Canon HV20 review

Canon's HV20 is the first consumer HD camcorder to provide a progressive scan option.

This means it captures complete frames, just like a traditional film camera, rather than interlacing, which splits frames into a series of fields, each consisting of only the odd or even scan lines.

This won't magically transform your home videos into Hollywood epics, but you will get clearer footage and better motion. We had trouble getting our 18-month old test HD TV to display the progressive scan video at the HV20's video resolution of 1,440x1,080 pixels, however.

The HV20 displayed stationary shots well, but panning was accompanied by a nasty juddering effect. This was a problem only when we connected the camcorder directly to the TV through the HDMI or component outputs. If you capture footage to a PC for editing first, you can export it in a standard progressive scan format, such as 720p.

Whether or not you use the progressive scan mode, this camcorder produces amazing footage. In ideal lighting conditions, image quality is very similar to that of the HV10 with incredible detail and vibrant colours. In low light the interlaced video mode suffers quite badly from finely grained noise, but switching to progressive mode makes it finer still, and you'll barely notice it.

While the HV10 has a compact, upright design, the HV20 is a little larger, although this makes it easier to handle. Build quality is pretty average, and the HV20 feels less sturdy than previous HD camcorders from Canon and Sony. The controls are well placed, though, and the small joystick is perfect for the easy-to-navigate menu system. The zoom toggle is poor and fiddly for long zooms, however.

The HV20 has a number of useful manual controls, all of which are easy to access. There's a manual focus dial, as well as aperture and shutter priority modes, giving you full control over tricky shots.

The LCD screen does a fairly good job of reproducing your HD footage, especially as it has only 211,000 pixels. The HV20 also has a viewfinder, although this is flush to the camcorder's body and doesn't tilt upwards or extend. The battery fits neatly in a recess, and you can fit a larger one if you don't mind it obstructing the viewfinder. The supplied battery lasted for an impressive 99 minutes of constant HD recording. Video is recorded on 60-minute MiniDV tapes, which are still the best and cheapest way of storing high-quality video. The only downside is that transferring video to a PC in real time is rather laborious.

The HV20 is a great HD camcorder that captures excellent video. It's also the cheapest HD camcorder we've reviewed. With an excellent price and amazing picture quality, the HV20 is an excellent buy for anyone who wants to shoot HD footage.