I didn't go for anything like a kit option. I don't really know what I'm doing here as this may be obvious So I am going to leave. Oh, there we go. It just clicks. I just clicks So this is clearly on the wrong way No, it's on the right way. So there you go shutter So I tend not to read instruction manuals if I really need to I do I know it's probably a bad approach But for me if a product is designed nicely The the hallmark is can you not read the instruction manual everything so far? I figure that out You just twist it on you just slot this in nothing's been in any way complicated And I guess the idea of this is that it's interchangeable in other words If you don't want to use a lens hood, well, you can just take off the lens hood and just use a simple cap I'm gonna just keep the cap on for the moment and put the lens hood to the side so I can continue With this unboxing what other goodies has kind of given us it's given us so we need to get to the top the top Plate handle handle One of the perils of living outside of an English-speaking country for long enough as you begin to lose your Grasp on your native language So We're getting near the end as you can see I'm very carefully disposing of the cardboard and This is the shotgun Grip so the idea here is that Now my question about this is what kind of diameter microphone this guy's gonna fit like it's not a huge. Is it adjustable? Oh It's adjustable that is great Okay So the idea is that your shotgun mic will pierce through this and this obviously is gonna connect using some kind of screws If I don't know how to do something I'm gonna just do it Later myself and not bore Anyone who stumbles upon this video with all the nitty gritty. Here's the important bit This is the top handle and as you can see we've got our two XLR inputs here on the side and we've got our audio control stuff here So I believe that should really be it. I'm just kind of crawling through Going through the bowels of this box now to see if there's anything I'm missing. I don't think there is I think we are fully Unboxed now Going back to my litmus test without reading the instruction manual. This is the body. It's detachable So if just want to use your camcorder like this, you've got yourself a great 4k camcorder you've got yourself your Infrared light going on sorry the infrared lights actually on the top handle So you won't have your infrared light going on, but you will have a cold shoe. So you can go and stick on You can get a cold you can get one of these one to three Cold shoe adapters, which are super useful. You can put a you know shotgun up here You can put them up. You can put a light on the side So you can actually get if you don't need pro audio XLR audio You have everything in the body and I guess it's nice that it's interchangeable It does have two SD cards, which is again a kind of a pro feature that you can have back up Back up SD now in terms of getting my top guy on to my bottom guy again It's so easy. I can see there's two screws here and I can see there's a top Guy there and I can see that this is going into the cold shoe So I just put it in the cold shoe and then I can see there's two slots for the screws. So using just basic Logic hopefully I Just slot this guy in Has yep, okay, and it came in with a nice click Just to let me know that it's home and then all you got to do I guess is tighten up the screws I have a flathead screwdriver. So I'll just do this More professionally in a few moments, but for the moment this will get the job done for my first video shoot And you know I can hold it down and it's totally attached there So now we have it assembled The only thing and by the way as I said just to not to not to brag because there's really nothing to brag about this It's so easy But how this is working this shoe is cold this shoe was hot So the electronics are going in through the hot shoe and the cold shoe is just there for security So what you probably want to do as well is Lock it down into the cold shoe and you're not being done out of a shoe By the way, because you've got your shoe at the top of the top handle. So now you're shooting like this You've got your shoe shoe shoe everything beautiful The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where our good friend the This guy will go and even this is Dummy proof because I can see Well, there's a slot for it here And I have two screws spare my box only thing is I always like when they give you spares Manufacturers, so I didn't I didn't get spare screws, but whatever my only literally my only complaint so far I'm gonna then you know want to just screw these two screws in here I actually don't think I'm gonna use this because it's gonna add another You know six or seven centimeters and that's gonna make it hard I think this guy will fit in my current camera bag because you know, it's just not that It's not that big which is great. It means that I can use my backpack I can use my camera bag. Let me guys show you the side to side comparison I've just taken the Vixia off the off the thing. I'm gonna just close the lens to be to be responsible Here's the Vixia on the right. I'm shaking it Giving it a twirl and here is the XA 40 on the left And this is really you're seeing cannon's consumer camcorder lineup and the start of its prosumer camcorder lineup side-by-side one criticism or my only concern and this this this isn't sort of a This isn't sort of planned. I'm just sort of Speaking off the cuff here. I'm not sure if there's any Way to get these guys waterproof these two XLR jacks and for that matter all this stuff Look kind of exposed to me to the elements if you're shooting outdoors and rainy conditions like I was a few days ago So I'm wondering if there's an aftermarket piece of plastic or some kind of protection I will be dropping a cannon a query probably tonight and the buttons here by the way are for toggling between 48-fold phantom power regular mic line in I'll figure all this stuff out. So that is the unboxing done. My first impressions are that it was everything It's everything I've been expecting basically which is It's going to be the next step up for me and Having spent a lot of time rigging and accessorizing My goal is to just basically keep this guy in a camera bag and go out with it, you know, basically all the time Probably using my gimbal a lot less relying on its stabilization I'm using it basically for professional needs shooting with clients shooting some stock given that it has 4k Capability for shooting stock video. That's a huge advantage for me and I'm definitely I was thinking about selling this honestly I bought so many like kind of accessories for us and it's been such a great teaching tool for me I'm gonna keep it on hand and just have it as a B camera if I ever get into multi cam I don't want to do a shoot like this. The Vixie is gonna be my B cam now Hope this gave anyone thinking about buying this camcorder a sense for what it looks like what it's like and There's going to be more videos coming up as I get used to shooting with the X840 Thank you guys for watching in a course if you want to get more videos for me, please subscribe to this YouTube channel