Canon Legria HF S21 gets an update, HF S20 and HF S200 launched

Canon updates its camcorders with viewfinders and touchscreens

Canon has launched  updated versions of its flagship products of consumer HD camcorders by adding an electronic viewfinder to the Legria HF S21, and launching the HF S20 and HF S200 camcorders with great big 3.5 inch touchscreen LCDs, at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

With viewfinders almost exiting the camcorders in the race to make smaller devices and when users are struggling to see the LCD screen under bright sunlight, this comes as a welcome update.

The HF S21 has 64GB internal flash memory with dual SD card slots and an electronic viewfinder. It also features a 10x optical zoom and a touchscreen for watching movies and navigating the menu. The HF S20 doesn’t have a viewfinder and has 32GB memory, whereas the HF S200 camcorder doesn’t have both internal memory and the viewfinder.

The HF S21 camcorder should cost around $1400 and the HF S20 will be around $1100 and the HF S200 will cost around $1000. These camcorders will out in the US markets by the month of April.

All the Canon HF S camcorders have 1/2.6-inch CMOS sensors, with 8.59 megapixels like the previous models. The latest ones have got improved optical stabilization with a powered OIS setting.

Canon, a pioneer in high-definition camcorders have come up with a slew of new devices along with the Canon Legria HF S21, like the HF M31, HF R18 camcormders. With an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor, Legria HF S21 records 1080p AVCHD footage at up to 24Mbps to its twin SDHC card slots. Together with its 64GB of built-in memory, these slots make for a potential total of 128GB of storage.

It offers manual controls for experienced shooters, in addition to a ‘smart auto’ scene-detection mode. It also sports dual image-stabilisation technologies for controlling shake when using its 10x optical zoom, as well as what Canon claims is the largest touchscreen currently available on a camcorder of its type, measuring 88mm (3.5 inches).

They all have long battery life, quick charge and a good set of technologies dynamic image stabilisation to video snapshot and prerec function. The Legria HF M series also features plenty of the additional modes found on the HF S21.