Railfan Technology > Anybody use this one, Canon

I have been using a JVC and want to upgrade, this is now $200.00 off , so any pros or cons ?, the ION I asked about earlier is going through growing pains , maybe later,, Canon - VIXIA HF G20 32GB HD Flash

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

I haven't used the G20, but have seen good reviews for it. I started by using the HF R32 and just replaced it with the HF R500. The R-line Canon camcorders are good and the R500 has full 60p recording, which I utilize for my rail videos. I considered the G20 initially, but felt that paying upwards of $1,000 just to record trains wouldn't be a good idea.

I had one, liked it. A little better low light than its predecessor, the G10. You can get lots of recording time, with internal flash memory, plus two SD cards if you want.

It has an optional 3 second pre-roll. It's always recording 3 seconds in standby, rolling over the same 3 seconds. When you hit "record" it just picks up and the 3 seconds becomes part of your clip. It has saved my a** more than once, in railroading videos.

I have a G20. It's my first flash media camcorder, so I can't really compare it to others.

The only feature I miss (compared to my older HDR-FX1 tape camera) is the zoom ring. There are only "Tele" and "Wide" buttons. The G30 does have a zoom ring. Or rather, the G30 has a switch which toggles the single ring between "focus" and "zoom." That said, some might argue that one really shouldn't be using zoom much in railfan photography.

Compared to the FX1, colors are more saturated and blacks are blacker. I don't know whether any of that is inherent in the encoding, or it's just a choice Canon made. But to match the FX1, I have to decrease the G20 saturation by 25%.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/14 01:08 by clem.