Canon Legria HF G70

As a novice video maker, I can easily make professional videos with the Canon Legria HF G70. With this light camcorder I don't suffer from cramped hands, even when I shoot long recordings. I think that's an advantage over a system camera with a zoom lens, which I do have. I zoom in and out smoothly with the button on the top, which makes my shots look smooth. In the menu I choose how fast the lens zooms. For example, I zoom out very slowly from a subject, which results in a cinematic video. I regret that I only use this camcorder's viewfinder when I close the LCD screen. As a result, I do not easily switch from the viewfinder to the screen.

Sharp and smooth images I think the autofocus of a camera is important, because I don't want blurry images when I change subjects or zoom in. The camera sometimes takes a few seconds to refocus. Fortunately, it always focuses accurately and thanks to the facial recognition, people are in sharp focus. The image stabilization of this camera ensures smooth images without vibrations. That comes in handy when I'm walking around with the camera. At the maximum zoom range, I also film smooth and sharp images. This means I don't need a tripod for close-ups, which I like.

Little post-processing required due to extensive settings I immediately record my images in slow motion or accelerated. In the menu I choose the speed of the recording. This saves time in an editing program afterwards. I finish my videos even faster because of this. Especially when I make videos for work, I think it's important that they go online quickly. In the beginning I found some settings difficult to find in the menu, for example the shutter speed and the aperture. I had to search hard, but once I find the settings, I quickly adjust them next time.

Webcam for meetings or streams What I like about this camera is that I use it as a webcam. I expected this to be inconvenient or require special software, but it isn't. I connect the camera to my laptop with a USB-C cable, after which I immediately use it as a webcam. I can easily improve the image quality of my videos for important meetings, for example when I give an online presentation. With little effort I come across as professional.

I used to have a Sony. It was user-friendly and transferring to a PC was easy. Not so with this Canon, which is a disappointment. It is sturdy but heavy and large. The buttons are not logical and transferring to a PC is very difficult. Image quality is fine, but that was also the case with my old Sony. Not recommended.