Improving on an original can be a daunting task. Canon has succeeded quite well, thank you. The ZR45MC is the successor to the ZR25MC. Canon increased the optical zoom to 18x--the digital now sits at 360x--and added an analog pass-through port. Although the ZR line featured analog-in for dubbing your movies to MiniDV, the new pass-through port allows you to go straight to the computer, eliminating a possibly cumbersome step.
The ZR45MC also has a lot of the same features that made the original a lot of fun. A 2.5-inch LCD is swivel-mounted, permitting the shooter to use the camera at odd angles. Various digital effects and autoexposure modes help ensure your footage turns out well. The digital still mode makes a return, letting you capture 640 x 480 stills onto an included 8 MB MMC.
Finally, Canon threw in a low-light color-shooting mode that makes the ZR45MC that much more attractive.
1 I liked it at first
It was a pretty good camera until it stopped working. One day I turned it on and it started beeping and flasshing an eject tape message. But you couldn't eject the tape and the camera would not respond to anything. I had the camera just over two years when this happened. Luckily I purchased an extended warranty at Best Buy. Best Buy sent the camera to Canon for repair. Canon would not repair it because it would be too expensive so, Best Buy gave me a new camera. And I was allowed to get a different brand, so I went with a Sony Handycam.
2 Remove the cassetter problem...again
As with others, this was a great camera until the remove cassette problem appeared 8 months ago. Now it barely plays or records. I'm never buying another Canon and going back to Sony. BTW, the buzzing is the automatic microphone gain. If there's not enough sound to record it cranks up the input volume so much that you hear the tape motor.
3 Horrible...
I used this camera for a year untill during a period of a couple weeks of not being turned on, something to do with the light sensor malfunctioned. I think all Canon ZR series cameras are inclined to having buggy hardware and I dont remcomend buying one.
4 Another nightmare about the remove cassette message
I have had this camera for 18 months and about 2 months ago, it started beeping at me to eject the tape almost every time I used it. I went on-line and found that this is common with this camera for some reason. I was able to prevent major problems by removing the tape after each use, but that no longer works. Now I cannot record or watch any tape without it forcing me to remove the cassette. I was very fond of this camera until it stopped working. I am very disappointed that I will now have to buy a new camcorder (a local repairman estimated over $200 to fix it). I have a friend who has the exact same camera and he has yet to have a problem, but it isn't worth the risk.
5 Software Needed!
This is one great camcorder! I know because I have one, but have lost the software when traveling. Would anyone know how I can get the software? Called Canon, it's discontinued. Searched the Web, nothing! Help!
6 All was well until the "safety mechanism" went berserk.
This is not a high-end camera, but was good enough for me. I have recorded 12 tapes on it. Beginning with tapes 11 and 12 a problem has developed with rewinding the cartridge. After about 1 minute (recording time) worth of rewinding, it stops and displays "Remove Cartridge" on the screen. I take out the tape, put it back and get another minute rewound before it happens again. These have all been brand new tapes. A visit to Canon's website only reveals that I have to take it to be serviced. Another review here says their estimate to fix the camera was $160. I hope that is wrong :(
7 Nice camera, when it works
I love the features and optics of this camera. I love everything about it, except that it really doesn't work and their service is terrible. Many people posted about the humming sound -- I didn't have that problem. But the electrical system was intermittent from the time I got the camera. I've sent it to them three times, and each time they repair it, or claim to. Now it is out of warranty and the battery still doesn't work. So I'll have to buy a new camera and hope that you don't make the same mistake I did -- go with a different camera.
8 BEWARE of ZR45MC Tape loading mechanism!!!!
I bought the ZR45MC camcorder in Sept '02. I have been using it quite regularly. then all of a sudden I cannot load new or old mini DV cassettes. The moment I load a cassette, a message flashes on the screen 'REMOVE TAPE' and beeping sound is generated together with a flashing 'EJECT' message. Next step, I ship this to the Canon Factory service in NJ. They replied with an estimate of $160(on top of the $654 I pad for this!!).
