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Anyone who has used any type of camcorder will be instantly familiar with the ZR20's controls. All the normal recording tools are accessible with your right hand. Zoom, mode, and snapshot controls are placed within easy reach on the right side, and playback and special effects options are arrayed on the left side with the LCD monitor. Fade and digital effects are hidden in the LCD compartment, and a small jog dial on the camera's lower left side controls volume, menu selection, and manual focus. The LCD screen is 2.5 inches and provides a crisp picture, but a color viewfinder is also provided, which can be used to conserve battery power and provide a more compact package for recording in tight or crowded locations.
The ZR20's Easy Recording mode makes taping on the fly an easy undertaking, as it automatically optimizes recording settings for the best picture quality. Video quality is sharp with excellent color reproduction. However, dark scenes with low contrasts have a slightly grainy texture. For extra control, the focus, white balance, and exposure can be manually set. As for audio, the high tones are slightly tinny, but sound playback is surprisingly accurate from the small single speaker. The only complaint I have is about the snapshot feature. While the button is easy to reach, it records a still shot with an arbitrary length of six seconds. This is useful if you download single frames to your computer, but it would've been nice to have had the option to set the length of the still.
Several special effects are available, including art, monochrome, sepia, and mosaic modes, plus three fade/wipe settings. For even more options, the IEEE-1394 connection lets you simply transfer the video onto your home computer to let you edit your footage and add any effects that you want, provided you have the correct equipment. RCA and S-video input/outputs are provided for quick and easy transfers to VHS. Interestingly, the S-video and RCA outputs are in separate locations on the camera. This probably allows for more efficient use of available space on the ZR20, but it's somewhat awkward to have wires sprouting from multiple locations when you're ready for video transfer.
A fun little accessory with the ZR20 is its remote control. Aside from the obvious convenience of remote playback of your videos on your TV, remote recording is a fun way to make personal video journals, star in your own movies, or clandestinely record documentaries of your housemate's disturbing personal habits.
All in all, this Canon piece offers excellent recording quality in a convenient little package. With such an agreeable price, plus compact dimensions and a low weight, the ZR20 is perfect for family vacations. Add in the decent battery life and clear LCD screen playback, and you have a real winner. --Matt Deffer
Pros:
Cons:
To help ensure that you get the quality footage you want, Canon has included a number of preset shooting modes. These modes will automatically adjust the settings of your camcorder for a variety of shooting situations. There is also an additional set of special effects available during both recording and playback that will help add a little flavor to your movies. These effects include black-and-white, sepia, and mosaic, among others.
Also, using the ZR20's digital photo mode, you can take over 700 still photos with an 80-minute MiniDV tape. With the IEEE 1394 port you can connect the ZR20 to a DV-ready personal computer to edit video or e-mail photos. Included in the package are an A/V cable, power adapter, shoulder strap, and battery pack.
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Low light capability is not as good as some others, but the camcorder works well in light ample to read by. By comparison with my Nikon FM (50mm F1.8), the Canon ZR-20 will do a good job
down to what would be about 1/60 of a second on ISO 100. It will do a fairly decent job a couple of stops lower, but gets "grainy" at low light levels. Daylight however is excellent. I also found the still feature works well in daylight, but gets rather "grainy" in low light (like an old "GIF" at about 320x240). I'd guess in good light that stills work out to be about VGA level (640x480), which serves.
This is not a digital camera, and if your major interest is in that direction, you'd be better off buying a regular digital camera. On the other hand the stills I've taken in daylight looked pretty good on a TV, and the recordings create images that are the equal of anything you can get off the air or from your local cable provider. This is using the video in and audio in jacks on a regular TV, as none of mine have the S-video feature. Which no doubt would be even better yet.
Tape loading seems a bit slow, but I guess this is the way it is. Works OK, but my old VHS camcorder is a lot easier to load.
Digital is definitely the way to go, and Canon optics seem to be
pretty good. Lens is a F1.8-2.9 zoom with a range of 4mm to 40mm. I'd guess this works out to about 40mm to 400mm on a 35. The digital zoom can be set at two settings, one giving 40x and the other 200x. The 40x setting is very marginal, and the 200x is nothing but a waste of time. On the other hand the optical zoom is good, and you can shut off the digital zoom if you wish.
