Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL

Moderately Desent Prosumer HDV Camera I recently used the Canon VIXIA HV40 as a second camera alongside the Sony HDR-HC7 (as well as a Sony HVR-Z5U) in a documentary and ended up being a little disappointed with the image quality when compared to the HC7. I had originally used this camera for some test footage and thought the picture quality pretty good, but once I used it side-by-side with the HDR-HC7 the differences were readily apparent in the field even before I captured the footage into Final Cut where it became even more noticeable. In actuality, the Sony HDR-HC7 ended up outclassing it; where it was very obvious which footage came from the Canon VIXIA HC40 when compared to the Sony HVR-Z5U footage, the Sony HDR-HC7 actually compared up very nicely with the Z5 and was very hard to tell the difference from the footage. So while the Canon VIXIA HV40 is a very good HDV camera for the price, I would suggest that you get the now Sony HDR-HC9 if you can afford the 50% bump in price as it will deliver video that performs much closer to a camera three times is price. Rating: 4 (Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL customer review by Wildness, 2010-08-18)

Sticking with MiniDV I read all the reviews on this camcorder before buying it. I like the MiniDV format. I have a lot of tapes and would like to read them to disk in the near future. I like recording stuff from other analog sources. I am not going to write everything everyone else already wrote. I LOVE THIS CAMCORDER! The best thing I can say about it is that my technology-averse wife picked it up, recorded some video in a darkly lit room, and the video looks great. She is happy and so am I. The quality drops at a certain darkness but overall, the quality of the video is great and the camcorder is easy to use. If you are anything other than a professional videographer, this is the camcorder for you. Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL customer review by EJ, 2010-07-19)

Does what promised The Canon VixiaHV40 is an excellent high performance HD camcorder. While not the easiest to use at first, it provides a quality typically found in higher end cameras. According to a friend of mine who is a cameraman, this is the same camera used by Reality Shows. The shipper was great and very timely. Delivered on time and in great condition for a used camera. The miniSD was a challenge to find in brick/mortar stores. Go online for both the SD Card and the DVDtapes. Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL customer review by Roberta Silverstein, 2010-07-12)

Excellent camera for streaming Bought this to stream a live event through a macbook. Worked great! Picture was clear even in a dark, candlelit church. Had trouble streaming both video and audio through the firewire port, but otherwise the audio worked well in regular filming. Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL customer review by jaclynn, 2010-06-22)

Great portable video camera Great video quality, 1080i resolution, still camera not very good but does the job if you have good lighting. Only 3 mega pixel camera. All in all a very good afordable video camera(Canon Vixia HV40) Five Stars. Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom - 2009 MODEL customer review by D. Waugh, 2010-05-30)