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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 20 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Lightweight and compact; fits well in the hand; well-placed controls; quality snapshots; autofocus-assist lamp for shooting photos in dim light.
The bad: Clumsy manual focus; short battery life; limited manual control; no infrared night mode; poorly placed microphone; no accessory shoe.
The bottom line: The slick, compact Optura 300 is an excellent choice for picky shooters who want a solid vacation camcorder without the excess baggage.
Specifications: Weight: 1.1 lbs See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 12/19/2003
- Released on: 10/15/2003
Editor's note: We have changed the rating in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Click here to find out more.
The sleek Optura 300 travels well. Its compact body easily slips into a jacket pocket; its 1 pound, 2 ounces won't weigh you down; and you can just as handily pull out the camera when the need arises. The vertical design offers a comfortable grip but will perhaps be a bit more manageable for people with larger hands. And the 300 feels solid: its fittings and its moving parts bespeak precision manufacture and well-executed construction.
 This confusing concentration of controls places a lot of responsibility on your thumb. |
 The body splits open vertically to accept a MiniDV cassette, so you can reload without removing the camera from your tripod. |
The camcorder is small, but aside from a few exceptions, ports and controls are logically and intelligently located. Frequently used buttons and dials fall naturally under the appropriate digits. The menu system, which you navigate via a jog dial, is fairly typical for this class of camera.
On the downside, the cluttered back panel makes some operations awkward. As with many consumer cameras, you focus manually with the jog dial rather than a focusing ring. While we were taping, our finger repeatedly slipped off the dial, hit the power switch below, and turned off the camcorder.
Thanks to a 2-megapixel sensor, the Optura records video at a relatively high resolution (1.2 megapixels before that's distilled down to DV format) and can snap 2-megapixel still photos. The camcorder lacks advanced shooting features, such as manual exposure, spot metering, and an accessory shoe. But it offers more audio-capture flexibility than most consumer models: you can set volume manually, and you get a built-in external microphone and headphone ports.
The camcorder supplies all the essential features for a mainstream/home-movie shooter, including a 10X zoom lens; electronic image stabilization; fully automatic operation and seven preset shooting modes; exposure shift and a choice of shutter speeds; automatic, manual, and preset white-balance selections; a wind screen; analog-to-digital pass-through and conversion; and USB streaming for using the camcorder as a Webcam. The lens takes 30.5mm filters and add-on lenses, and you can apply a variety of digital fades, effects, and mixes in-camera.
To address the challenge of dim conditions, Canon includes Low Light, Night, and Super Night among the Optura's shooting presets. Low Light simply decreases the shutter speed, and Night makes it even slower. Super Night turns on a built-in white LED that sits just below the lens. In theory, brightening the scene is a good idea, but most subjects flinch away when that highly directional beam shines in their faces. The light would be more useful if you could activate it in other modes, as well. Unlike Sony's camcorders, the Optura does not have an infrared mode for shooting in the dark.
An outstanding set of still-photo capabilities rounds out the mix. Snapshot resolution can reach up to 1,632x1,224 pixels, and the camcorder will store the pictures on an SD card. You can also fill your media with MPEG-4 movies recorded at a very low bit rate. In addition to providing a built-in flash, the Optura 300 has an autofocus-assist lamp for dim conditions, supports continuous shooting and exposure bracketing, and lets you select from three focus-priority areas--just like a real camera.
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 The battery cuts a sleek profile but doesn't last long at all. It usually ran down before we could fill a tape. |
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For the most part, the Optura 300 was a pleasure to operate. We particularly appreciated its zoom control, which made it surprisingly easy to achieve dramatic slow zooms. The rate stayed consistent instead of accidentally speeding up or stalling--a difficult feat with most camcorders. Autofocus felt decisive and quick (though slower than on some competing models) but tended to spasm more than we would have liked in difficult focus situations. The electronic stabilization worked unexpectedly well. When we conducted a comparison test of the 300 and the optically stabilized Optura Xi, the 300's video looked only slightly inferior, and the Xi's win may have been due in part to its steadying heft.
The color flip-out LCD, though measuring only 2.5 inches, provides a framing and playback view that's crisp and easy to work with. We did notice, however, that the colors and the exposure on the screen didn't match up very well with those on our calibrated video monitor.
The Optura 300 ships with a 740mAh lithium-ion battery, which died before the end of one tape when our testing involved heavy LCD use. The power of the optional cells ranges from an even weaker 680mAh to 2,200mAh; the extended-use battery almost triples the camcorder's recording time but ruins its sleek profile. We suggest springing for the 1,180mAh BP-412 as a compromise.
The omnidirectional stereo microphone worked very well and didn't pick up any stray noise, such as the whine of the tape-transport motor. But we aren't thrilled with the mike's placement. Sitting on top of the electronic viewfinder, it picks up the chatter behind the camera better than the conversation in front.
Overall, this Canon delivers very good video and still photos. For the color filter, the company chose RGB over the typical CMY, so the Optura 300 produces much more pleasing, better-saturated colors than most single-chip competitors. Compared with similar Sony models, the Optura displays less noise, especially in dim conditions, but its videos are noticeably soft, with more smearing artifacts. We also spotted some purple fringing on the high-contrast edge of a silhouette. White balance looked acceptably neutral, though some users may prefer Sony's cooler tones.
As you can see in this crop from a video frame, good colors help compensate for the softness and the smearing in the Optura 300's video.
The Optura's still images, though not quite as good as the shots from a top-notch 2-megapixel digital camera, are among the best we've seen from a camcorder. They have far less noise than usual, and they're eminently usable for full-size onscreen viewing and printing at up to 5x7 inches.
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