Rating: 
Summary: Great Camcorder!
Review: I just got this camera YESTERDAY, so obviuosly there's a lot I cannot attest to, but I'm writing this primarily because my experience is so different from the review posted above. I spent about 4 hours working with the camera, its programming, its settings, and hooking it up to the TV. I also read part of the manual and utilized its suggestions for optimum performance.The features are outstanding, and it is small, sturdy, and versatile. The 22X optical zoom is TREMENDOUS; much better than the 10X cameras that are out there. As for low light and night taping, the camera is also exceptional, but it takes a little work to figure out how to shoot in these environments (which is what the other reviewer clearly neglected to do). You cannot shoot at night or in low light using the "auto" setting. It doesn't work well in low light, at night, or in cars. Instead, you must manually adjust the shutter speed or switch to situational modes like "night mode" or "driving mode" (while in a car) or "sports mode"), etc. This is VERY easy to do once you read the instructions. With a little bit of experimenting with these settings, you will find that the camera takes great pictures in low light, at night, while moving, etc. As for the "buzz" the reviewer above describes, mine doesn't have that. Sometimes the zoom "clicks" when you release it quickly, but some practice should do away with that. In all, EXCELLENT picture in a variety of lighting, environments or situations, as well as easy connection to TV's and VCR's. The remote is awesome too. I have yet to connect it to my computer. I think, for the money, this is an A+ camera; better than the others that I looked at in the same price range.
Rating: 
Summary: ZR50MC need rework
Review: I just purchased the Canon ZR50MC and just returned the ZR50MC. I'm new to the digital format, but I expected better quality indoors under normal lighting. My purpose is taking family functions like Christmas morning, but the result would be very graining or pixilized. I did normal roomlight recording and was very disappointed with the result. In addition, the motor (scanning head?) whines. This is picked up either through the microphone or directly throught the body and is very noticable on the playback. To be sure it was the camera, I went to our largest video retailer with my tape and used other manufacturers cameras. The lighting in the store was also room light (they use a darkened area to display televisions) I played back the Canon segment followed by the other and the different was very noticable. Maybe other models do better, but I'm changing brands.
Rating:
Summary: Ideal Camcorder for me
Review: I like Sony. But 10x zoom, size and weight steered me away from them. After reading MANY reviews on this site and elsewhere, I wanted to get the ZR40. Then the ZR50 appeared in my Gold Box and I decided to order it. I'm sure glad I did!! I ordered it together with the external mic DM-50. (You have to order some tape with it, too. Why doesn't Canon include a tape?) I also have a Mac PowerBook G4. Here are my findings: 1. The video quality outdoors is just great. When you play back on a TV, it looks like any professional TV program. Crisp, colors are great. 2. Optics are excellent. 22x zoom lets you fill the screen with an orange 15 ft away. Shake is no problem. Digital zoom only marginally beneficial. 3. The stills are nothing special. But even a megapixel (like other brands) is nothing special. (My first digi camera was a Kodak 1.3 Megapixel. Nice but only good enough for very small printouts. I have a 4 Megapixel Olympus for hi-res printouts today.) Quality is OK if you want to send 640x480 web images. 4. Sound: The built-in mics are better than expected. They are sensitive and omnidirectional. There is some hum from the motor. Not a lot. But the real kicker is the DM-50. It's not totally cheap but it's worth it (in my eyes). The mic is very sensitive and audio is CRYSTAL clear. I taped my wife singing about 25 ft away. She is an opera singer, soprano. Her voice in the high range is a challenge to any mic. It's sensitive enough that I could hear her muttering with the organist, her pageturns. And yet her singing did not distort. The quality exceeds my 2 semi-pro mics. People only 10ft off to the side definitely sounded off mic. And even people right behind me were softer on tape than people in front 20ft away. The DM-50 has also 2 stereo settings that are more omnidirectional. I haven't explored them yet. 5. Connection to the Mac is absolutely a breeze. Just plug in the firewire and load iMovie and you have the camera image on the computer monitor. You can record/import the camera image directly to hard drive w/o hitting record on the camera. iMovie also controls the camera to load the edited movie back onto the camera tape. 6. After the first 15min of taping I got a message that the heads would be dirty?? I ignored it and kept going. No problem. Maybe there was some residue on the heads from the factory? (The handbook says to clean the heads every 20 h.) 3 h of taping later, the message still hasn't come back. I'm so glad I got the ZR50. 22x zoom and DM-50 are worth it!
