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General Features
Video Camcorder Features
Digital Still Camera Features
Battery Information
Inputs And Outputs
Software Requirements

General Features

Overview: The Canon VIXIA HF S21 Flash Memory camcorder shoots high definition video or digital photos that can be stored on the built-in 64 GB flash memory or on optional SD or SDHC Memory Cards. You can store nearly 6 hours of HD video at the highest resolution on the built-in 64 GB memory.

3.5" Widescreen LCD Touch Screen: The HF S21 features a 3.5" TFT color widescreen LCD touch screen (922,000 dots) to make it easy to compose and review your shots. The bright screen lets you see exactly what your camcorder is recording, and what your widescreen TV will display later. You can rotate the LCD screen 270° allowing the subject to monitor the LCD screen. The LCD screen also features an adjustable brightness control. The LCD Screen's frame contains zoom, playback and menu controls for added convenience.

Viewfinder: In addition to the 3.5" LCD touch screen, the HF S21 has a 0.27", wide TFT color viewfinder with 123,000 pixels. You can use the viewfinder whenever you find it difficult to use the LCD screen, or when the LCD screen is rotated 180° to let the subject watch the recording. The LCD screen's backlight settings also affect the brightness of the viewfinder. The viewfinder has a diopter adjustment for setting the focus to your own vision. The camcorder can be turned on or off by pulling out or pushing in the viewfinder.

Recording Media: The Canon HF S21 camcorder captures video and still-images onto the built-in 64 GB flash memory or optional SD or SDHC media cards (sold separately). Flash memory offers quick response time for recording and playback. By recording onto flash memory, the camcorder's power consumption rate is reduced, allowing the battery to last longer. In addition, by using flash memory, the camcorder is more shock resistant and is less likely to lose data because there are no moving parts.

Dual Memory Card Slots: The HF S21 is equipped with two slots for inserting SD or SDHC memory cards. When the memory card in slot A becomes full while recording movies, the recording will continue uninterrupted on the card in slot B. When the built-in memory becomes full while recording movies, the camcorder will automatically switch to the memory card in slot A (Relay Recording).

Recording Formats: The camcorder records movies in AVCHD (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) video compression format with Dolby Digital 2-channel audio, using the built-in microphone. You can record in 5.1-channel surround when using the optional SM-V1 Surround Microphone. Still photos are recorded in JPEG in Super Fine, Fine, and Normal compression.

Image Sensor: The HF S21 features a 1/2.6" CMOS image sensor with approximately 8,590,000 gross pixels for excellent detail and clarity when recording video and exceptional digital still photography performance. The effective pixel count is as follows:

• Movies:
  • approximately 6,010,000 pixels
  • approximately 2,070,000 pixels (using Digital Tele-converter)
• 16:9 Photos (LW, MW): approximately 6,010,000 pixels
• 4:3 Photos (L, M, S): approximately 8,020,000 pixels

DIGIC DV III: DIGIC DV III, Canon's advanced HD image processor, delivers enhanced image quality, true color production for both video and photos, and a sophisticated noise reduction system for exceptional low-light performance. Its high-speed engine powers a variety of Canon technologies, such as the Genuine Canon Face Detection and Advanced Auto Exposure system. DIGIC DV III allows continuous shooting of digital photos, faster processing to the memory, as well as lower power consumption for longer battery life.

Mini Advanced Shoe: The top-mounted Mini Advanced Shoe allows you to attach a range of optional accessories, such as external microphones and video lights.

Genuine Canon Video Lens: The HF S21 comes with a Genuine Canon 10x HD video lens with a 10x Optical zoom and a selectable 4x or 20x digital zoom for an 40x or 200x total digital zoom.

Zoom Speed: The zoom speed can be set to variable or one of three fixed speeds. In the variable position, the zoom speed depends on how far you push the lever. The purpose of the three fixed zoom speeds is a smoother zoom transition, at your choice of speeds.

Digital Tele-Converter: You can digitally increase the focal length of the camcorder by a factor of approximately 1.7x and record the enlarged at full HD resolution.

