Canon Legria HF20

Low Light Sensitivity (1.16)

The Canon HF20 is not an elite low light performer and its poor sensitivity score reflects this. The HF20 required 18 lux of light to reach 50 IRE—an amount that is double what the Canon HF11 needed last year to reach the same level. It seems that with the HF20's boost in video resolution and detail came a significant decrease in low light capability. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means you should steer clear of the HF20 if you are planning on doing the bulk of your shooting after dark. (More on how we test low light sensitivity.)

Required Illumination *

* the lower the lux required, the better the performance

The Canon HF20 wasn't the worst low light camcorder that we tested in this batch—that award goes to the Panasonic HDC-HS20—but it definitely could not compete with the terrific performance of the Sanyo VPC-HD2000. The Canon HF S100 also fared quite a bit better than its little brother in this test. Keep in mind, the Canon HF20 does have a small video light and a few special low light modes (we do our testing in auto mode), so there are workarounds for this poor low light performance.

Low Light Colour (6.97)

The Canon HF20 did better with low light colour accuracy than it did with sensitivity and noise. It put up average numbers, 5.26 colour error and 65.74% saturation, and still produced a sharp, crisp image in low light. Its image at 60 lux was a bit darker than the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 and Panasonic HDC-HS20, but roughly on par with the Canon HF S100. (More on how we test low light colour.)

Auto Low Light Colour Performance
Colour Chart with Error Chart to the right
The Canon HF20 produced a colour error of 5.26 and a saturation level of 62.84% in our low light colour testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the colour error and the direction the camcorder skewed each colour for each patch on the chart.)

The colour error map above shows that there really is not any colour spectrum the Canon HF20 did particularly bad with. The camcorder appeared to work best with browns and skin tones under low light, but everything else showed a relatively equivalent amount of inaccuracy. Another number to take note of is the HF20's drop from 91.5% saturation at bright light to 65.74% under low light.

Low Light Comparison
Canon HF20	Sanyo VPC-HD2000
Panasonic HDC-HS20	Canon HF S100

The best low light performer from this set is the Sanyo VPC-HD2000. It produced very accurate colours (2.84 colour error) and recorded an excellent low light sensitivity. The Canon HF S100 produced very similar colours in low light to the HF20, and the Panasonic HDC-HS20, once again, showed us a blurry image and weak colours in this test.

Low Light Colour Score Comparison

Low Light Noise (7.32)

The high noise levels we measured on the Canon HF20 at bright light got much worse when we turned the lights down. The camcorder registered an average of 1.71% noise, which is significantly higher than the other models we tested in this set. Here, in low light, the noise began to severely distort the image—making the high level of detail and sharp image on the HF20 less of a benefit. (More on how we test low light noise.)

Noise at 60 lux Auto
Canon HF20 100% Crop	Sanyo VPC-HD2000 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-HS20 100% Crop	Canon HF S100 100% Crop

The Panasonic HDC-HS20 once again recorded the lowest level of noise amongst the camcorders we tested. This doesn't mean its low light image was all that good—the HS20 showed lots of artefacting, blur, and washed-out colours. Overall, the Canon HF S100 and Sanyo VPC-HD2000 both had good combinations of low noise levels and strong image quality.

Low Light Noise Score Comparisons