Rating: 
Summary: Ignore my previous rant. This is a cool camcorder
Review: I must apologize for my previous review of the Canon ZR30. The review was rather negative, but the problem was in my ignorance--not the camera.I had complained that the recorded picture was too pixelated--That anything with hard edges was represented by over-sized wobbly digital blocks. This temporary problem, I since learned, resides in my iMovie editing software. iMovie cannot reveal the true quality of the digital footage. It simplifies the images to save processing power for editing. After reading "iMovie: The Missing Manual", I learned that the only way to see the true glory of a digital camcoder's video is to hook it up to a real television using an S-Link connection. By the way, videos edited in iMovie WILL still look great, but only after you dump the project back to the camcoder and then play the resulting DV through a real television. Merely exporting to Quick Time doesn't do it justice. Well, I finally tried the obvious and connected the ZR30 to my real television (duh?). It was a very pleasant surprise! Gone where the jagged pixels. The picture was very smooth--and I have a large screen to boot. Probably the main difference between the look of my footage and pro footage is in the lighting. Don't forget, real TV shows are shot under perfectly manufactured lighting conditions. My stuff shot in my house looks like... well... my dark house. I still find that the ZR30 requires more tweaking than my older Sony TRV did. The Sony was really idiot proof: Hit the red button to record. While the ZR30 does offer automatic modes, I don't feel that they work as well. On the other hand, you can manually adjust many of the parameters and get better results that way. The image stabling is of the optical variety. It's great because it doesn't interfere with the picture quality. It doesn't respond to bumps quite as quickly as electronic types, though, so some jerking still gets through. Just leave it on and try to be careful. I'm feeling really happy with my ZR30 now. Sorry if I mislead anybody with the previous review
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome camera!!!!!!!!
Review: I purchased a ZR-25 which is basically the same camera.
My satisfaction with the camera is overwhelming. I mainly bought it for our trip to Disney, boy did it work great! It fit in my fanny pack! Let's face camcorder facts, if it is to cumbersome to carry, ya just won't use it! This thing is tiny and the video is DVD quality! I cut 2 DVD's so far, and the video is superb! One complaint people have had with this camera is the poor indoor/low light capability. True, it is probably not as good indoors as the lower lux sony's, but I found that if you set the shutter speed to 1/60, the indoor video quality improved noticibly from poor, to acceptable. In the automatic GREEN mode, the shutter speed must be at 1/100 or 1/250 which doesn't allow in enough light in when indoors. The outdoor video is so crisp, I cannot believe it. I'm satisfied with image stabilization also. Some cameras have noticibly more, but this always ends up sacrificing total recorded screen resolution, and I think Cannon made the right choice. BUY IT, LOVE IT, USE IT!
Kev out.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome camera!!!!!!!!
Review: I purchased a ZR-25 which is basically the same camera.
My satisfaction with the camera is overwhelming. I mainly bought it for our trip to Disney, boy did it work great! It fit in my fanny pack! Let's face camcorder facts, if it is to cumbersome to carry, ya just won't use it! This thing is tiny and the video is DVD quality! I cut 2 DVD's so far, and the video is superb! One complaint people have had with this camera is the poor indoor/low light capability. True, it is probably not as good indoors as the lower lux sony's, but I found that if you set the shutter speed to 1/60, the indoor video quality improved noticibly from poor, to acceptable. In the automatic GREEN mode, the shutter speed must be at 1/100 or 1/250 which doesn't allow in enough light in when indoors. The outdoor video is so crisp, I cannot believe it. I'm satisfied with image stabilization also. Some cameras have noticibly more, but this always ends up sacrificing total recorded screen resolution, and I think Cannon made the right choice. BUY IT, LOVE IT, USE IT!
Kev out.
Rating:
Summary: Great Small Camera - Perfect Design
Review: I recently purchased a ZR30MC and am thrilled with the output and the design of the Camcorder. I read many reviews on the net on the ZR10 and have heard many complaints about filming in low light conditions. The quality in low light is just fine - maybe they fixed the problem with the ZR30mc. I do have a friend who has a Sony TRV20 that handles low light significantly better but it is almost double the price. On outside video I cant imagine the quality being any better. As for design - Canon has a real Gem with this one. It is small and ergonomically designed. The quality of the Still photos leave something to be desired - But I have a regular Digital Camera for that purpose. All in all Canon has made an excellent small Digital Camcorder with a nearly perfect design !!! Would definatley recommend the whole ZR20,25,30 series.
