Canon Vixia HF S21 First Impressions Camcorder Review

We're mostly supportive of the updates made by Canon on the HF S21. The new, 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen is a wonder to behold, but it did have some of the same problems that plague most camcorder touchscreens. It didn't offer precise control, and we often found ourselves tapping on the screen multiple times without getting any response from the camcorder.

Aside from the LCD, we also really like Canon's inclusion of an electronic viewfinder on the HF S21. We honestly did not expect to find a viewfinder on any Canon models this year, so the EVF on the HF S21 is a welcome surprise. The new powered OIS feature for enhanced stabilization is also something we're excited about testing when we get the camcorder into our labs. We look forward to testing the native 24p frame rate on the HF S21 too.

We're happy to see Canon kept the control dial on the HF S21, and we're even happier to see that its implementation has been improved. The simple idea of moving the control dial button to the front of the dial was an excellent touch by Canon.

Overall, we're impressed with the HF S21, but we'll have to wait and see if the camcorder shows any improvement in our video performance testing. There's definitely a lot of stiff competition this year with high-end HD camcorders.