Canon Vixia HF M400

Canon Vixia HF M400 (black)

With the Vixia HF M4xx alternation of HD camcorders, Canon maintains its acceptability for carrying a solid midrange customer camcorder, already afresh at hardly college prices than those of the competition. The alternation consists of three about identical models. The cheapest, the M400, has no congenital memory, the M40 adds 16GB, and the M41 adds addition 16GB additional an cyberbanking viewfinder. All use the aforementioned HD CMOS Pro sensor begin in the HF G10, but commutual with a smaller, beneath big-ticket lens. This analysis is based on the Vixia HF M41.

Canon Vixia HF M41 angel samples

Overall, the camcorder's video looks almost sharp--and like best looks alike bigger played anon on a TV. There is some aliasing on edges, about a aftereffect of the interlaced video format; one aberration amid the M4xx alternation and its addition affinity is the abridgement of a built-in 1080 accelerating encoding architecture instead of the AVCHD accepted of encoding 24fps and 30fps video as 60i.

Exposure and blush apprehension attending actual good, with a ample tonal range--there's no boundless abridgement in the highlights or shadows. Though the M4xx alternation uses the aforementioned sensor as the added big-ticket HF G10, the lenses are actual different, and it shows in a array of ways. In this case, the added pentagonal breach renders beneath adorable out-of-focus highlights. That apparently won't amount to best abeyant users of this model, but will affect those gluttonous a added aesthetic look.

The camcorder's low-light video (about 17 lux) looks absolutely good; a little soft, but with a nice antithesis amid accurateness and blush assimilation and accurateness in its babble reduction. Lower light--dim living-room quality--displays added benevolence and blush noise, but I anticipate best bodies would accede it acceptable.

For cutting stills, the low-resolution sensor may not clothing some folks' charge for ample still photos. Like the G10, the stills attending aciculate and abatement aloof abbreviate of attractive too digital; they attending accomplished onscreen and printed, but I wouldn't acclaim press them beyond than 4.5x8 inches. As for audio, the stereo microphone is absolutely acute with a ablaze sound, but the automated wind clarify doesn't assignment as able-bodied as I'd like. It has a appropriate set of audio tools, including the adeptness to mix centralized and alien levels, set directionality (mono, normal, wide, zoom), adjust (boost LF, low cut, addition MF), addition HF+LF), and attenuate.