Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode

by Canon

Product Details

Product Manual [6.11mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000507JH
• Item model number: 2MC
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,128 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 14, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Canon's Elura 2MC is small and light enough to pop into a pocket, purse, or glove compartment, making it easy to bring along to any event. Despite its diminutive dimensions, the Elura 2MC is an advanced camcorder, featuring electronic image stabilization, a 10x optical (40x digital) zoom lens, a progressive-scan CCD, and digital still mode.

The Elura 2MC has been designed for point-and-shoot simplicity, making it easy for even beginners to shoot great videos. A number of different programmed auto exposure modes (including sand and snow, sports, portrait, and low light) automatically adjust settings to take the worry out of shooting in challenging conditions.

Besides the different programmed auto-exposure modes, the Elura 2MC also offers three different shooting modes. You'll probably leave the camera set to normal movie mode a majority of the time. Digital photo mode lets you use the Elura 2MC as a digital camera, recording a still image for six seconds on the miniDV tape, and allowing audio commentary. There's a lot of flexibility here: you can switch between movie and digital photo modes and create a unique collage of stills and video. Finally, the digital motor drive mode uses the progressive-scan CCD to capture a full noninterlaced 30 frames per second. This means you can use the footage as a series of independent photographs. The Elura 2MC also comes with a MultiMediaCard for storage of still images.

As a DV camcorder, the Elura 2MC has an IEEE 1394 port for digital editing, or for transferring footage between IEEE 1394-compliant devices, such as computers or other DV camcorders. The Elura also features S-Video input and output. Analog inputs allow you to transfer old footage to DV for archiving. Digital effects include art, black and white, mosaic, and sepia, and built-in faders help ease scene transitions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good things do come in small packages!, February 6, 2001

By 

99Oaks "99oakley" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode (Electronics)

The Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV camcorder is a marvel of technology. It packs several great features (progressive CCD for great image quality, firewire output, up to 40X zoom, digital effects, etc.) into the smallest camcorder commonly available. Rather than repeating several of the great points mentioned by other reviewers, I'd like to elaborate on two specific details:

1) Size: The incredibly small size of this camcorder will absolutely change the way you film events - rather than spending a majority of your attention on the camcorder when filming a scene, the camcorder almost disappears in your palm and allows you to concentrate on your subject - and not on the act of capturing the moment.

2) Progressive scan CCD: The design of the image capture system means that every frame is captured completely. This differs from other CCD designs that captures half of the pixels each frame and combines two sets to create a still image. The Progressive scan system makes for crisp video images and clearer stills.

A couple of Pro's:

- The manual is clear, detailed and well laid-out.

- The camcorder comes with a battery charger than can hold multiple batteries (although it only charges one at a time).

A couple of con's which should provide only minor annoyance:

- The camcorder does not dome with the 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable that is required for computer connectivity. While I was able to purchased one for only $15.99, why isn't one included?

- The memory that holds still images (Canon's own MultiMediaCard) is proprietary, and replacement/expansions for this memory is difficult to find (and can't be ordered from Canon's website). I would have preferred either of two popular formats: SmartMedia or CompactFlash.

- Battery life is quite short (using the 2.5" display, the battery is done after only 40 mins). While this is required to reduce size, any sort of extended use will require several batteries.

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Overall, this camcorder sets the standard for all of Canon's competitors to meet. It's size advantage is even more impressive because this camcorder has all of the functionality of it's larger competition and more. This is a great camcorder for family/personal use - only those individuals whom need very high-end functionality (triple CCD or advanced white balancing) will need to look elsewhere.

97 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT CAMERA OVERALL, November 26, 2000

By 

B. Kim "Western Runner" (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode (Electronics)

Wow, talk about small! I compared it to the Sony PC-100 mini DV before I bought the Elura 2 online -- its roughly half the size of the Sony, with the same size (2.5") LCD screen. I bought it for the promise of quality video and stills from its progressive scan CCD -- the Sony PC-100 doesn't have this feature. It basically allows a full 680k pixel image on each frame of video (and stills too) while most other cameras take interlaced images -- only half the lines of each image per frame. Anyway, it certainly doesn't disappoint. Video taken in daylight or otherwise bright settings are so clear, I found myself with my nose to the TV screen to see if I could pick up any noise, snow or artifacts. There was none. One caveat: images taken in less than ideal light, like at home at night with normal artificial lighting, results in images roughly equivalent to my old Hi8 in similar light. That is, in low light situations, there is noticeable noise and muting of colors. Except for this one shortcoming which may be common in other cameras, I would definitely give it 5 stars. I am extremely happy with its super compactness, optics, ease of use, and overall performance. I easily hooked it up to my computer through a Firewire connection (requires purchase of additional accessories), and editing family movies was a snap and trouble free. Unless you shoot mostly in low light, this is about as close to the ideal consumer camcorder as you'll find.

105 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Mini DV & Digital Still Camera Combo, November 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode (Electronics)

The ultimate consumer grade digital camcorder currently available. The Elura 2 MC offers both superb camcorder features and the ability to record photos on either tape or multimedia cards. You can even transfer photos from tape to multimedia card. It has every bell and whistle for editing and dubbing video and audio. Progressive scan allows for great rapid action pictures. One of its best features is its size. It is amazingly compact but all controls are easily usable and accessible. Menus are clear and easy to operate. Its small size ensures that it will find a home in any jacket pocket, purse, briefcase or tote. Unlike the Sony products, it does not use proprietary accessories so that you aren't locked into a single provider and don't need to be concerned about being to move to a different product in the future. (Sony should have learned its lesson from Betamax). The Elura 2 MC is the digital camcorder equivalent of the digital Powershot S-100 Elph camera. Way cool and totally functional covering all bases.