Canon VIXIA HV30 MiniDV High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

My husband LOVES this camera. Not only do the videos come out amazing, but even the still pictures are great! Highly recommend this video camera!

I question the value of most reviewers who write something after a short experience with a product. I fall into that category myself but here goes. I've "played" with this camcorder for a month and did one serious shoot - a talking head interview miked with a lavalier mike. I used professional studio tungsten lighting. It looked very, very good for a camcorder at this price. Sounded great which had more to do with an external mike than the camcorder. The sound may suck with the camera's mike but I don't intend to use it much. I am thinking I will have to do some rube goldberg adjustments to get what I want from this camcorder but so be it. I shot the interview at 30p and cinema mode(vivid) which seemed to work nice. The image under my lighting looked washed out so I over rode the auto lighting minus two. Worked fine in this instance.
I was attracted to this camera because most reviews suggested the video quality was very good. I concur. Also like the 30p & 24p and cinema mode and ability to use external microphone. With good technique I think I can produce videos that rival the models that cost 3-4K, particularly when you convert to quicktime or flash for the web.
I use a new MAC and Final Cut Express to edit my stuff. The HD footage from this camera takes some horsepower to edit i.e. hard drives, processor, video card, etc. If all I wanted was some family stuff to play back on my TV through the camera I wouldn't go with this camera -- probably would get one of the camcorders with a card and avchd format.
I'm a professional still photographer. This camera is meant to be an extension of some of the work I do in that capacity. So far I'm happy with it. It's a consumer camcorder with enough bells and whistles to make decent video if used carefully. The price is outrageous (in a good way). Am anxious to do more with it.
The only negative I might bring up is that the zoom is only around 48mm (35mm camera equivalent) at the wide end which makes basically a normal field of view. Lots of telephoto reach but I would prefer it the other way around. I notice that the Canon wide angle converter lens is .7x which would be around 34mm when attached. Still not extremely wide but so it goes.

It's my first HD camera and I couldn't be more pleased with it. The HD quality is fantastic. Plus the 24p and 30p modes are nice.

Canon VIXIA HV30 MiniDV High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Excellent. Worth every penny spent.

The camera arrived 3 days before my schedule trip to Haiti, so I had a chance to read the manual and lear about the different functions. The learning curve was painless because the camera is very user friendly and the performance (video and still photo) quality were beyond my expectation.
i used the camera during my trip to record a music video @ Grosse Roche Beach (St- Marc, Haiti). We spent 3 days shooting under different lighting conditions such as early morning at sunrise, mid afternoon and later sunset. I brought the tapes back to my editor in the US and we put together this fantastic music video "Twist & Shout" using final cut pro. The end result was almost as good as my previous music video " Poupe Kreyol" that was recorded using a $4000.00 Camera.
Once again thumbs up to the HV30, easy to used and great video and pictures