Over at Apple Discussions forum, Randy Kent is having a slight issue when converting footage from AVCHD to QT. He explains “they go through the process and a stop sign with an exclamation point inside it comes up next to the queued clip and on top it says the clip is “idle”. Then nothing happens with the clip. It never gets converted.” He’s working on FC 6.0.2 so if you can help, head on over and give Randy the benefit of your expertise.

In other news, Lloyd Davis has uploaded another batch of photos taken with his trial HG10 to his Flickr account, and very atmospheric they are too. He captures the moody weather of the urban landscape in Pimlico, South London very nicely indeed, including the ‘Hell cloud’ that hangs ominously over everything. If you’ve taken any stylish shots with the HG10 and would like a wider audience, let us know and we’ll showcase the best!

Has anyone out there had ghosting issues with their HG10?

There’s an interesting conversation over at DV Info forums, which started off with Dan Lewandowski wondering whether to snap up an HG10 (he’s found one for a tasty $625), or hold out for an SR11 at twice the price. One of his main concerns is ghosting - he’s looking to ’shoot large radio controlled model sailing ships on the water’ in both bright and overcast conditions and ‘capturing detail in the moving ships is important’ so he’s keen to avoid anything which might compromise the contrast and quality of the capture as he pans across the ships.

Other HG10 users have been reporting back on their own experiences. Dave Blackhurst reassures him that ‘I’m beginning to suspect that “ghosting” is an editing issue, not necessarily inherent in the AVCHD format… relatively new format, fine tuning, figuring out optimal settings, etc. I think with proper posting, you shouldn’t have a problem.’

Aaron Courtenay admits that ‘I have experienced the ghosting issue with the HG10 and I think it is a combination of 3:2 pulldown problems and excessive movement (as in not using a tripod). I haven’t shot enough 60i material to determine if it’s present in that mode’; Leopold Hamulcyzk has a comforting reply:

Have you found the same? Aaron’s hoping this ’spurs additional discussion’ so head over and jump in.

If you’re a budding film maker and you’re looking to get in to High Definition, the HG10 could well be perfect for you. Don’t just take our word for it though; check out the guys at Tiger Direct Blog.

Logan hosts the video and takes the viewer through the basics of the HG10, raving about the 1080p display resolution, the CMOS sensor and its ability to record footage at the same rate as a cinematic film, 24 fps. Logan declares that the HG10 is a great camera for new film-makers, easy to use with great results.

He follows this up with a whistle-stop tour of the HG10, showing how to navigate the menu and change the settings for the colourisation, focus and shutter speed. Logan then mentions the stereo capability for audio recording, and points out the standard-sized hot shoe which can be used to mount a flash, particularly useful for taking HD photos to an impressive 1920 x 1440 resolution.

As Logan says, “It’s all about the quality”, so head over to view the video in full now.

Canon Camera Buzz fan Norbert is new to HD and the HG10 and has asked us:

The answer is yup - and there’s a gadget out in April which is just the ticket. The Canon DW-100, premiered at CES last month, is a portable DVD burner which allows you to burn AVCHD as well as standard DVD format. It connects to your camera (as well as the HG10 it’s compatible with the HF10, HF100, FS11, FS10 and FS100) through USB, and can be connected to an HDTV to double up as an HD DVD player. Mobilewhack think the 2-in-1 functionality and minimalist design, with only three buttons (power, eject, record) is ’smashing’ - and there are plenty of glowing reviews such as those at Gadgetizer and Technopress, who reckon ‘it looks good inside and out, you can’t go wrong.’

Initially released in the US for $269, it should hit UK shores in time for your summer hols.

Our trusty friend Phil Campbell has been away at SXSW in Austin, Texas (where geekery meets music) and he’s filmed plenty of footage of his time there on his trial HG10.

In ‘Alcat on the streetz’, he meets a local character while testing how the HG10 operates in low light conditions ( it holds out darn well), and then gets some great footage of some groovy dancing, complete with drunken focus. ‘Freaky Birds at SXSW’ looks a bit like a real life rendition of Hitchcock’s classic ‘The Birds’- is it possible that they were flocking around the HG10 and intended to get a closer look? Finally, Phil and Christian visit the Seismic party wearing Thor hats during happy hour; it looks pretty earth-shaking. You can see how happy Phil is from his Twitter feed:

Check out all of Phil’s videos on his Vimeo page where everything can be viewed in HD. Let’s all go to SXSW next year.

