The Canon HF100 ($899 MSRP) comes from a good pedigree. It’s nearly identical to the Canon HF10, which received our seal of approval earlier this year. The HF100 offers all the same image quality, manual controls, and form factor, but loses the 16GB internal memory of the HF10. Sure, you save $200, but think about what you’re losing first. The HF10 only records to removable memory cards, like the Panasonic HDC-SD9 or Sony HDR-TG1. Card memory is portable and easy to use, but those cards fill up quickly, and they’re not particularly cheap. It’s better to have a secondary recording medium if you’re on a long vacation or far from a camera shop.

It records AVCHD video at a maximum of 17 megabits per second (2 hours and 5 minutes of video), and can hold up to 6 hours and 5 minutes of video at the lowest bit rate of 5Mbps. That higher bit rate goes to support the full 1,920×1,080 capture, the norm for most of this year’s new models, compared with 1,440×1,080 for older AVCHD camcorders that required only a 12Mbps maximum bit rate. You can record best-quality movies to the card as long as it’s a Class 4 SDHC or better (Class 6 is currently fastest): the Class 4 16GB Kingston card I tested with worked fine.

Its optically stabilized f1.8-3.0 12X zoom lens has a longer reach than the typical 10x lens available in this class, but the rest of its features are pretty common in Canon’s prosumer models. For video, these include aperture- and shutter-priority exposure modes, three fixed/one variable zoom speed options, a video light, Instant AF, and a wind-screen filter. You can also record in progressive 30 or 24 frames-per-second (fps) modes as well as 60i. For still photos, metering, flash, and burst and exposure bracketing options become available as well. The camcorder also supplies a complete set of ports and connectors: component or mini-HDMI out for direct-to-TV playback, mini headphone and mic jacks, and USB for downloading to computer.

The HF100′s built-in stereo microphone is stationed strategically beneath the lens. If Canon mounted the mic atop the HF100, the right hand would envelop the mic and sabotage your recorded audio. Camcorders this compact require certain design and handling sacrifices, which Canon minimizes. The Panasonic HDC-SD9 is more compact than the HF100, yet its mic is mounted on top–an example of how a camcorder should not be designed.