Rebel Filmmaker - View Single Post - Canon HF-S10 vs Sony XR500

Dave Blackhurst · May 9th, 2009, 09:08 PM

Ken -
I've seen excellent samples of video from both (night video from the XR sold me up front), but I've also seen some strange sharpening artifacts in the Canon (I'd describe it as "ringing" between colors - almost like a black line where there should just be two colors butting against each other). I believe there were similar artifacts in the 5D MkII reported, so I'm a bit cautious. Artificial "sharpness" is not sharpness - it may fool the eye, but I'd rather have a cleaner image.

I'd still like to lay hands on one of the HF-S series, but there's no way it will beat the XR in low noise/low light, I've looked at enough samples to feel that's a safe statement - you switch that "lo lux" switch (basically going to 1/30 shutter) and it sees way better than I do in low light! Noise comes up a bit, but not much.

The Canon manual controls are certainly attractive, but the XR exceeds my expectations and I've already got the accessories so I've stuck to Sony.

The reviews of the HF-S were surprisingly mixed as well. Not that the reviewers could figure out what Sony was up to with the XR either, but I expected to see the Canon do better with all the specs...

I love having a viewfinder - retired my CX12's for that reason alone, the XR is smaller than the SR11 and not much larger than the CX... The VF in the XR isn't exactly the best (I've seen some funky color errors - viewfinders probably should be B&W <wink>), but if you need to frame the shot in bright conditions it's great, plus it also will fit the sport packs with the VF right against the rear panel, so you can use it that way!

Hard drives still scare me a bit (and heaven forbid I get that much video backed up and unedited!!), I'd prefer the SS memory of the Canon in that respect, but the XR can record to the MS Duo, and I presume it's possible to remove the HDD like in the SR, though I've not examined that as I'm not dealing with any extreme conditions!

And the OIS... darn close to having a steadicam! If you're careful, probably adequate for most conditions. With some of my rigs (shoulder mounts, fig rig style bracket rigs, and belt supported monopod), I'm pretty sure I could match a gimballed rig under a lot of conditions... and that's saying something, since the bane of shooting HD has been the need to stabilize the camera or have a mess. I never found the SR11 to be weak in that area, but side by side with the XR, it was another one of those "night and day" differences. I could walk down a long hall and keep the XR locked on a "target", not so with the SR, it was close, but not quite. I had such poor luck with the OIS in the HV20 that in my opinion Canon would have to really make a huge leap to be anywhere close to what Sony did with the XR.

I didn't expect the XR to be such a jump ahead of the SR, but once I got one in hand it was a fairly easy decision to upgrade. For all the reasons you've mentioned, I think the XR was a better choice overall... now if they'd just give a better manual control suite!

May 9th, 2009, 09:08 PM	#2
Dave Blackhurst Trustee Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 1,240	Ken - I've seen excellent samples of video from both (night video from the XR sold me up front), but I've also seen some strange sharpening artifacts in the Canon (I'd describe it as "ringing" between colors - almost like a black line where there should just be two colors butting against each other). I believe there were similar artifacts in the 5D MkII reported, so I'm a bit cautious. Artificial "sharpness" is not sharpness - it may fool the eye, but I'd rather have a cleaner image. I'd still like to lay hands on one of the HF-S series, but there's no way it will beat the XR in low noise/low light, I've looked at enough samples to feel that's a safe statement - you switch that "lo lux" switch (basically going to 1/30 shutter) and it sees way better than I do in low light! Noise comes up a bit, but not much. The Canon manual controls are certainly attractive, but the XR exceeds my expectations and I've already got the accessories so I've stuck to Sony. The reviews of the HF-S were surprisingly mixed as well. Not that the reviewers could figure out what Sony was up to with the XR either, but I expected to see the Canon do better with all the specs... I love having a viewfinder - retired my CX12's for that reason alone, the XR is smaller than the SR11 and not much larger than the CX... The VF in the XR isn't exactly the best (I've seen some funky color errors - viewfinders probably should be B&W <wink>), but if you need to frame the shot in bright conditions it's great, plus it also will fit the sport packs with the VF right against the rear panel, so you can use it that way! Hard drives still scare me a bit (and heaven forbid I get that much video backed up and unedited!!), I'd prefer the SS memory of the Canon in that respect, but the XR can record to the MS Duo, and I presume it's possible to remove the HDD like in the SR, though I've not examined that as I'm not dealing with any extreme conditions! And the OIS... darn close to having a steadicam! If you're careful, probably adequate for most conditions. With some of my rigs (shoulder mounts, fig rig style bracket rigs, and belt supported monopod), I'm pretty sure I could match a gimballed rig under a lot of conditions... and that's saying something, since the bane of shooting HD has been the need to stabilize the camera or have a mess. I never found the SR11 to be weak in that area, but side by side with the XR, it was another one of those "night and day" differences. I could walk down a long hall and keep the XR locked on a "target", not so with the SR, it was close, but not quite. I had such poor luck with the OIS in the HV20 that in my opinion Canon would have to really make a huge leap to be anywhere close to what Sony did with the XR. I didn't expect the XR to be such a jump ahead of the SR, but once I got one in hand it was a fairly easy decision to upgrade. For all the reasons you've mentioned, I think the XR was a better choice overall... now if they'd just give a better manual control suite!