Canon HF S10 - Your thoughts please?

[Ted]

Hello all,

Well, I have a "problem" (of sorts... it's kind of a fun problem to have)...

About a week ago I dropped my baby (my Canon HV 30) on my floor and picked it up to discover that the flip LCD had dislodged... and, while it wasn't dangling, it was just broken enough not to close properly!

That's the bad news.

The good news was that I had purchased it at Best Buy and opted to buy their $156 accidental drop protection... so it was covered! I thank God for that.

So I brought it to the Geek Squad and they told me that this minor problem should be fixed, no problem... and I'll have it back in 2-3 weeks.

Today, I got a call from Geek Squad: "Hello, this is Jon from the Geek Squad. We've been authorized to have your HV 30 swap out..." (translation: We didn't fix it... go find a camcorder of equitable value and we'll give it to you).

At first, I was excited and thought, "Cool! I can shop for a new camcorder!"

But then I got to look at Best Buy's site and here's what I found:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+VIX ... Id=9239521

It's the Canon HF S10...and it has good reviews from both their site as well as Amazon (I plan on checking out other review sites as well).

I also noticed they only have two Mini DV camcorders...one of them being over $3k in price!

So I'm wondering if anybody can give me any insight on the S10? I know it's Flash (which is something I actually LIKE!) and I know that means AVCHD...

I have a quad system with 8 GB or RAM...

Should I NOT even attempt this? I also have PE 7 (if that matters).

If you can suggest another camcorder that is BETTER, then I want to hear it... because I trust so many people on this site. But keep in mind it HAS to be offered at Best Buy.

Thanks for any help you can provide! It's much appreciated!

[alaskamovieguy]

Congratulations! ...I think. I switched from a tape video to Canon's HF20 last spring which has Flash and I love it, would never go back. The flash is fantastic for scene search, editing the scene in camera, never have to worry about accidentally taping over something you already have, and all the other things I'm sure your up on. Your camera model has a much upgraded processor from mine, megapixel wise. My camera uses avchd as well. On my computor I only have a 2 core 3GHZ processor and 4 G Ram and using PE7 I can't edit smoothly, quite rough in fact but manage for now by zooming in and going slow in critical areas. From what I understand with your system you should be able to handle it OK, but no first hand knowdledge. I burn blu-ray from PE7 ( MPeg2-1920 x1080 ) and am very pleased with the results played back on my 42" sony 1080p HD, crystal clear! In summary, only 7 months into it but I love it. Good luck!

[Steve Grisetti]

As Alaska says, the biggest challenge with moving to AVCHD is that it will depend a pretty powerful processor to work with. Like a quad core ideally. Is your system powerful enough?

Meantime, congrats on cashing in on the Best Buy extended warranty! Talk about playing against the odds and winning!

[Ted]

Alaska and Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to respond!

Looking at the other Best Buy camcorders available to me, I think I'm somewhat FORCED to head into this new territory. I honestly that that since the bevel had just been broken a bit, they'd easily fix/replace it and I'd be able to get my HV30 back to me safe and sound. Seems that's not the case.

Steve, to answer your question, I HOPE that my system is powerful enough! (Not really sure? LOL) I have a Quad Core (I want to say Q6600?), running Windows 7 and 8 GB of ram. I had it built for me, so I'll ask the Geek Squad guys who actually know my computer better than I do! (How sad is that!)

Do I need any special graphics card to edit AVCHD?

Steve, no kidding on cashing in on the warranty! When I think that had I not spent that extra $156, I'd be in the market for a new camcorder at full cost, you can better believe I'm going to buy that protection again on this new baby. The fact they cover dropping, coffee spills, pretty much anything except for theft, obviously... I'll buy the protection. Then again, I'm always about buying that extended stuff.

Paranoia, I guess?

[Steve Grisetti]

I think you'll be okay, Ted. Your system will likely be fast enough to edit AVCHD.