Canon today announced three new camcorders—the pro-level Canon XA11, XA15, and prosumer-oriented Vixia HF G21. All three models feature a 20x optical zoom lens and record full HD 1080p video, and range in price from $999-$1,899.
Canon Vixia HF G21 Prosumer Video Camera
The Canon Vixia HF G21 is a handheld camcorder that records full HD video at 1920 x 1080 resolution and is fronted by a 20x optical zoom lens. Canon claims a new HD CMOS Pro Image Sensor brings improved low-light performance that includes a wide DR Gamma of 600%, as well as the ability to record slow and fast motion with interval recording from 2-1200x.
The camera has a highlight priority mode with view assist function to reduce highlight clipping, and the auto display feature includes high-definition focus peaking. The camera has full auto and manual control, assignable buttons for custom shooting, and can display color bars and a test tone. It has dual SD slots, a 3-inch touchscreen LCD, and a tilt-able electronic viewfinder.
Canon XA11/XA15 Professional Camcorders
The Canon XA11 and XA15, both designed for professional uses such as ENG, weddings and other location videography. The cameras record AVCHD and MPEG-2 formats via a 1/2.84-inch CMOS RGB sensor. Frame rates are 60p, 60i, 30p and 24p. It is fronted by a 26.8-576mm (35mm equivalent) optical zoom lens which has 16 levels of variable zoom speeds at a fast wide aperture of f/1.8-2.8.
Key features:
- Canon 20x HD optical zoom lens
- Full HD 1920×1080 recording
- Advanced HD-CMOS Pro Imaging Sensor
- 3-inch Touchscreen LCD
- Dual SD card slots
- Highlight Priority Mode
- Intelligent Optical Stabilization
- Full Manual control
- 2 Phantom-Powered XLR Audio Inputs with Manual Gain Control
For viewing, the cameras offer a 0.24-inch TFT monitor in the electronic viewfinder, as well as a 3-inch touchscreen monitor with 460k dot resolution. The camera has a built-in stereo condenser microphone but also has a stereo mini-jack, as well as a video terminal, HDMI mini connector and AV mini terminal. It also has a 2.5 stereo mini jack for a remote control.
The XA11 and XA15 are virtually identical cameras, with one difference: The XA15 has a BNC HD/SD-SDI terminal jack for output only, and the XA11 doesn’t.
The Canon XA11 is available from Adorama for ; the Canon XA15 is selling for . The Canon Vixia HF G21 can be purchased for .
