Customer Reviews

Canon ZR400 MiniDV Camcorder w/14x Optical Zoom (Dark Metal)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My intention when I was finally ready to purchase a camcorder was the Optura 85. I had picked it over the ZR 400 for the accessory shoe and flash. However, given that our vacation was a week away, the Optura would not have been shipped until well after we returned.

We took the ZR 400 on our trip to Disney World and it performed very well. Outdoor video was great. Indoors it performed quite well. In the Playhouse Disney show it adjusted well and captured the show with great resolution and focus.

I was also looking for a camcorder that could do analog-digital conversion and this function has been excellent.

It only looses a star for a touchy on/off switch. I had it in a camera bag with my digital camera and somehow it got turned on in the bag. I captured great audio of the "It's a Small World Ride," but no video.

ZR400 is a good miniDV camera with many options. It's not overloaded with too many manual control options, but it has just enough feature tweak (such as shutter speed, aperture size tweak) and a variety of automated modes to satisfy those few who would like a bit more refinement on casual vacation videos. It does not have mic input or hotshoe for external lighting connections, so it is definitely for casual vacation video and good lighting shooting.
The size of the camera is one of its major attractions for me. The camera is just the right size to be held with one hand without feeling too small, while it's small enough to fit in large pockets and easily slips into any kind of bag of decent size. Under normal day light and indoor lighting conditions, the colors and video quality are excellent. Under candle lighting or lighting with shaded lamps, the noise is visible in the video, but not overwhelming. The color tones are still good even under poor lighting. At this price range for video cameras, the noise performance is about average. However, for casual viwers, this is not an issue.
The only draw back maybe the bottom loading mechnism for the miniDV tape. Like almost all the miniDV loading mechnisms, the system works a bit finicky. But not too distracting as long as you follow the instruction in the manual. Bottom loading on the camera makes changing tape while using tripods a bit more complicated than need to, but that's not a big deal.
Image stablizing works well even at the very long end of the zoom, I think the zoom range and the electronic stablizing in ZR400 works well as a combination, the long end is long enough for almost all cases while stablization is still good. Camera with longer zoom will suffer from dizzying camera shake even with digital stablization. So the ZR400 has just the right zoom ragne for its electronic stablization capabilities. Wide angle adaptor make the field of view acceptable for wide angle shots, but it's a bit cumbersome to have to put on a wide angle adaptor. It's no big deal, but I just wish the optical zoom lens would be wide enough on its own.
ZR400 takes SD cards for digital still photos and digital M-jpeg vidoes. I see little merit in using the jerky M-jpeg video when the high quality miniDV is readily available at hand. The still pictures are capture at about 1 meg pixels. It's OK for quick snap shot. Any cheap dedicated point and shoot digital still camera will put the still images to shame, but this feature is more of a bonus anyway. DO NOT BUY THIS for still image use, you will be disappointed.
Note, there're NO (note NONE) DV editing software that comes with the camera, so you will need something like Adobe Premiere Element or Ulead Video Studio and firewire on your PC to transfer the DV from the camera to your computer. Photo organizing and editing software comes in the package. Since I have photoshop, I never really paid too much attention to those. Mac guys are lucky they have iMovie, the windows movie maker is really too simplistic for most uses.
Canon should included a battery charger with this model instead forcing the battery charging be done with the camcorder plugged in. A separate battery charger is available for a charge from Canon. Battery life is not a problem, since I normally use video very sparingly. The battery came with the camera last about 1.5 hours shooting time, enough to shoot a full miniDV tape in SP with reviewing and tweaking or a full tape in LP (which I never use). Many high capacity batteries are available for Canon ZR models from a variety of vendors for reasonable prices. I have one that will last 4 hours for about $50.

This cannon ZR-400 is a great choice. The new CCD has an excelent performance with very good quality.
If You buy this, think in a second battery (same size)