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Canon amps up audio features for Vixia Mini X minicamcorder

The Mini X definitely improves on the original with more advanced video features, better mics, and linear PCM audio recording.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
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Joshua Goldman
2 min read
Canon

The Canon Vixia Mini came across as a bit of an oddball product when it came out last year.

Had it come out five or six years ago, it would have been an interesting reworking of a Flip-style minicamcorder, something Canon never made. Instead, it just seemed out of step with the rest of industry's move to action cams.

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And really, it wasn't too far off from an action cam in features, with its fixed f2.8 16.8mm fish-eye lens giving you a 160-degree angle of view for movies (170 degrees for photos) and a 12-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor that can record high-bit-rate MP4 files in 1080p, as well as high-speed and slow-motion recording options (two of each).

With the Mini X, Canon took the original and added features to appeal to more advanced users. It has the same lens and sensor, but it has improved built-in stereo mics and external mic and headphone jacks with manual level control.

Canon

It still records MP4 at 1080p, but it can also record in AVCHD at 24 frames per second with linear PCM audio. For those times when you want a more normal view, a Close-Up mode narrows the approximate focal length to 35mm, cutting out the distortion and recording a centered 1,920x1,440-pixel-resolution video. But, this mode also gives you electronic image stabilization.

Other features include uncompressed HDMI output, embedded time coding to make editing easier with multiple cameras, and, of course, Wi-Fi.

With the wireless, you can upload to YouTube or Facebook, send directly to a PC, and remotely control the camera with a iOS or Android device. A Live Streaming feature even lets you control the camera from other locations. Used with an optional $99.99 Pan Table base, the camera can be remotely rotated up to 200 degrees and the camera can be manually tilted vertically up to 20 degrees.

It seems with all the new features in the Vixia Mini X, it's less oddball and more purposeful. Look for it in March for $399.99.