ONe of the big decisions for HD camcorder buyers will soon be whether to go flash or hard disk. Canon's latest include full AVCHD support and your choice of flash or HDD.
When consumer HD camcorders first launched on the market -- just a month shy of four years ago -- they were big and bulky lads, led to market by Sony's HDR-FX1 -- and tape ruled the roost. That's not the case any more, with a variety of vendors offering HD camcorders with a variety of recording media in mind.
Canon's never been too far from the fray, even if it couldn't claim the first to market crown, and it's just launched a trio of new HD camcorders to market. Sure, names like HF11, HG20 and HG21 don't really tell you much, but dig a little deeper and you'll find some tasty details.
All three cameras boast full AVCHD 24Mbps support, and that's something that Canon claims is a consumer first. The HF11 uses a mixture of 32GB of onboard flash -- Canon claims this allows over 12 hours of HD recording -- and an SDHC card slot for those who need more recording time.
Or you could opt for the HG20 or HG21, which use integrated hard disk drives -- 60GB and 120GB respectively -- for up to 22.5 or 45 hours recording time. That's a whole lot of home movies right there. Pricing details were not immediately available, but Canon would like as many of your pennies as you can spare when the three units go on sale in September.