Canon Legria HF M41 Review

As well as having 32GB of internal storage, Canon's Legria HF M41 has room for two SD cards, so CNET say that its plentiful storage space coupled with impressive performance make it a fuss-free contender for advanced users. Competition is fierce at this price though, and although Panasonic's HDC-SD900 costs slightly more, it boasts 1080/50p recording and better manual control.

Pocket-Lint found the Canon Legria HF M41 to be a top-notch performer that offers fantastic HD results, while providing its users with plenty of creative flexibility. Nonetheless, though they concede that its image quality may be better, they still feel that its rival, the Panasonic SD-90, offers a better value for the money, thanks to its 3D capability and smaller chassis.

Value for money: "very good" (5 out of 6 stars)

The Canon Legria HF-M41 put on a good performance for ExpertReviews, who says that all things told, this is an excellent camcorder that's decently priced and offers raw image quality that's better than many. However, they feel that compared to the Panasonic HDC-SD90, it's not quite as good a value, because the Panasonic has better image stabilisation and a larger zoom.

Its hefty price tag isn't going to make the Canon Legria HFM41 an impulse buy, but if you're an aspiring filmmaker or want a professional touch to your home videos, then it's certainly got its appeal, says FiveFwd. Not only did they appreciate this camcorder's wealth of features and manual options, but they were also impressed with its thoughtful ergonomics and image stabilisation.

Features: “good” (11.2 out of 15 points); Record function: “good” (17.1 out of 20 points); Operation: “very good” (7.7 out of 10 points); Sound (system): “very good” (13.0 out of 15 points); Image quality: “very good” (86.8 out of 120 points); Sound quality: “satisfactory” (12.4 out of 20 points).

Value for money: “very good”, “Best Buy”

“The HF M 41’s very good lowlight qualities were enough to give the device a best buy rating. It also delivers very high image quality without any noticeable flaws as well as remarkable functions such as a story mode and a fairly substantial 32 gigabyte read-only memory. It’s just a shame that the viewfinder is so piddly and that its wide angle effect isn’t all that wide.”

“Canon is finally once again flexing its muscles in the consumer branch. Ironically it’s the latest camcorders that at last manage to recreate the sharpness levels of Canon’s last but one device generation; cameras which have long stood at the top of our best buy lists with their almost flawless low ISO images. ...”