Good camera for Beginners
Written: Jul 27 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
| Movie Quality: |
|
|
|
Pros: outdoor quality excellent,analog digital conversion, Mac easy plug play capture, good point and shoot
Cons: lowlight grainy choppy, night super night modes choppy,
The Bottom Line: great for family and beginners, easy point and shoot,
analog to digital conversion a plus.
you get what you pay for.
|
|
|
| emonzon's Full Review: Canon ZR70MC Mini DV Camcorder |
I just purchased the Canon ZR70 and got a decent deal on the home shopping channel. In no ways am I an expert when it comes to digital camcorders but know enough to point out some things to those who are considering buying this camcorder.
For point and shoot type of shooting this camera fits the bill. It's pretty easy to use right out of the box.
As mentioned in other reviews the quality of shots outdoors and within well lit rooms are amazing. Playback on T.V is great, the quality and colours are rather accurate.
Lowlight situations on "AUTO" are somewhat grainy but not terrible. I shot in my apartment on a cloudy day and the grainy look isn't all that bad. with the help of some indoor lights the quality improved greatly. the manual does recommend a flux of 100.
Now the modes "lowlight" "night" and "super night"
All these modes will be rather choppy, the images seem almost ghostly, as you move the objects leave a slight trail. The quality isn't as smooth as other modes because of the shutter speed. This is where I'm a little dissapointed. In lowlight the grain is less noticeable but as i said the choppiness is quite evident. You are probably better off using the AUTO mode and adjust the lighting around you.
As for taking photos, the quality is decent for regular 4x6 shots but don't expect sharp quality photos. For email or web shots this camera is o.k
The zoom is awesome but the stability is hard to manage once you go over the 22x optical zoom, unless you are using a tripod, the quality decreases slightly as you use more of the digital zoom.
Another plus is the abilty to convert old vhs tapes(analog) to digital. Capturing the footage on a Mac is easy, just plug and play, imovie recognizes it easily however for editing imovie isn't the best program. I've got Adobe premiere and am in the process of ordering Final Cut Express2 which would work well together. I'm not sure if it is as simple on a PC.
As for the motor noise, to be honest with you it's not really noticable. I shot some footage in a park that had very little background noise and in playback on t.v you could hear the motor if you increased the volume almost to the maximum. However on playback on the camcorder itself or during recording you can hear the motor, but it's not as loud as people say.
All in all I'm happy with the purchase as this camcorder was meant to shoot home videos of our trips, events and other occasions. It is well worth the price if you are looking for something simple and easy to use. If you are looking for best quality in all modes like low light and night and if these are important to you I wouldn't recommend this camcorder.
For the price it is a decent buy with some short comings.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600CAD
Recommended for: Budget Buyers - Best Values to Fit the Budget
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
emonzon
|
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.