Canon HG10

Canon gets hard-corder

There's only one way we like it when it comes to home movies, and that's with a big, hard disk. Canon's first punt in the HDD market, the HG10 is a snub-nosed HD monster, baring gleaming full HD video, a 40GB hard disk and a mini HDMi connection to pipe all that delicious video into your telly.

A handle on things

The sexier, smarter chassis parks snugly in the palm, with the controls spared only the lavish high-end treatment -- the silky zoom rocker singled out for extra special attention. Handling for the most part is an absolute whiz, although the tubby-fingered auteurs amongst you will be pawing at the jog dial on the inside of the LCD in frustration.

Super sharp shooter

The AVCHD codec compresses the 1920x1080 HD signal, capable of shooting in the 25p or 50i frame rates and four quality settings. When banging out premium video that's about 15 hours of mugging in front of the camera -- and looking seriously sharper while doing so. The HG10 swallows up even the dimmest shooting conditions and spits out some eye-wateringly sharp images and explosive colours -- in fact, you will need to brace yourself before you see your life in so much pristine detail.