Canon has a long history of releasing top-range camcorders that suit all movie making abilities. But those who have wanted absolutely no compromise on picture quality or features in the past have inevitably had to choose video cameras that have additional bulk to suit their needs.

The Canon Legria HF G10 remedies this, by not only being able to belt out stunning 1080/25p footage, but also offering this quality in a chassis that's more-than comfortable in the hand.

Although a touch weighty, the Canon Legria HF G10 is just 77x77x161mm in size and is perfectly equipped as a handheld camcorder.

One look at the features and you would be forgiven for thinking this was a pro shooter. There's a superb customisable control dial on board, dual SD card slots and a massive 30.4mm wide-angle lens.

Canon Legria HF G10: features

Switch the camera on and the breadth of manual functionality may scare newbies, but the G10 is surprisingly user friendly. We never felt lost within the options, which are plentiful. 

Though three image stabilisation options may feel like overkill (Dynamic, Standard, Powered) it's good to have the choice in different shooting situations. Dynamic seems to work best out and about with the camera – acting as a Steadicam to our handheld shooting. Powered, meanwhile, is best for heavy zooming. Even at the maximum digital zoom length (100x), the G10 is nowhere near as jumpy as you would normally expect.

Canon Legria HF G10: performance and verdict

The manual control you get over the backlight compensation, as well as the ability to change brightness, contrast, sharpness, and colour depth, are also welcomed.

The footage is simply stunning. The Canon Legria HF G10's DIGIC DV III image processor works overtime on the video we took in lowlight and the 2.7MP HD CMOS Pro sensor never falters. Stills shooting is also impressive – there's the ability to capture 1920x1080 images.

The Canon Legria HF G10 even had some gimmicky quirks, like the addition of cinema filters and the ability to edit in-camera. Although these aren't needed, the cinema filter did add extra fizz to our images. The filters aren’t the cheap one-size-fits-all trick you get on normal digicams, but the choice of eight adjustable colour-grades.

Lining up shots through the 3.5-inch viewfinder is easy due to the 100 per cent coverage the touchscreen LCD offered. This coupled with the 2.1ch audio, 10x optical zoom and 32GB memory (expandable by the SD card slot) round off nicely the features bounty the G10 offers.

The Canon Legria HF G10 is a superb camcorder that's packed with functionality. It may cost, but the pro features inside make this a must-have for those who take their movie making very seriously.

Canon Legria HF G10 price: £1175-£1300, link Canon

Canon Legria HD G10 launch date: Out now