Canon Elura 60 review (Mini DV Digital Camcorder - Digital Photo)

For the occasional family gathering and a little vacation footage, Canon's Elura 60 is a relatively cheap way to go. Compared to its siblings, the Elura 65 and the Elura 70, it has smaller 14X optical zoom range (the others have 16X and 18X, respectively) and lacks a light for shooting in dim settings. Though the difference in zoom may not be a big drawback, you might want to think twice before forgoing the night light.

The Canon Elura 60 has a lot of features for its class, and it boasts an excellent instruction manual. It has a 2.5-inch LCD viewfinder and offers manual control over focus and exposure. You can capture still photos with a separate shutter button to an SD card and create panoramic images with the enclosed software. Battery life is very good; you can expect a full hour on a charge, perhaps a bit more if you can shoot with the viewfinder instead of the LCD screen. But be warned: the electronic viewfinder is only for those with exceptional vision.

You can connect to your TV via the standard audio/video connections or the S-Video jack. A FireWire port is there for video editing or for using the camcorder as a Webcam, and a USB port lets you download still photos or 320x240 QuickTime movies from the SD card.