The HF G10 produces very good video--sharp with nice tonality and color.
Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Though the video can be just a hair softer than I like, overall it's quite good--and when you play it back directly on a TV, it looks quite sharp. (Frame grab)
2 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Sharpness (stills)
The G10's HD-resolution sensor delivers sharp stills that fall just short of looking too digital.
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Dynamic range
Overall, the G10 offers an excellent dynamic range, with only the brightest of white highlights clipped. If you're editing, you may want to crush the blacks a little to improve the contrast, but for video going straight to TV it will look great. (Frame grab)
4 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Artifacts
This shot usually highlights artifacts caused by poor compression or a low bit rate; the G10's top rate of 24Mbps displayed no compression artifacts except in really low light. What you do see is some aliasing caused by the interlacing of the 60i video. (Frame grab)
5 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Lens
While I would have expected the G10's eight-blade iris to produce slightly rounder bokeh, it nevertheless looks quite good during normal playback. Here you can also get a sense of the nice tonal gradations it produces, uncommon in a consumer camcorder. (Frame grab)
6 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Low light
The G10 renders excellent low-light video, to a point. Lighting in this scene is about 17 lux, and it's some of the best I've seen in its class. Go just a little darker, though--to the light level of a shadowed living room--and it's the typical noisy mess, at least with automatic gain control enabled. (Frame grab)
7 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Low light (still vs. video)
I think this is a good illustration of why you can't assume a camera/camcorder with good low-light video quality will produce equally good low-light stills and vice versa; they generally use completely different processing algorithms.
8 of 8 Lori Grunin/CNET
Color
While the automatic white balance tends to be a little bit cooler than I like, overall the colors are good: bright, saturated, and relatively accurate. (Stills)
