Yes. It's the best prosumer camcorder ever built. It shoots 1080p/60fps. No it does not shoot 4k. I'm glad it doesn't. Yes 4k televisions are falling in price. In Canada, the major cable providers only have 1 or 2 4k channels. With dwindling cable subscribers I don't see the major providers upgrading their equipment to fully support 4k in the near future. I have a 4k television at home with an Apple 4k TV set top box which we, being my girlfriend and I don't hardly watch. We don't watch a whole lot of television rather looking at our phones or iPads or computers which only support 1080p or 1440p. But on a phone, you cannot differentiate between 1080p and 1440p. There are a few phones that have 4k displays but again, they're a small screen factor. That is why I'm still shooting 1080p.
Lets get back to the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder available for purchase
here. Like I've written previously it does shoot at 1080p/60fps. What Canon does right with this camcorder is colour reproduction. It does come with 20x optical zoom and 300x digital zoom. Thanks to the sensors enhanced sensitivity, the Vixia HF G40 provides vivid, accurate recording through an improved signal to noise ratio. The camera shoots in both MP4 and AVCHD with MP4 being web ready. The camera provides dual SD card slots for never ending storage. I have 2 64GB cards in the camera and I can shoot the whole weekend and not fill up both cards. You can record to both cards at the same time just in case one fails. I did buy an extra battery for longer shooting. I can shoot about 90 minutes with the battery that comes with the camera and with my larger battery I can shoot over 220 minutes on a single charge.
The OLD screen is big and bright even during sunny days. The electronic viewfinder shifts to 45 degrees and is easy to use and see thru. For a guy with glasses, it's a big help. The optical image stabilization is great when you want to shoot that is far away from you. The lens is great on this camera being a f1.8 to f2.8 which means it's great in low light and is extremely sharp.
Here are some of the pros of the camera:
- Great price
- Great lens
- Portable
- 1080p/60fps
- Focal lenght
- Multiple hot shoes to attach accessories
- OLED screen
- Viewfinder
- Comes with remote control and lens cap
- Weight of 1.7 pounds
- Reach of 26.7MM to 576MM (35MM equivalent)
- Wide angle and zoom lenses available
- Has Wifi and FTP
- Superb video
- Superb colour reproduction
Here are some of the negatives:
- Does not shoot 4k (is that a negative?)
You can buy two teleconvertors. One
wide and one a
telephoto. I currently have the wide lens and it's amazingly sharp. The camera does have audio in which unfortunately doesn't provide phantom power. I currently use the Rode Video Mic Pro+ available
here.
When I was in Calgary last year for work I brought this camera with me. I decided to buy a Sony 4k camcorder thinking 4k is the future. Let's just say I sold the 4k camcorder and I kept the Canon. With the Canon I don't need that many hard drives as the files are smaller and I don't need as much processing power. If I wanted I could use my iPhone 8 Plus running iMovie to edit my Canon clips for my portfolios. You can check my portfolio links on my blog to see what the camera is capable of.
