Canon ZR200 Mini DV Camcorder

Pros: Great quality of pictures, cool effects, lightweight, great styling.
Cons: A little background noise in quiet recordings, only 0.7MB on the digital camera side.

I did something I swore I never would do when I purchased this camcorder. I purchased it on a whim. I'm usually like most of you reading this review that researches every possible aspect of some major future purchase before I head out to the cruel ...

Pros: Great product for the price.
Cons: NOT all wires, memory is included. Has a tempermental failsafe.

I love this camera. It has everything I wanted. It is very easy to use and to work. You have an "easy" mode and a "professional" mode. You can take pictures while filming, and you have many options for special effects while filming. The downloading ...

Pros: Great Images, Very Small, Easy to use
Cons: Batteries only last one hour.

I bought this camera to replace an old Panasonic VHS-C camera. After reading many reviews over at www.camcorderinfo.com (a great site BTW), I decided to save a few bucks and get the ZR 200 instead of the 300. The light seemed useless to me and I ...

Pros: compact, easy to use, good price
Cons: small buttons

I purchased this camera for my father after doing a good amount of research on user experience. My father has always wanted a camcorder - since the days of the very heavy and clunky VHS camcorders. I finally decided to get him a miniDV camcorder. My ...

Pros: controls, zoom, size and weight
Cons: viewfinder

I bought this mini dv video camera for our vacation to Mexico, and to replace our old vhs-c that was okay but wanted an easy format to put on dvds. i spent some time at epinions looking at different videocams, and other sites, and decided that a mini dv ...

Pros: Mini DV, light-ish weight, inexpensive. Good outdoor quality.
Cons: Must stay back from subject, low light/indoor can be poor, lacks accessories NIB.

We traded in a Sony TRV9 to get his camera and I'm not displeased with the move but there are things that I miss about the Sony. I've found myself on more than one occasion having to back away from a subject to keep them in the field of view. I'm not ...

Pros: Price, easy to use, good quality of videos and pictures
Cons: No built in light

This camcorder is very new so I had not read many reviews on it before the purchase. I bought this because I was looking to buy my first camcorder and it fit within my price bracket. Lots of Pros: I love the camcorder. I was so pleased with how easy it ...

Pros: easy to use, good quality pictures, lightweight, long battery charge
Cons: background noise

I think this camcorder is very easy to use, takes good pictures and videos, and is a good value for the price. The battery keeps a long charge (a huge plus since my digital camera's batteries are always dying). I don't really have any negetives to say about it except maybe occasionally it picks up background noise and voices aren't as loud as they could be.

Pros: Great for first camcorder. Excellent colors and good sound. Easy to work and light weight.
Cons: Made for a woman's hands. Buttons are close together and difficult for a man.

Small and comfortable. Very light weight. I enjoy the fact that I can carry it in my purse or keep it in the carrier I bought for it. Easy to handle and good zoom. I bought it for my granddaughters graduation and have been impressed since. Great picture and sound.

Pros: Widescreen, fireware, very easy to use, very small size, excellent outdoor video quality.
Cons: Bad indoor video quality.

Daytime video quality is excellent.
The widescreen capability looks as good as a Hollywood movie, at least to my eyes.
Grainy video when indoor.
ZR200 is compact and lightweight and works very well and very easy to use.
Excellent video quality ( outdoor ).
You can store photoes on an SD card and even take acceptable quality movies in mpeg with the SD card.

Pros: Good price, compact & light, easy to use.
Cons: bad focal length for close shots, cap on a string?!

I'm sure that for the average family this camcorder would fill all needs very well. However, for myself, I purchased this camera with the intent of filming my dance partner and I practicing, which requires a wide view as we move around a lot. With a lens focal length of 2.8-56 mm, far too often when we are recording we end up dancing off the edges of the screen, we can really only get a wide enough view when we are in VERY large rooms where we can stick the camera very far away. This just doesnt work. The upside is, if you are a Costco member and buy it there, not only do you get an extra battery (a good one) but you have 6 months to return the camcorder should you find it doesnt work for you. I'll be returning mine tomorrow. I'm going to try the Panasonic PV-GS32.

Oh, and the fact that the lens cap has to be manually taken off and put back on, is ridiculous. Even my ancient 8mm camcorder had an automatic lens cover, it saves people like me from completely ruining the lens.

Pros: Good size. Good features.
Cons: Motor noise from DV tape mechanicals is loud and gets recorded into the video.

I found the level of motor noise on my recordings to be unacceptable. I guess it would be ok in loud environments. The motor noise is very loud during operation, I was hoping the recording would not pick it up but it does. I was only recording in the house, no background noise, just voices.

Pros: Rugged and attractive; 16x9 capability; warranty longer than competition; controls intuitive and comfortable
Cons: Background noise, lens cap on a string

After a lot of comparing in the store, I picked this up for the great warranty (full year on parts AND labor) and slew of features when compared to it's rivals in the same price range. However, I was very disappointed by the audio quality. When filming my kids just talking in a normal quiet room, there is a background whirring motor noise on the tape recording that is much more noticeable than you hear from the camera itself while you are filming. You also can hear the zoom "click" every time it stops & starts. I do not know how it could not be heard by the the other Epinions reviewer re. the ultrasound - maybe it's an intermittent problem with Canon, but I have read about it on other ZR200's as well as most camcorders in this price range. It only seems to go away completely when you get up in the $500 range. If you can live with the noise and don't do much filming in quiet environments, it could be a nice choice.