Rating: 
Summary: No humming sound!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: amazing for the price
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Buzzing renders it useless
Review: 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 ....
Rating:
Summary: Buzzing renders it useless
Review: 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 ....
Rating: 
Summary: Do not buy this camera
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome picture quality
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: I really wanted to like this camcorder, but: HUMMMMMMMM!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be scared...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Review: 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.
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