Having had an XA10 briefly before buying the XF100 I was able to make some direct comparisons.Bottom line is that the XF100 offers more hard BUTTONS, a huge advantage to any semi-pro user or above, because digging through the menu on site is tedious and time consuming. The codec is also MPEG2 50mbs 4:2:2 color, which means the color accuracy is MUCH better than the XA10 and editing will be much faster and easier to render. It actually meets minimum broadcast specs for the BBC which is pretty amazing for the price range. A more flexible but finicky image. At each shoot, you'll be spending a little more time getting white balance, lighting and picture settings just right vs the XA10's simpler use.
OUT OF THE BOX SHOOTING: No, don't do that. You'll want to do 2 things right away. Google "Custom Picture Profiles" and use the ones called XF1MOJO, HI-GAIN and TRUVID to start. They alter many different aspects of the picture to allow for great looking footage. If you don't do this, you're likely to get grainy footage even in good light and night shots will be unusable. You'll also want to set the LCD screen to BRIGHT if you want to see in in the sunlight while shooting.
LOW LIGHT/NIGHT SHOTS: Use a custom picture profile setup for this and most importantly DO NOT go above 9db GAIN. Auto mode will rocket up to 24db instantly and produce one of the grainiest pictures you can imagine. Keep it below 9 and you'll be pleased. I hooked my camera up to our HDTV and lowered the light while toying with different settings, this was very effective for me to learn what worked and how in that setting.
EDITING: Using both XA10 footage (H264) and XF100 (MPEG2), Adobe CS6, W7x64 still lagged badly and took roughly 2-3x as long for any renders using an 8 core system. The XF100 footage flowed easily and smoothly and rendered faster than realtime in HD on my system while the the H264 not only took longer but caused some odd glitches in Adobe from time to time.
SMALL POINTS: The build quality feels more solid than the XA10, which is also pretty good. The XF100 is very light and while that's nice, it also means you'll be relying on the image stabilization a bit more, which for the most part works well. Full size HDMI out. New firmware (which you probably won't need is out so make sure yours is up to date, do this 1st as it erases all presets). It adds some useful features and is worth doing at canon's website.
WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE: 60p in 1080 mode, as it is, you can get there but only in 1280x720, which is still a pretty good resolution, no other camera in the class offers it either at the present time. How about a wireless remote that doesn't require pressing TWO buttons to use, I couldn't believe it, absolutely useless in the field, buying a LANC remote for this need is pretty much required due to this. More Custom Picture Profiles would have been nice, they offer three hard presets, which I've yet to find a use for. SDcard options, currently no internal memory and you must buy the pricey Compact Flash Memory. The x400 Transcend works fine BTW, it's the cheapest so far. Adapters for SD cards don't work so don't bother.
WHY STILL GET AN XA10? If you're in need of XLR audio and don't want to step up to the XF100, I guess it makes sense. For my money, I'd just get the Vixia for $700 less and you'll have almost the same thing minus the inputs. If you are an AUTO type of shooter, the XA10 will please you, but if you need to adjust lots of settings, it WILL be a little frustrating. The OUT OF THE BOX experience with the XA10 is pretty good, the presets it offers are very usable and produced excellent quality with little fiddling, while the XF100 will require more setup and fine tuning.
I've spent only a week with each camera at this point so keep that in mind as you consider what I had to say about these cameras. Overall, they're both excellent, but just serve different needs. I make a living with my cameras, so what's important to me might not matter much to others.
UPDATE: Dec 7 2012: After a few months using the camera and shooting a half dozen commercial shoots with it, I can say it's produced very nice footage. Outdoor shoots on sunny days I've been able to go full auto and get outstanding results with absolutely beautiful color reproduction. Low light still requires the settings above but have also been very very good. Auto focus works fine but I've had a few instances where it wanders, can't fault the camera really but manual focus with the MAG button makes this a breeze in the field (thank you Canon).
I've since gotten a x600 card to go with x400s and they work together but you have make sure to set them up properly in the menu and that they have "green" lights on both or it won't automatically start recording on the 2nd card when you need it Pay attention the first time and you'll know what I mean and avoid losing any shots. I've learned the x600 is really only necessary for overcranking as I've had not a single error with any of the x400s @ 1920x1080 30fps, at double the price it's something to consider.