Also most importantly when I shipped from the Fedex office in Boston, the Fedex person made a remark that she has been seeing quite a number of the Canon camcorders going to NJ for repairs.
To sum, I think this is a racket Canon has devised to rip off customers.
So beware when you buy a Canon camcorder, ask the retailer about the tape loading mechanism, and if they have any maintenance plans that will repair it.
9 No humming sound!
I purchased this camcorder last week through ebay and got a super deal on it. ($225) Before I bought this camera, I read reviews from others here that said there was a loud humming sound. I have been using this camera for a week now, already recording 3 mini DV tapes and have noticed NO humming sound. Maybe it works differently for others' cameras, but mine is fine. I do have wind reduction turned on, maybe this is making the microphone not pick up the sound.
This camera is so small also! It is the size of my hand, and it weighs so little that one could carry it and not be bothered by it. The optical zoom is also very great -- 18x! That is much more than I could find on other camcorders that were priced similarly. Also, the controls for this camcorder are very easy to understand, and very well organized. The menu scroll, (what one uses most for pulling up menus and selecting) is located in convenient reach of the thumb for easy access. There are also cables to easily connect the camera directly to the TV.
I think this camera is a great purchase, and I wouldn't hesitate buying another if I needed to.
10 Great Camera
This is a very easy to use camera with excellent video. Read the reviews and did not hear any humming noise when operating and the low light pictures were very good. The still pictures are good for the internet but are not good enough quality to use as a regular camera.
11 Nice little camcorder
I have read a lot of reviews and concluded that I'll give this camcroder a try. I was not really afraid of the motor whining but on the low-light performance much really. Anyway after I bought I did a couple of trial shootage in various lighting conditions and I was satisfied. After it got dark i did a trial under low-light in-house and it was satisfying to me. Because the shutter speed slows you do not have the luxury of moving the camcorder fast but this is a fact of optics not a camcorder flaw or anything. Motor whining is a problem but not a big deal really. If it is buy a mic. With the size of the cam, price i don't think this would be major problem. This is my humble opinion.
12 Buzzing renders it useless
It's light, it's convenient, it's easy to use. But what does it matter? In the end, the unit produces so much buzzing that it renders itself useless. It's just too annoying, and I would not ever want to watch the footage. I've been working with this for a year, sending it back and forth to Canon, and they tell me there is some "allowable buzzing." They actually replaced mine, hoping it would appease me, but the second unit was exactly the same.
I've now missed filming the first 19 months of my daughter's life because of this. Canon doesn't seem to care much. Time to sell it on ....
13 great camcorder
I am a first-time camcorder buyer, so I've been researching these for the past couple months. I had my choices narrowed down to the Canon ZR45 and the Sony TRV18. The Canon was smaller, lighter, cheaper, and fit better in my hand than the Sony. Canon wins, right? Well, the one thing that bothered me was reading the reviews about the 'motor whine' during playback. I knew this is one thing that would really bother me. Well, since we are taking a trip to Mexico in a few weeks I had to make my choice. I went ahead and took my chances with the Canon. I went to [...] to select a highly rated(and cheap) online seller. I ended up buying from [...]and had the camcorder within a week. After a few weeks of use, I am extremly happy with my decision. It is very easy to use, and best of all, the motor whine is a non-issue. Yeah, it's there when watching recordings in quiet settings, but I don't really notice it. As a test, I never mentioned the noise to my wife prior to buying the camcorder. I wanted to see if she would notice it not having not previously known about it. Well, she's probably used it more than I have over the past couple weeks and hasn't mentioned a word about the motor noise. Maybe some units are worse than others, but I'm not sure I would even have noticed it either if I wouldn't have read the reviews talking about it. I'm definitely glad I made the purchase. One recommendation - buy an extra battery. The one that comes with the camcorder only lasts about 45 minutes using the LCD. I bought a Lenmar LIC-511 that gives you about 2 hours.
