Canon Legria HF20 & waterproof housing

The basics

A Full HD (1920x1080) camcorder aimed at those who want the best movie quality. Images are recorded to a 32GB internal memory, though you can also choose to capture to SD/SDHC cards, if you prefer. Enthusiast touches include an optical image stabiliser, a microphone input, and a headphone output. An underwater housing – for an additional cost of around £375 – means you can dive down to a depth of 10m.

The good

The LEGRIA HF20 is not a pocket-sized model, so fortunately all of its main buttons and controls are large and very responsive, making it a cinch to use. Video quality in underwater conditions is impressive, with a great amount of detail and clarity. Out of the water it’s no slouch either, shooting vibrant movies in all but the most taxing situations.

The bad

Despite the obvious benefits the underwater housing provides it does also make it rather clumsy to operate a number of the controls – in particular you cannot move or tilt the 2.7in LCD screen. The housing also makes it difficult to use the HF20 one-handed. And, while for the most part its video footage is stellar, it doesn’t handle rapid changes in light all that well – and this makes some footage look washed out.

The bottom line

The video quality will, on occasion, take your breath away but the combined cost (with the housing) makes this a pricey offering, and sometimes an awkward one to shoot with.