Canon Legria HF S100

Still Features (12.21)

The Canon HF S100 has an abundance of photographic features, and, as you'll see in our image tests below, it can function rather decently as a still camera. The camcorder can take photos in any mode—dual shot, photo mode, film mode, and even during video playback. Full photo options, however, are only available in dedicated photo mode. Here, you can adjust image size with options ranging from 3264 x 2456 to 640 x 480, choose an image quality setting, or select a metering mode from evaluative, centre-weighted average, or spot. There's a continuous shooting mode that will keep taking photos for as long as you keep the shutter button pressed (a hi-speed continuous feature does the same thing, only with a faster shutter), and an auto exposure bracketing option that takes three sequential photos, each with varying adjustments to exposure. There's also shutter-priority and aperture-priority modes for still images and most manual controls that work in video mode are also applicable with photos.

In film mode, you can turn on an option for simultaneous recording. With this option activated, photos can be captured while you record video (with size options of 3264 x 1840 or 1920 x 1080 for the photos). In dual shot mode, simultaneous recording is automatically engaged, with the photo size always set to 1920 x 1080. In playback mode, the HF S100 has an option for capturing a still image from a recorded video. All you need to do is pause the video and hold down the shutter button to take the photo. In the camcorders playback menu, you can set the quality of these captured images (from super fine, fine, or normal), but the image size must be set to 1920 x 1080.

Even though you may not be able to spot it at first, the camcorder does have a built-in flash. It's embedded inside the body of the camcorder, in the portion just above the lens. When you activate the flash, it automatically pops-up out of its compartment ready to go. We found the flash worked well, and it can be set to auto, red-eye reduction auto, always on, and always off. Behind the flash is a hot accessory shoe that can be used to attach an external flash or video light. The shoe, unfortunately, uses a proprietary mini design, so it only works with special accessories designed by Canon. Rounding out the HF S100's still features are a self-timer and an auto rotate feature, which will display correctly any images that were captured with the camcorder on its side.

The still mode function menu		The still mode joystick menu

The still playback screen looks just like the video playback screen. Photos are arranged as thumbnails and selecting an image brings up a full-screen view of the photo. Also displayed on the LCD screen is a large, blue histogram and an information box that gives details about the photograph (things like shutter speed, aperture setting, image size, etc.). Using the zoom toggle during still image playback allows you to digitally magnify a 3264 x 2456 still image up to five times.

The still mode main menu		The still mode playback menu

Still Colour (8.84)

The Canon HF S100 measured a colour error of 3.96 in its still photos, which is very similar to the 3.93 it scored in our regular video colour testing. The HF S100 measured a saturation level of 98.95% in our still image testing. For still images, this is a good score, although it is a bit worse than the Panasonic HDC-HS300 (2.65 colour error) and the Sony HDR-XR520 (3.2 colour error). The JVC GZ-HD320 also faired quite well in this test, with a 4.11 colour error. (More on how we test still colour.)

The still photography colour error map: the length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular colour.

The HF S100 had difficulty with dark blues and some yellows and oranges in our still colour test. This is interesting because the camcorder did very well with blues in our video testing and struggled with reds—something the HF S100 captured very accurately in its still photographs. Since the camcorder uses different processing for still and video mode, these discrepancies make sense, and it may be something to look out for if you're overly concerned about the colours matching-up on your video and photo images.

Canon Legria HF S100 Still Colour Comparisons
Canon Legria HF S100	Sony HDR-XR520
	the JVC GZ-HD320 records still photos in 16:9 only
Panasonic HDC-HS300	JVC GZ-HD320

Still Noise (1.65)

The HF S100 measured high noise levels in its still photos, averaging 1.15% noise in our tests. This is much too high for a still image, although it is not terrible. The Sony HDR-XR520 had roughly the same numbers (1.07% noise), while the Panasonic HDC-HS300 and JVC GZ-HD320 averaged 0.87% and 0.7% noise respectively. (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Sharpness (11.5)

The Canon HF S100 has a huge CMOS sensor, and it really comes in handy for taking large, sharp photos. The camcorder recorded an excellent horizontal sharpness of 2821 lw/ph with 0.5% oversharpening. Things didn't fare as well with vertical resolution, which measured 1380 lw/ph with -9.9% undersharpening from the same image in our test. This discrepancy between horizontal and vertical matches the results we got in our video sharpness test, which also showed the camcorder performing better on its horizontal measurement. Still, these are both very good scores overall, and the HF S100 has one of the strongest still sharpness measurements we have seen. The Sony HDR-XR520 also put up good numbers here, with 1961 lw/ph horizontal and 1680 lw/ph vertical. (More on how we test still sharpness.)