A couple of bloggers from San Francisco have been exploring the ways to get maximum impact out of their HG10 footage.

Personal Trainer has been really pleased with the high quality images from his HG10, bought to record training videos to sell on the net. However, he is beginning to realise that his lack of expertise may limit him when it comes to editing HD footage. Basically, he wants to ‘take the videos, crop them, create a new soundtrack and also take some stills from the videos to use as pictures’, and has asked for any good advice about doing this using a dual core processor PC and Adobe Premiere Pro - let him know if you’ve used this set-up to create a great film.

He might find it useful to post a few comments or questions on the Studio MSV blog, where artisan wedding video producer Andrew Hsu bought an HG10 to take on his trip to Reno. Andrew had some initial issues with manipulating the .mts files - he has Edius Pro 4.5 on his PC, which handles the footage fine, but on his laptop he has to convert to Canopus HQ HDV .AVI files for editing. However, it looks like his perseveracne has paid off, as he captured some beautiful vacation video with the HG10.

TGDaily have been giving the HG10 a good work out and you can see the results over at their website- in short, Humphrey Cheung loved it when he took it to the Hot Import Nights show in San Mateo.

Humphrey explains what goes on at Hot Import Nights (basically fast cars racing and models pouting) after which he explains that he was allowed to take in his HG10 due to its deceptively small size, resulting in a good five hours of footage. Despite doubts about the Hard Drive and the quality of the AVCHD, “we were wrong on all counts.”

Humphrey continues: “We didn’t have a single drive crash despite being constantly bumped by the crowds. We did not have a tripod, but the shots looked amazingly steady thanks to the HG10’s optical image stabilization.” He also thought that the AVCHD coped well with reproducing fast moving images, which you can see clips of in high quality on his Vimeo page.

Head on over to read the rest of the review and let Humphrey know what you think of his sample footage. What’s not to like?

Eugenia Loli-Queru, well-known computer specialist and pioneering tech blogger, is also a keen videographer, and she’s written an article comparing the three big Canon HD cameras released through the past year: the HV20 (which Eugenia herself uses), our favourite the HG10, and the new HF10. Her comments are based on the tests done by Austin of Meyers Production comparing the three cams, which found that the HV20 is still an incredibly strong contender, with it’s big sensor and minimal pixelation.

Although visually the HG10 is seen to have a more ‘cheap Kodak look’, it is certainly ‘closing in’ on the earlier HV20. Eugenia still thinks that the main issue is a generic one with AVCHD as ‘you hit the FAT filesize limit faster, you need an even faster PC to edit, and it requires really fast media and internal chipset…the rein of HV20 will end for good when manufacturers are able to offer full AVCHD bitrate to their full 1080p streams (24 mbps, according to the standard’, when they will truly take over as the only format to have.

There’s a host of interesting comments below the post from others weighing up their options, so add your opinions or questions on which of the Canon big three still gets your vote in this fast-moving, trend-led market.

Once again we’ve found a couple of videos taken by HG10 owners for your perusal. Firstly Mark Simonson has uploaded a jealousy inducing film of Long Beach in New York, featuring picturesque shots of the waves lapping at the shore, sand-karters and people jogging along the promenade, all in glorious High Definition. He’s also previously uploaded a video called ‘Little Billy‘, which contains an example of colour correction that Mark did in iMovie 08.

Our second video showcase highlights the impressive-as-a-force-of-nature Beaudesert floods in Queensland, Australia from new HG10 owner rosieruffles. Highlighting the floods at places such as Alan Struss Bridge in Gleneagle, Logan River in Waterford and Macleans Bridge it certainly looks dramatic. Head over to view it and let Rosie know what you think.

Have you filmed any natural disasters with your HG10? Let us know in the comments below!

Fancy a trip to Hawaii? If you go, make sure you take your HG10 with you, as wmlangton over on YouTube did. He’s caught some fantastic scenery on his short video, including dancing girls, waterfalls, idyllic beaches, whales and beautiful sunset scenes, all backed by that classic pedal steel guitar sound. In two minutes and twenty-three seconds, wmlangton has made me extremely jealous - gale force winds and driving rain versus lazy days on the beach and swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean? Just tell me when the next flight is and I’m off.

Have you taken any good holiday video with your HG10? Let him know!

In other news, Lloyd has uploaded more photos taken by his trial HG10 on to his Flickr account; you can check them out on his page here.