Canon VIXIA HF M40 Review | Top Digital Camcorder

VIXIA HF M40

Truly Amazing Recording Quality

Ever since my kids played and broke my old Sony camcorder, I looked for a valid replacement, and was delighted to find Canon VIXIA HF M40 Full HD camcorder. It far outshine my old one and, with all the new technology it packs, delivered truly amazing recording quality. At first, it was the compact size of this camcorder that attracted me to it. Measuring only 5.2 x 2.8 x 2.9 inches and weighting only 2 pounds, it is small and light enough so that I can easily go with me anywhere.

What Other Buyers Think

Well, I have had this camcorder now for a week and tested it in many lighting situations and locations and I must say I’m very impressed.

Well, stating that this is the best mid-range camcorder is quite a claim, but to be fair, it’s not my assertion – that award was just bestowed on the M40 this week by CamcorderInfo.com …and by mid-range, they mean video cameras priced between $500 and $1000. What makes this camera an even better deal is that you can get all three versions (M400, M40, and M41) for under $500.

Had my VIXIA HF M41 about a month and really love it. Bought the camera in preparation for our Alaska trip in a few months but use it to shoot property videos which end up on Youtube. I’ve been shooting primarily in FXP mode to save space which gets you 720p on Youtube. You can get some beautiful videos in the top MXP mode but you’ll eat up battery and storage space in a hurry.

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What Feature Did I Like Most? The HD Capacity

But what really got me excited over this camcorder is its HD capacity. The camera can film maximum of 800 Vertical with 900 Horizontal lines or 1920 x 1080 pixels maximum resolution which is maximum Full HD. That means whey you put it on a TV, there are no resizing and the picture looks awesome occupying full screen.
Another thing that is really delightful about this camcorder is the amount of video it can record. It comes with 16 GB internal flash drive that is used as a primary storage device. That is almost like 3 DVDs put together and in reality good enough to record over 6 hours of HD video! It made my old 90 minute tapes look ridicules! Plus, flash drives are really fast so transferring videos goes really fast. There are also two spaces for SD memory cards. So, if it is taken into consideration that some of this cards have a capacity of 64 GB, that means users could record over 55 hours of video without changing memory. Although I have not yet used up all that capacity, it will come really handy when I take my family for our next summer vacation.

Also, The camera comes with DIGIC DV III Image Processor that is optimized to work in a low light environment which allows this camera to record exceptionally well even during evening and night hours. I recorder my son’s birthday that had only candle lights and the clarity was just amazing!

I also liked how easy it is to move files. I found I did not even need to connect camcorder to a TV to view videos. I just copied them to a memory card and plugged that card into a TV. Also, it was equally easy to transfer them to my PC so I could upload them later to Youtube. I used USB connection, but you can also copy them from a card as well as connect wirelessly with an Eye-Fi SD memory card.

There are a lot of recording options and optimizations that you can play with while using this camera. For a while I was filming everything on Smart Auto which gave me excellent results with great color, clarity and brightness regardless if I was filming a basketball game or a day at a lake. Then I started to play with different filters. There are nine of them and my favorites are ‘Old Movie’ which gives the video the look of old cinema and ‘Sepia’ that has similar aging effect.

Review Conclusion

Sincerely this camcorder has become one of my favorite new gadgets. It does not only preserve great memories in a digital format that I will never have to worry about, but it permits me to have so much fun doing it all. I’m really glad I bought this unit! If you want to get Canon Vixia HF M40 for the lowest price possible CLICK HERE