Lon Seidman reviews, and likes the Canon HV40.

From Lon: Below is a review of the Canon HV40 camcorder. As a disclaimer I am a member of the Amazon Vine program. Each month they send me a gadget to review for customers on their site. Surprisingly they've kept me on board after a few scathing reviews of some bad stuff they sent to me :). This one is a positive review as it's hard to beat Canon's HD camcorders.

I also did a video review for them on the Neat Scan to Office System:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBa4RKahYTE

Over ten years ago I bought Sony's legendary TRV-900. It was a consumer camera so good and so ahead of its time that it remained on the market for four years - an eternity in the consumer electronics industry.

Canon has a similar product in their HV series HDV camcorders. They released such an outstanding product two years ago with the HV20 that the two new models since (the HV30 and now the HV40) are really just small refinements of an already mature product. As things go in the consumer electronics industry, model upgrades are a necessity even if it's merely changing the name of the product from a '3' to a '4.'

NEW FEATURES
So let's get one thing out of the way up front: There really isn't much of a difference between this camera and last year's HV30 (which was a small upgrade on the superb HV20). As an HV20 owner, I felt right at home when this arrived and I powered it up. Video quality is about the same, they look pretty much the same, and overall performance is the same too.

What is different is the addition of true 24P recording which offers a more film-like frame rate over the standard 30 frames per second. It should be noted that prior versions of this camera (as well as Canon's AVCHD models) also shoot 24P but that mode requires additional software to get to "true" 24P video when editing. You'll want to check to ensure that your editing software supports true 24P footage as it's not a configuration that is on many consumer cameras.

AVCHD OR HDV?
If you're reading this it's likely that you're in the market for a new camcorder. It's also likely that you're confused over the multitude of different formats currently available: hard disk, flash memory, tape, etc. etc.

Despite the many recording mediums, the current crop of consumer cameras can be delineated into two camps: AVCHD (the hard disk and flash based cameras) and HDV (tape based).

HDV cameras have two advantages over their AVCHD counterparts. The first, while not as compelling a reason as a year ago, is compatibility. HDV was the first consumer HD format and is almost universally supported by just about every video editing software package released over the last three to four years. In addition the HV40 can also shoot in the older standard definition DV format, a format so old that even software and hardware from ten years ago can work with the footage.

Another factor to consider is the firewire port. Want to record directly to your PC or Mac? Or perhaps do a live broadcast to UStream or Stickam? HDV cameras like the HV40 stream compressed video in realtime over Firewire, something the AVCHD cameras don't do.

Still, Canon's AVCHD cameras are now recording at a higher bitrate and with a more advanced video compression algorithm that makes for better image quality. Canon's flash based cameras, like the outstanding VIXIA HFS100, are mostly solid state and lack the complex (and delicate) machinery of a tape-based camcorder like the HV40.

CONCLUSION
Canon's HV20 was a very mature product right at launch and that maturity continues in this iteration. Still, there's nothing so compelling in the HV40 that makes it a necessary upgrade for HV30 or HV20 owners. For first time buyers, if you're able to pick up an older model at a lower price you won't be making much of a sacrifice in terms of features. It's a great camera, just not any greater than the prior versions!

For most consumers HDV cameras are old technology. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the HV40 is the last tape-based camcorder Canon releases to market. AVCHD has matured to the point that I am now recommending that to friends over HDV based cameras. AVCHD's lack of moving parts combined with the very low cost of flash memory makes it tough to recommend the bulkier mechanical alternatives like the HV40.

If, however, you're using an older computer or need to stream video live the HV40 is one of the best (if not the best) HDV consumer cameras on the market.

Visit Lon's website: www.lonseidman.com 

Dan McCormick tells us whether or not he liked his new weather gadget.

Dan supplied his own photo.I found a nifty little gadget since I love weather gadgets and
I couldn't pass this up and I thought you might like to talk about it
on DGW. So in a nutshell this is a wireless weather forecaster by
bushnell (I already liked this company from their binoculars I own)
that receives 3, 5, or 7 day weather outlooks (depending on which
model you get) for free over radio waves.

The model I got is the basic 3 day weather model since I know about it
until I saw it on TV. Setup could not be more simple, literally just
insert 3 AAA batteries and wait for the signal to reach your unit and
download all of the information. For me this took about a half hour
and I am 35 minutes or so from Center City Philadelphia. As the
weather was downloading I set my unit to the Philadelphia, PA location
using the two easily accessible up and down buttons on the unit.
Besides these, the only other button is a tiny one in the battery
compartment that allows you to change between F and C. The time is
automatically taken from the satellite so you never have to worry about it. The display is nice it self. Of course it's using LCD technology and is about 5" square. On the display it features the time, your signal strength, today's high and low temperature, the day's outlook (with a large variety of conditions built in), current temperature, location, and the next two day's - in my model's instance - of the weather conditions and high and low temperature. Also what is nice about my unit is since there are no cables (batteries only) it has a built in magnet so you can easily put it on any magnetic surface like a fridge and it was a nice and strong mount.

The WeatherFX 7 Day forecaster is their elite model with the most features. The feature that you would probably like the best of it (and I do too!) is it's multicolor LED backlight display. Depending on the temperature, the backlight display of the unit will actually change. So for example, if it is 72F outside, it will be a nice warm yellow color, however, if it is in the 30s out it will be a bright blue color. The 7 day also features some nice additional features such as wind speed and direction, sever weather alerts, and I believe I also read pollen conditions as well.

Anyway, I thought you would like to know about this product. All weather data is downloaded from AccuWeather.com with no monthly service charges or anything like that - just the one up front cost of
the unit. They also have a version for skiers and golfers which I didn't look at too closely. My unit was reasonably priced at $60 and the 7 day forcaster is $134.99 on buschnell.com. One thing that I
forgot to mention was upon initalization, every cities weather data is downloaded automatically so you do have to wait for it to come up as your are paging through the cities. It appears automatically on the
display. 

Dan McCormick