Optional Converter Lenses: The HF S21's lens has a 58mm filter thread, allowing you to attach optional converter lenses to increase or decrease the focal length. The optional TL-H58 Tele-Converter increases the focal length by a factor of 1.5 with a minimum focusing distance of 7.5'. The WD-H58 Wide-Converter decreases the focal length by a factor of 0.7, giving you a wide perspective for indoor shots or panoramic views. In addition to converter lenses, you can also attach 58mm protective or natural density filters to the lens.

Dynamic Image Stabilizer: The HF S21 has a Dynamic SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer system with Powered IS to compensate for camera shake. The Image Stabilization system provides continuous adjustment throughout the entire zoom range, plus extra compensation at wide-angle focal lengths. The Powered IS function compensates for hand movement at the telephoto end of the zoom range. You can select the degree of compensation:

• Dynamic: Highest degree of compensation; most effective at wide angle zoom.
• Standard: Compensates for a lower degree of camera shake
• Off: No compensation applied. Recommended when camera is on a tripod.

x.v.Color: The camcorder can be set to x.v.Color to record video that uses a color space with an extended gamut to achieve deeper colors, closer to real life. Video recorded with x.v.Color can only be played back properly on HDTVs compatible with x.v.Color via an HDMI cable.

Operating Modes: You can set the camcorder to Dual Shot for recording video and taking photos simultaneously while the camcorder chooses the settings. If you desire, you can set the camcorder to record either video or photos, giving you full access to the menus and advanced functions of the camcorder.

Video Snapshot: The camcorder's Video Snapshot mode lets you shoot a series of short video clips, then combines them with a pre-recorded music track or your own favorite music track, to create an entertaining movie. You can select the length of the video snapshot scenes: 2 sec, 4 sec or 8 sec.

Instant Auto Focus (AF): The HF S21 offers Instant Auto Focus, which uses an external sensor, in combination with Canon's auto focus system, to help significantly decrease the time it takes to focus, even in low light situations. The Focus Assist feature provides a 2x magnification of your subject in the LCD monitor before you start recording. When recording begins, the Focus Assist is canceled.

Face Detection: The camcorder can automatically detect people's faces and use this information to adjust the focus and set the best exposure and color control settings for beautiful videos and photos. When there are a number of people in the picture, one person will be determined to be the main subject. You can also select the main subject manually.

Exposure Modes: The HF S21 features several exposure modes, each depending upon how much control you have over recording-related settings:

• Smart Auto: The Smart Auto setting automatically selects the best settings for the scene you want to shoot. You get spectacular recordings every time without worrying about the settings.
• Programmed AE: The camcorder automatically adjusts the aperture and shutter speed to obtain the optimal exposure for the subject.
• Cine Mode: The Cine Mode gives your recordings a cinematic look. You can select a 24fps progressive frame rate to enhance the effect.
• Shutter Priority: You choose the shutter speed to freeze or blur the shot while the camcorder selects the appropriate aperture for the scene. You can select shutter speeds of 1/2 to 1/500 in photo mode and 1/8 to 1/2000 in video mode.
• Aperture Priority: You choose the aperture to affect the depth of field and the camcorder selects the appropriate shutter speed for the scene. You can select aperture settings of f/2.8 to f/8.0 in photo mode, and f/1.8 to f/8.0 in video mode.
• Special Scene Recording Modes: The camcorder features the following Preset Scene Recording Modes to match special conditions:
  • Portrait: camcorder uses a large aperture, achieving a focus on the subject while blurring other distracting details
  • Sports: for recording sports scenes or fast moving events
  • Night Scene: for recording in low-light conditions
  • Snow: for recording in bright ski resorts, it prevents the subject from being underexposed
  • Beach: for recording on a sunny beach, it prevent the subject from being underexposed
  • Sunset: for recording sunsets in vibrant colors
  • Low Light: for recording in low-light situations
  • Spotlight: for recording spotlight scenes
  • Fireworks: for recording fireworks

White Balance: The camcorder's white balance system helps you accurately reproduce colors under different lighting conditions so that white objects will always look truly white in your recordings. You can choose from the following modes:

• Automatic: the camcorder automatically sets the white balance for natural looking colors
• Daylight: to record outdoors on a bright day
• Shade: to record in shady places
• Cloudy: to record on a cloudy day
• Fluorescent: to record under warm white, cool white, or warm-white-type (3-wavelength) fluorescent lighting.
• Fluorescent H: to record under daylight or daylight-type (3-wavelength) fluorescent lighting.
• Tungsten: to recording under tungsten and tungsten-type (3-wavelength) fluorescent lighting.
• Custom WB: use the custom white balance setting to make white subjects appear white under colored lighting.

