VIXIA HF S21 Review Anyone?

[MayorMacCheese]

I was thinking of buying the VIXIA HF S21. I want a good low-light, sd card, hd camcorder to record kids and family. I want a camera with good image stability, a view finder for recording in the sun and good optical zoom. I want to be able to downconvert the video to edit and burn on dvds on my imac and save the original sd cards in a fire safe to keep the original hd video forever. Does anybody use the model camera or can recommend a good one? Price should be under $1500. The hd flips and cheaper models don't have the features I would like. Thank you in advance for any advice.

[edDV]

The VIXIA HF S21 is a higher end consumer AVCHD camcorder.

Most of your requirements will be limited by iMovie transcode to 960x540p or AIC.

I'm not aware of an Apple solution to archive a direct AVCHD capture without conversion*.

If you goal is 720x480 DVD Apple's downscale is questionable. Don't you really want high definition?

Are you willing to invest in Studio?

If you are limited to iLife, this camcorder is overkill.


* Apple assumes you will maintain the original on expensive flash media.

[MayorMacCheese]

I would love to have full hd but....

1. none of the people i burn copies of my videos have a bluray player, so i just need standard def to burn them dvds that they can use
2. i don't own a bluray burner so my imac can only burn dvds anyway

i figured, since i need a new camera now, (the old canon is fading fast), i could buy a sd card one, save the full hd on the cards for the future when everyone/thing is hd and just burn old fashioned, standard def dvds for now.


since this is overkill, can you recommend a different one? what do you guys use? i still want: ease of use with my mac (slip in the sd card or hook up by firewire), sd cards, lowlight, hd, good optical zoom. too much info on net, the amount of cameras to choose from gives me a headache....

is studio something i will someday need for full hd editing? i don't do crazy editing, just quick cuts, add title screen, done.

[INFRATOM]

I bought this camcorder for family and some general purpose recording. I had in mind not to edit and just assemble shots I take to watch on TV. Also I wanted it to have compact recording, size and use less battery meaning not to carry around too much stuff. I'm picky so after reading all these threads somehow I justified it in my mind and bought it.
It's very nice but bigger than I expected, it's a bit thicker than a water bottle so it is not as small as the ones you see at the stores. It can take 8meg pixel photos but it not comfortable as a still camera but takes nice pictures. It can convert video to SD on the fly while playing. I have not had a chance to test it much but I took some clips copied the segment clips to a SD card on the camera also converted some to SD and plugged the SD card to my OPPO and watch all the segments without interruption. I take shorter segments and could arrange a playlist on the camera so if I don't want a segment just remove it. The view finder is very nice to have, filming through view finder makes it more private and easier to hold and also it has a focus feature and without glasses every info can be seen. I'm not sure but I can check later the folders it creates can be burned to DVD as Bluray and player will play it as AVCHD like bluray. The converted SD on computer was very blurry when there was a motion but when played on Bluray player it looked OK maybe it has interlace problem. I would say you don't need to use the SD conversion just put all the clips in the correct folder and burn on dvd as bluray. Maybe just for youtube. It has touch screen control, but the screen gets smugged in my opinion it is not a plus.
Sorry for a non technical review but there are some threads about lower model vixia which holds true for this too regarding editing. It has different frame rates for example PF24 and 24 frame, it says 24 frame cannot be converted to SD but PF24 can. I appreciate if someone would elaborate on these. Also although it picks up the sound well if some one would suggest a remote mic that is not toy like but not too expensive either $400 max.

[edDV]

I would love to have full hd but....

1. none of the people i burn copies of my videos have a bluray player, so i just need standard def to burn them dvds that they can use
2. i don't own a bluray burner so my imac can only burn dvds anyway

i figured, since i need a new camera now, (the old canon is fading fast), i could buy a sd card one, save the full hd on the cards for the future when everyone/thing is hd and just burn old fashioned, standard def dvds for now.


since this is overkill, can you recommend a different one? what do you guys use? i still want: ease of use with my mac (slip in the sd card or hook up by firewire), sd cards, lowlight, hd, good optical zoom. too much info on net, the amount of cameras to choose from gives me a headache....

is studio something i will someday need for full hd editing? i don't do crazy editing, just quick cuts, add title screen, done.

The camcorder is good, an upper range consumer AVCHD model. You can read the comparison reviews as well as me. My main criticism is with flash media and the Apple iLife work flow which IMO isn't sufficient for high definition.

First assumption I make, shooting family and travel video is a serious business. Preservation of source video quality for future generations should be part of the process.

Flash media is not reliable or economic for long term storage. Figure about $20-30/hr for Level 6 flash media cost. The first step after shooting should be backup of the camera original m2ts file (~12 MB/hr) to at least two places. External hard drives are a practical solution. There is no direct backup process for AVCHD files in iLife. You must do it in Finder manually.

iMovie 9 will import AVCHD files but will either deinterlace to quarter resolution 960x540p or convert to Apple Intermediate Codec (about 60GB/hr) which is too large for backup. Once editing is complete iDVD will downscale to 720x480 DVD as one form of export. Apple provides no Blu-Ray solution or export back to AVCHD format for playback on DVDR discs in most Blu-Ray players. MPeg2 export is not supported. They only offer higher compressed Quicktime h.264 export for high definition which is OK for email but not a full quality backup.

Final Cut Express will edit AIC files but has similar HD export limitations.

You need to step up to the full Studio application ($999 list) to get full export capability from Compressor.

Another option is to go with Adobe or Avid editing products.

Just wanted to express my concerns about Apple's solution for high definition.