Canon LEGRIA HV40

Colour (9,75)

The Canon HV40 had a decent showing in our bright light colour test, but the colours produced weren't as accurate as those from Canon's HF S series of flash memory camcorders. The HV40 earned a colour error of 3.59 and a strong saturation level of 95.44%. Both of these numbers are good, but we've definitely seen better from other high-end models. (More on how we test colour.)

Colour Accuracy Performance
Colour Test Chart (above), Colour Error Map (right)
The Canon HV40 produced a colour error of 3.59 and a saturation level of 95.44% in our bright light colour testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the colour error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular colour.)

The Colour Error Map above shows how the HV40 did with specific colours from our test. The camcorder was quite even throughout the colour spectrum. No specific colours were that much more accurate than others, which is actually a good sign. This means the camcorder doesn't have a colour bias or skew towards a certain tone.

Like all HD camcorders from Canon, the HV40 has a few pre-set colour modes that can be engaged to produce a different image effect. The differences between these settings are subtle, however, but the colour accuracy improved in some colour modes. In addition to these colour modes, the HV40 also has the option of making a custom colour setting, although the range of controls is very limited.

Canon HV40 Colour Modes
Auto	100% Crop
Vivid	100% Crop
Neutral	100% Crop
Low Sharpening	100% Crop
Soft Skin Detail	100% Crop

The Canon HV40 rendered very similar colours to the Canon HF S100, with the main difference being a stronger saturation level on the HV40 and better accuracy on the HF S100. You can see these two camcorders side-by-side in our comparison table below. The Panasonic HDC-HS300 had similar saturation to the HV40, and you can see the strong, vivid colours in its image. The Sony HDR-XR520 had a darker image in auto mode than the rest of these camcorders, which brought out the black tones and accentuated the contrast of the image.

Canon HV40 Colour Comparisons
Canon HV40	Canon HF S100
Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520

	Close-Up Colour Comparisons
	Ideal	Canon HV40	Canon HF S100	Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520
Red
	Ideal	Canon HV40	Canon HF S100	Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520
Green
	Ideal	Canon HV40	Canon HF S100	Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520
Blue
	Ideal	Canon HV40	Canon HF S100	Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520
Skin Tone 1
	Ideal	Canon HV40	Canon HF S100	Panasonic HDC-HS300	Sony HDR-XR520
Skin Tone 2

Since all the camcorders shown above are high-end models, it comes as no surprise that they all managed good colour accuracy in bright light. The Sony was a bit worse than the rest of the pack, but since colour quality is very subjective, it wouldn't be out of the question for someone to actually prefer the HDR-XR520—or any of the other models.

Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Canon HF S100
		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Panasonic HDC-HS300
		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Sony HDR-XR520

Noise (10.65)

The Canon HV40 produced low levels of noise in our bright light testing—a solid performance for the camcorder. We measured the noise levels to be 0.53%, which is a good portion lower than the decent score put up by the Canon HF S100 (1.015%). Both the Panasonic HDC-HS300 and the Sony HDR-XR520 also had low noise levels in bright light. (More on how we test noise.)

Noise Comparisons
Canon HV40 100% Crop	Canon HF S100 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-HS300 100% Crop	Sony HDR-XR520 100% Crop

Since all these camcorders had relatively low noise levels in our testing, you can't really see any noise in the cropped images above. The images do let you compare the sharpness of each camcorder, however. The Canon HV40's image isn't quite as sharp as the rest of the camcorders shown above, but it came very close. Compare the bottom of the vertical trumpet in each still frame. With the HV40, the lines blur together at the bottom; the other camcorders show more detail and distinction between the lines. In the next section of our review we'll look at the HV40's sharpness numbers more closely.

Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Canon HF S100
		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Panasonic HDC-HS300
		Compare the Canon HV40 to the Sony HDR-XR520