Image Effects: The HF S21 allows you to record with the following saturation and contrast color effects:

• Vivid: emphasizes the contrast and color saturation to record in crisp colors
• Neutral: tones down the contrast and color saturation to record in neutral hues
• Low Sharpening: records subjects with softened outlines
• Soft Skin Detail: softens the details in the skin tone area for a more complimentary appearance
• Custom Effect: allows you to adjust color depth, brightness, contrast, and sharpness of the image.
• Image Effect Off: records with no image enhancing effects

Digital Effects: When shooting videos, you can select a fade or wipe to begin and end a scene. For still images, you can record photos in black and white or sepia tone.

Self-Timer: This feature allows the camcorder to start recording after a 10-second countdown.

Wireless Remote Control: The HF S21 comes with the WL-D89 Wireless Controller. With this remote, you can control the following functions of the camcorder: Start/Stop, Play/Pause, Menu Navigation, Display, Photo button (for taking still images), and zoom in/out.

Video Camcorder Features

Compatible Media: The HF S21 captures high-definition AVCHD video with MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression, and 2-channel (or optional 5.1-channel) Dolby Digital audio onto the built-in 64 GB flash memory or optional SD or SDHC memory cards. The camcorder supports SD cards up to 2GB and SDHC memory cards up to 32GB. A 128MB or larger SD card is required for recording video content.

Recording Modes: The camcorder offers five video recording modes: MXP, FXP, XP+, SP and LP. You can capture the following video recording times using these modes:

Pre-Recording: When Pre-Recording is activated, the camcorder starts recording video continuously into a temporary 3-second memory. When you press the Start/Stop button, the scene recorded will have started 3 seconds before you started shooting. This is especially useful when it is difficult to predict when to start recording.

Wind Screen: The camcorder automatically reduces the background sound of wind when recording outdoors when Wind Screen is turned to "Automatic."

Built-in Speaker: The camcorder has a built-in speaker so you can review the soundtrack as well as the picture when you're using the LCD screen to playback a recording. The built-in speaker is monaural.

Playback Functions: The camera uses the following special playback modes: Fast Playback in either direction, Slow Playback in either direction, and Frame-by-Frame Playback (approx 0.5 sec). During these playback modes there is no sound.

Playlists: You can create a playlist to play back only the scenes you prefer and in the order of your choice. Moving or deleting scenes in the playlist will not affect the original recordings.

Video Snapshots/Photos From Recorded Movies: You can record video snapshot scenes and still photos from a recorded movie. The size of the captured photos will be MW (1920 x 1080), however, you can select the photo quality (Super Fine, Fine, or Normal).

Digital Still Camera Features

Still Image Recording: The HF S21 flash memory camcorder is also a high performance digital camera capable of capturing stunning photos onto the built-in 64 GB flash memory or optional SD/SDHC Memory Card. You can record in the following still image sizes: Large Wide (LW) 3264 x 1840, Medium Wide (MW) 1920 x 1080, Large (L) 3264 x 2456, Medium (M) 1920 x 1440, or Small (S) 640 x 480. There are three Photo Quality (compression) settings for each image size: Super Fine, Fine, and Normal. The number of still images that can be recorded on a 1 GB SD memory card are as follows:

Histogram Display: The HF S21 comes with a Histogram Display. The display allows you to see the brightness information of your still images, so you can adjust your exposures as you shoot.

Viewing Still Images: There are 3 ways to view still images: Single image, Slide show (one after the other automatically in order of recording), or Index screen showing 6 images or 15 images at once.

Magnify Playback: During playback still images can be magnified up to 5 times. You can also select the area of the screen to be magnified.

PictBridge Printing Capability: PictBridge is a standard that allows you to connect a PictBridge compliant camera directly to a PictBridge compliant printer and make prints, regardless of brand.

