Canon XA20 Professional Camcorder

If you're shooting video with a Canon MkIII or a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema, you may not like this camera. If you're thinking of stepping up from one of the Canon Rebel cameras though, I've found it to be well worth it. Here a few reasons why... * 60 Frames per second - I shoot a lot of sports videos. The original XA-10 didn't offer 60 fps and I ruled it out right away. Some DSLR's might but I found the rolling shutter to be too much to overcome. My sport videos are pristine now. * Real audio - I need to have have a visual audio meter on the screen and a headphone jack. DSLR's might have a Magic Lantern firmware upgrade available but can you count on it? Nearly a year later, there still wasn't one for my T4i like I had with my T3i. Canon should build that into the firmware but they won't. And yes, real audio means real XLR microphones too but it still has a 3.5mm mic-in jack. * Fast start-up - I found trying to get a DSLR setup with audio and focus to be a bit of a pain for run & gun type shooting. The ergonomics of the XA-20 makes it much easier. The whole unit is easier to carry. * 20x Optical Zoom - I had all sorts of lenses for my DSLR. You need the gamut to get the right shot. It also meant having to take all the lenses with you. The built-in 20x optical zoom gives me enough wide and telephoto options without having to bring a whole camera bag with me. I've found the picture quality to be very good. No it's no the same as having a fast prime on my camera but you know what, it's pretty darn good and so much easier to work with. * Remote - It's nice having a remote again. I do a lot of self videos for training purposes and I forgot how convenient it is to have a remote to start/stop/zoom. There are lots of other reasons and some reviewers have covered those well already. Your mileage my vary but I do at least think it's a worthy consideration if you're looking to upgrade and you're primarily using a consumer DSLR for video.

I bought this video camera to upgrade my HG20. The HG20 is hard disk based and is overall a good camera. Has served me well. But I wanted an upgrade. Some of the earlier Canon cameras did not come with a Wide Angle - so that was an extra 200 add-on for my HG20. This camera has a nice wide angle, and if you disable Dynamic Image Stabilization - it gets even wider. You can have image stabilization going on - just not 'dynamic'. Has XLR inputs, standard 3.5mm, USB, HDMI and all the stuff you'd expect. Also has dual SDXC slots. **By the way - if someone cares to explain this to me ... I bought a 128 GB card, b/c in the manual, on page 37 it says "SD memory cards with a capacity of 64 MB or smaller cannot be used to record movies". Lord must only know what they are talking about, because on page 84 it shows spec for 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 GB memory cards for both MP3 and AVCHD. Can someone kindly let me know what they may have meant? (Update : Thanks to J.Wales : I totally overlooked MB vs. GB. So, you should be fine with any card from 8-12 8GB, per the manual). I went with the 128 which was a $150 add-on. I did try calling Canon, but their customer service department only knows how to look up spec (the same spec I already looked up before I called). In fact, because they are generalists - you'll most likely know more than the person on the phone - so hopefully that gives you 15 minutes of your life back. Don't bother. The only complaint is the stock battery does not have a long life. So, like on my HG20 (that I had to buy an upgraded lens), with this camera - I'll most likely be dropping another $200 on an extended battery. Truthfully - for $2000 - Canon should have included one. I don't like being nickeled and dimed when spending this kind of $$ ... Oh - if you add the $200 for the extra battery and the $150 I spent on the SDXC card - you're another $350 into a camera. I do believe I read somewhere that they have this same model for overseas markets that have built in flash mem option. Not sure why they didn't include for US markets??? Again - goes back to being nickeled and dimed. I don't like spending $2000 to realize I have to spend another $350 to get the camera how and where I want it to be. (Note to Canon : concentrate on getting NEW customers, not milking your existing customers!!!) Other than that - I'm happy. I do honestly believe this is the best prosumer camera out there. Despite the extra $$ I have to spend, and despite the fact that their customer service and policies on what is included is not what I'd like it to be - I think this is a good camera. (Oh, did I mention optical 20x zoom? That's huge!!). And, for what it's worth - I actually returned the Panasonic x920 to buy this. The Panasonic had trouble focusing in low light (was very twitchy). Canon handles without any problem at all. Plus - when you flip the screen around to film yourself, (podcast, etc.) .. all of the controls are present (unlike the Panasonic). Overall - I'm happy. NOT happy about the battery life. NOT happy that Amazon.com now charges NJ Sales Tax. Not happy that Canon customer service sucks ... But I am happy that I have the right camera that will serve many years of top notch video. Hope this helps the next guy (or gal). Rock ON!

