Canon VIXIA HF10 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 16 GB Internal Flash Memory and 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

The camera has met and/or exceded my expectations. It's light weight, easy to handle and the operation and functions are very intuitive and easy to learn. The sound quality of the built in mic was a pleasnt suprise. The HD playback is quite impressive! The free software provided is, well, free. The cost of a backup battery is a little stiff, but technology advances will most likely bring the cost down in the near future.

The camera is a dream: small (maybe too small?): fits in the palm of your hand. Pure memory storage of video is relaly quite nice, but have a large hard drive ready. Now that drives are cheap and plentiful, no problem. You will need a good software set to work the HD well, not to mention a fast processor. I got Sony's Vegas suite: works well. Still images with the camera are fine, though this is not a still camera with all the features you'd expect from one. Focus is great, auto exposure settings work fine, the display is great. Battery life is fine, though I did pick up an extra larger battery for field work. Works ok at night. Works better during daytime. Audio is ok for field work though wind sensative. Useful in many ways.

The picture is as expected for a compact HD camera. In full daylight very sharp but this is not a low light video cam. Import to Final Cut Pro on my power Mac was easy and uneventful. It just imported and that was it. Controls are a little awkward. Generally I am happy with this consumer level cam.

Wow, what can I say, once you go HD you'll never go back. Great camcorder from an ergonomic perspective and I mirror much of what others have said but I'm going to focus on a few things others have not yet said...mainly that I'm a MacPro user and yes indeed the SW to play & edit isn't included for Mac OS but it is for Windows. You'll have to buy something like iLife ($79.95 on Amazon) to play your video (if you bought your mac recently it has iLife on it for free) on your computer and then edit it. How crazy is that? Free for Win, but $80 for Mac! The bigger issue is that I can't seem to find an answer to what I think would be part of a normal workflow. That is, I want to simply use my Mac to archive my .mts (ACVHD) files and then bring them back (unedited) to the camera so I can view them on my HD TV via the HDMI cable. YOU CANT DO THIS! I spoke with Canon support and they said and I quote "We claim no compatibility with Macs WHATSOEVER" but the Pixma software included does allow you to download to WIndows, play and move it back to the camcorder". The only way to view a clip if you have a Mac is to burn the archived video on to DVD and then view it. HOW CRAZY is that!? My kids just want to occasionally view an old video now and then and what faster way than to simply copy the particular clip back to the camera temporarily to view? NO, you have to burn a DVD! Per Canon support "copying from a Mac is meant to be a ONE-WAY process".

If you use Windows, I'd say it worth buying. If you use a Mac, WAIT!! Shame on Canon for not recognizing an important user base when releasing a THIRD generation ACVHD camcorder!

This is my first HD Camcorder. Picture is really good and I like the HDAVC format. You can play the HDAVC directly on PS3, just plug the memory card into the PS3 USB port, it instantly recognized and you can play the video with HD quality picture. You can also use the come along software to create a DVD or Blueray DVD. I done with the regular DVD, although the format is not bluray, it is 16:9 and picture is quite good on my 40' LCD. I did not render the Bluray DVD option, I can imagine the quality should be way better. But why bother, I just plug my memory card into PS3 and the result is the same.
The only thing I regret was, I brought the HF10, I should have brought the HF100 which is identical without the internal memory. I used the external memory card all the time so the extra money I paid for the internal memory model is a null point.