AUDIO: I use a non XLR Rode mic 99% of the time but the onboard audio is usable in a pinch under the right conditions. XLR is the way to go so if you're getting new gear look into it.
Finally, I picked up a 2nd battery, a larger Wasabi and it's been fantastic, I know some people said they didn't get accurate remaining times, but I had no problems at all and at a fraction of the price of Canon batteries, you just can't beat them. No little lights on the back of the battery but other than that you get a lot more juice for your money.
Buy Canon XF100 Professional Camcorder with 10x HD Video lens, Compact Flash (CF) Recording Now
If you're looking to step into the beginnings of a professional level video camera, the XF100 will do the job. Among the features I like best are: 4:2:2 color space, XLR audio inputs, and a versatile zoom lens. These are just a few, there are many more. To provide a thorough review of the XF100, I made this video, which includes an un-boxing, a look at the features, and a short, actual test of the camera. I immediately noticed an improvement in my productions including my video blog and YouTube material, not to mention material submitted to professional news organizations. For a high-quality stream of this review, see my blog, which is mentioned in my Amazon profile, or can be found through my website. The higher quality version was far too large to load here.I was looking for a camcorder to improve upon the image and sound quality that I got from my Canon VIXIA HFS10, and after a lot of research I decided on this one. I haven't been disappointed.
For me the most important feature was the dual XLR inputs, because for documentary shooting, where the voices of my subjects are critical, I can't rely on the onboard microphone. I need at least to add a shotgun on top, or on a boom pole if I have someone else to operate it. Additionally, it helps to have a wireless lavaliere set up and the ability to record both inputs to different channels, and control their levels independently. All that's possible, and quite easy, with this camcorder.
The image quality, also, is a serious step up. I can get good shots indoors as long as it's not dark, and excellent quality during the daytime and at night in a well-lit street. This will record up to 50Mbps, using Canon's XF Codec, which can be edited without difficulty and without the need for conversion using Adobe's Premiere Pro CS6 but should be usable in almost any up-to-date semi-professional editing program.
It records onto compact flash cards, and can hold up to two at once. It can be set to record sequentially, so that as soon as the one card is full it will begin recording to the other without any time lag. You can also remove and replace the card that's not currently recording even with the camera on, so you could keep recording for as long as you like. I use the SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash 32GB Memory Cards, and they work great. It also holds an optional SD card for recording photos and for storing customized camera settings, that can be selected from the menu.
The battery this comes with shoots for about 3 hours, but you can pick up an additional battery that will keep it running for over 8 hours. They've done a good job with providing custom buttons for commonly used functions, and there are ten additional buttons that can be customized to a wide range of additional functions that you'd otherwise have to access through the menu. You can set the focus wheel to manual focus, zoom, or iris and adjust its sensitivity levels to fit your needs. I set one of the custom buttons to the peak function, which shows me where I have sharp edges and helps me when I'm focusing manually.
There's an eyepiece for those who prefer to shoot that way but the LCD screen contains the menu features, and can be rotated in all directions. There's a removable microphone mount on top I found that my shotgun mike didn't fit in there snuggly, so I went to the hardware store and bought three rubber o-rings to place on my mike. Now it fits in there nicely.
I've been shooting with this for a couple of months now, and have gotten great results. There's a lot more that I could say about it, but most of what you need to know is available lots of other places. I wish it had better image quality in very low light situations, but it's better at that than any camera in its price and feature range that I've come across. Like I said I think it's ideal for the low-end and independent documentary filmmaker and other similar uses, such as commercial videos and weddings. Because it is light and has a smaller profile it would also be quite useful on a higher level production when shooting needs to be somewhat discreet and not call attention to itself or scream that a movie's being made. It's worked great for my needs as a low-end independent documentary filmmaker. I've been very happy with it.Bottom line. Its a three thousand dollar camera with 422 and 1920x1080. Makes a fantastic cheap second camera next to my 5d. XLR imputs. Thinking about purchasing another. Its maybe too light, but that isnt necessarily a bad thing. Shoots very well in low light situations. I just shot a video in a one room school house with no electricity at dusk and was able to get the shots without using the infrared. Ya it was a little bit grainy, but I got the shots and I got paid. Ya you can find things to complain about it, but its a three thousand dollar camera. Simple plug in to work with FCP7.
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