I teach media production at a private school, and do some freelance video production on the side. Over the past few years I've done most of my work with DSLR cameras and a separate audio recorder. I wanted all-in-one production solution for event videography and run-and-gun shooting. I finally chose the XA20, and am very glad that I did. Here's why: The video quality on the XA20 is really outstanding. The lens has a huge zoom range from 26.8-576mm (in 35mm equivalent). You can frame practically anything within 100 ft with the XA20. Even if aren't mounted on a tripod, the optical image stabilization is the best I've ever seen on a camera in this price range. I don't have much trouble getting a stable shot fully zoomed in telephoto. The color depth in the video is very good, and the footage looks very lifelike. This is also the first camera I've owned that will shoot full 1080 at 60p, which I'm really enjoying. Even shooting at the high framerate, the motion in the footage doesn't look "plastic" or overly smooth. Plus you have the option of slowing it down to 30 or 24 fps for dramatic slow motion effects. The auto-focus is lightning quick. When enabled, the XA20 picks out faces and focuses on them faster and more accurately than I can. The XA20 can also focus like a smartphone by tapping on part of the frame, and there's a manual ring which can easily be assigned to focus if you prefer. The camera shoots MP4 and AVCHD at bitrates ranging from 4mbps to 35mbps (for MP4), so you can choose whether you want high bitrate (example, for chroma key) or lower bitrate for smaller and more manageable file size. There are 2 SDXC card slots on the camera, and it will support shooting in 2 different formats or bitrates on separate cards. I thought that was seriously cool. I didn't know how I would like the touchscreen interface, switching from Panasonic DVX-100 series with manual buttons. There are programmable buttons on the body however, and once I got my most common settings assigned (which was a massive pain), I haven't had any problems getting the camera to do what I want. Having the XLR inputs up on the handle is great. It distributes the size and weight of the camera (which is negligible to begin with) more evenly, and makes an already lightweight camera even easier to shoot with all day. Plus it's very easy to remove the handle and XLR inputs if you need the camera to be even smaller. The LinearPCM audio sounds great, so an external audio recorder isn't really needed for most applications. I've even chosen to record voiceovers with the camera and an Audio-Technica AT875R, which is a 7 inch long shotgun mic that costs <$200, and they sound fine. The XA20 also has wifi. These features are obviously 1st generation and are mixed in usefulness. You can point a web browser to the IP address of the camera on a specific port and "remotely control" the camera. I use quotes because this feature sucks. Don't plan to do anything other than hit the record button or do the tiniest zoom with this feature. It's laggy, the video quality over the wifi is really bad. If the camera is switched to "media" mode for footage review, the feature is better, but not great. You can review footage in decent quality, with audio that lags, and you have to physically touch the camera to switch to "media" mode - so I don't know why you wouldn't just review the footage on the camera. There is one part of the wifi feature that is amazing and I love: uploading footage directly to an FTP server. It took me about 30 minutes to get the FTP and wifi connections all configured properly to work, but now that it's configured the feature is INCREDIBLE. At our school, we have wifi campus wide. So, I can send someone out with a camera, they dual shoot a high-quality copy on one card and a low bitrate MP4 on the second card. Then they can press a button and upload all of their footage directly to my NAS and another team can start rough editing immediately. After the edit is done and the shooting team is back in the room, we pop the other card out and Premiere will swap all of the low bitrate footage for the good stuff based on timecode. This workflow has already saved us countless hours by letting both teams work at the same time. Overall, Canon got it right on the XA20. If you're looking to upgrade from a tape or HDD based camcorder to something more modern, the XA20 has no rivals at this price point. All of the basic production features you would expect on a pro rig are present here (color bars, 1kHz tone, audio level meters, focus peaking, zebras, focus assist, etc.). And some of Canon's new ideas that they put into the XA20 have turned out to be really useful.