Exif Print (Exif 2.2): The Canon HF S21 conforms to "Exif Print", a worldwide standard. Vital camera settings (such as: exposure mode, white balance, exposure time) and scene data are recorded to the image file when it is captured. Printers compatible with "Exif Print" are able to use this information to produce high quality photographs, exactly the way they were intended at the time of capture. This intelligent communication process also allows the printer to correct for poor lighting or mistakes, resulting in photos which can be even better than the originals.

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) Settings: On the memory card, you can select which image or images you want to print and how many copies you want. This is convenient for printing images all at once on a Canon Direct Print function compliant printer or printing at participating photo labs. You can set print orders for up to 998 still images.

Battery Information

Lithium-Ion Battery Pack: The Canon HF S21 comes supplied with a rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery Pack (BP-808). Optional batteries are available, such as the BP-808, BP-819, or BP-827. The camcorder also comes supplied with an AC power adapter and charger (CA-570 S). The battery recording and playback times are as follows:

Charging Times: The BP-808 and BP-809 batteries charge in 150 minutes when charging through the camcorder with the supplied AC adapter. The charging time for the optional BP-819 is 260 minutes, while the BP-827 charges is 385 minutes.

Auto Power Off: After 5 minutes without any operation when powered by the battery, the camcorder automatically powers off. Approximately 30 seconds before the camcorder automatically turns itself off, a warning message appears in the display.

Inputs And Outputs

HDMI Output: The HF S21 features a mini-HDMI (Type C) terminal that offers a high-quality digital connection that combines audio and video in a single convenient cable. The HDMI port is compatible with HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control), allowing you in many cases to control the camcorder with the remote control of the connected TV. It is also compatible with x.v.color.

Component Output: The camcorder has a proprietary terminal for plugging in the supplied component video cable. Since the component video cable outputs video only, the supplied AV cable should also be used for the audio output.

AV Output: The camcorder features an AV output to playback audio and video on your television using the supplied composite video/stereo audio RCA cable. You can select between a 4:3 aspect ratio or a 16:9 aspect ratio for the video out based on your television's aspect ratio. The AV Output also doubles as a headphone output (selectable in the menu). The built-in speaker will be muted when headphones or the AV cable are plugged in.

USB 2.0 Connection: The camcorder features a USB 2.0 High Speed terminal for fast transfer of photos and videos.

Dual SD Card Slots: The HF S21 has dual slots for optional SD and SDHC memory cards.

Microphone Input: In addition to the camcorder's built-in microphone, the HF S21 features a 3.5mm microphone input for connecting an external microphone (sold separately). With the optional SM-V1 Surround Microphone, you can record in 5.1-channel surround audio.

Remote Control Input: The camcorder features a 2.5mm sub-minijack terminal for connecting an optional Zoom Remote controller (ZR-2000 or ZR-1000). Functions available with a connected Zoom Remote controller include power on/off, start/stopping a recording, zoom, focus adjustment, and switching between manual and auto focus.

Software Requirements

Included Software: The Canon HF S21 camcorder comes supplied with three CD-ROM application discs: PIXELA Application Ver.3.0 Discs 1 and 2, and the VIXIA Disc with Photo Applications Ver.34.0 and Music Data. The PIXELA Application Discs Ver.3.0 are only compatible with Windows. Macintosh-compatible software is available for download from Canon's website.

PIXELA Application Disc Ver.3.0 (2 Discs):

• Disc One: ImageMixer 3 SE Transfer Utility: Software for saving and transferring movies and music files you can use as background music
• Disc Two: ImageMixer 3 SE Video Tools: Software for saving, managing, editing, and playing back movies

PIXELA System Requirements: The minimum requirements differ depending upon the system configuration you choose. If you choose to only perform the tasks for Disc One, then you should use System Configuration A. If you choose to perform the tasks for Discs One and Two, you should use System Configuration B.

System Configuration A for ImageMixer 3 SE Disc 1:

System Configuration B for ImageMixer 3 SE Discs 1 and 2:

VIXIA Photo Applications/Music Data Disc: The contents of the VIXIA disc includes:

• Photo Applications Ver.34.0: Software for saving, managing, and printing photos
• Music Data: Music files that can be used as background music during playback

VIXIA System Requirements: