Canon ZR20 Digital Camcorder

Rating:
Summary: Best Bang for your Buck
Review: This camera is a great value for your dollar. I have taken along time in shopping around and this one is the best value. Not to mention the quality is excellant. Someone in another review mentioned they had problems with this camera in low-light situations. I primarily use this camera to record live bands and I have had no such problems. The quality was great. As well, if you like there is a low-light filter that opens up the shutter wider. Unfortunatly, some blurring occurs with this filter on. However, it looks kinda cool. I would definitly recommend this camera if you are looking for a more affordable, quality camera.

Rating:
Summary: Great little camcorder!
Review: Very small and compact, but well laid out so for as the user is concerned. Has both a color viewfinder and a 2.5" LED that extends out from the left side. To save battery power, you can only use one at a time however. Some of the settings are a bit confusing, but going through the manual (well written by the way) will quickly supply answers to any questions you may have.

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...

Rating:
Summary: Great little camcorder!
Review: Very small and compact, but well laid out so for as the user is concerned. Has both a color viewfinder and a 2.5" LED that extends out from the left side. To save battery power, you can only use one at a time however. Some of the settings are a bit confusing, but going through the manual (well written by the way) will quickly supply answers to any questions you may have.

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...