14 Awesome camcorder!!!
I have been in the photography business for 9 years and i must say this is the best digital camcorder (thats small) ever.
I suggest anyone who wants it should get one.
15 Love it!
Was torn between this and the Sony - went for the Canon because it's more Mac friendly and a little less expensive. The "buzz" noise is only heard when replaying video in the camcorder. I've downloaded it and don't hear it from my computer. I've also copied video back to the tape and played back on the camcorder and the noise is not there. Haven't used all the features yet, but for our needs it's great and so small! I'd definitely recommend it!
16 great for price, bad digital video quality
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.
17 Great Video, Bad Photo's...
Canon did it's homework with this camera. There are endless perks to spicing up your video recordings. Everything is very easily accessible. The buttons are no problem for my fat fingers. Any buyer would be very impressed with this setup and completely satisfied with the video quality.
However if you are buying the ZR45MC for the option of digital picture taking, forget it. The photo quality is very low even on the "fine" setting. I couldn't believe how granulated a 4 X 6 inch photo gets. I'm still stuck with carrying both a video and photo camera.
18 Great rounded product
We decided on the zr45 because of the value period. We purchased the Sony DVR18 and were not impressed by the color the first couple of times we played back the taped movie. We even tried a different tape in the Sony to no avail. We took the Sony back to the store and even the salesman was surprised that the Sony's performance was subpar. After looking around the store my wife really like the smaller size and ergonomics of the Cannon. It is also much easier to operate in my opinion. The Sony is feature laden, but sometimes that just make the operation that more difficult. The honest salesman said that we would never use some of the options on the Sony that we were paying extra for. We chose the Cannon and have not been happier. Not to mention the $$$ cheaper price.
19 Don't be scared...
So many of the reviews I've read about this camera complained about motor noise. After purchasing this camera and using it in mulitiple settings, I haven't had a bad experience. While there is indeed a small level of motor noise, I found that using the Wind Screen shooting mode reduced what little noise there was to nearly 0 detectable db. If you're an amateur home movie maker, the features and ease of use make this camera well worth the money.
20 Update to my previous review regarding motor noise.
The high pitched motor noise is present in recordings, not only in very quiet situations (as my prvious review indicated, based on CanonDV site), but is also present when the camera is placed in front of speakers playing music.
The above info is based on my playing two sample sound clips posted in a review at dvspot website by Jeff Keller.
The persistant motor whine was VERY irritating and definately unacceptable.
Since I love everything else about the ZR45/ZR50, I am now debating whether to buy it with the Canon DM-50 external mic for my upcoming vacation, or to wait until Spring/Summer 2003 and see if Canon fixes this problem in an upgraded model.
Decisions, decisions, decisions!
21 I really wanted to like this camcorder, but: HUMMMMMMMM!
Let me preface this review by saying that I really, really wanted to like this camcorder. I did a lot of research before buying this camcorder, including reading a lot of on-line reviews. Many reviews mentioned that the motor noise was picked up by the microphone and was audible on recordings. Some reviewers said it wasn't noticable. Well, against my better judgment I purchased this camcorder. Within the first 10 seconds of recording I could tell the motor noise was going to be a problem. Sure enough - it was quite annoying for me. I don't want to discount the other reviewers who said they didn't have a problem with the motor noise, but for me it was untolerable. I'm thinking that maybe some of the Canons might be louder than others, but the one I had was LOUD! I went out and payed the extra money for a Sony DCR-TRV18 (there is/was a ... rebate going so it wasn't too much more than the Canon) and it is MUCH quieter. It also seems a little better built, too. For me it was totally worth the extra money.
Here's the skinny on the Canon ZR45MC:
Pros:
* Relatively inexpensive.
* Fantastic optics and optical zoom.
Cons:
* Motor noise - it's audible while recording and on the recording.