Phenomenal Camera. I can't even begin to explain how amazing the function vs. the price weighs largely in favor of function. I bought this instead of a Sony 4k handy cam, and I have no regrets because of a few basic features. 1. local WiFi live feed control! I can control the camera from my MacBook! 2. Lens zoom is phenomenal and when you zoom in a long way and focus on a close object, the bokeh blur makes it have cinema quality look. 3. XLR inputs. Two of them. 'nuff said 4. Lens quality, Canon has amazing commercially available lenses. 5. Small and lightweight. (Smaller than initially expected) 6. Dual memory card slot and continuous recording. 7. Auto face tracking! 8. Manual zoom/focal ring as well as the very nifty rocker zoom. 9. The ability to shoot 60 fps in 1080p HD. 10. People ask me all the time if I'm 'with the news'

Bought this to document work and trips I take. A recent trip to Panama sparked the purchase, but it was something I've been meaning to look into for a while (and a camcorder I will use for some time to come). Before leaving I had the chance to check it out and was very impressed with the quality and zoom capabilities. I knew this would be a great camcorder to record video. I really became impressed with this during my Panama trip when we were hiking through the jungle on a very slick and steep trail (well not really a trail or even a path, more like following someone through the thick of the jungle not sure where you are headed). I had a colleague using the camcorder while I took stills (also with a Canon, 5D Mark II) and he slipped quite a few times, landing the camera in the mud and muck. I was worried it might be damaged, but safety and getting through this was a bigger concern. I am very happy to say that after cleaning off with a damp cloth you would never know if had even been in the jungle, let alone hit the deck a few times. I wouldn't recommend abusing it, but it seems like it can take a hit or two by accident. So far I am extremely pleased with my purchase and would definitely recommend this to anyone.

This camera does pretty much everything that I expected/hoped of it. Since Japanese video camera vendors insist on crippling consumer cameras so as not to cannibalize their pro market, this is probably the best way to get decent functionality, high quality video, and good manual control. Japanese camera manufacturers also consistently try to gouge their customers by asking absolutely ridiculous prices for any extras, such as a battery to replace to replace deliberately low capacity one supplied. In this case, $190 for a battery. Fortunately, there are third party alternatives which are MUCH cheaper. Why do they insist on making their customers feel ripped-off and almost regretting their purchase? The one big disappointment in the camera itself is the quality of the electronic viewfinder (EVF). The focus control is a small slider underneath the viewfinder, VERY difficult to set accurately, and the optical quality of the EVF lenses seems to be severely lacking, being impossible to get the rather small screen completely in focus and undistorted across the entire screen. The EVF was one of my prime reasons for buying this camera, since I find it next to impossible to use a fold-out screen in anything approaching bright sunlight. Perhaps I was just spoiled by the XL1 viewfinder, but I find this part of the camera really disappointing.

So far I love this Camcorder. I haven't used it that much yet. Camera was just released. My only problem was with AVCHD Progressive, this recording setting will not import into Final Cut Pro. I have other Camcorders by Cannon and AVCHD imports just fine. I don't know if the file format has changed, I guess so with Progressive? I switched to MP4 (35 Mbps), and no problem there. The light sensor and picture quality with this camera are fantastic. Also the zoom works great, picture quality adjust quickly and again is fantastic. One problem I haven't resolved is with the hood. The hood is has a nice lens protector switch, but I can't put a polarizing lens filter on with the hood. The cameras light sensor do a great job handling water glare, asI shoot on the water and would like to have both hood and lens working at the same time.

Only does 60p in mp4 lower rate, if you want this camera consider the G-30 for about 500 less, no xlr audio, but basically the same camera poor low light, rolling shutter, poor slow motion... there are much better options. I returned it after 1 day. theres a newer model the XA30 and g-40, they claim its better, time will tell,

Perfect camcorder