Um, doesn't the HV series already have a 1/8" external mic input? And does it by any chance have the same shoe as the HF-S? Might be worth trying the LANC adapter if someone has both handy - I wouldn't "expect" the function is on the propietary shoe, but from experience with Sony's A/V jack implementation, there were undocumented functions there...

The HV20 / 30 / 40 models do indeed have a stereo mini-jack mic input.

However, the Advanced Accessory Shoe on these camcorders is the full-size version while the HF S series has the smaller "Mini AAS" and the LANC adapter is made for that size only, negating its use on the HV40, sorry.

THX Chris - it's been a long time since I owned an HV... couldn't remember the shoe configuration... sometimes I have trouble finding my shoes, but that's another topic...

From experience with Sony, there are sometimes "undocumented" features on these proprietary interface points... (or more accurately stated POORLY documented or known only to a select few). Thus my suggestion a while back that the LANC adapter for the latest HF-S might be backward compatible to some of the older models, which turned out to be at least partially correct (works with possible issues).

That's reassuring. I know the HV20 has, but I thought it was removed from the HV40. Nice to be wrong.

On the Panasonic TM300, the Touch and Track feature is only available in 60i.

Here's hoping Canon made it work in 24P and 30P.

According to the manual posted on Canon's website, T&T is available in all frame modes. There are limitations on shutter speed though (minimum 1/30 in 30p and 60i, minimum 1/24 in both 24p modes).

Actually, the new HF-S line can be set for either. It offers both 24p modes: One which records natively in 24p, the other being the more conventional (and standard on all of the new AVCHD Canon camcorders) 24p encoded inside a 60i stream.

The HF-R series, on the other hand, have a few compromises in order to keep the price down. One of them is the really tiny 1/5.5" sensor (compared to the 1/5" sensor of my Sony HDR-CX100 camcorder, a model which is actually quite good given its tiny sensor size). This allows a 20x optical zoom without an increase in the size or weight of the camcorder. The other is the maximum bitrate of 17 Mbps (versus the 24 Mbps maximum of the HF-S and HF-M lines). This is because most of the benefits of a higher AVCHD bitrate are lost with a decrease in sensor size. If one wants a viewfinder (an Electronic ViewFinder, or EVF) on any of the new Canons, he'll have to purchase an HF-S model in order to get it.