Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What I like: 1. MP4 codec. I hate hate hate AVCHD. From 30P down, you can record MP4 at 24Mpbs, which is exactly the same quality as AVCHD, but WAAAAY easier to edit. Yes, after 25mins of 1080p, your clips will automatically split, but the video is seamless. 2. Fantastic body design and manual controls. I love the new lens hood. The front control dial is better than the rear thumb dial on the HFG10/XA10. The touch screen responds faster, like an iPhone 5. There is now a physical pad to dial in menu settings for those of you who do not like touch screens. The zoom rocker is hefty and much smoother. The EVF articulates. The placement of the I/O is more practical overall. And we finally get a COLD SHOE and a smart shoe, so we can attach Canon accessories on the back and cold shoe accessories on the front. 3. 20x optical zoom lens. Simply amazing to have that amount of zoom in such a small form factor. The telephoto stays at f/2.8, just like the HFG10/XA10. 4. 26mm wide angle. I don't need a wide angle adapter anymore. The HFG30/XA20 has finally matched Sony's native wide angle camcorders. Canon sells a wide angle adapter that should make the lens a 22mm. That is very wide this kind of camcorder. 5. Better sensor. It's larger than 1/3" and better in low light. The larger sensor is really for the dynamic image stabilization, which is also amazing. I would say it matches the Panasonic AG-90's image stabilizer. What I DON'T like (which isn't that bad): 1. No internal memory. Yes, I know professional cameras do not have internal memory, but I was surprised how often I used the internal memory on my HFG10. 2. Auto-focus is better, but still not perfect. 3. Battery life is not as good and the HF G30 uses different batteries than the HFG10/XA10, which totally sucks since I've invested a lot in HF G10 batteries.