good Video, worst Camera
Written: Sep 12 '04
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Pros: good video
Cons: EXTREMELY painful d-camera photo manipulation
The Bottom Line: Forget about its camera, and don't get it unless
- noise in quite recording isn't an issue
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| yuwlyuwl's Full Review: Canon Optura 20 Mini DV Camcorder |
It's video is pretty good:
- image quality (from home-use perspective)
- ease of use
I think its low-light performance is not too good - but the "good ones" aren't much better either. (Sony video claims to work well at 0lux; I have a Sony DFS707 camera yet it sucks at low light).
Many complain about its mechanic noise when recording quite. I think it CAN be a problem (not sure how other models/makers' perform here.) if you DO care about it. I haven't used it in really quite place.
It's 1Mb d-camera photo quality is OK.
***HOWEVER***, the way to manipulate its digital pictures are EXTREMELY painful -- I've to say nothing could be worse. Why?
- you must install Canon software to work to photos (and videos) to your PC. the problem is: the software is EXTREMELY troublesome and delicate to install/use
- ease of use of the software couldn't be any worse. To give one example, to view Slide Show, it will try to load all photos on cards once (which takes surprisingly long for mere 32Mb)
-- the worse part is, every time you do something (view, try to download, slide show, ...) with the images, next time you do the same thing, you MUST reload the images
-- to load images to PC, depending on what directory structure you want to use, you may end up copying only a few of the selected images - and there is abs. no warning/error. Worst part: you thought you've loaded all to PC so you delete everything from card now, only to find some didn't get copied to PC!!! Yikes!!!:(
I'll put it this way: this Canon Software is a BIG joke. Anything about it is the worst you'll ever find. It's the worst nightmare of anybody's.
I haven't tried to use Canon software to manipulate video - I image things won't be any different. However, since editing video itself is such a daunting task for me that I probably won't try or need it any time soon, it's no big deal for me (for now, that is.)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 450
Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations
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yuwlyuwl
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