Rating: 
Summary: from '02 to 1wk ago thought it was great, now eats tapes....
Review: (correction: i just noticed 12/3 i actually have a zr50mc..duhh...) guess i bought it around 3/2002 since my first tape is dated 3/18/02. (online for $580 or something like that...cant remember.) i've shot 12 90minute tapes since that time (60mins set at SP for 90min recording). like i said, i thought it was a great camera for video until recently. my main reason for getting it was to record my new kids, one now 4yo and one 2.5yo, becaue my vhsc panasonic camcorder began recording very warbly audio (video was/is still good) and i wanted to capture their early talking, etc. the zr65mc problems started recently while i've been converting those tapes to dvd to share selected clips with the grandparents, aunts, friends, etc. (i found ulead's products very good for this, by the way, after first using windows movie maker to import to dv-avi format. had to buy a new 120g hardisk though to add to my 60g since each imported tape took up to 19gigs each. i always wondered why people needed such big harddisks - now i know.) anyway on importing about the 7th tape, while rewinding, it jammed. i was able to eject the tape and used a pencil to wiggle and extricate the caught tape inside but it was chewed up pretty good and about 6inches was hanging out. after some scary tinkering with the cassette since i didnt want to loose the rest of the tape i was able to figure out that you you can manually rewind the tape. if the window side is up, operate the latch to open the tape cover on the right bottom. by using a hairpin or something small to depress the little latch on the bottom back middle and use the eraser of a lead pensil to either rewind or forward past the chewed up tape. sometimes i had to rewind or forward a bit more if it wouldn't work again after the first reloading. but i was able to convert all the tapes with only a few seconds of lost video. the problem is i thought it was only with the rewind, but yesterday (11/27/04) on a bart outing to the metreon with 12 of my family, after working at home, at the bart station i pulled it out to continue shooting on the same tape and it gave me the dreaded red eject tape message on the lcd blue screen of death. i put it back in the car and used my old reliable casio qv2300 digital camera the rest of the day. let me just say, i am a video, digital camera, computer and internet sorta guy...the rest of the family luvs it but the wife often hates it.
now, i'm researching the problem and found many postings for the zr10 of this problem. i suspect all these zr models are the same camera and canon just changes the model number each year...they're up to what zr95 or something and its still probably the zr10 inside. if i figure out a non expensive solution, i'll post it. at least it can be used still as a analog-digital av converte, since that doesn't require a tape...and i did use it with my panasonic to convert 18 vhsc tapes to dvd. all very time consuming tho.
by the way, i had another problem with a canon product before - a digital camera a70, that i bought for my workgroup in cupertino, early 2003 i think. out of the box new, one week later it stopped functioning completely! i sent it back east somewhere and two months later it came back working. but i didn't like that that camera didn't have the ability to choose whether you wanted to have the date stamp on the picture. when i called canon they said to use exifer for that. how lame i thought (after being used to the casio)! also the battery life indicator didn't work right. [thats why i like my casio (plus the swivel lens) and the casio software].
i'm thinking i shudda bought this tiny sony (forgot model) like i wanted to at the time, but i didn't like the $1k+ price then and the mic wasn't in a good spot. this one beat out the jvc's too for some reason i cant remember now. but its a whole new ballgame now with all the different stuff out there. maybe have to start the headache of trying to choose a replacement if i cant fix this one, and i doubt it worth paying to fix so....
anyway bottom line is i'm kinda thinking i'm not gonna buy cannon anymore or recommend it to people who ask me, and recently prior to this, i did recommend cannons to at least 4 of my friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a low light camera
Review: As stated many times before by many people this camera does not do well in low light. Knowing that the camera does very well in well lighted situations. Even turning on extra indoor light will produce acceptable results. I have had no problems with motor noise or audio/video problems. What makes this camera attractive is the features it has for the price. The digital effects, the chroma keying with the SD card pictures and best of all the digital to analog and analog to digital converter. The price of this camera puts it in the range of dedicated digital to analog and analog to digital converter. This allows you to transfer old VHS or VHS-C tapes to DV. Cable boxes or TiVos with RCA outputs can also be used. Once on DV they can be transferred to the computer for editing and then burned to CD or DVD. Since it has the onboard converter it can also be used to edit video on a TV screen if your video editor supports it. The camera also acts as a digital camera but even on the best camcorders the output is not on par with stand-alone digital cameras and is added as an after thought. If you can live with the cameras low light problems then this camera will do well. If not save your pennies and get a better camera. If your need to get old footage in to your computer to put on DVD then consider this camera. With a Mac it will also work as a web camera without any addition software. If you are shooting a lot of low light footage this is not the camera for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Digital Video Experience
Review: Compact and a proved model of Canon technology, allows you to take digital photos in the Multimedia Card and record video in a mini DV cassette. The memory has a low capacity 8Mb aproximately 12 or 13 photos in good quality. Good Price. Free software. and the very important Firewire conexion. (bv2p)
Rating: 
Summary: Do not Buy Canon ZR camera
Review: I bought a ZR40 soon after my son was born, and filming most of my son's video in the house during day time or night time. It is a simple camera and zoom is good. However, the video quality is very grainy in door, and slightly better out-door. It is much worse than the parasonic my father in-law brough about 2 years ago. I read a lot of reviews on circuit-city, and find out the same problem still exist for the ZR65.
