Canon is done with navigation nubs on its high-end camcorders. They have been replaced with fancy-pants touchscreens. (Hopefully the cams come with cleaning cloths!) But don’t fret if you just purchased Canon’ previous flagship HD cam. These three new models use the same image sensor as the previous models. It’s mainly the touchscreen that’s different. But they must be cool because all the cool kids love touchscreens.
Along with sporting the same lens and sensor, all three models have dual SD card slots, LANC terminals, hot shoes, and external mic and headphone jacks. The flagship HF 21, however, also has 64GB of internal memory, while the HF S20 only has a 32GB. Don’t ask about the the HF S200, it doesn’t have any persistence storage, only the dual SD card slots.
The HF S21 will hit the market in April with a $1399 MSRP, the HF S20 will be $1099, and the HF S200 will be $999. But because these cams should take the quality video, you may want to look around the Internet around March and April for fire sales on the current models. I, for one, would much rather have a navigation nub, than a touchscreen anyway.