XA20 vs. XA10

Comparison of two camcorders with sample footage.

Last weekend I could test the new Canon XA20 camcorder and compare it to my XA10. The XA20 does not provide a HD/SD-SDI terminal like its twin sister model XA25 does, but is less expensive (obviously, only the XA25 allows a 4:2:2 chroma sampling on an external recorder).

Like the XA10 and the XA25 it has a removable handle that allows to connect the camera with two external microphones via XLR sockets. Compared to the Legria HFG30 that lacks this handle it also offers infrared shots.

The XA20 has much more buttons than the XA10 and is therefore much easier to operate, at least for someone who does not belong to the generation iPhone and who still has some problems to use a touchscreen display in a quick and effective way. :-)

The XA20 weighs more and is bigger than the XA10, and maybe it is not a perfect camcorder for excursions. On the other hand it provides a 20x zoom lens (XA10: 10x zoom lens), and this makes it much more interesting for animal and wildlife filmers.

It is without doubt an excellent camcorder with a well-thought operational concept. Compared to the XA10, the low light ability of the XA20 seems to be enhanced even though the XA10 was already considered to be very good in this discipline. Also the sound of the built-in microphone and the automatic noise reduction are much better. But it needs more time to boot after it is switched on, and the colours of the XA10 seem to be more naturally processed. White and blue are definitely a strength of the XA10 in automatic white balance mode (AWB), and it's strange to see that the colour management of a later model seem to be worse.

In the first part of this video, the XA20 camcorder is presented and compared to its predecessor, in the second part you will find samples of the two camcorders in several light situations.