Canon ZR40 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, & Digital Still Mode Electronics

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from: Canon USA

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - lots of great features in a tiny, inexpensive package I have had my ZR40 for a week now, and it has exceeded my high expectations. The 18x optical zoom is phenominal. I can read the headlines on a newspaper two blocks away, or a number in a phone book 20 feet away. I was impressed by the camera's ability to perform in low light conditions. In my poorly-lit living room, I exerienced no graininess or loss of quality. I took the camera outside 30 minutes after sunset and was still able to record satisfactory video. Hooking the camera up to my TV for playback was very simple. Recording off my VCR was also very straight forward. The remote control (which wasn't mentioned in Amazon.com's review, BTW) is handy for recording our nephew who gets shy when he knows he's being filmed. I recorded in some quiet settings, but was not able to hear the electric motor turning the tape or adjusting the lense when zooming. If that's a problem, it's easy enough to hook up an external microphone to the ZR40. If you get this camcorder, don't forget to claim Canon's free ShowBiz video editing software (see their web site) with proof of purchase. (I haven't gotten it yet, so I can't rate it now.) Rating: - great price. but low resolution video... I did extensive research on this model (the whole ZR series) and I must say, a lot of things are positive for this little camera. * light weight, * small, * bright outdoor pictures, * PRICE. And some negative points raised by many so far, which of course I have not been able to test as I have not bought this item, is the motor noise being recorded and the night shots being grainy. I will not discuss anything about it as they have been beaten to death by now. What I want to talk about is the smaller CCD resolution on the ZR series camcorders. As we know, the US spec ZR series have the 460K pixels, out of which only 290K pixels are used for video (effective pixels). We need about 420K effective pixels to get a 500 line video resolution on the TV. Most of us know that, the VHS format (video tapes) allow upto 240lines of horizontal resolution. The S-VHS tapes allow upto 400 lines and the Digital Video format goes to 525 lines (really crisp and sharp pictures) on the TV/visual media. So now, with mere 290K effective pixels of video resolution being recorded on the ZR40/45/50, the best lines of resolution would be around 300. Now, not everything is bad. If you intend to transfer your videos into VHS tapes for storage and future viewing, you will not have any complaints as VHS tapes store at 240 lines of resolution. But someone like me, who wants to store the video digitally, by burning them into DVDs or storing them in DV tapes, I would like to get the best resolution that I can, right? In simple words, I want 500 lines of resolution for my video, full stop! Even though ZR40 is a DV camera, its resolution is very poor for real digital quality video. By the way, the resolution has got everything to do with what we call SHARP, crisp and colorful pictures. It is the same difference you see between the movies played from the VHS tape and movies played from the DVD. Oh by the way, if your TV doesn't have a 500 line horizontal resolution capability, you are not getting the money's worth by renting DVDs. The TV I bought about 4 yrs ago, a proscan 32 inch, has 700 lines of horizontal resolution. So I can assume most TVs in our houses have capable enough TVs. Going slightly off topic, do you know why the picture quality of HDTVs are so sharp? Bcoz their resolutions are almost double than the 500 lines I am talking about. Rating: - Neat package but very grainy indoor quality Things I like... - price - size Thing I didn't like and made me return - performance under regular indoor house lighting very grainy and considerably worse than my 8mm analog. Doing further research it appears this is likely not unique to Canon but common to DV camcorders. I am going to stick with my 8mm for a couple of years until DV tech improves since much of my use is indoors filming kids, etc.

Canon ZR40 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, & Digital Still Mode Electronics

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