The Canon HV20 is just so lovely.

After taking only 20 minutes or so of footage inside at night in low light and then in the morning in bright, direct sunlight, this camcorder has exceeded my expectations in every way. In fact, I must say that I was dumbfounded at the stunningly high quality of the video.

Keep in mind, however, that I am not a professional videographer (photography has always just been a hobby). I have little to compare this camcorder to, save for the few camcorders I have owned in the past (Canon Ultura, an old Sony Hi8) and the sample footage and footage comparison tests online (for example, see

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=29a7da70449b838071dba41154052502&t=89386

But there is no denying that for a consumer-level camcorder, the high definition imagery, manual control (focus, aperture, shutter speed, and more), and price make this certainly one of the very best consumer camcorders of recent years.

WHAT ELSE I LIKE
The shape and the feel. After fiddling with this camcorder's little brother, the HV10, I decided that it was just too small. Its upright stance seemed awkward to me. The HV20 is shaped more like you'd imagine how a typical camcorder is shaped and seems a little larger than the HV10, which is a good thing as I do not have the smallest hands around.

Easy to hook up to a HDTV. With its HDMI out, the HV20 can quickly plug into a HDTV without fiddling with composite cables (you know, the red, white, and yellow plugs). Plus, the quality of what you'll see through HDMI may be a little better as well.

"Cinematic" features. This little camcorder can record video in important ways which lesser camcorders can't: it can shoot progressive video. Basically this just means that the video looks less like what you imagine typical video looks like. So if you put the HV20 in "24p" mode (where it captures 24 frames a second in this progressive mode), your footage can have a more film-like appearance. Or, more realistically speaking, a less video-like appearance. I got stunningly good results with this setting.

Manual focus, manual aperture (among other controls). For me, I wanted to have a little control over what I'm recording. With the camera set to the 24p mode, manual focus on, and with the aperture opened up to f1.8 or so, I felt that I had pretty darned good control of what I wanted to keep in focus and what to keep very blurred as I moved from one object to the next (all objects were placed at different distances from the camera). The HV20 doesn't have a large, handy ring to control focus and aperture like you might see on professional video cameras, but these settings are always available to you in the very top level of the menu, and there is a small but palpable dial on the side of the HV20 to adjust focus. With the bright LCD, I found it no problem to find accurate focus.

SUMMARY
If you want what many people consider to be the best consumer level camcorder out there, get the Canon HV20. It is an incredible little piece of technology.

BUYING TIP
For $1.98, I purchased a coupon from someone on eBay which gave me 10% purchases of $199 or more at Circuit City. I had to pay sales tax, but I otherwise got a good deal and great service from circuitcity.com.