Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Camcorders
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Camcorders
I bought this one chip camera 3 years ago for $700. I chose this camera over the Canon ZR series because of more manual controls and it was bigger in size and more ergonomic of a regular video camera. The only gripe on this camera is the lowlight shooting is worthless. Alot of grain and no color saturation. If you have good lighting then everything looks very highend .If you have Final Cut Pro then you can add the saturation back in. The lens is a 16x and sharp until you get to about 14x and then it softens up. Exposure control is changed with a small toggle switch by the left side of the camera lens. If you click it the mic picks the sound up. You can put filters on the lens. The mini dv tapes load in from the bottom. I have never understood why they started this stupid idea. For years cameras always loaded in the top right side. Why change a good thing? You have to take the cam off the tripod and unscrew the tripod plate to change tape....madness!!! Firewire ,audio mic and head phone inputs are nice. The camera also has analog conversion pass through. The lcd pop out screen is 3". A very good size to focus well with. Bigger batteries can be added on. Stills are a good function on this camera too. Not the highest resolution but it does take good stills to be a video camera. There is some grain in some lowlight photos. I rate this camera overall as good. Still a good buy on ebay and its little brother the Optura 10. Review by Tony BeazleyRead full review
The Canon ZR20 is a good standard-definition camcorder. It's compact, with good access to most of the controls, and good video quality. My favorite feature of this camcorder, the one that convinced me to buy it (Canon Optura camcorders do this too), is the ability to record to MiniDV from an external composite or S-video source. In my case, this allows me to shoot on MiniDV using my JVC camera that lacks any automation, thus giving me complete control over focus, exposure, and color balance. It could also allow for hidden camera work, or recording from other specialized video cameras. The feature can also be used to convert analog video recordings to a digital format for editing, although I recommend getting a video stabilizer if you transfer older tapes, which the copyright protection system may mis-interpret as copy-protected. Aside from this one feature, I find the ZR-20 to be a good general-purpose consumer camcorder.Read full review
I bought one awhile back and thought I had broken the DV port, but turns out it was my firewire cable. So now I have 2 fully functional ones, weee. I use them for finish line footage of bicycle races, and it works pretty well. Easy to adjust manual focus, live feed on computer with DV port, and good quality. Has a lot of features which I'm still learning about that make it better every time I play with it. A couple hidden features I've noticed are: It won't "auto timeout" if theres no tape in it. If you're using your computer to record, remove the tape and it'll never power-off. The first camera I bought did not come with a light on the front. I didn't know it even belonged until I got the second one. I don't find the light very effective except up close, much like the movie "Cloverfield". The only problem I've had is it seems to be rough on tapes, and if the tape gets damaged at all the camera will refuse to do anything, so you have to manually move the tape off the damaged section to continue recording/playback.Read full review
i love the design and easiness of using this mini dv camera. it produces great color and a good low light mode. has all the manual options a begining Filmer needs. the only thing i dont like about this camera is that the search buttons in playback mode are on the inside of the lcd screen forcing you to use the lcd playback. besides that i would greatly recomend this video camera
I purchased this camcorder for my wife who loves to record events. I have brought her 4 other camcorders in the past but none with the dvd. she used this canon dvd camcorder yesterday and it was easy for her to use, she really enjoyed using it and the move looked great. I am convinced this will be the last camcorder that I will ever buy. I got this at a very good price and from the look on her face while using it, I can tell that it was one of the best things I could have gotten her.