Canon Legria HF G10 review

There’s a microphone input for external mics, essential for serious use, though the inbuilt mic sounded pretty impressive. There’s also Canon’s proprietary Mini Advanced Shoe, which can take Canon-branded microphones and lights without any additional cabling.

We missed some of the SD900’s functions – particularly the fine zoom control buttons next to the screen. There was one extra button that really blew us away, though – the one marked ‘Powered IS’ on the bottom-left of the screen. While the camcorder’s image stabilisation couldn’t quite match the heights of the rock-steady SD900, pressing the button at full zoom cut out almost all camera shake. The only problem is the button’s position on the far edge of a large screen – the lever effect means that pressing it always results in a slight rotation of the camera to the right, which is noticeable at high zoom levels.

There’s a lot to like about Canon’s HF G10, from its high-quality construction to excellent screen and impressive low-light performance. Its image quality suffers by comparison with the Panasonic HDC-SD900, though, which remains our favourite high-end camcorder.