Canon Legria HF S21

Still Features (12.71)

With the HF S21, Canon has created one of the better camcorders for capturing still images. Canon didn't really improve anything over last year, however, so if you are already familiar with the still image performance and features of the HF S100, then you shouldn't notice any surprises here. You can capture photos in a dedicated photo mode (which is accessed by pressing the camera icon on the LCD touchscreen), or you can use limited still features in video mode. In video mode you can even capture still photos while you are recording, but the photos are limited to either a 3264 x 1840 or 1920 x 1080 resolution.
 

The pop-up flash has a video light next to it.

The flash on the HF S21 is hidden on an embedded panel that pops up when you activate it (the video light is also located here). The flash is equipped with a red-eye reduction setting that can be turned on or off in the camcorder's menu. The camcorder has a rather high native resolution for capturing still photos—8.02 megapixels. You can also take photos at a variety of smaller sizes (down to 640 x 480). The AF/AE tracking feature is also fully functional in photo mode, as is face detection and most of the camcorder's manual control options.
 

Still Colour (9.62)

The Canon HF S21 did well on our still colour test, but we often see results like this from high-end consumer camcorders. The HF S21 measured a colour error of 3.64 and a saturation level of 105.3% in our test—both numbers being significantly better than the camcorder did in our video colour testing. (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 comparison images below show you that each of the camcorders in this set did very well in our colour testing. They all produced deep, saturated colours with very good accuracy. The HF S100 showed very similar results to the HF S21, although its colours were slightly less saturated.
 

Canon HF S21 Still Colour Comparisons
Canon HF S21	Panasonic HDC-TM700
JVC GZ-HM1	Canon HF S100

Still Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Panasonic HDC-TM700
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the JVC GZ-HM1
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Canon HF S100

Still Noise (2.15)

Like the HF S100 before it, the Canon HF S21 wasn't a strong performer in our still noise test. The camcorder averaged 1.97% noise in our test, which is roughly 0.3% more noise than we measured in our bright light video testing. As you can see from the score chart below, the Panasonic and Canon camcorders did better than the Canons with this test, but not by huge margins. (More on how we test still noise.)
 

Still Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Panasonic HDC-TM700
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the JVC GZ-HM1
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Canon HF S100

Still Sharpness (12.26)

Since the Canon HF S21 can take native 6-megapixel still photos,w e weren't all that surprised to see it put on a stupendous performance in our still sharpness test. The camcorder managed a horizontal sharpness of 2366 lw/ph with 4.3% oversharpening and a vertical sharpness of 2160 lw/ph with 11.1% oversharpening. These numbers are similar to what we measured on the HF S100 last year and they are much higher than what the Panasonic HDC-TM700 and the JVC GZ-HM1 earned. (More on how we test still sharpness.)
 

Still Sharpness Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Panasonic HDC-TM700
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the JVC GZ-HM1
		Compare the Canon HF S21 to the Canon HF S100