Canon’s HV20 HDV camcorder has been the de facto standard for quite a while ago for semi-pro and prosumer video. Fantastic picture, great lens, but to me the idea of recording to DV in the year 2008 is abhorrent. Fortunately, it seems the rough edges have been smoothed off AVCHD and this generation is the one to buy.

You’ve got 17Mbps video bandwidth, 16GB of internal storage and room for SD, three real framerate options (24p, 30p, and 60i), recording at 1920×1080 resolution. There’s a lot of competition in that price and performance range, but Canon’s HF10 is apparently the best deal of the lot right now. I thought Panasonic’s HDC-SD9 was sexy (we used it at CES), but this thing is almost as small, has better ergonomics and far better performance, for about $200 more. Can’t wait to get my hands on one. Check out the full in-depth review at the link below.

Canon Vixia HF10 Camcorder Review [Camcorderinfo.com]