Canon VIXIA HF R800 Camcorder Review
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Specifications
Image Quality
Settings
Audio Quality
Convenience and Accessories
Verdict
Specifications
- Records up to 1080p 60 FPS in MP4 format.
- Both video and photos are taken at about 2.07 megapixels when shot at 1080p.
- Has a headphone jack and an external mic input.
- Does NOT have an accessory/cold shoe mount.
- Uses a detachable battery. This battery charges via a cable plugged into the camcorder itself.
- Has a clean HDMI out for streaming and recording to a computer. (Requires opening settings menu to access)
Full specifications can be found on Canon’s product page. Amazon’s product page is here.
Image Quality
Indoors
When recording video indoors, the Canon VIXIA HF R800 produces a soft, noisy image, even with studio lighting. A lot of detail is missing like textures on clothes, and skin looks almost air-brushed. In low light scenarios, such as with just an overhead light or lamp, the footage is mostly unusable. The two lights I use in a couple of the following shots are the Elgato Ring Light and the LimoStudio LMS103 lighting kit (my reviews).
Indoors, daylight only. Automatic settings.
Indoors, daylight with Elgato Ring Light + LMS 103 Lighting Kit. Automatic settings.
Indoors, night time. Overhead light only. Automatic settings.
Indoors, night time. Studio Lighting. Automatic settings.
Outdoors
Outdoors the VIXIA can produce some decent stills and video. The grain is less noticable, and the automatic exposure settings adjust for the bright sunlight quickly and effectively. Zooming is done through a combination of optical and digital zoom, so after a certain distance, quality will take a hit. Specifically, too much zooming causes chromatic aberration - the distortion of color on the edges of objects.
Outdoors with lots of light is where the VIXIA is most in its element, but the pictures still aren’t too sharp.
Partially zoomed video footage.
Zoomed out footage.
In most scenarios, the camcorder seems to produce much better still images than video. Part of this is because in a still image you can’t see all that grain flying around on the screen which is quite distracting in video. The sharpness was also significantly improved in stills in my experience.
Outdoor still.
Indoor still.
At a park.
Chromatic aberration from maximum zoom.
Settings
For DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, and even webcams, mastering manual settings can be a barrier to entry to getting a quality picture. However, the Canon VIXIA HF R800 camcorder has very effective automatic settings. It adjusts to the light intensity and color temperature of the shot quickly, and has very fast face-tracking autofocus.
For the most part, you never really have to touch the manual settings to get as good of video or photo as this camera can provide. That said, if you do want to muck about with the settings (like I do), you’ll be sorely disappointed with how locked down they are.
The exposure can be adjusted, but the aperture (the size of the opening that lets in light) cannot be changed. This is a shame, since Canon boasts it having an f/1.8-4.5 lens. The inability to control this means no bokeh and no blurry background.
White balance is limited to 4 different presets: auto white balance, daylight, tungsten, and “custom white balance”. Custom white balance just adjusts to the white of the current shot (ideally you’ll hold up a white sheet of paper), and then the camcorder locks in that color temperature. You can’t set the color temperature in Kelvins manually, though. Overall, the manual settings aren’t very good and you probably won’t improve your shot that much with what is offered, so its fortunate that full auto does a good job.
Manual exposure adjustments.
Auto white balance.
Daylight white balance.
Tungsten white balance.
“Custom” white balance.
Audio Quality
The HF R800’s built in microphone is functional, but not high quality. The sound is tinny and it picks up everything around it. It’s not super jarring, but when there’s significant ambient noise (which is common outside) the subject’s voice often gets drowned out by the background sounds. In the following clips, I’m recording with the built in mic and the Takstar SGC-598 shotgun microphone outdoors with cars going by.
Convenience and Accessories
The Canon VIXIA HF R800 is compact and versatile. It’s easy to carry around at about 10.8 oz (305g) with the battery, SD card, and grip belt attached. The grip belt is useful for vlogging and compliments the optical image stabilization which is good at minimizing shake when recording handheld footage. Even recording in a car ride (example), the final video was very smooth.
When vlogging, a potential hindrance is the narrow field of view. The shot is extremely tight even when zoomed all the way out. There are third party wide angle lenses that can help mitigate this, and the one demonstrated below is from Vivitar (Amazon).
Without wide angle lens.
With wide angle attachment.
Battery life recording at maximum quality (35 Mbps, 1080p, 60 FPS) is about 2 hours. This makes getting a third party battery a must when taking it out. Canon themselves also sells wall chargers to charge the battery without having to plug it into the camcorder, but those seem to be commonly out of stock. The backup battery I use is from BM Premium (Amazon) and it has about the same battery life.
The VIXIA HF R800 can also be used as a webcam for streaming software to use for OBS, Zoom, Twitch and more. Here’s my guide on how. It has a clean HDMI out which means you won’t see all the menu settings and focus boxes around your image while streaming. This does require a capture card and a bit of setup, however.
The tripod thread at the bottom makes it easy to set up and leave while you stream. It can also be used to stream while on the charger indefinitely as long as you turn off the auto-sleep function. If you’re just recording footage to the device itself, images and videos can be transfered to a computer using an SD card or by a USB cable.
VIXIA with wide angle lens attached.
Verdict
After all that, I regrettably do NOT recommend the Canon VIXIA HF R800 for most people. The image quality indoors even when flooded with light just isn’t that good. However, outdoors this device is passable. The video won’t be that sharp, but you can get some useable stills. The convenience factor makes it easy to put in a bag or pocket and pull out to take pictures or video at a moment’s notice.
If outdoors is your primary use case, it’s very hard to find a better camcorder at a lower price. If you’re recording indoors, I highly suggest checking out some of the best webcams on the market as you can get a sharper image from some of them for much cheaper (my comparison).
Canon VIXIA HF R800 Camcorder: https://amzn.to/3oVFH6W
Takstar SGC-598 shotgun microphone: https://amzn.to/3oVFH6W
Vivitar Wide Angle Lens attachment: https://amzn.to/3r2zBmL
BM Premium Battery: https://amzn.to/2K82z4d
