Las Vegas (NV) - While everyone was playing with Canon’s new Digital Rebels, we decided to go to the other end of the table and grab their upcoming HF10 flash-based camcorder. Well we could take it too far away because it was tied down with a metal cable, but you get the point. The HF10 has almost everything a prosumer could want in a cam, but the selling point for us was the amazing optical stabilization.

PMA 08 VIDEO - Canon’s HF10 hands-on

The HF10 shoots 1920 by 1080 pixel video in either 24 or 30P. Video is recorded to either a built-in 16 GB flash drive or cards in the SDHC slot.

We took the camcorder to its highest 12X zoom setting and locked onto signs and other fixtures across the room. Ok so this in itself isn’t too great, but consider this... we were holding the camcorder with one hand while our other hand was fiddling around with focus settings on another cam.

Canon reps told us the HF10 should be available in May for $1099.