HV20 - the female way to shoot

[CreationEditor]

Are you thinking of buying a new camcorder but you are on a budget? I recently wrote a review about my Canon HV20 for http://smiley-plus.com/ :

Canon HV20 is a wonderful small camcorder that suits every filmmaker's budget, however, not necessarily the ones with big hands. As a woman I was looking for the perfect and professional camcorder that has all the settings on manual option as well as one that I can hold comfortably. I do not want to point on certain other cameras that do not have the shoulder option like the Canon XL1 but that are still head-heavy and literally impossible to be handled by anyone with tiny hands. And I found HV20, with 1.2lbs (without battery) it is light on your hands even if you attach the extra accessories like the wide angle lens and the microphone that both turn this little home video cam into your pro movie shooter. It is very attractive for women with its small dials and buttons, especially the zoom adjuster but I found it impossible to be used by a man. So ladies, it is your machine, do not give it to your man!

Here are some standard information: HV20 records in HDV and SD DV onto miniDV tape and 10 times optical zoom but there is the option to attach a tele lens. The instant focus works very well but for the manual way there are the assistant functions of magnifying and peaking to get it all perfect. However, this camcorder is most famous for its native 25p in PAL mode which does not require any pulldown removal techniques making it so easy to work with in post!

Some people say that HV20 does not work well in low lighting conditions, however, my first shoot I did with HV20 was at sun set and then in a dark forest using only a torch. HV20 handled the situation fantastically and you can watch it for yourself in my video TRENCH featuring the dancers Anthony Missen and Kevin Turner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PciUp7-Gsuo

To sum up, HV20 is a camcorder I would buy again!

More indepth and useful information can be found on the HV20 dedicated website:
http://www.hv20.com/

Hope you enjoyed the review!

written by Sabine Klaus Creation Editor
http://creationeditor.co.uk/