22 A high quality job in a digital format- does the job well!
I got this camcorder for a few reasons. First, Consumer Reports loved it in their 2002 buying guide, and second, the size and capabilities.
The zoom lens on this is incredible, but obviously shouldn't be moved too quickly if you are zoomed in on something. I took it to an airshow and was able to zoom in on things other people were missing, and the digital recording allowed us to clearly pick out details when we paused a recording that were surprisingly sharp. The camera is easy to use, and having the LCD screen and onboard speaker is heplful when playing back.
The still camera will do the job, but it isn't as sharp as a normal digital camera, although the memory card in this camcorder is separate (the newer, smaller type) from the tapes used to record the movies. Also, the lower resolution still images can be stored in greater numbers, though, with an estimated 300 pictures possible on my 36 MB card.
The included software, USB cables, and cables to attach the camera to the VCR/TV are all easy to use, and I have had no problems. Those folks who have seen my videos thus far have been very impressed, and I have been very happy.
23 Motor noise while recording caused by automatic audio gain.
.
1) Solution from Canon's online tech supt website: CanonDv
Q. In quiet situations, I can hear the noise of the motor being recorded. What can I do about this?
A. Automatic audio gain will set the volume to capture any available noise. In a very quiet setting, this may be the sound of the camcorder motor. To correct for this, provide some 'white' background noise, such as a radio or television.
2) Solution from another user:
Open the mic housing and stuff sound dampening material b/w the mic and the motor. This user said that it works great.
3) Solution from yet another user:
Buy a generic external mic, or Canon's DM-50 Microphone. This completely eliminates the motor noice and improves audio recording, but adds size to the camcorder.
Hope this helps.
24 No Complaints here
All these complaints about hum . We have recorded hours of video and have yet to hear any noise that wasn't on our old sony camcorder. The video quality is super crisp, sound is great and still photo is great providing that you don't increase the size of your pictures. But we use a olympus 460 for stills so we don't use the still shot mode. Overall this camera is a great choice for digital vdeo and will be with us for some time to come. Don't think twice about getting one, you won't be sorry.
25 I'm pretty happy with it.
I agree with most of the reviews. I bought the big battery, and found that it lasts long enough for a weekend trip without recharging. Operation is simple, and fairly self explanatory. Downloading stills (via USB) and video (via IEEE) is a snap. Bundled software is adequate. This is a great product all around, and I have only a few minor gripes.
1. The one thing that people have not mentioned so far is the "color night mode" feature is a little misleading. This is NOT the infrared NiteShot found on the Sony products which uses a built-in infrared headlight to take video in total darkness. The disadvantage to this is that the captured video is an eerie green, and you need to be fairly close to the subject. The Canon feature, on the other hand, is simply a very low shutter speed. This allows you to capture video in color, but it is rather grainy and your subject (and your hand) needs to be very still to prevent blurring. It also requires some ambient light. Again, this is not a big deal.
2. The hum everyone talks about. It is a little noticeable during long silences. The internal mic picks up on vibrations from the motor. Just about every recording device with a built-in mic has this problem. Use a wireless external mic if you are a fanatic.
3. Still image quality is pretty poor, but I don't use it very often.
4. FYI, Photo mode (records 5 seconds of still image to video tape) is handy, but it continues to record audio!
26 GREAT CAMERA FOR ANYONE!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
I love this camcorder. First of all, I am going to start this review by telling you about the biggest concern I had when I bought this camera. Many people say that there was a lot of motor hum, this may be the case when the room is TOTALLY silent, however an external mic fixes this. ALL MINIDV CAMERAS HAVE THIS PROBLEM!! People complain that the mic adds extra size, but if you want to spend the same amount of money on a digital 8, with less resolution, much bigger, and heavier, than get a Mic for your MiniDV, then you have some problems. However since I usually overlap music onto my videos, its not such a big probelm for me. The size is great (any bigger and it wouldn't be comfortable, and any smaller it would be difficult to hold). I had [another] Camera and then returned for only one reason, it was heavy and big (it cut off circulation in my hand when I was filming, and would have to take it out every 5 minutes or it would become numb). The picture quality is pretty much the same as all other minidv's which are better than digital 8's but not enough to make a big difference. Pretty much, this is a good camera at a great price. If you want a MiniDV, go with this no doubt, however if you have hi 8 or 8mm tapes you should probably go with a digital 8. They are pretty good for the price, but big and bulky.
