Customer Reviews

Canon ZR830 MiniDV Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This camera is a wonderful choice for those looking to make professional movies, or tape family gatherings, or whatever. You can either record onto a mini dv tape, or a memory card. The camera is fairly easy to navigate (although not quite as easy as previous models of this series that I have used.) It can record in widescreen or fullscreen, has an excellent zoom lens, and a handy picture stablizer that will compensate for shakiness on hand-held shots. The transfer quality is very good, which is useful for editing purposes and/or burning DVDs of your projects. The camera comes with all required accessories including a battery, AC adapter, A/V cords, etc. It does not come with a firewire cable so you will need to buy that seperately, if you plan to edit your movies. I have greatly enjoyed using this camera. I also love using iMovie to edit my completed tapes. For anyone wanting to have fun filming home movies or something a bit more professional, this camera would be great on both levels.

I like this Camcorder. I am the first time Camcorder buyer. I tried all the features of it and it really works fine. I used JVC MiniDV tape and it gives excellent result with it. But it did not give me the same kind of quality with Sandisk SD card. One draw back is battery discharged very fast. If you are going for a tour, it's better to keep extra battery.
But overall this is a good buy at given price.

I seemed to have done a lot of research on camcorders prior to purchase but in the end paid the price on inferior products. I purchased a Flip and sent it back because I couldn't get the data off the device. I purchased an Aptic and sent it back because of some clicking sound being recorded while recording. The Flip was a nice little device; I liked it but couldn't get the data off, which discovered many others seem to be having the same issue with it. The Aptic was just a bad one altogether and couldn't even hold a candle to the Flip picture, which was good but produced this HUGE avi file.

But now here came the ZR830...

Let me just briefly say when I purchased the ZR830 from Cannon that I wasn't immediately overly happy because I really needed to get the recordings on to my PC. I just didn't know anything about Firewire or IEEE-1394 Cards. I almost sent this back but decided because of the *really* nice picture to go-ahead and take it to the next step and get a Firewire Card by StarTech, which included the cable for a desktop for about $25. Problem solved, they even give you a copy of ulead editing software, which is amazing. Laptops use a 4pin Firewire connect, Desktops use a 6pin Connect. I can now get my recordings on to my PC.

I learned that quality pictures from DVD disk on some of the new camcorders, and saving recordings to hard disk such as SD cards are hard to acquire unless you are spending hundreds of dollars more on real expensive cams. The DVD's and hard disk on some of the new cams can't hardly touch the picture quality produced by this small little guy called the ZR830. Also, I don't have any problems with noise recordings like some professed from the ZR800's. This is a great cam with a noble optical zoom. I made the right choice by keeping this product that I got for a reasonable price from Amazon seller.

To begin, this is the first camcorder I've owned. It's possible I was expecting more...I own a Nikon CoolPix 8mp digicam that takes movies, but obviously not with any great quality.

I was kind of expecting a little better quality (higher resolution) from the camera. From that point of view I was a little let down...it's sufficient, dont get me wrong, but it's only a step up from my digicam.

The device takes memory card and tape...It wont store video on the card however, unless a tape is in the device...didn't really say that in the manual and confused me (I had a mem card when device arrived, but no tapes).

I got a little annoyed too trying to figure out how to copy from tape to PC...there's SQUAT about this in the manual, and this is tough to find even on 'net searches.

WHAT YOU NEED TO COPY VID TO PC:
FIREWIRE CABLE --> You MUST have this cable to copy to PC...$35+ part...BE AWARE

The software that came with the device kinda blows...I don't know why, but software that's bundled with digicams and now i see this camcorder, is always chintzy...Use Microsoft Movie Maker instead...WITH FIREWIRE CABLE AND MS MOVIE MAKER, YOU CAN EASILY PULL VIDEO OFF THE TAPE, and you dont have to be a rocket scientist...hopefully I can save someone the headache I went through trying to figure this out...easy enough once you know...

So, summary is, for the money, decent, not great...will suffice since I'm a cheapO.

:)

After buying my 8 year old cheap plastic toy video cameras, and his constant asking to use my video camera, I decided to get him his own. This unit has the highest rating by Consumer Reports for the price. My son records and erases his videos over and over. Its no light weight and it takes nice still shots too. I'd trade him my 8 year old video camera in a heartbeat. The price here is the same other stores charge for the ZR 800,which can't take stills.

Being this is my first camcorder and video-recording experience, I am hardly an expert on either subject, but I am into photography and recognize quality images when I see them.

Taking this out for the first time, I drove around town to shoot the landscape on an exceedingly beautiful day. The partly snow-covered red sandstone cliffs contrasted beautifully against a pristine royal blue sky with puffy white clouds. Videotaping in widescreen format, I noticed how the picture did not pixelate when I slowly zoomed in. When the battery pack ran down, I plugged the power/recharging AC cord into an adapter I keep in the car so I was able to keep videotaping.

After returning home, I reviewed the clips via the included AV cable on a 55" TV screen and was amazed at how crisp, clean, and vibrant the images looked. It WAS an exceptionally beautiful day and I am no expert but I believe this camcorder delivers.

Note: To review and edit via your computer you will need to make downloads via a firewire cable. Since one is not included with this product and because there are two different pin number combinations sold you'll need to be sure the one you buy is compatible with your particular hardware.

Works fine, the battery life isn't the best so you may need to upgrade to a better battery. Playback is great but the only problem I found was in darker areas you need a lot of light for clear playback. It's my first camera so I may need to adjust something somewhere.

Very happy with the purchase. Had been a Hi 8 camera owner for earlier in my kids lives -- but using this now to tape games and transfer to disk. Very simple to learn and operate and very good quality video for my purposes.

Camcorder has good features but the motor noise is quite loud and is captured while recording. Other reviewer had mentioned that turning on the wind filter feature helps and I tried this, but the noise is still audible during playback on the camcorder as well as when transferred to the computer and played back from there.

When recording video to the SDHC card and zooming in or out, there is terrible noise. Otherwise, it seems like a good deal so far (I bought this on a gold box offer at $170 - I would not pay $249 for this camera).