Ah… Now I see why the HV20 dropped dramatically in price. Are those the only new features? How about a gain control?

I just bought an hv30 yesterday at my local store in Toronto. I’ve been playing around with it a lot today. The most immediate difference in usability between this camera and the older hv20 is the new LCD screen. I found that using the hv20′s LCD screen you were really in the dark when it came to making any changes in exposure. You pretty much NEEDED an external monitor to see what the camera was doing. This might seem like a minor issue when you’re shopping around (and noticing the big price difference that has grown between the hv20 and hv30) but it’s a REALLY BIG DEAL when you’re actually using these cameras to shoot on a daily basis. The other differences are that it’s black, it’s got a larger zoom control, it can use Canon’s new extended battery packs (also incredibly useful), and it gives you the option to shoot 30p. I’m told that shooting 30p is useful for video that’s going straight to the web (YouTube etc) because those sites automatically compress your video down to 15p, and the math of simply halving your framerate makes your video look better when it’s streamed. I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know. As far as I’m aware, there are zero other differences between these two cameras. No added gain function, no updated chips… nothing. Identical.

Not worth the extra cost right now if you ask me. Sure, it has 30p, but people have been uploading videos online without 30p for years and years, and you’ve seen all of these videos, so what’s to complain about? The HV20 produced some great videos even when it was compressed to the standard online 15 frames per sec.

The black color is nice to add that professional touch (always looks more professional than consumer-silver), but some of the key issues weren’t resolved. The less then ideal (but better than many) focus wheel is still the same. The zoom is better, sure, but there aren’t any significant hardware changes. They still haven’t added a rubber eye-piece, so you have to jam your face into the thing if you want to use the viewfinder. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one that extends out with a rubber eye cup? Oh well, we can only dream.

I bought one of these a week ago, and just added the $200 Canon DM-50 external shotgun/stereo mic. I was really impressed that I could get images this nice for a camera costing under a grand. I’m looking forward to the improvement of audio quality with the new mic. The audio was good before, but as we know, these types of cameras are susceptible to a lot of wind noise because there is never a shield or wind screen. The accesory mic has these. I’d like to see a different accessory shoe cover… it’s awkward to open, and when attaching accessories, the cover sort stays right there in the way, potential flopping around and causing added noise. With the current design, I’ll have to use a rubberband or something to hold it in place to avoid the noise.

I was able to get the camera for $850… regardless of the price for the older model, this is a good instrument for the price. The 24p shooting mode was one of the main selling points for me, and the fact that the image quality of HDV tape is currently better than anything recording direct to hard drive or flash memory. The blacks are a bit grainy, but I don’t think you can expect anything better from a camera at this price. To get better than this, you’d likely have to pay double. I think Canon did a good job with this, but I would like to get rid of the little focus wheel for a focus ring on the front of the lens, and I would like to see a fully variable white balance as opposed to preset options. A guy can dream, right?