Canon Upgrades HV30 Camcorder to Create Legria HV40

Canon announces a new addition to its HDV camcorder range: the Legria HV40. Recording HDV1080i images to tape, the Legria HV40 is the successor to the HV30.

The latest evolution of Canon's popular HV-series, the Legria HV40 offers users greater creative control over their movies. A new Custom Key allows a range of different functions to be assigned to the manual Control Dial, located at the front of the camcorder, including focus, exposure and audio level.

Among a range of image customization options, there's a 25p Cinema Mode that's designed to replicate the looks and feel of traditional film, capturing footage at the equivalent of 25 frames per second. In the US version, the Vixia HV40, this is replaced by a 24p mode.

The Legria HV40 will be available from April 2009.

The camcorder has a 2.96-megapixel CMOS sensor, a Canon HD video lens with 10x optical zoom and Super Range Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS), and a DIGIC DV II processor that has been optimized for HD. Canon says that Instant AF provides incredibly fast and accurate auto focus, while Focus Assist aids manual focusing. The Legria HV40 also has a 2.7-inch LCD screen.

The Advanced Accessory Shoe allows a range of dedicated accessories to be attached. There are also manual audio controls, a microphone input and headphone jack to allow high quality audio to be captured, and HDMI and component outputs.

For more information see the Canon Web site.