Railfan Technology > Just bought a Canon Vixia HF G20 camcorder

Hi yesterday I just bought a camcorder for my railfanning.  It's a high definition camcorder.   I was wondering if anyone uses this camcorder in the forum here. I am not sure of the file formats though.  I have read in the in the manual that it's capable of recording AVCHD,  however I would like to simple use a slightly lower format to use Windows movie maker live.  

Just an update  i installed the software and tried it with Windows Movie Maker and it seems all is well.   I think it's going to be a good camera.  I just hope that 10x zoom is good enough for railfanning.  I don't see why not though.

 

10x zoom should be fine for railfanning. I have used a "superzoom" point & shoot for video with longer range than that and had no issues, as well as having used a cellphones with less zoom range with no issue.

jkurt Wrote:
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> Hi yesterday I just bought a camcorder for my
> railfanning.  It's a high definition
> camcorder.   I was wondering if anyone uses this
> camcorder in the forum here. I am not sure of the
> file formats though.  I have read in the in the
> manual that it's capable of recording AVCHD, 
> however I would like to simple use a slightly
> lower format to use Windows movie maker live.  

I have 2 HF G10's in my arsenal - The HF G20 is even better - Cranks out excellent footage. Are you going to shoot in full auto? I believe it defaults to 60i in full auto (which still looks great) however if you shoot in manual and tinker with the settings, 24fps and manual white balance and focus you can crank out even more amazing footage - I keep the shutter locked at 1/60 and shoot wide open - There is some motion blur, but nothing that can't be fixed in any basic editing software. I use the generic Cyberdirector program that comes standard with windows software - Rendering can be a bit laggy but so far so good - Good luck - 

Thank you for the helpful info.  I am sure I will be enjoying it soon as I have plans to try it at Beaumont Hill in the near future.  I will try to post picts here and the videos will go my youtube site.  I still have a learning curve to produce these so it may be some time yet. 

Thanks,

Kurt