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"Good for outdoor / bad indoor video" on by thanhtran
Pros: Small, Good zoom, good image stablizing system, lots of features
Cons: Noisy motor that the camcoder picks up the noise during recording. Grainy video when indoor, no SD card include, battery life is not great
Summary: I've been a Canon users and have been doing some photography with Canon stuff. I have EOS D60 camera, some other small digital cameras as well. So obviously I want to buy Canon as my first camcorder.
I bought this ZR200 from BestBuy after running back and forth between BestBuy to get to the store that had it stocked. Went home, eager to test it out.
First few minutes I was so happy with it. But once I test out more, the noise from the motor really bothers me. It can be clearly captured to your video. Really noisy and ruin the video if the environment you are taping is quiet.
Now, coming from a semi pro canon digital camera (EOS D60) and have been doing some photography for a while, I had some expectation on what the image & video should look like. This ZR200 camcorder really disapointed me. The video taken indoor with two electric lamps is not good to my taste. First, video is grainy. Second, the optic isn't great.
For the optic comments, here is why: I had a RC helicopter with lots of wires on a bench which was about 8 feet from where I sit. I zoom in to get the video and I can barely recognize the things on the table is my helicopter. I just see bunch of wires. Also, when I was taping my wife's hamster, it was often out of focus and the hamster wasn't sharp.
I've read the recomendation on how to improve the video quality in low light, but I don't like my video to be darken & blurry.
I went to Costco a week after that I bought the Panasonic GS120 openbox for 499, a 100 higher than the ZR200. This time I'm extremely happy. The optic and video quality of GS120 are much much better than this ZR200. With the same test I did by looking at my work bench, I now see even the electronic chips with leds & registers on the bread boards where as I saw bunch of wires with the ZR200. Yes, I know the price of GS120 is much higher than that of ZR200.
For Outdoor video, the ZR200 is just as good.
I returned the ZR200 to BestBuy and got charged $60 restocking fee.
My wife has no experience on how a camcorder should be and when she look at the video on my flat pannel TV, she wants the Panasonic instead.
The ZR200 does not come with an SD card so I don't know how the still picture looks like. I don't expect it to be good but it offers some features like mixing picture to the video to do some special effect.
My conclusion, it's an ok camcoder for beginner or for those who shoot mainly outdoor. But if you want to use it for indoor & family activity, you may need to think again because of the noise from the motor which will be recorded to tape when there is no one spoken, and the grainy video. If you have lots of lights indoor, it's good. -
"Surprised and Satisfied..considering the bad reviews I have read about the ZR series" on
Pros: Easy to use, extremely easy transfer videos and pictures to my Macintosh. Daytime video quality is excellent, especially when playing the finished DVD's on my High Definition TV. The widescreen capability looks as good as a Hollywood movie, at least to my
Cons: There is some motor noise, but not much. The zoom control is touchy.
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"I find this camcorded very nice" on
Pros: Easy to use, great picture, love the options
Cons: Battery doesn't last long enough
Summary: I really like this camcorder. It works very well with my Mac. I think the picture is great indoors and out. I like the easy to use menus and love how it's ready to go in just a few seconds.
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"Sorry, I hated too!" on by bestby65
Pros: Inexpensive, small size, easy to use.
Cons: Worse than awful indoors in average light.
Summary: I purchased for $259 after $50 rebate. I was hopeful I could live with the low-light limitation mentioned in the review. After filming some basic indoor shots, I would have to conclude that this an outdoor camcorder only. I am amazed that Canon would put this out, maybe it should be recalled. My recommendation is the spend at the extra $200 for a 3 CCD camcorder from Panasonic. Remember you're filming your life's memories, this is not where you want to get cheap. Grainy 4 year old birthday parties are not what you want when you're looking back. Very disappointed.
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"its an awsome mini dv with the power of an industrial sized video camera" on by jlcue91
Pros: the zoom is great , plus the mp is high for a mini dv
Cons: i can't think of any bad points
Summary: i've had a few digital camcorders but this one takes the cake , the usb 2.0 and firewire make it good for fast transfers . the optical zoom is really a plus for this mini dv , the other camcorders i've had didn't go up to 20x . the battery life is great . this is the smallest i've had , is compact and lightwieght and works well with my tripod . i can take it over to friends or family and hook it up to the t.v and watch my video's which is cool . the still shot is almost a mega pixel which is really good for a camcorder , you can store photoes on an sd card and even take movies in mpeg with the sd card , i actually stumbled across that feature . the manual is semi easy to read and understand but it's a thick book so there is alot of reading involved . the camcorder in general is a winner in my book .
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