If you're looking for a good small camcorder, this might be the one for you. It is small, but seems to be fairly well thought out except that the mike probably should have been mounted somewhere further away from the tape transport area...
Zoom And Image Stabilizer
The camcorder has 10x optical zoom and 200x digital zoom. The image is not shaky at high magnification levels, since the camera is equipped with a digital stabilizer.
Picture
The camcorder records video and still pictures. The still pictures can be recorded on a MiniDV tape and one tape can hold around 700 still pictures. The picture quality (the CCD has 460,000 pixels) in the video mode is very good with low noise level.
Sound
The camcorder has a stereo microphone and a built-in speaker. The microphone input allows you connect an external microphone. You can select between 12- and 16-bit recording.
Features
The camcorder comes with a Li-Ion battery, A/V cable, S-Video cable, power adapter, battery, remote and a shoulder strap. There are several AE modes, including fully automatic "Easy Recording".
But in addition to automatic settings (focus, white balance, etc.), you can manually adjust focus, white balance, shutter speed, exposure (AE Shift). The camcorder allows you apply faders and digital effects and has widescreen mode.
It also features FireWire (i.Link, IEEE1394) jack, so you can connect it to another digital camcorder, MiniDV VCR or a computer for editing or making a copy. The remote control allows you search for still pictures on the tape using Data Code recorded during the shooting.
The camcorder features both composite and an S-Video inputs/outs and LANC editing terminal. The timer allows to perform recordings at predefined time. There is a Low Light recording capability (low shutter speed and high exposure time).
Remote
Unlike entry-level digital camcorders from Panasonic, the wireless remote control is included here.
Bottom Line
The ZR20 is a nice camcorder with good feature set. But the menu system is unnecessary complicated and the Canon camcorders are not among the most reliable (unlike Panasonic ones).
I researched around and finally went with the ZR20 for the following reasons: Price, Compactness, and base features. The ZR20 has a great price after rebate if you shop around. It is very small (palm size for my hand), although it's not as small as the Elura. The size is very important to me up to a point. It has to be small enough so that I will end up using it instead of debating if it's too big to lug along because I wanted a camera for everyday videos-around the house and on trips. Between the ZR and other cameras in this base range, the ZR definitely wins. Other important features I wanted were analog video IN and hot shoe. The ZR has S-Video as well as composite video IN which means I can easily transfer my video from my 8mm and VHS tapes. It also has a hot shoe (which the smaller camera seems to lack) for a video light if needed. The closest competitor for me on the ZR decision was the Panasonic PV51, but it was just too big and did not have the analog video IN like the ZR.
After I received the camera, I started to tape within 5 minutes. It was very easy to use and the firewire connection worked right off the bat. I was able to capture the videos to Premiere quite easily. Premiere even had the ZR10 controls build in-the ZR20 and ZR10 is virtually identical for this purpose. So far the camera is exactly what I had expected. There are a few issues that are worth mentioning. The tape transport mechanism (loading and removing tapes) seems to be very fragile. Loading an older DV tape that I had required a slight nudge to get the transport to load. This has happened twice in the beginning, but has not happened again. Canon specifically says in the manual to remove the tape when you are not using the camera. I am not sure if this is true for all DVs, but seems cumbersome. I left the tape in the camera for a couple of days and the next time I turned it on to shoot again, it gave me a HEAD CLEANING warning. I took the tape out and turn the camera off and back on, put the tape back in and started to shoot. The message did not appear again. I shot quite a bit of indoor footage in dim and average light. It was OK for what I expected-note, I shot in the automatic mode, not the programmed indoor mode. I don't really have any thing to compare with either. Assuming the tape transport is not going to be a continuous issue, I am very happy with the camera at this time. As for recommendations, I would recommend if you are looking for a base DV to play with. Look over the features and go to the local store to "handle" the models you are interested in. No matter what "great" features any camera has, if it's not comfortable to use, you will end up not using it. Since I have not had the camera long enough, I have no idea of it's quality, so can not recommend based on that.
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