Canon Legria HF M31

Still Features (11.56)

The HF M31 does not interpolated the resolution on any of its still photos. This means the camcorder's maximum photo size option—2100 x 1575—is actually the maximum native resolution offered on the camcorder (around 3.3 megapixels). This is actually a good native resolution for a mid-range HD camcorder, particularly when compared to the dismal photo size options found on the Panasonic HDC-HS60 and JVC GZ-HD620.

The camcorder has a built-in flash.

The HF M31 has a dedicated photo mode (which is activated by pressing a button on the touch-screen), but you can also take photos in video mode or while you are recording (that's why it's called Dual Shot mode). There's a flash on the front of the camcorder that has red-eye reduction settings, and the camcorder has multiple continuous shooting modes (including bracketing). The shutter button is located on the top of the camcorder, right behind the zoom toggle. Manual controls in photo mode are essentially the same as what you get in video mode, except here you can also adjust the exposure metering setting to evaluative, centre-weighted average, or spot.

	Canon HF M31	Panasonic HDC-HS60	JVC GZ-HD620	Canon HF S21
Maximum Native Resolution	4:3 – 2100 x 1575 16:9 – 2304 x 1296	4:3 – 1600 x 1200 3:2 – 1680 x 1120 16:9 – 1920 x 1080	4:3 – 1440 x 1080 16:9 – 1920 x 1080	4:3 – 3264 x 2456 16:9 – 3264 x 1840
Quality	Super Fine, Fine, Normal	Normal, High	Fine, Standard	Super Fine, Fine, Normal
Flash	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Simultaneous Video/Still	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ISO	No	No	No	No
Continuous Shot	Yes (3 or 5 photos/sec)	Yes (24 or 60 frames/sec)	No	Yes (3 or 5 photos/sec)
Bracketing	Yes	No	No	Yes
Self-Timer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smile Shutter	No	Yes	No	No

Still Colour (9.49)

The HF M31 earned a colour error of 3.69 and a saturation level of 104.9% in our still image testing. Both of these are good scores for the camcorder and they are nearly identical to the numbers we got from the Canon HF S21 in this same test. (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.

You can see the from the error map above that the HF M31 had some trouble with blue tones, while the rest of the colours on our test chart were produced with good accuracy. You can see a sample image from our colour test below. The Canon HF M31 produced a brighter image than its competitors, but all of the camcorders did relatively well in this test.

Canon HF M31 Still Colour Comparisons
Canon HF M31	Panasonic HDC-HS60
the GZ-HD620 takes 16:9 photos only
JVC GZ-HD620	Canon HF S21

Still Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Panasonic HDC-HS60
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the JVC GZ-HD620
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Canon HF S21

Still Noise (3.55)

The Canon HF M31 averaged 0.92% noise in our still image testing, which is the exact same amount of noise we measured on the Panasonic HDC-HS60. This is a bit more noise than we'd hope to see from the camcorder's still photos, but it isn't a terrible score—and it is almost the same amount of noise the camcorder registered in our bright light video testing. (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Panasonic HDC-HS60
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the JVC GZ-HD620
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Canon HF S21

Still Sharpness (4.56)

For a camcorder with a still image effective pixel count of roughly 3.31 megapixels, the Canon HF M31 did a fairly good job in our sharpness test. The camcorder measured a horizontal sharpness of 1562 lw/ph with 7.7% undersharpening, and a vertical sharpness of 1101 lw/ph with 2.7% undersharpening. Like we said, these scores are good for a 3.31 megapixel still image, but they are nothing compared to what the 8-megapixel Canon HF S21 was capable of.  (More on how we test still sharpness.)

Still Sharpness Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Panasonic HDC-HS60
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the JVC GZ-HD620
		Compare the Canon HF M31 to the Canon HF S21