27 GREAT CAMERA FOR ANYONE!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
I love this camcorder. First of all, I am going to start this review by telling you about the biggest concern I had when I bought this camera. Many people say that there was a lot of motor hum, this may be the case when the room is TOTALLY silent, however an external mic fixes this. ALL MINIDV CAMERAS HAVE THIS PROBLEM!! People complain that the mic adds extra size, but if you want to spend the same amount of money on a digital 8, with less resolution, much bigger, and heavier, than get a Mic for your MiniDV, then you have some problems. However since I usually overlap music onto my videos, its not such a big probelm for me. The size is great (any bigger and it wouldn't be comfortable, and any smaller it would be difficult to hold). I had the Sony TRV-340 Digital 8 Camera and then returned for only one reason, it was heavy and big (it cut off circulation in my hand when I was filming, and would have to take it out every 5 minutes or it would become numb). The picture quality is pretty much the same as all other minidv's which are better than digital 8's but not enough to make a big difference. Pretty much, this is a good camera at a great price. If you want a MiniDV, go with this no doubt, however if you have hi 8 or 8mm tapes you should probably go with a digital 8. They are pretty good for the price, but big and bulky.
28 GREAT CAMERA FOR ANYONE!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
I love this camcorder. First of all, I am going to start this review by telling you about the biggest concern I had when I bought this camera. Many people say that there was a lot of motor hum, this may be the case when the room is TOTALLY silent, however an external mic fixes this. ALL MINIDV CAMERAS HAVE THIS PROBLEM!! People complain that the mic adds extra size, but if you want to spend the same amount of money on a digital 8, with less resolution, much bigger, and heavier, than get a Mic for your MiniDV, then you have some problems. However since I usually overlap music onto my videos, its not such a big probelm for me. The size is great (any bigger and it wouldn't be comfortable, and any smaller it would be difficult to hold). I had the Sony TRV-340 Digital 8 Camera and then returned for only one reason, it was heavy and big (it cut off circulation in my hand when I was filming, and would have to take it out every 5 minutes or it would become numb). The picture quality is pretty much the same as all other minidv's which are better than digital 8's but not enough to make a big difference. Pretty much, this is a good camera at a great price. If you want a MiniDV, go with this no doubt, however if you have hi 8 or 8mm tapes you should probably go with a digital 8. They are pretty good for the price, but big and bulky.
29 The Owners Manual in the box is basically for the ZR50MC!!
I bought this camera after looking at some other brands and this model looked JUST RIGHT for me... The manual states that the ZR45MC requires a 4 to 6 PIN FIREWIRE to hook up to a computer (I have a brand new iBook 14" screen/700/G3..top of the line of the iBook series) Don't you believe it! I couldn't find a 4 to 6 PIN cable anywhere, so I had to order it online via APPLE. I went to put in the cable and presto chango...it won't fit! If you look closely at the SMALL PRINT on the cover of the OWNERS MANUAL you'll see the disclaimer. The owners manual is basically for the ZR50MC. So far I have not even been able to use my camera... For the amount of money we have to pay for this camera, you'd think the company could provide correct information about the product. The information on Canon's technical site... states the same thing as the bogus owners manual. I have 7 days left to return this camera if not satisfied. How do I know if it even works with my computer?... By the way, there are only two FIREWIRE options mentioned at the technical site...4 to 4 PIN, or 4 to 6 PIN.
