Canon DC10 DVD Camcorder

Pros: Thinnest DVD camcorder, Incredibly sharp/clear video, Clean sound

Cons: Poor quality DVD-R/RW's can cause crashes and video loss, Video colors seem dull compared to the oversaturated colors of Sony HandiCams

Summary: Two things to keep in mind on my review: One, I'm a longtime Sony HandiCam customer going back to the video-8 days (before Hi-8), and have purchased 4 Sony HandiCam's over the years (and still own a Hi-8). Two, I'm not writing this review a week or a month after I bought this camera like most reviewers, I'm writing it 15 months after, basing my review on a lot more experience and experimentation.

I took a chance on a Canon video camera for two reasons: Sony HandiCams similar to the DC10 were significantly inferior in features and way more expensive. I paid $400 for the DC10, and the Sony HandiCam with features about one level lower than the DC10 was over $600. The choice was obvious.

I purchased the camera with JVC DVD-R media, mainly because the DVD-RW media was hard to get and very expensive at the time. Out of 5 discs, the camera crashed when finalizing one of them and I lost all the video on it. Luckily it was only 30 minutes, but I was really mad. Also, the video colors seemed really dull, not vibrant enough. So, I used the DC10 only sparingly for family stuff and depended more on my great quality Olympus digital camera.

So, about 6 months later I used only about 2 discs for video (not much for a Dad with 3 little kids), but I'm in Fry's where I bought the camera, and I notice there's now half of an aisle full of DVD video camera media, including DVD-RW. One of the downsides of DVD-R's is it's like using a tape-based video camera that you can't overwrite, so I bought a pack of Sony DVD-RW media. After taking a bunch of test video, the experience with this camera is much better because of the media.

The Sony media is honestly better quality than the JVC media and I haven't had anything close to the lock-ups I had in the past when I almost or did lose video. DVD-RW's are easier to work with on this cameara and on computers -- pop the DVD-RW into your computer, drag-and-drop the movie files to your computer for processing and burning to the final full-sized DVD, then pop the empty DVD-RW back into the camera for more video-taking.

Also, the colors seemed "dull" when I first bought it because I was honestly used to years of seeing the oversaturated video from Sony Handicams. Compare the video from this camera to the original, and it's almost 100% accurate color. Sony Handicam video is way more oversaturated, I guess so it looks more "vivid". If you like that oversaturated, inaccurate color in your video, you won't like the DC10. If you just want super-sharp video with accurate colors, the DC10 is great, especially for the price.

The bottom line with ANY DVD video cameras is this: don't go cheap on the media, unless you want to risk losing it. It's the same with el-cheapo CD-R's on a computer where one out of every five is garbage and goes straight into the trash, except with DVD video cameras you don't KNOW you have a piece of garbage until you finalize it, and at that point you've lost possibly valuable video.