Railfan Technology > cannon vixia hf g20 opinions

i am thinking about using the cannon vixia hf g20 for taking my railroad videos.  auto-focus and image stabilization are important to me.  has anybody used this camcorder for railroad videos and if so how did u like it?

thanks for any info.......

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Has auto-focus progressed to the point where the camera doesn't continually change focus while shooting video?  

Ed

I use a Canon VIXIA HF R500 for train videos. It has worked very well for me. I set to AVCHD MXP and I am pleased with the quality of the recorded video

I would think it should be a pretty strong performer. I have a Canon HF100 with a Canon DM-100 microphone, the HD quality looks great and the accessory mic is very good as it stops all the wind howl.

I use the canon vixia hf g30 (a slightly newer model than the g20) and I have been pleased with the results! The auto focus is fast and the video is sharp. As far as image stabilization, I have that turned off because I shoot on tripod. If you do shoot on a tripod, turn off image stabilization, if you don't shoot on a tripod, there are 2 image stabilization modes to chose from that both do a great job!

Conrailfan1999 Wrote:
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> I use the canon vixia hf g30 (a slightly newer
> model than the g20) and I have been pleased with
> the results! The auto focus is fast and the video
> is sharp. As far as image stabilization, I have
> that turned off because I shoot on tripod. If you
> do shoot on a tripod, turn off image
> stabilization, if you don't shoot on a tripod,
> there are 2 image stabilization modes to chose
> from that both do a great job!

Why turn off if it's on a tripod? I notice some slight shake/judder when a heavy train is passing in my videos so would have thought a camcorder with image stabilisation would help eliminate this?

I have this camera and been very pleased with it.  I got it on my -B-day in April.  It has very sharp images and the video is outstanding.   It has a whole lot of features as well that I may never use but you never know.   I might as time goes on and I get to know the camera and the software a bit more.   The software is easy to install but using it is somewhat difficult at first.  i am use to movie maker live so it looks different and operates somewhat differently.  I hope this helps.

Kurt

jkurt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have this camera and been very pleased with
> it.  I got it on my -B-day in April.  It has
> very sharp images and the video is
> outstanding.   It has a whole lot of features as
> well that I may never use but you never know.  
> I might as time goes on and I get to know the
> camera and the software a bit more.   The
> software is easy to install but using it is
> somewhat difficult at first.  i am use to movie
> maker live so it looks different and operates
> somewhat differently.  I hope this helps.
>
> Kurt

i sure understand having a lot features that u might not use.  i just want to film good quality videos and it sounds like this would be a good camera for me.

i will mostly be shooting off of a monopod in the autofocus mode and will need the "image stabilization."

i am "technologically challenged" so i am hoping that i can pretty much start shooting without a steep learning curve as i most likely won't be using a lot of the features either.

i was thinking about the g30 but i think the g20 will meet my needs.

thank you and everybody else for your input.  much appreciated...........

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