Canon HF S21

Canon's HF S21 is a worthy successor to its HF S11.  Along the way, Canon has improved the optical image stabilisation, added a touchsceen interface and doubled the number of SDHC card slots to accompany the 64 GB of internal memory.

Handling

The first thing you notice about the HF S21 is how attractive it is.  That might seem like a slightly flippant observation, but when you're spending this much on a gadget, it's reasonable to expect to look good.  It's every bit the high-end camcorder, with a glossy black case and a gorgeous LCD screen.  Measuring 3.5'', the screen shows an incredible 922 000 pixels.  Watching your clips back on what is effectively a mini HD TV is an incredible experience!  It also comes with a viewfinder (which the HF S11 didn't have).  It's small and pokey and has a very low resolution of 123 000 pixels, but it will save the day if the sun is too bright to use the screen or you don't want everybody to see what you're filming.

Canon has finally moved over to a touchscreen interface on the HF S21, but that doesn't mean it's particularly intuitive.  First of all, you need to work out which button to press to open the menu: it's the FUNC key you need.  That launches a short submenu, including options like the main menu (!) as well as other functions like white balance, the mic level, exposure and focus.  When you continue into the menu, you find yourself amongst an impressive list of settings that you can flick through with your finger.  The touchscreen layer is at times a little capricious, and I managed to pick the wrong setting or accidentally quit the menu on more than one occasion.  Basically, Canon's first every touchscreen camcorder takes a little getting used to.  Once you've spent some time with it though, having your videos at your fingertips and being able to flip from one to the other like on an iPhone is really fun (see video).  You can also flip through thumbnails of a clip in an 'Aero'-like interface (see video).


You can also adjust the settings using a small scroll wheel under the lens, which controls focus, exposure, gain and the mic level.  If you do want to use the HF S21 for conducting interviews, there's both a mic input and a headphone jack.  For connecting it to a TV, there are both HDMI and composite video outputs.

Image Quality

The HF S21 has the same 1/2.6'' CMOS sensor as its predecessors, and also records in the same AVCHD format at a bitrate of 24 Mbps.  That means that outdoors, it produces the same excellent quality video as the HF S11 with great detail.  Unfortunately, the reverse is also true: it struggles just as much when light levels begin to drop, producing video spoilt by excess noise.


Disappointingly, it also has the same 43.5-535 mm lens.  Canon has, however, improved the optical image stabilisation, which was already powerful enough to correct for the movements produced when you walked holding the camcorder in Dynamic mode.  The new Powered IS system is borrowed from Canon's binoculars and allows you to keep the image still even as you zoom.  You can turn it on using a button to the left of the LCD screen, and while it's active you feel you're using a tripod. 


For editing video, AVCHD is still something of a tricky beast for video software.  Creating movies on your computer is a slow, frustrating process, however fast it is.  If you haven't already thought about editing software and you want to use your PC for some more complicated projects like short films or documentaries, we suggest Edius Neo 2 Booster, which is specially designed to handle AVCHD natively.