Canon decide 2008 is the year to go video cam crazy, and release 10 new models! We take a look at the High Def cameras on offer

Yep. those clever bods at Canon have been pretty busy this year, as while we were squirreling away mince pies and mulled wine like it was going out of fashion, they were gearing up to make some of the most exciting announcements of the year. The humble camcorder no longer need be the domain of aspiring auteur's or people who can decipher ISO settings in their sleep, its been simplified and styled to be extremely user friendly, and now is available with a lot of high tech options such as SD card slots and HD capabilities. So now your appetite is whetted let's explore further...

Above you can see the Canon HV30, one of the jewels of their new collection, comprising of an HD camcorder with a full HD CMOS sensor (which means footage is captured at the same resolution as full HD TV's) , a 2.7 multi angle LCD screen, and a 10x optical zoom with super range optical image stabilizer. It build on the success of the earlier model the HV20, which won 'Camcorder of the year' for 2007, and now Canon hope the latest model will do em proud.

I particularly like the inclusion of the cinema style 25p shooting and CINE image mode which allows you to create a film like look and make the most out of low light areas, for that really grainy feel. It also pack sin a optimised DIGIC processor and a high high capacity BP-2L24H battery which gives you around 4 hours of continuous shooting. This baby is available from Feb 2008. Let's take a look at some of the other beauties on offer...

Two other babies in the Canon family are the HF10 and HF100 (pictured above) which are flash memory based models. The HF10 has the option of recording wither to its internal 16GB memory or an SD card, whilst the HF100 stores everything directly to flash storage. They both have whopping 12x optical zoom and use a DIGIC DV II image processor. Whilst camcorders have always been notoriously heavy, because these two are flash based they pack a lot less hardware, so weight about 380g a piece, making them a lot lighter to carry, and they can double as a camera too, with 3.1 mega pixel resolution on still images.

They're available from April 2008, which conveniently enough is also my birthday, if you're feeling generous?

Like that? Read this: Shiny Video Review: Canon Ixus 70 I Canon roll out two new models in their IXUS range I Shiny Video Review: Canon IXUS 860 IS

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