Rating: 
Summary: Overall Quality and Value
Review: I purchased the Canon ZR-50 through an online dealer for an excellent price. I also checked with Canon USA to be sure the dealer was legitimate. I received a lot of free or low-cost extras from the dealer with the camcorder e.g.extended warranty, an extended life battery, 2 tapes, a camera bag and tripod.
The camera works perfectly without any of the motor noise other people have noticed. Its small size is great for travelling. The still pictures in the fine mode are satisfactory to send via the Internet.It is easy to save the still pictures from a recorded video. Printing the pictures on quality paper improves them.
Rating:
Summary: ZR-50MC Report With DM-50 Mike and VL-3 Light
Review: I purchased the ZR50 6 weeks ago. The ZR50 is my fourth Canon Camcorder (the most recent one a Hi8 with optical image stabilization). My goal with the ZR50 was to be able to get into digital editing, especially since I recently upgraded computers to a 1.8GHz P4 with 512M RAM and firewire ports. Here are the results so far- 1) Motor noise pickup- Yes, it is there. It is a somewhat higher-pitched whine that you can hear if your ear is close to the camera while recording. I bought the DM-50 mike and have now used the mike extensively, including taping my daughter's cello recital as well as a MS&HS spring concert which included vocals and a full Vivaldi concerto by a 15 member string ensemble. The DM-50 mike completely takes care of the motor whine. In addition, with the camera set at 16-bit recording, the recorded sound is CD quality. The DM-50 has three settings: boom, 1, and 2 (latter 2 are stereo). The best setting is the "1" setting.
2) General Impression- The video is great. It is the sharpest of all the cameras I've owned so far. The camera is surprisingly small (half the size of the Hi8mm), but fits well in the hand. The outside buttons are very handy. The LCD viewer is easy to read and has true colors. The manual is comprehensive. The remote is multifunctional. The digital image stabilization works very well (as well as the optical stabilization of my older camcorder). The 22x optical zoom is excellent (I turned off the digital zoom). I was able to take good close-ups of the students at the spring concert (using a tripod). The auto focus is very fast and stable, better than previous camcorders. The camera is clearly not perfect, but for the price, it has a lot of highly desirable features.
3) Low Light Performance- This is not a strong point. The shutter speed for both low light and nightlight causes the images to be jerky when panning. I purchased the VL-3 light since it is powered by the camera battery. At 3 watts, it is not so obtrusive/intense as to be a huge problem for people looking at it. The light is very small, so it is easy to carry. The light is most effective within 6 feet or so. Outdoor video of spring flowers taken at night was fine.
4) Batteries- I purchased the BP-535 battery which is quite large (in a relative scale sense). I used it to power the ZR50 during the 1 hr taping of the spring concert (and it powered the mike as well). When I was done, the indicator was showing 2/3 battery power still left.
5) Bonuses- A) The ZR50 uses the same power adapter/charger (CA-560) as the G2 digital camera- less to carry. B) The remote will also work on my other Canon camcorders which can be a problem if you're using both together. However, you can program the ZR50 remote to setting "2" to avoid this issue. Very thoughtful.
6) Still Images- Have not tried- have excellent digital camera for that.
Finally, due to the small size, I can fit both the ZR50 camcorder and G2 digital camera with mike, light, flash unit, extra batteries, cables, etc. in a fairly small case. This is good.
