Which Camcorder is the Best?

People sometimes ask "Which camcorder should I buy?" or "which camcorder is the best?" I tell them that I believe that the Canon HV series camcorders, that is the Canon HV20, HV30 and now HV40, have been the best 'consumer' video cameras for a few years now and they've remained relatively unchanged.

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Why the Canon HV Series?

There are many reasons why the Canon HV wins out over other camcorders on the market but the most important one is that it just produces the most beautiful images in its class.
I think that Canon didn't quite mean to make the HV20 quite as good as they did, companies like Canon try to cripple their consumer range so that enthusiasts and professionals will need to buy the higher end, more expensive models. I have seen countless professionals on camera forums who own the HV20 and use it for their own personal recording as well as heaps of Indie filmmakers who have transformed the HV20 or HV30 into a full blown cinema rig. The camera has even inspired entire websites, such as hv20.com, with a huge forum communities discussing how to squeeze the most of this small video camera.

A Comprehensive Indie HV20 Rig with matte box, monitor, lens converter and follow focus

Features

Here are some of the HV20 / HV30 / HV40's strong points:

25p / 24p Recording Modes
The PAL version has a native 25p recording mode and the NTSC versions have various forms of 24p recording modes, one of the most coveted camera feature for budding filmmakers. I won't go into the difference between interlace and progressive scan modes but basically you effectively increase the resolution of your image by reducing its framerate. You can read about it on Wikipedia.
HDV Tape Workflow
The HV series uses an HDV tape recording system. I know that this is a dying medium and that solid state will soon take over completely but the 25 Mbps constant bitrate HDV codec is superior to the majority of solid state codecs, such as AVCHD which has a variable bitrate with an upper maximum of 24 Mbs. It will be easy for camera manufacturers to increase the recording bitrate of solid state based camcorders in the future but for the moment, HDV has the edge. Besides, you have to love being able to play your old MiniDV tapes in your new camera.
Manual Control
Thanks to some clever hacks, you can control the shutter speed, aperture (iris) and gain of the HV series camcorders. It's not the best solution in the world but it allows Indie filmmakers to get the best out of the camera.

The Canon HV40

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Let's take a look at which HV model you should buy.

The Canon HV20

Announced in January 2007, the Canon HV20 was the first of the series which had these great features and the other two models are, especially for PAL purposes, essentially the same camera.

The Canon HV30

The Canon HV30 introduced a 30p recording mode for the NTSC version. '30p' is actually something stupid like 29.97 fps and is half the standard '60 fields per second' NTSC scan rate. Luckily for PAL users, the HV20 already records natively in half our 50 fields per second scan rate at exactly 25 frames per second. The only advantages to buying the PAL HV30 over the HV20 is the redesigned zoom toggle, which was poor on the HV20, the redesigned hot shoe cover, the improved LCD screen and the slick black coat of paint.

The Canon HV40

Coming in June 2009, the Canon HV40 offers not a lot of improvements over the HV30. The major one to note is that the NTSC version now shoots at 24p natively. It turns out that the HV20 and HV30 were recording in 24p mode by doing a pulldown, recording 18 progressive frames and 12 interlaced ones wrapped in the 60i stream. Luckily, the PAL version always recorded 25 progressive frames per second so there's no improvement on that front for the PAL users. Isn't it great to be living in PAL land!! I cannot see a single improvement to the HV30 made in the HV40 for the PAL version.

The Verdict

If you live where NTSC reigns, buying the HV40 would be your best bet. For PAL users, if you can stand the silver paint, small, hard to use zoom toggle and poor viewing angle screen then pick up a cheap HV20. Some dealers are trying to get rid of them; I saw one at Myer in Brisbane City, Australia for AU$700 dollars the other day. That's crazy, you can't pick one up on eBay for that little at the moment! Even dodgy Internet shops are still flogging them for AU$950. If you can't find an elusive HV20 any more, the 30 should come down in price once the 40 comes out in June.