Canon Vixia HF R800 Review

Canon Vixia HF R800

I am a professional broadcast video engineer with more decades of experience than I care to think about. Below is my review of the Canon Vixia HF R800.

Canon has done a lot of things right with this camcorder. It is amazing, particularly given its $250 price tag. There is very little to complain about, but we'll start with a couple of nits to pick.

The touch screen is annoyingly fiddly. Someone with large fingers will have trouble with it, guaranteed. My fingers are fairly slender and it's a struggle for me to navigate the menus on its small screen. I tried to operate the touch screen using a toothpick and a pencil as a stylus but no joy.

Canon has loaded up this camera with a lot of consumer-y gimmicks but you can ignore those or disable them. The documentation omits a couple of neat tricks, but thankfully people have made videos documenting some of them.

The documentation doesn't cover this, but he camera can be used for live streaming. I use an Elgato Cam Link which goes between the HDMI output and a host computer's USB 3 input. You can then use an application such as OBS to record or stream your video. You do need to disable the icon display on the HDMI output to see your picture over HDMI without icons, as this video describes:Canon Vixia Camcorders: How to disable on screen controls for HDMI output.

You can also export videos over USB without installing Canon's app. Once you make the USB connection, simply press the "playback mode" button (on the left below the on-off button) and it should show up as a device on your computer, at least it does in Windows 10.

The external mic input is truly amazing. It is no exaggeration to say I am thrilled with it! Somebody at Canon really understands audio and they got it right with these camcorders. They use a mic preamp which actually provides enough gain for a microphone, unlike many dedicated audio interfaces. A mic can require up to 60 dB of gain and this camcorder doesn't disappoint. I have connected a Shure SM 63 dynamic mic using a Hosa MIT-156 to go from XLR to mini-plug. Friends, listen to the voice of experience: this is really the professional way to do it. You will then have a true transformer-balanced mic input, greatly reducing the chances that you'll pick up the local 50-kilowatt AM station (been there, done that). This solution costs all of $21. You could then use an E-V 635A or a Shure SM 58 or even a ribbon mic, or my new favorite microphone, the Electro-Voice RE320.

I wish there were more tweakable video properties, especially one that would confine video levels to a range of 16 to 235, but for a camcorder costing $250, who's complaining?

When I started in TV in 1970, color video cameras were big, hulking things weighing a couple of hundred pounds and requiring lots of light and a couple of men to lift and carry. How far we've come!