Rating:
Summary: it doesn't have a flash,otherwise excellent camera/camcorder
Review: I'm amazed how much stuff and features they were able to cram into this little camcorder and still have it ergonomical, compact and light. Unfortunately they left out one very important feature to any good still camera... the flash! Stills taken indoors by lamp light are grainy and dark. I'm going to try the optional light to see if that makes a difference. If it had a built-in flash, it would have rated 5 stars with me. General camcorder tips from someone who has been using video cameras for almost 20 years:
o always use a halogen light indoors: camcorder lights are white light; indoor lighting tends to be yellow. The dimmer the lighting, the more the iris opens up on the camera, allowing in even more yellow light. I ruined a friend's wedding video this way, since it looked like the bride wore yellow.
o and always buy at least one extra battery and an external charger: this way when (not if) the battery dies, you can keep shooting while the other battery is recharging.
Rating:
Summary: it doesn't have a flash,otherwise excellent camera/camcorder
Review: I'm amazed how much stuff and features they were able to cram into this little camcorder and still have it ergonomical, compact and light. Unfortunately they left out one very important feature to any good still camera... the flash! Stills taken indoors by lamp light are grainy and dark. I'm going to try the optional light to see if that makes a difference. If it had a built-in flash, it would have rated 5 stars with me. General camcorder tips from someone who has been using video cameras for almost 20 years:
o always use a halogen light indoors: camcorder lights are white light; indoor lighting tends to be yellow. The dimmer the lighting, the more the iris opens up on the camera, allowing in even more yellow light. I ruined a friend's wedding video this way, since it looked like the bride wore yellow.
o and always buy at least one extra battery and an external charger: this way when (not if) the battery dies, you can keep shooting while the other battery is recharging.
Rating:
Summary: A Super Digital Camera!
Review: I've had my ZR30MC for a week. The video image quality is truly excellent, the unit has more features than I'll ever use and the size of the camera makes it easily go anywhere. Even the Video magazines are giving this a must see. Best of all, it is an excellent value! As you can tell, I love mine.
Rating:
Summary: Ups and Downs
Review: My original goal in purchasing this camcorder was to record a festival in Russia where I would need a reliable battery between charges, good low light shooting,and plenty of space on tapes so I wouldn't run out. In my first week of shooting, I tried various scenarios. I interviewed a friend in low light conditions. I was very impressed by the quality of the sound - both hers and mine as I was interviewing. The picture quality was good - better than I had been led to believe by reading other customer reviews. I agree with others that the digital zoom is useless. I tried to film deer in a pasture that I could clearly see, but since it was out of range of the analog zoom, all I got was jitters and smeared video. Evidently the image stabilizer does not work above 10 power or with the digital zoom. Wish I had known this before I purchased the camera. My other complaint was that I never got accurate readings on battery life. So I could never tell when to re-charge. The battery symbol was always empty, even though the camera was clearly full and worked. I assumed that this is a defect in the camera, called Canon Tech support who confirmed this, and am now getting a replacement.Question for other users...Do you remove the battery every time you stop shooting? It does say to do this in the manual. Just asking. My final goal is to edit digital video and make a movie, saving it on a CD. This is because, as some of you may know, our video ( NTSC) is incompatable with European video standards (PAL). By editing the video and saving it to a CD it should be playable in Russia and elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: ZR10 To ZR30MC: Canon Is Batting 1000!!
Review: Read the specs, compare ALL the features, talk to those who own it, and you too will buy it! Simply the easiest to use and best quality digital video camera you can buy! And the price---what more is there to say? Some cameras you buy and get home to find no microphone plug! Some no Firewire connection or RCA video jacks to archive all those old tapes you have. You won't have that problem with this Canon gem. This is the second of the ZR series I have owned. I have also owned Sony among others, always going back to Canon.
Rating:
Summary: ZR10 To ZR30MC: Canon Is Batting 1000!!
Review: Read the specs, compare ALL the features, talk to those who own it, and you too will buy it! Simply the easiest to use and best quality digital video camera you can buy! And the price---what more is there to say? Some cameras you buy and get home to find no microphone plug! Some no Firewire connection or RCA video jacks to archive all those old tapes you have. You won't have that problem with this Canon gem. This is the second of the ZR series I have owned. I have also owned Sony among others, always going back to Canon.
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