First it was the move from tape to DVD recording. Then from DVD to hard drive and now the move to no moving parts at all! Cameras sporting flash drives are the going thing. Steve Turner looks at one from the Canon fleet - the Legria HF S10.

Why this camera?

Sometimes size matters. In this case the size is huge. The Legria captures an awesome eight megapixels of image and then effectively down-converts to high definition. Even allowing for the effective video being an actual six megs, this is large - nearly three times larger! To have a camera shoot larger than HD means you're getting the highest resolution possible in a camera this size. Video is then converted to full HD resolution and recorded at the maximum data rate permitted under the AVCHD standard. This is a blistering 24mbps - as fast as HDV tape.

The image is recorded to an internal flash drive or external flash card. That can be a whopping 64gig on a current card (and they'll only get bigger) and that'll give you hours of superb pictures to wade through.

You can start to say goodbye to the traditional notion of hard drives too. Flash drives, that have no moving parts, will progressively take over. They are blisteringly quick, reliable, and more shock proof. They are physically much smaller and require less power - therefore improving battery life (mind you they last forever now). Flash drives also start up and run quickly. The Legria will wake up and run inside 0.8 of a second. That is awesome!! My HV30 drags itself out of hibernation in roughly 6 seconds - from asleep to recording. So the Legria is not far off ten times faster.

Looking down the barrel

The Legria carries this generation of Canon family genes. A bit stocky and short. Easy to hold. No award winning sculpture here but a working piece of kit. The most obvious thing is the blunt front end caused by the enlarged front ring. The stereo mics are each side of this and in front of the LCD door is the custom ring.

The custom ring is set in the main menu and has five alternatives including focus, exposure, focus assist, mic level and AGC limit. You'd probably use either the focus or exposure as the usual settings here. This works but I'd still prefer a multi-function full size front ring any day.

The LCD door is fairly conventional with the very useful joystick and usual control buttons. One new one though is a fast switch between play and record. This is good because now you can leave the normal mode switch (on the back) where you want it to be and switch quickly between that and play mode. I like this a lot.

Speaking of LCD screens I like the colour and layout of the menus. Easy to get around and the font is easy to read. New too is a fast function list that appears when you flick up the joystick. It remembers what you last adjusted and provides a quick way back to manually change something. For instance you can select manual exposure and then adjust by shifting the joystick left or right. Switch between manual and auto just by pressing the joystick. Again I like it very much and got used to it very quickly.

The power switch is also separate from the mode knob. Good thinking here too as again you can leave the mode switch wherever you want it to be. The camera fires up very quickly and gets into record at lightning speed.

Picture this...

The pictures are as good as you'd expect given the specs. At 1920x1080 they are full HD in the AVCHD format. I still think HDV is better but it's getting closer. AVCHD will require a faster computer (much faster in fact). Quad core will do it with lashings of RAM. My last upgrade was the one that worked at last. My older dual core didn't manage even with 4gig of RAM.

Back to the picture though. Through the LCD the colours and sharpness are just superb. It's still truly amazing the quality of pictures coming out of this generation of domestic cameras. With care you can shoot proper grown up professional pictures. The professionals won't like that one little bit.

Speaking of professional this unit packs a useful kit of pro features with the small difficulty of doing things quickly. The range of manual controls is very good. It has focus assist in the form of colour peaking and Zebra patterns for aperture control. There are even bars and tone to make you feel truly professional. Not much use really and the Canon site suggests this is good for correct setting up of professional monitors. Look, this is a nice camera, but let's not get carried away.

Focus

The front of the Legria looks much bigger than the usual camera of this size but it's deceptive. I thought it had a much larger piece of glass but it's actually the size of the lens ring that changed. It's a large 58mm and that's a good thing. Most this size are 43mm and that means you need stepping rings to get to a proper size to fit off the shelf filters.

The Canon lens is protected by a self opening and closing door - a feature I really like. Goodbye missing lens cap.

With the huge, bigger-than-HD capture there comes a remarkable piece of built in zooming kit. The Legria has a 1.7x teleconverter inside the unit. This will do your head in as it did mine for a while. Normally digital zoom blows the picture up and quality goes down accordingly. But here you are zooming into a picture that is way bigger than you need so it's not enlarging anything!! Fantastic - the world's first true HD digital zoom that really works.

A stable Platform

The lens also sports Canon's already excellent stabiliser - now called "super range" for extra marketing. It does measure and correct twice and is very good. Still need two hands or a tripod though. There's also the ability to record to a buffer that adds to the bomb-proof nature of the unit.

