Canon Vixia HF S21

Canon Vixia HF S21 features a 64GB of built-in flash memory, two memory card slots should that be not enough, an improved LCD, automatic lens cover and much, much more goodies.

Canon Vixia HF S21 pros:

+ 64GB internal memory
+ 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD
+ Outstanding sharpness
+ Very good low light sensitivity
+ 8-megapixel still photos
+ Plenty of manual controls

Canon Vixia HF S21 cons:

- Merely 10x optical zoom
- Noise levels a bit too high
- No standard definition recording

The design:
Canon Vixia HF S21 measures 3 x 5.8 x 2.9 inches and weighs 16.6 oz. The front of the Canon camcorder features the 10x optical zoom lens, autofocus sensor and the control dial with a custom key. The right side of the Canon Vixia HF S21 houses the auto/manual mode switch, the built-in speaker, wrist strap, and the hand strap. The back houses the DC-input, electronic viewfinder, start/stop record button and the battery pack. The left side features the 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD, and plenty of buttons and ports in the LCD chamber. The top of the camcorder is home to the zoom toggle, photo shutter button, pop-up flash and Canon proprietary mini hot shoe. The bottom of the Canon Vixia HF S21 houses only the battery release switch and the tripod mount.

Performance:
The Canon Vixia HF S21 uses the AVCHD compression and has five quality options. The maximum is 1920 x 1080 in 24Mbps. In this quality you can store up to 355 minutes (almost 6 hours) of videos in the built-in memory so there is really no need for the memory cards yet it is nice to have that option. The camcorder has a lot more manual controls than the competition, and the improved LCD screen has implemented plenty of automatic controls which makers the camcorder very good tool for both beginners and professionals.

Video quality:
The color accuracy in the Canon Vixia HF S21 is good, yet a bit worse than in some other Canon camcorders released last year, such as Canon Vixia HF S10, or Canon FS200. The noise levels are good, but again other camcorders may do a better job in this respect. On the other hand the Canon Vixia HF S21 has a lot more color controls than most other camcorders. The motion recorded by this Canon camcorder is really outstanding. Moreover, the videos are always very sharp. Low light video performance is disappointing although it is better than in some of the recent Canon camcorders. Fortunately, when you use an alternate frame rate you can improve the overall low light video quality.

Still photo quality:
The camcorder can take up to 8 megapixel  (3264 x 2456) still photos in the still mode or up to 3264 x 1840 while recording a video. Thanks to the pop-up flash you can also take photos in low light with this camcorder. The color accuracy and sharpness are very good, yet as with the videos the camcorder may produce a little too much noise in still photos.

Selected Canon Vixia HF S21 features and specifications:

• Standard Definition or High Definition

High Definition

• Television System

NTSC

• Video Recording system

MPEG4-AVC / H.264

• Image Sensor

1/2.6-inch CMOS, RGB Primary Color Filter

• Total Pixels

Approx. 8.59 Megapixels

• Effective Pixels

Video: Approx. 6.01 Megapixels (3264 x 1840) Photo: 16:9 Approx. 6.01 Megapixels (3264 x 1840); 4:3 Approx. 8.02 Megapixels (3264 x 2456)

• Lens

Zoom Ratio 10x Optical/200x Digital Focal Length f-6.4-64mm (35mm equivalent 43.5-435mm) Zoom Speed Variable / 3 Fixed Zoom Speeds Max. F/Stop f/1.8-3.0

• Focusing System

Instant AF, Face Priority AF, TTL (through the lens)

• Manual Exposure

Yes
Other recently reviewed camcorders:
Samsung HMX-H10, Canon Vixia HF S10, Canon FS200, Sony HDR-CX500V, JVC Everio GZ-HM200, JVC Picsio GC-FM1, Sony HDR-TG5V.