Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon HV30 High Definition Camcorder (10 x Optical Zoom With 2.7 inch Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD)

Having spent many months looking around for a new camcorder I required great picture quality, full HD, more semi pro but without the cost. In the end I went for the Canon HV30. HD image quality is great even in low light conditions. You can shoot video, still (onto mini SD card) or both at same time. Shooting stills is adequate but you are not really buying a camcorder to shoot stills. There are a host of connections and software tweaks for more pro use. These features are let down by a manual that is hard to use and understand so you can get frustrated. I use my HV30 with edius and it works well although you will need to buy a firewire cable (£5). I'm not sure why the reviewer below complains about this? Remember, shooting in HD requires more information and a good PC is needed. I'd recommend a system running a 3GHz Dual Core with 2 GB memory. Anything below and you will run into problems editing. DV tape still gives you the best quality but is not so easy for some. I've heard the UK version of the HV30 has picture problems when shooting in SD although why buy a HD camcorder to shoot in SD? I've edited a lot of my SD tapes via the HV30 with no problem. Overall, maybe the best camcorder for image quality in this price range, a host of features, HDV tape not as easy to edit, poor manual. Amazon are doing this camcorder at an excellent price.

As a confirmed Canon fan, I still did all the research and decided on the HV30. Reluctantly, I have to say, I am very disappointed.The picture quality is very good, and the features and connectivity are excellent, however the sound quality is completely spoilt by the recorded tape and other electronic noise. It was so bad on the first one I received, I requested a replacement, which Amazon did very promptly, but the second has the same problem but is marginally better.The build quality is comparable to other makes, but not a patch on my Canon MVX 3i.

Pros: Video and stills quality very good, connectivity excellent,DV editing easy peasy, and compact size.
Cons: Bad sound quality due to tape noise, poor build quality, awkward to use due to placement of controls.
Recommend go for the HF100 if you don't mind the editing nightmare.

I can't believe Canon produced this product.

The camera itself is superb, the picture quality is unbelievable....superb picture and also comes with other settings like cine and you can programme the camera to 25 Frames like you see at the cinema. This is the best camera I have ever bought, all easy connections and works very well with Pinnacle Studio 11 and Adobe Premiere CS3. Use of the Firewire ports no problems with any connection. Has a shoe for external mic & also video light if you want. I bought the HiDef tapes with this and all is great.

I have had this camera for a good few months now so I am in a position to write a review on it, first of all the picture, it is a beautiful fine and richly detailed realistic picture when viewed on a plasma/LCD HD TV,even in low light set to cinemode the picture quality is more than acceptable. Sound from the built in mic is OK, but you should really be using an external mic. As for stills this is a video camera if you want stills buy a Digital SLR. If you are editing the footage I find that Pinnacle Studio 12 does a very good job of handling HDV footage, but the best way to capture it is to use HDV split free software on the net, it has scene splitting capabilities so it is just a case of connecting your camera, start the software press record and all of the footage will be captured. I would recommend a decent PC for video editing I have a dual core 3.0 GHz with 4 GB ram and this is more than capable of handling HDV, I have been video editing for quite some time now and I always use Gigabyte motherboards with Intel chipsets, I read an article years ago on the subject and the Intel chipset was always recommended. The main purpose of a video camera is to record good sound and vision, that is exactly what this machine does. HDV on tape is by no means dead, AVCHD is very difficult to edit and you need a very high spec machine to handle it, this camera handles well, the LCD screen works well outside, there are a host of manual controls including zebra patterning, all in all a very good machine, it does however have a niggle or two but really these are minor compared to all the positives this camera has to offer. 10/10

Agree with the other reviews that this is an excellent camera. However I'm very dissapointed that Canon DO NOT supply:
* HD Cable.
* DV Tape (Normal or HD would be nice).
* PDF User Manual. (And the Canon web-site is no help.
* Stand-Alone Battery Charger.
Otherwise a top camera.