30 very good..& easy to use
This is my first digital camcorder. As a first timer its very easy to use which I liked most. without the tape i hooked to my Sony VIAO PC and within 10 minutes I made a small movie. the setup is so easy. to transfer the video I used IEEE port which comes in Sony VIAO and the Movie Shaker software.the quality is awesome but the quality of the digital still pictures are not excellent, but its ok. for starters and home movie makers its more than enough in a single camcorder
31 The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good: Compact, easy to carry, lots of good features (too many to list; read the specifications), excellent playback picture, works great with my iMac, excellent sound reproduction, and straightforward instructions.
The bad (kind of): Yes, in an absolutely silent environment you can hear the motor running, but in our first two hours of taping there was only one time, and that was only for less than a minute, where you could hear the motor running. So, I wouldn't call that bad because there is usually enough ambient noise to cancel it out. The wide angle isn't very wide angle, but you do get a lot of great non-digital zoom. The digital zoom gets pixelated pretty quickly but would you expect otherwise? You can only access some of the features with the viewing screen open and in bright outside light the picture is washed out and you can't really see the menus very easily. The fade in and out features were fun but somewhat cumbersome to use.
The ugly: Do not buy this camera if you intend on using it to take still pictures to the MMC. There are two problems. Check out the specifications and you will see that the CCD chip has only about 250,000 or so effective pixels. But, the real killer is the 8-bit color. There are two resolution modes, fine and normal. The instruction manual says the fine mode can be used for taking pictures for printing out and the normal for sending over the Internet. In the fine mode, a perfectly blue sky comes out mottled shades of blue, pink, and purple. For other, less uniform colors, the effect is worse. With the low number of pixels and 8-bit color, this feature is pretty much useless if you are used to using a good film SLR camera or a high pixel digital camera.
Overall: I gave it four stars because it's a really good minicam with great Canon optics, many useful features, and ease of use, but I was really disappointed with the still picture feature. I can't believe Canon would even include such a poor quality feature. If you want both good digital video and pictures, you probably need to look at different brands with megapixel CCDs, which are available for a comparable price.
32 Bang for your buck
We are very pleased with this camera and have not had any of the problems with camera noise being recorded on the tape that other people have mentioned in their reviews here. I haven't noticed any particularly loud sounds from the camera at all. It takes excellent pictures and movies. Obviously, the better the lighting where you are shooting, the better the picture quality but this is just common sense. I have compared the picture quality to other brands owned by family and friends and find it comparable, if not better than some. Highly recommend the camera.
33 Not good enough
This camcorder is good enough for me except for one thing: if you are going to need a light or external microphone you should get the ZR50MC because of its advanced accessory shoe. The lights and microphones that I can find are designed for the advanced accessory shoe. The built-in microphone is too sensitive to use in many cases because it even picks up the sound when I tap the handle of my tripod lightly.
34 Nice but....
After an extensive market review, I decided to buy this one. Recording quality is excellent when you have appropriate light conditions, and it works ok with poor light. Excellent zoom, and very good stabilization features. The digital still camera feature takes average pictures (640*480), good enough if you are just sending them to friends/family and the software included is quite easy to use. In order to download your movies, you must have a firewire connection in your PC. Consider to buy an extra battery.
The major problem I found is the fact that the microphone records the camera noises, making your movies have an annoying background sound. This is really unacceptable if you want to have good quality audio. If you are concerned about the sound, I would suggest you either to try another camcorder or wait until Canon fix this model or release a new one. Or, if you have the expertise (I don't have it) edit the film with your PC.
35 Easy to use!
-Excellent little camcorder.
-Very impressed with its features.
-Easy to transfer your movies
to a computer.
I do not regret spending my money
on it.