Tommorrow is my son's first year birthday, and I just got a Sony TR38. Although it is a one year late, I hope to have all the good video memory from now on.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera except for picture quality
Review: I bought this camera to replace my Sony TRV-140 but am returning it due to very grainy, washed out indoor imaging. The Sony blows it away in picture quality even though the Canon is supposed to be better because of the Mini DV format. Other than the picture quality, I really liked the camera. Oh well, at least Best Buy lets me take it back.
Rating:
Summary: It's grainy indoors
Review: I didn't listen to the other reviewers - but I should have. I liked the size of the camera, the price, the plugins - but the picture was REALLY grainy without natural light. Outdoors was picture perfect, and indoors in the kitchen in the daytime is great - but if you don't have natural light you won't be happy. Also, software is relatively useless. I'm taking it back and trying the SONY TRV...
Rating:
Summary: New user likes it a lot
Review: I got this as a wedding present, and opened it right away. It takes great low light pictures and the image and sound have no hiss or noise. The playback mode is great. It takes good pictures on the move. The microphone is omni-directional, so it does not pick up conversation in noisy situations well, such as at a reception.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent entry-level video camera
Review: I have been researching entry-level digital video cameras for quite some time now. The consensus of the reviews seemed to be that the Canon ZR range of cameras was excellent value for money but that some people were disappointed with the level of motor noise captured. I decided to take advantage of Amazon's 30-day money-back guarantee and try the ZR-65 out. I am extremely impressed - the video quality is great. It has lots of great features that I won't repeat here. The most important thing was that the motor-noise captured was no issue at all. The motor noise seems prominent when played back through the camera itself but was barely detectable (I'm tempted to say *un*detectable) when played back through a TV/VCR. I'm speculating that this is due to a number of possible reasons : (1) The response of the built-in speaker is such that it amplifies the motor noise
(2) Some sort of audio filter is applied when playing the tape through the A/V out ports (3) The motor noise seems worse when playing through the camera itself because you can hear the noise of the tape motor as it *plays* the tape Whatever the reason, the motor noise is not the issue that some others have suggested it is. If you are not sure I would recommend trying it out and being sure to play the tape out through a TV/VCR. I've tried the video pass-through and tested that I can capture video input from my VCR into Mini-DV format. The other main criticism I have seen is that some digital camcorders have problems with low-light conditions (especially indoors). Some preliminary tests here also indicate that this isn't an issue, although it does require some manual manipulation of white-balance. The special low-light mode helps but at the expense of shutter-speed so you get noticeable jerkiness when panning. The battery life of the standard battery supplied with the camera isn't great, but that came as no surprise to me having read other reviews. Overall my initial impressions are that this is a fantastic camera for the price. I am looking forward to trying out the Firewire capabilities of the camera when I buy a desktop for non-linear video editing!
Rating:
Summary: Startup TOO Slow!
Review: I have owned a number of analog video camcorders over the years and have been very impressed by the Sonys I have used however thanks to the excellent canon digial camera I have I decided to try a Cannon for my second MiniDV camera.
My first venture into MiniDV was a disaster with a faulty JVC that managed to lose an entire vacation by corrupting the data to a point even JVC could not recover! After this I was far more careful with my second attempt some 12 months later.
Initially I was impressed by the ZR65MC, it feels good in the hand and has a load of features for the price. The zoom is fantastic and the software it comes with is solid and worked well to connect to the PC.
The video quality was good and the photos to SD card worked okay (about the standard of a 4 year old digital camera, okay for family snap shots)
Where things went wrong was over the next week testing the camera on vacation, the startup time for the unit is far too slow (approaching 6 seconds!). The first time you miss a "magic" moment waiting for the camera to startup you are very likely to reconsider your choice. Couple this with the annoying "binging" it goes through when you leave it on (to avoid the startup time) and you have a serious niggle that will make you wish you had looked elsewhere. I have returned the camera and am trying out the Panasonic DV203D as I really can't afford the Sony TRV33 that offers similar features. If the Panasonic works out, great, if not I will have to return to Hi8 and save up some more money before venturing back into the world of MiniDV :-( HTH
Rating: 
Summary: good camera but wanting more
Review: I have use the ZR45 and ZR65. I like the ZR45 that I bought. The only problem was within the 24hours that I had it. It want you to eject the tape and would not do nothing else. It was return to the store the next day. Their were no more in stock and they were not going to be back in stock. So I bought the ZR65 the replacement to the ZR45. Their was some added bells that are fun like tide, ball, and cube)but I found that the night and low light features are just not very good at all. I tried taking pictures of my kids at the Oregon Museum of science center. The shots that were taking there had a fair amount of light because of the windows and gave good pictures. When we more to a floor that did not have the windows to help out on the lighting the pictures looked under exposed and dull. I tried using the AE shift and MF bottons on the shot around the house. Our house has large living room windows that bring alot of glare to our TV because sun coming in the the room is not dark but not bright either. The pictures turn out at points a bit fuzzy and alway dull. I was so disapointed. If you thing you will get great shots of your kids birthday cake with the candles and light low forget it. I have taking the ZR65 back to the store and and waiting for the out of stock ZR70. The ZR70 has super night mode will see how good super really is. On the up side I love the size and all the neat features. It comes with the USB cable to download stills. The ZR60 does not have the stills pitures taking option. The ZR45 I fell in love with because I was playing with the camera durring a planeturium show and it recorded it wonderfully. We were suprise to see that. I wish I would have flim the whole thing. not less that five mintunes. My husband loves the color viewer as that is the only was he will flim. I like the opion to use the LDC screen. The ZR65 is great it you have good lighting other wize for get it. It is a very quite motor to problem there.
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