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Shoot Expertise: First Look: Canon Vixia HF S10

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By D. W. Leitner

Lightning in a little bottle.

Canon, unique among camcorder manufacturers with its roots in optics instead of electronics, has always followed a singular path. It introduced 24p HDV native progressive recording in its XL H1, XH A1, and XH G1 models before 24p was included in the HDV standard (www.hdv-info.org). Then, in lieu of a deck to play back native 24p, it provided tiny, low-cost consumer HV20 and HV30 camcorders — which doubled, in effect, as affordable native 24p playback decks. (Sony's recent HVR-M35U HDV deck now plays back native 24p. For more on this, click here)

But what drew many pros, including cinematographers, to the little HV20 and HV30 camcorders (introduced in 2007 and 2008, respectively) was not merely their 24p capability, but their remarkable image quality. These petite HDV camcorders, which have collected a host of awards at tradeshows, demonstrated what a single 1/2.7in. CMOS sensor (larger than 1/3in.) combined with superb optics could achieve in a miniature camcorder.

Canon's new Vixia HF S10 will reset this bar — boosting it much, much higher. If you can believe it, the HF S10 is smaller, lighter, faster, and sharper. It both captures and records full HD — the complete raster of 1920×1080 pixels, instead of HDV's 1440×1080. And yet, cheekily, it remains a consumer product.

Before proceeding to details, I think it's useful to ask: Just how small can an HD camera get?

Physics provides three practical answers. First, the smaller the sensor, the smaller the lens, and the smaller the lens, the smaller the iris or aperture that controls exposure. As the tiny apertures in these tiny lenses approach the size of pinholes in pinhole cameras (think f/8, f/11), a characteristic of light called diffraction takes over, in which light waves touching the edges of any small-diameter aperture scatter and impair focus. HD sharpness becomes impossible. (If you're going to use a pinhole, why bother with a lens at all?)

Second, the smaller the sensor, whether CMOS or CCD, the smaller the photosensitive sites on that sensor, and the less light-sensitive each site becomes. The photosites grow so small, incoming photons can't find them.

And third, HD ups the ante on optics, demanding superior correction for any blurriness and color fringing. Sophisticated multi-element design is the solution, but for mechanical, optical, and manufacturing reasons, this requires glass elements of a certain size and diameter. Nothing that could ever remotely fit on a Pure Digital Technologies Flip camcorder or cell phone camera.

So despite the wave of miniaturization that has continued apace since the HV20 and HV30 arrived, a smallest-possible “envelope” for consumer HD camcorders has emerged by industry consensus, courtesy of low-bit-rate AVCHD (aka long-GOP MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) and flash-memory recording.

Think of this new template as an HV20 or HV30 stripped of both viewfinder and tape transport in the handgrip. Based on a minimal sensor size between 1/4in. and 1/3in., these latest consumer HD camcorders are little more than a lens section, sensor, VLSI circuit or two, flash-memory card slot, battery, and row of ingeniously hidden connectors, all poured into a cylindrical volume the size of a familiar 250mL can of Red Bull — a threshold determined by the diameter of the compact zoom itself.

Continue the discussion on �Crosstalk� the Millimeter Forum.
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