I’m a bit of a shutterbug, with a couple nice SLR bodies and a collection of Canon L glass at home. Once upon a time I had a really nice video camera that we used to film the kids doing kid stuff — you know, first steps and all that jazz. Well, the passage of time made that that camcorder seem prehistoric. Time to get a new one to record the goings-ons with the kids….

Enter a Canon VIXIA HF R400, a compact camcorder packing a big punch on a digestible budget. This blog is an unintended beneficiary.

As the owner of an SLR that falsely-claims noise-free 3200 ISO shots, I assure you that I approached the R400’s low-light claims skeptically. Less skeptical was I of the solid slow-motion claim, based on the option of recording at 60fps. I tested both in this quick video:

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