Shortly before CES, Canon unveiled almost a dozen new camcorders. They all were on display at CES and Gadgetell played with some of them.

Virtually all of the HD consumer camcorder line can now record in a 24Mbps mode called MXP. Why does this matter? The higher the bitrate, the higher the quality of video. If you’re a video podcaster or just like making movies, this stuff matters to you. The tape-based HV40 records in 25Mbps in HDV format.

Canon is adding three new camcorders into its VIXIA high-definition line-up, the VIXIA HF11 with dual flash memory, and the HG20 and HG21 with hard drive storage. All three camcorders brag of 24Mbps bit rate recording which is the highest possible bit rate that can be achieved in the AVCHD format.

And since high-definition video recording would require lots of storage, Canon has put in 32GB of internal flash drive into the HF1 plus an SDHC card slot for even more, while the HG21 and HG20 got 120GB and 60GB hard disk drives respectively. Other features of these camcorders include an HD Video Lens, HD CMOS Image Sensor that allows full HD (1920 x 1080) image capture, DIGIC DV II Image Processor, Instant Auto Focus and SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization feature.

Canon will soon be releasing two new AVCHD camcorders, the iVIS HF11 and iVIS HG21. Touting 3.31-megapixel CCD sensors, both cameras allow video recording in 5 different modes; MXP at 24Mbps, FXP at 17Mbps, XP+ at 12Mbps, SP at 7Mbps and LP at 5Mpbs. In addition, both cameras also come with a 2.7-inch LCD screen, more »