You may have noticed the run of cameras sporting face detection. Did you wonder why? It's not about framing the subject well - no camera can do that yet! It's all about exposure. When shooting people the correct exposure point is the face. It needs to hit a Zebra level at around 75%. The new gen cameras take the work away and do it themselves. So a backlit face will automatically allow for the contrast and the background will blow out to reveal a normally exposed face. The Legria can pick out up to 35 faces and expose accordingly. Quite useful but really - how hard is it to reach for the manual button and crank it up yourself? The instant AF focus system will do the work for you as well.

The sound department

The best thing to happen to small cameras recently is the mini-jack. For what is a pittance in pro camera terms you get a camera that will take a pro mic in and you can see and adjust the levels accordingly. The AV jack can be either AV in/out or headphones for monitoring. The camera records Dolby Digital 2-ch (AC-3 2ch). It basically does a very good job on the inbuilt mics. There's also a menu driven wind screen.

Still life

It's here that the Legria shines. 8meg stills in camera mode And then 6meg that can be grabbed while shooting video at the same time. Very cool, very large, very good resolution, and they print up a treat. Having come from the SLR world before getting into moving pictures I'm a self-confessed image snob but these are fine for when the DSLR is not with you. Especially good for family snapping. The only downside is that it takes a while to get used to where the manual controls are.
Then you can hit the turbo button called "photo burst" and grab 25 images in a second. It's no coincidence that there are 25frames in a second so that's where they come from. These pics are at 2meg each.

An Achilles heel.

No camera is perfect. Not yet anyway. This one is a brilliant concept carried out very well. With one fatal flaw. No viewfinder. I'd like to know what the retail price would go up by to have one built in but I'd guess it'd be worth paying. In bright light you simply can't see what you're shooting. Big problem for me. Also I still argue that you can't hold a camera very steady with the door open. Ok on a tripod but not good in your hand. Two hands are better.

Other than that I'm impressed with this unit and look forward to what comes next. Hopefully the return of the viewfinder!!

The tech stuff

Format Type: Flash - SD / SDHC + 32GB Built In
Video Data: AVCHD 1080/50i. 1080/25P (Maximum AVCHD 24Mbps)
Focal Length: 6.4 .64mm f1.8 to f3.0
Audio Level Metering: Manual audio level VR metering and control with adjustment via LCD
Capture Sizes: 8.02MP (4:3) and 6.01MP (16:9)
Still Image Resolution: 3264 x 2456
Battery life (standard): Average. 105 minutes
Terminals: USB 2.0 Hi Speed / mini HDMI / Component output / AV output / Microphone / Headphone
Viewfinder: 2.7 inch LCD

We liked:   Image quality, Digital zoom that works, Quick start, Nice menu, Superb still pics
We didn't like:   No viewfinders a big problem

Auscam Scoreboard

Performance          9/10
Documentation        9/10
Features             9/10
Setup                8/10
Value for Money            9/10

"How much" is the big question...

Around $1800 Street price
www.canon.com.au

By Steve Turner

I started in TV as a videotape operator for Channel Nine in 1980 and went to News editing in 1984, becoming Senior News editor for Nine Adelaide.

In 1988 moved to production editing (doing everything from sport to station promotions and programs) and then in 1989 moved to London to work for Sky News UK. This was just starting up and I helped set up the news editing operation.

The highlight of this year was covering the fall of the Berlin wall (where I location produced and edited continuously for five straight days and nights - grabbing sleep here and there). The best bit was interviewing people crossing the wall for the first time in years.

I returned to Adelaide in 1990 and freelance vision switched and also did graphics for news and production. Left again in 1991 to backpack the planet for 12 months with my partner Rochelle.

Back in 1992 and returned to production editing and graphic design for Channel Nine. I worked on all the Adelaide Formula One races (1985-1995) bar 2 (while away) doing foreign broadcast editing - packages for overseas networks in their languages.

Began Directing news in 1997 and started my own production business doing weddings and corporate work. This was followed quickly by producing science films for Flinders University and the setting up of our web business selling science related videos, CDroms, and now DVDs.

Started writing for Australian Video Camera in 2003 then Auscam when it started. Produced and shot news features for the Ten network and worked freelance on the Athen's Olympics in 2004 for Seven.

Left Channel Nine to join Channel Seven in 2005. Involved in the setup and operation of Seven's new news operation and regularly direct the six o'clock news. Directed and produced Seven's Anzac day telecasts for 2005/6 and independently produced the 13 part series "Fishing and Boating" for Channel Seven.

Produced and shot a documentary on drug abuse with an Indigenous Elders group as well as a two part docco with the RAAF. Current project include a docco on Alzheimers and another on the lives of siblings of disabled people.

I have three gorgeous small children and am a part time stay at home Dad...

...It's a busy life!!