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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 27 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Useful optical zoom range; easy to operate; numerous editing and special-effects features.
The bad: Noticeable tape-transport noise in very quiet environments; mediocre low-light performance; poor still-photo quality.
The bottom line: The Canon ZR70MC is a compact, full-featured camcorder that will serve you well unless you're shooting in dim light.
Specifications: Video input type: Camcorder ; Optical sensor type: CCD ; Optical zoom: 22 x ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 04/02/2004
- Released on: 03/01/2003
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| You choose tape or card capture using a simple switch. Below it are the recording and mode controls. |
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| Menu navigation is easy with the jog wheel. |
Canon's dedicated, backlit playback keys are novice-friendly, and they double as quick triggers for some shooting functions. Overall, the new ZR70MC user will find the button layout very accessible.
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| Only a few controls hide behind the LCD, so you can usually tuck it away when you're shooting with the viewfinder. |
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| You can change the color of the keys' backlighting--a gimmicky but amusing feature. |
You choose a shooting mode with a quick tap of the jog wheel. It will also take you to more-advanced options if you press the Menu button before you start spinning. While some functions, such as automatic exposure, have dedicated keys, you'll have to stop shooting and delve into the menus to select settings for wind-noise reduction, image stabilization, and other commonly accessed features.The Canon ZR70MC's feature set covers all the major items. And nice extras include MJPEG video capture, analog inputs for dubbing your old tapes to DV, and an accessory shoe for an external microphone or light.
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| You can save photos and MJPEG video to SD/MMC media. | |
You'll find plenty of manual controls, such as adjustable white balance, shutter speed, and exposure. The usual Black And White, Sepia, and Mosaic modes are on hand, but the ZR70MC's wealth of gimmicky special effects also includes more-interesting choices. Mirror creates a second, reversed image of your subject, and Ball wraps your video around a 3D sphere. The seven faders range from typical fades and wipes to intricate puzzle, tide, and zigzag transitions. You can even mix the scene you're shooting with images already on the SD card; among the supplied samples are a picture frame, a newspaper, and party balloons. All these in-camera special effects give your video the potential to be anything from truly impressive to shockingly tacky--with no PC editing.
Shooting modes include Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Sand & Snow, Lowlight, and Night. Unique to this ZR model is Super Night mode, which shines a bright-white LED on objects in the dark.
The ZR70MC captures stills to SD/MMC media. Panorama mode stitches photos together, and you can add frames and other effects by merging multiple pictures. The right Canon printer will let you skip over your computer and print images directly from the camera. You can also send video to the card, but your options are limited. At 320x240 resolution, the clips can be only 10 seconds long; you can stretch that to 30 seconds, but the size will be a postage-stamp 160x120--fine for e-mail but useless for pretty much anything else.
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 Our test camera came with the optional high-capacity BP-522 battery. The more anemic BP-512 included in the box is good for about an hour of recording. |
Zooms are smooth and quiet, even as you move into the digital ranges. At 22X, the optical zoom reach is just slightly greater than the ZR65MC's 20X. The maximum digital zoom rating is a ridiculous 440X, which will result in a swimming mess of pixels. Limiting yourself to 88X is more reasonable, though the video will still be fuzzy. Image stabilization works well at the zoom scale's lower end; camera shake becomes noticeable around the 20X mark.
The electronic viewfinder is reasonably detailed and clear enough for manual focusing. In bright outdoor situations, the LCD performs very well, remaining viewable even when the sun is directly behind you.
Endemic to all Canon ZR cameras going back to the ZR20A is a loud tape-transport motor. While you won't hear it in footage recorded in typical shooting environments, the ZR70MC's microphone is sensitive enough to pick up the noise in very quiet situations.The Canon ZR70MC excels outdoors and in very bright rooms, capturing crisp, saturated, and properly exposed video with accurate color. Under standard interior lighting, however, the image exhibits noticeable noise, a problem typical to midrange camcorders. As for low-light video quality, we've seen worse, but there are better options for people doing a lot of indoor work. The Super Night mode lets you shoot in near darkness, but the LED assist lamp will make it look as though you were pointing a small flashlight at your subject's face.
Stills we took outside were nicely exposed, but snapshooting indoors resulted in an ugly, noisy mess. Though the ZR70MC saves your pictures at 1,024x768 resolution, the CCD resolves just 447,000 pixels. Since they're scaled up more than 40 percent, the images lack detail. Capture photos with the ZR70MC only in a pinch; it's in no way comparable to a dedicated still camera.
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