Canon Legria HF G10

Colour (12.15)

The new Canon HF G10 produced excellent results in our color accuracy test and we were pleased to see the camcorder offered significant improvement over last year's HF S21. The G10 had a low color error of 2,88 and a saturation level that fell just under 100%. These are top-notch results for a consumer camcorder, although the Panasonic HDC-TM700 did fair a bit better in this test. (More on how we test color.)

Colour Accuracy Performance
Colour Test Chart (above), Colour Error Map (right)
The Canon HF G10 produced a color error of 2,88 and a saturation level of 97,33% in our bright light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.)

In addition to its good color accuracy in auto mode, the HF G10 also has a few manual color controls that offer adjustments to color depth, contrast, sharpness and brightness (each with a -2 to +2 adjustment range). Examples of the color depth and contrast adjustments can be seen below. If you don't want to adjust these things manually, the HF G10 also has a set of Cinema-Look Filters, a few of which alter the color performance on the camcorder. These filters include options called Vivid, Dream, Cool, Nostalgic, Sepia, Old Movies, Memory, and Dramatic Black & White.

Canon HF G10 Colour Modes
Auto	100% Crop
Colour +2	100% Crop
Colour -2	100% Crop
Contrast +2	100% Crop
Contrast -2	100% Crop

On the surface, the colours produced by the HF G10 don't look all that much different to what we see from the HF S21. Looking closer, though, you'll see the G10 has a better contrast range and its colours are deeper and more vibrant. You can see this in the large comparison images below, as well as the close-up color comparisons that follow. The Panasonic HDC-TM700 produced equally vivid colours (saturation level of 98%) to the Canon HF G10, while both the HF S21 and Sony HDR-CX550V had saturation levels below 90% (88% for the Sony, 84% for the HF S21).

Canon HF G10 Colour Comparisons
Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21
Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V

	Close-Up Colour Comparisons
	Ideal	Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V
Red
	Ideal	Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V
Green
	Ideal	Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V
Blue
	Ideal	Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V
Skin Tone 1
	Ideal	Canon HF G10	Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700	Sony HDR-CX550V
Skin Tone 2

Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Canon HF S21
		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Panasonic HDC-TM700
		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Sony HDR-CX550V

Noise (9.62)

Noise levels were just under 0.6% in our bright light testing with the HF G10. Much like we saw in our color accuracy test, this is a better performance than the Canon HF S21 registered (0.75% noise). None of the camcorders below did a "bad" job in this test, and we rarely see a sub-par noise performance from a high-end HD camcorder in bright light. (More on how we test noise.)

Noise Comparisons
Canon HF G10 100% Crop	Canon HF S21 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-TM700 100% Crop	Sony HDR-CX550V 100% Crop

Since none of the camcorders shown above have a terrific problem with noise, let's take a look at the sharpness each camcorder is capable of. The crops above do a great job illustrating sharpness, and you can see that the HF G10 and the Sony HDR-CX550V have images that look a bit softer than the Canon HF S21. The Panasonic HDC-TM700 has the most detailed image by far, and that is a direct result of the camcorder's pristine 1080/50p record mode that utilises a very high recording bit-rate.

Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Canon HF S21
		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Panasonic HDC-TM700
		Compare the Canon HF G10 to the Sony HDR-CX550V