Rating:
Summary: Very usable camera, I love it despite the motor hum
Review: I read about the motor hum being recorded on Amazon and other review sites. I didn't want that... so I could afford one of the Sony camera like the new Micro-MV. Thing is, try as I might, I couldn't make myself like the Sony cameras. I study usability and some industrial design and I still wonder what the Sony engineers were thinking when they designed their digital camcorder line. They're hard to hold, the buttons are in unnatural places, and the camera doesn't mold into your hand. The salesperson actually told me to hold it "with two hands" and it'd be fine. Have you ever tried to push a stroller around Disney World and keep track of a running four year old while filming him with a video camera? Two hands for the camera?!? Give me a break! I tested every single Sony digital camcorder, and I still kept coming back to this Canon. Yes, it has the motor hum - but the controls are within reach and I'm not being forced to try and focus with my pinky using a button that's smaller than a pea (like the Sony Micro-MV). The picture is great. I took my new camera to Disney for a week....it fit in my small fanny pack, and with the digital photo options, I didn't need to take a regular camera. So much easier and made the trip much more enjoyable. It's not as great with still photos as a dedicated digital camera, but it's been great for sending photos directly to relatives via the Internet and making photo CDs. I love this camera!!!!! I'd give it five stars, but I'm taking one off for the motor hum. They should fix that. I still recommend everyone go to a local store and actually hold the Sony cameras and try to focus and fit them comfortably in their hand, and then try the same thing with the Canon. That experience will speak for itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much buzz on this thing
Review: I recently got this camcorder and am extremely frustrated at the motor buzz captured on tape. I have recorded three tapes worth of stuff, both indoors and outside. The whine of the motor is not perceptible on the outdoors shots but that's explainable by the background noise being loud enough to mask it. It's the indoor settings where the motor sound is very evident on playback. That said, this camcorder creates a pretty good picture and the optics are great. It is very compact and fits your hand nicely. The swing-out screen is a little hard to see in sunlight. But the motor whine is preventing me from giving more than 2 stars. It's distracting enough to take away from any viewing pleasure. I have recently noticed postings on other camcorder user websites complaining about the motor buzz on this model so it seems like a common problem. I will probably return this camcorder for another brand/model that doesn't record the motor, if such a thing exists. It's too bad because this machine looks and feels very cool.
Rating:
Summary: I should have listened!
Review: I thought that the motor noise was probably not as bad as some reviewers had complained. Actually I thought they were whining about the whine. I also thought that the quality of the picture would at least be better than my VHS-C camcorder. I even ordered the DM-50 microphone from B&H just in case. I received the camera and microphone today. I was excited and when I opened the box I was delighted with what I saw inside. I would give this camera a 12 for style points since it is the smallest, sweetest looking DV camera I have ever seen... BUT! The motor hum is extremely noticeable even when recording in noisy environments (this is not a camera for anyone who cares at all about audio quality), the picture is grainy and generally poor quality compared with various other cameras and the microphone looks larger than the camera. Seriously, they should show the microphone in relation to the camera, the mic is so big that when it's sitting in the accessory shoe it eliminates the camera's only good features, size and looks. I called Canon and asked if there was any way to turn down the gain on the internal microphone and was very politely told that if I found the motor noise obtrusive I should return the camera. I didn't even try the other features because the bottom line is that when compared to my Panasonic VHS-C camera (1995 model, cost $550) the VHS-C quality is vastly superior. Any DV camera that can't give a VHS-C camcorder a run for its money should be discontinued. I feel that Canon is trying to make a quick buck in the under $1000 DV market and is doing so at the expense of quality. One other thing. I ordered this camera without ever trying it out and I think that was a mistake. If you are thinking of buying any type of camera without seeing a live demo of it please re-consider. I will spend at least the next month further researching and trying out DV camera's before I buy another one. I should have listened to the other reviews but I didn't and I got burned. I hope that either Canon fixes their bugs or another manufacturer designs a camera that looks just as good as the ZR-xx series, but actually functions like a DV camera is supposed to. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Canon ZR50MC
Review: I was concerned about the motor whine being picked up on the tape. I have not found this to be a current problem. The motor whine at playback is due to the motor AT playback. After cutting a DVD and playing back in a DVD player the whine was not present. Outdoors, I found the colors to be vibrant. Shooting indoors does require adequate lighting otherwise the picture will appear slighly "grainy" (but this is to be expected with any camcorder). Connecting to a PC via the FireWire port was automatic with Windows XP. The system recognized the camcorder immediately and was ready to transfer data in less than one minute. The digital camera option is not impressive but that is not the primary function and would suggest purchasing a digital camera if digital photography is of interest to you. The external microphone is recommended if you will be shooting objects more than 15 feet away. Overall, this camcorder exceded my expectations.
Rating:
Summary: Canon ZR50MC
Review: I was concerned about the motor whine being picked up on the tape. I have not found this to be a current problem. The motor whine at playback is due to the motor AT playback. After cutting a DVD and playing back in a DVD player the whine was not present. Outdoors, I found the colors to be vibrant. Shooting indoors does require adequate lighting otherwise the picture will appear slighly "grainy" (but this is to be expected with any camcorder). Connecting to a PC via the FireWire port was automatic with Windows XP. The system recognized the camcorder immediately and was ready to transfer data in less than one minute. The digital camera option is not impressive but that is not the primary function and would suggest purchasing a digital camera if digital photography is of interest to you. The external microphone is recommended if you will be shooting objects more than 15 feet away. Overall, this camcorder exceded my expectations.
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