THE push to High Definition (HD) is now underway, with more and more camcorders and flat screen LCD TVs having Full HD or HD-ready capabilities.

The Canon HV30 camcorder is one such Full HD camcorder: It records in 1,080 lines in interlaced mode with its Full HD CMOS sensor. That means that alternate lines that make up the video image on the TV screen are constantly refreshed, giving vibrant scenes throughout.

The camcorder is easy to use even for someone who does not take family videos. The manual is easy to follow and the camcorder is set up and ready to record in no time. All the buttons are within reach using the right thumb and index finger.

It is a truly one-hand-operated device, unless you have to activate the LED flash-light for video recording, manual focus and back light correction using the left hand.

The HV30 uses the MiniDV tape to record images as well as a MiniSD card for still-image capture.

Access to all the terminal ports such as the microphone, headphone, HDMI and component cable ports are easily located and plugged in without having to take out any parts, say the battery, for the camcorder to connect to the TV. Video footage lives up to Canon's video capture quality, so not much surprise there.

One of the benefits of HDTV is the ability to playback surround sound using five speakers and a sub-woofer (or, 5.1 channels). The HV30 could not make full use of this benefit as it records only in left-right channel stereo sound.

For the Internet generation, the use of a Mini-DV tape hampers the quick transfer of video files from camcorder to the PC and to video-sharing websites such as YouTube. For those who want to do a short 10-minute family video with fancy video effects like cross footage transitions and credits, note that it will take an even longer time - I'd imagine at least half an hour for the tape to play and the PC to encode.

FINAL SAY

If you want to keep your videos in tapes and see no need for post-production, the

Canon HV30 is the camcorder to have for the HD generation.

Otherwise, look for camcorders that record in digital file formats for easy video file transfers.