36 Do not buy this camera
Its a very nice camera don't get me wrong. However due to its compact design, the speaker is too close to the tape motor. During quiet and not so quiet areas, you will hear a high pitched humm coming from your camera as well as on what you record. Canon confirmed this as a design flaw. The ZR45, 40 and 50 all do this. I was really disappointed, I returned mine.. I wish there was a way to fix it.
37 Very annoying humming sound - be sure it doesn't bother you
Basically a nice unit. Loaded with all the features you could ever want: plenty of optical zoom, digital stabilizer, very compact size, reasonable warranty, and good looks too.
BUT...this camera has a VERY annoying buzzing/humming sound to it. I called Canon and they said it's "normal for that unit." Excuse me?
Maybe for some people, the buzz is not annoying. But compared to my cheap, old 8mm, this is much, much noisier. I would recommend you try it before you buy it. Don't get wooed by the display models.
38 Great DV Camcorder and can use for capture too.
This is a good DV cam and also can be used as a video capture card. I don't need a video capture card for my computer anymore (a good one cost $200). I use this to convert my old 8mm and VCR tape to NTSC AV and then burn to CD-Rom in VCD format. Good way to archive old 8mm tape. Plan to burn the Star War trilogy next. To convert to Mpeg and burn as VCD, I use the Ulead Video Studio trial version. Waiting for the free Artsoft Showbiz (a rebate when I bought this cam)
39 Wonderful Tool for Normal People
I bought this camera a few months ago and can only say it has met all my expectations. The quality of the video a normal person can shoot with this little gem is unbelievable. The only option I would change if I could do it over would be to purchase a wide angle lens. If you are lucky enough to have Windows XP loaded on your computer then you are all set. Add a Firewire Card to your PC, plug the camera into the card and you are ready. XP recognizes the camera and a few clicks of the mouse later you are cutting and editing like a pro. Other than this I would consider a DVD burner. It makes distributing the finished product easier as I found getting the edited video onto normal tape was a little complex.
40 canon camera
this looks like the product i would love to buy. all the free items that come with it make it a complete system.
41 Very good cam/camera
First off, this is my first digital camcorder/camera. I purchased this camera only 3 days ago and I'm already having too much fun with downloading pictures to and from the cam. It's capable of doing all this (and pretty easy I may add) to do all this even if you're a first timer. It comes with a CD with the necessary software and also a manual on how to install the software and how to use it for downloading/uploading pix. Very easy and informative. The MMC card can take as many as 100 pictures at a time, so it's more than enough for me.
As for the quality of the camcorder for "regular filming", I'm impressed. It has 7 or 8 different settings for different filming situations such as "sports", "portrait", "night mode", and others. Also, the buttons in this camera don't look as intimidating as some of the others I've seen/used. All buttons are nicely placed on the camera and I have no problems with any of them. Plus, this camera is pretty small for this price. The only ones that I've seen that are this small (or smaller) are the ones in the [price range](and above) range. I got this one for [price], and I'm more than happy with it's $ize ;-)
So far, I think I'll be enjoying this camera for a long time. I'm very happy with it and I recommend this for anyone who is just getting into digital cams/camera. It has more than enough features for someone who is just getting into the world of digital camcorders/cameras. The quality of the pictures are not excellent, but I think it's nice enough to even impress some people. I highly recommend this cam/camera.
...
42 Awesome picture quality
Just got the zr45 and am amazed at the quality of the video. My kids just had a talent show in a large auditorium and we had seats in the very back of the room (about 23 rows back). It was dark except for the stage lights, but the zoom worked great. I was worried that it only looked good on the LCD screen, but when we hooked it up to the TV for playback, the quality was sharp.
43 WOW
Wow, was my first word when I opened it up. It is so small. I have not had a chance to explore all its functions yet, but so far it works great and gives high quality video. The picture function is also a great plus. This camcorder is well priced for what it offers
44 amazing for the price
I'm completely happy with every function of this great little gizmo. Performs seamlessly with iMovie. Great image quality, easy to use.
If it came in a left-handed model, I'd give it 6 stars.
