The Canon Legria HF200 is the most expensive camcorder here by some margin, but it’s also the most feature-packed. Alongside the ability to film 1,920 x 1,080i footage, it includes a wodge of shooting options and modes that can help you get the very best footage – provided you’re prepared to mess around with the settings.

It’s certainly one of the most comfortable camcorders to hold. Its rounded barrel helps it sit comfortably in the hand, and all the essential controls – zoom, photo shutter and record buttons – fall naturally under index finger and thumb. The right side holds the mini HDMI and USB 2.0 ports plus a mode dial, which gives you a choice of shooting video, stills or video and stills together. The back holds the flush-fitting battery, and power, microphone and component video sockets.

Open the 2.7in LCD and you’ll find Video Snap (for capturing 4-second video highlights), a combined AV out/headphone socket and an SD/SDHC memory card slot – there’s no storage built in. At the front is the f1.8-f.3.2 lens with 15x optical zoom, plus flash. The stereo mics are also here under the lens – a much more sensible location than on the lens barrel top, like other Canon camcorders we’ve seen. The power button on the top edge is both sensibly placed and easy to find.

The real joy comes with Canon’s user interface, which is accessible via a four-way cursor control and Function button on the LCD bezel.

All the options are logically laid out and easy to tweak and range from HD video quality settings to digital and video effects, plus a good choice of white balance settings.

But it’s video quality where the Canon Legria HF200 really stands out. Outside, the HF200 delivers very high-quality images with accurate colours and a lot of image detail, and is up to the challenge of focusing on distant subjects at the far end of its zoom range. The stereo mics pick up a certain amount of wind noise, but it’s not distracting. Shooting indoors reveals a lot more picture noise and softness, but it’s still easily one of the best performers here. An excellent result.