Canon's sleek and compact ZR30 MC camcorder provides almost everything you need to shoot both beautiful footage and digital stills. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the ZR30 MC is equipped with a color LCD view screen and a color eyecup viewfinder, a digital image stabilization system to steady the jittery hand, and a digital zoom that magnifies up to 200 times.
To help ensure that you get the quality footage you want, Canon has included a number of preset shooting modes. These modes will automatically adjust the settings of your camcorder for a variety of shooting situations. There is also an additional set of special effects available during both recording and playback that will help add a little flavor to your movies. These effects include black-and-white, sepia, and mosaic, among others.
Also, using the ZR30 MC's photo mode, you can take over 700 still photos with an 80-minute MiniDV tape or store it onto the portable 8 MB MultiMediaCard. The ZR30 MC also comes with customizable light-up VCR buttons: choose from blue, turquoise, and green. You have your choice of four recording speeds, which allow you to record at up to three times the normal recording time on a standard MiniDV cassette. Additionally, with the advanced accessory shoe, you can easily add a
Shotgun microphone or video light. With the IEEE 1394 port you can connect the ZR30 MC to a DV-ready personal computer to edit video or e- mail photos. Included in the package are an A/V cable, power adapter, shoulder strap, and battery pack.
As a novice to the camcorder world I was very concerned and confused about the wide range of features and prices available in the market so, unusually for me, I took a little time and did my research. Boy am I glad I did, and I am especialy pleased with the result. The Canon is perfect and does everything I want. It's easy to use and the results have been extremely good, especially considering that I am really new to all this. It seems from the reviews I have read that most camcorders with built still photography features lack the quality of purpose built digital cameras, and while this is also true of my Canon, its not really an issue as I have several still cameras in 35mm and digital formats that I like to use. The quality of the video on the Canon is really very good. I do not have the needs of a serious hobbyist or professional but I still want something that gives good quality and I am very pleased. I am also very happy with the overall ergonimics of the camera and its ease of use. One of my first outings was a car trip out of NY city and I shot a lot of city shots from the car. The results were very satisfying. I have only used a few of the special features and have not done any editing yet but on first glance I found the instructions a little confusing but I put that down to my lackof experience.I really have no negative comments, my only small niggle is the hinge on the little door that covers the DC power seems very flimsy and I sense it may snap one of these days but apart from that the camera is really sturdy In terms of value, after much research I feel I got a very good product at a fair price. I compared it to Sony and JVC products and felt that I bought a lot of quality and flexibility and saved over 200 dollars over the Sony without losing any features that I needed. So this has been a very gratifying experience and I look forward to using the camera for a very long time. I strongly recommend it.
Back To Top
