Canon announces 3 fantastic new camcorders today: Vixia HG G30, XA20, and XA25

We've just received our 3 pre-ordered XA25's. first impressions are good. Bigger & more solid feeling than XA10. Been busy for clients soon real time to test yet, apart from a quick wifi test & you can control shutter, WB, aperture/iris, gain & zoom through web interface. Live view is not real time, maybe 1 sec delay, so only really suitable for frame, no continuous monitoring.
 
The G30 can take a Bp 820 or BP-828 battery. Looked on Amazon and they are expensive and out of stock. I once bought a battery on ebay, no name for my Vixia HFS100 and had pretty good luck. Was not able to see the level of power it had left, but for a 3 hour battery it did a good job.
Do you recommend anything like this for the G30?
 
I understand Canon have dropped the built in waveform monitor from the new XA20 and XA25, which was in the previous XA10 model - a big oversight in my opinion. Does anyone else have any views ?
 
I recently purchased the new Canon G30 as a possible replacement for my old (2009) Panasonic HMC-150. The HMC-150 was a great camera in its day, but lately I've been wondering if it's ready for retirement. I've been using the HMC-150 along with my GH3 and GH2 cameras to shoot dark, indoor concerts and I have been disappointed its sharpness, noise, and low light sensitivity when compared with these DSLRs. I thought the new G30, when coupled with my Sound Devices MixPre for XLR inputs, would be a good replacement.

Well, I did a few tests, and I was surprised by the results. First I compared the Canon's AVCHD option with its MP4 option. Then I did some side-by-side comparisons with my HMC-150. Then I lowered the light level to near-darkness and started testing gain settings. These tests are not scientific, but I think that they're still interesting. Check it out:

 
Well i have a HF-G10 on order,still have the XA10,in resolution tests it was egual to a GH2 i had at the time,and the XA10 is good in low light so am bemused if and why the G10 is worse in this respect,in the test aove the G10 looks far sharper than the HM150,
 
Saied_M said:
I understand Canon have dropped the built in waveform monitor from the new XA20 and XA25, which was in the previous XA10 model - a big oversight in my opinion. Does anyone else have any views ?
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It's unfortunate, very unfortunate. Even the HF-G10 and HF-G20 have the WFM. But with the G30 and XA20/XA25 it's gone.

I was hoping you could have it on whilst recording and preferably even assign a button (on the G10 it doesn't stay on, it's gone as soon as you touch the record button, contrary to the G20 where the WFM can be active whilst recording). But removing the WFM, both on the G30 and the XA20/XA30, is annoying and the one thing which stops me from buying the G30. Despite it being cumbersome to activate, I made use of the WFM on the G10 a lot, especially since the LCD and EVF are not ideal (LCD) to judge exposure or even downright unusable (EVF).

To me, having the WFM, making use of it that much and having to give that one up might well be unacceptable. Quite possibly the G10 will survive yet another 'new and improved model'. Thankfully with the G30 and the XA20/XA25 it actually got quite close.
 
Have been looking into a new video camera and have been going back and forth between the xa20, xf100 and nx30. But I think I have decided on the xa20 because of its size and zoom. But it was a hard decision when the xf100 cost "about" the same.
Any who, I really enjoyed Philip Blooms review,

 
Is Philip correct in saying the only difference between theXA20 & 25 is the SDI? If I needed higher bitrates & 422 colour then would a ninja attached to the XA20/25 work via HDMI? The canon catalogue says that 1080 50p is possible via HDMI. Does the Ninja record that high frame rate? Cheers Pete.
 
Has anyone used the 50/60p setting? If so, is it limited at all? Ie; can you zoom & manual focus while recording those high frame rates?
 
Well i started off with 50P with my HF-G30 but it gave me nothing except less card space and more hassle editing,no better picture quality,i have gone back to 25P like i used on my XA10.But 50/60P has no bearing on zoming or focus its the same on all frame rates.
 
Ok thanks flinty. That is great to know.
I would like to play around with slow motion on these cameras as I'm pretty sure I am going to be buying an XA20:)
 
I'm thinking of getting the XA25 and noticed that the SDI out is 1080i / 720P uncompressed. I'm fairly new to this stuff but haven't video guys been critical of 1080i in the past as being inferior to 1080P. I probably won't use the SDI for awhile but thought in might be useful to have the option of recording directly in prores maybe. Having the SDI out does bring it up the 50 mbps broadcast spec with something the Ninja/Sumari recorder, correct? Does this 1080i thing matter? Would appreciate any thoughts on this.
 
I am most likely going to purchase an XA20 in the next week & was wondering, before I go ahead with this, is anybody having any issues with these cameras? I am torn between the XA20 & the Panny AC90. Trying to work out which way is best. Cheers Pete.
 
Pete L said:
... before I go ahead with this, is anybody having any issues with these cameras? I am torn between the XA20 & the Panny AC90. Trying to work out which way is best.
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From footage and feedback that I have seen, it would seem that the AC90 has the edge when it comes to image resolution under good lighting conditions, and has much more professional manual controls.

The XA20, though, offers a longer zoom range, and appears to do better in low light situations.

So each has its own advantages. It is really a toss up, depending on what features you value the most.
 
Thanks Lance, I want something that is OK in low light as I need something for conference filming where the light isn't great & I can't use a camera mounted light.I thought the XA20 might have the edge there but I do like the manual settings & layout of the AC90, especially as I already own the HVX200. I do like the slowmotion of the XA20 though & think I would use that a fair bit.
 
As the youtube write up says One of the worst periods i find filming is on days like when this was filmed.Predominately dull & cloudy with some sunny breaks,also showers and harder storms.
Using my Canon HF-G30 i filmed in the conditions except the heavy storms when shelter was needed,free space for a tripod would have been nice but you dont get that at very crowded events like this.Unlike playing the file on my pc my youtube playback is jerky.Unlike playing the file directly to my pc and laptop my youtube playback is jerky.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH-qd_yCeZA
 
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