Canon launches LEGRIA HF21 and HFS11 camcorders

19 August 2009 15:37 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Canon, amidst a storm of other product releases, has dropped two HD camcorders into our laps - the HF21 and HFS11. Both lie in the company's LEGRIA range, and come packed with 64GB of internal flash memory.

Canon says it chose flash memory over a traditional hard drive because it's "faster, lighter and consumes less power than Hard-Disk drive(s)". Both models have image stabilization technology, video snapshot modes, and low-light shooting capabilty.

So where do they differ? Well, the HFS11 is more of an enthusiast's machine. It has an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor, 12x optical zoom, a DIGIC DV III image processor and can capture 1080p HD recordings at 24Mbps, or 8-megapixel still images.

It has full shooting controls - manual focus, exposure and audio levels. There's also gain control limits, so that you can fine-tune the gain of the camera in low-light conditions. There's zebra patterns, colour peaking and a colour bar for pro users to set up their shots, too.

The HF21, on the other hand, is more family-oriented. It's smaller and lighter, and has face detection technology for up to 35 faces in one frame. There's a 15x zoom lens, 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor and the same DIGIC DV III image processor that's in the HFS11.

Both cameras will be available from September 2009. We don't have any pricing for the camcorders yet, but we'll let you know the moment we hear.