Canon Legria HF R36 review

The HF R36 has a built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptor. It uses the 2.4GHz band rather than the less congested 5GHz band, which is a shame because the 5GHz band is better suited for streaming HD video. The ability to transfer videos to your PC wirelessly sounds like a good idea, but you have to install a video on your PC and the transfer process is slow. The entire process of transferring a one minute video took three and half minutes, while attaching a USB cable, plugging it in to your computer and transferring a video took just 55 seconds.

The real benefit of the Wi-Fi adaptor is the ability to watch your videos on DLNA-enabled devices such as smart TVs, games consoles and computers. Within minutes of activating the DLNA services we were watching our videos on a PlayStation 3. When both devices were connected via Wi-Fi, the footage stuttered because the PS3 couldn’t buffer enough data in time, but when we connected the PS3 to our router via Ethernet the footage played flawlessly.

The HF R36’s may not have the best image quality and stabilisation we’ve seen, but both are acceptable for the price and the camcorder has plenty of extra features. Even though it’s fairly slow, streaming videos to your PC wirelessly is convenient, and the Story Creator function makes the camcorder an ideal gift for a younger, budding cinematographer. Be aware that the standard battery lasts less than hour in use, so you’ll want a spare for days out. If image quality is most important to you in a camcorder, check out the Panasonic HC-V500Panasonic HC-V500. If you want a fun, good quality camcorder, though, then Canon HF R36’s is for you.