Customer Reviews

Canon ZR950 1.07MP MiniDV Camcorder with 37x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In the product description Amazon.com lists as a feature that the ZR950 has a microphone input: "The microphone terminal on the ZR950 makes it especially useful for educators and trainers to carefully capture the audio they need to make most effective use of the video they shoot. It's also handy when you want to easily record a live narration for your footage."

However, having hands-on experience with this camera and from reading over the manual it does not have any audio-in jacks. This is a fine camcorder, but if you're buying it to record lectures and want to record from a microphone source you're buying the wrong tool. The Canon ZR930 and the ZR900 both do state that they have microphone input on the canon website. Also, among the older models, the Canon ZR800 has audio-in as well, however the ZR830 & ZR850 do not. This is not made clear initially from Canon's website and required a good deal of research. I wish they listed that spec in their comparison page.

At any rate, these are good cameras, at a good price. Just be certain to get the 930, 900 or 800 if you need audio-in. I'm not sure why they removed that feature from their higher-end camcorders, it seems counterintuitive to me.

The first guy who reviewed this camcorder is an idiot. Before you buy, I would encourage you to check out all the brands and compare the features. Much like cell phones everyone has something just a little different that might grab you. If your looking for special features...test it out at the store and then buy it on Amazon.

As for this camcorder...the performance is as expected...excellent! Canon put out a quality 800 series last year (which was their mid-priced cameras) and now they have dropped their top-of-the-line series this year to concentrate on the more popular mid-priced camcorders. The 800 series from last year has been updated and tweaked to become the 900 series this year. The camcorder has some great features and it is really easy to use. It's very compact and simply gives me everything I want in a camcorder plus a little extra.

The cons for this one: the 1.07 MP camera that you are able to use with this (assuming you place a picture memory card in it) is a cool feature but not very practical. Realistically, your cell phone will have just as good of a picture..so I would suggest getting a camcorder bag and remember to bring a digital camera if you want to take pictures. It would be nice if you had a microphone hook-up...but you lose that with the picture taking capability (the other 900 series models have the microphone hook-up instead of the picture card).

Anyway...great camcorder at a great price!

Pros: Great video, great 48x advanced zoom, looks great, ease of use and Vista ready.
Cons: None found.

This is one of the best camera's on the market currently in this price range. Great video resolution and the ability to take photo's as well. The ability to zoom in on objects from far off and lots of extra's that most camera's do not offer. 1+ megapixel as well. Good luck finding a better camera with all these features at a price slightly under $300.

If you are a PC owner be very careful before purchasing this product. Canon wants you to think this is an easy product to synch to your computer, when in fact it is anything but. For instance, it comes with a firewire and USB connection making one think that if you don't have a firewire connection you'll be all set when it comes to transfering videos through the USB connection. This is not the case. The USB connection is only for transfering images. Fine, so pretend for a sec that you do have a firewire connection (which more often than not, is not the case for PC users), once you install the software you think you'll be downloading videos in no time. Well, you would be wrong again. The camera does not come with video editing software despite the fact that Canon labels the CD that comes with the camera as "DIGITAL VIDEO SOLUTION DISK" when all it does is EDIT PHOTOGRAPHS!!! You have to wonder who thought it would be a good idea to label softare that only downloads images as a video solution disk. Probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer over at Canon...

Anyway, that's my too cents. As a video camera it seems ok so far, but it really falls short for PC users who want to purchase a camera that is easy and quick to synch up with their PC. I hope someone finds this useful and avoids making the same mistake I did which was to trust the kid at BestBuy who assured me this synched up easily.

PS. I apologize for the use of all caps, but really thought it appropriate in this case.

Film making is not just a hobby of mine. I plan on doing it as a profession so i needed a good low budget camcorder. This is just it. It has 1CCD and 1+megapixel. Also The camera has an amazing 48x advanced zoom that does NOT deteriate the quality at all. Another thing is that the camera is loaded with amazing effects, white balances, and features. Next it has a color view finder, and a nice big lcd screen. It is a very small camera and very light. It has a dv(firewire) output and usb output. Also the picture comes out great on tv, even on a 60 inch full HD tv. Finally the LCD screen converts into a bright white light to use as a small flash. Its not very effective in large areas but it does come handy.
Now a con would be that the camera does not operate to great with auto exposure in low light but then again very few cameras in the world do good in low light. A good thing is it has an accesory shoe to add a flash on the top. One thing i didnt like was that the view finder was non retractable. But thats okay i barely ever use it.
NOW THIS IS TO ANSWER TO ALL THOSE "IDIOTS" THAT GET ANGRY WHEN THE VIDEO WONT TRANSFER WITH A USB CABLE.. HELLO!! ALMOST NO MINI DV CAMCORDER TRANSFERS VIDEOS WITHOUGHT A FIREWIRE CABLE...GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!

Okay back to buisness... This camera is overall a great buy! It is inexpensive and works great.

In the sunlight the video looks like full 1080i imagery. Its great.

Bad thing... Picture quality not so great but then again thats not what you should buy a camcorder for.

This is a solid camera for a great price. Has options for SD cards for still photos. Native wide screen support and decent battery life. Works great with iMovie. Still photos could be higher resolution, but this isn't meant to be a digital camera replacement.

Our family ordered the Canon ZR950 to record our son's stock car races. This is a true test of a camera (and operator), as you are recording varying conditions and light levels. The Canon is preforming beautifully! The images, whether bright sunlight or under the lights at night, are crisp and clear. The zoom is a breeze to use and the microphone captures all of the action we need to hear (and some we don't!) Since we've only had the camera a few weeks we have not been able to delve into all of the options the camera has to offer, but so far we love it! We would definitely recommend that anyone looking for a low to mid-level priced camera give this one a try.

I purchased this a couple of weeks ago after reviewing just about every comment on the mini DV cameras. I picked mini DV because I expected a lot of learning and cost reduction to follow on the newer hard disk drives (and I didn't want to spend $600).

I used the camera on vacation (in Oregon and Indiana). Frankly, it was pleasantly easy to use, and very easy to integrate/transfer over to my iMac (I selected this camera partly because it has a firewire).

It's sound is great, it's zoom is amazing. I have no regrets over the purchase. I did need some help connecting it, and called their 800 number, and they were equally helpful (also a pleasant surprise).

I realize the markets are constantly changing in terms of technology. But for this camera, it will last me for years (assuming it lasts for years). But it's really nice, and I've already made several DVD's with it. Now I'd like to upgrade my Mac.....

First off, two things you should be aware of before you buy this camera. One, if you don't have a firewire port, or don't intend on getting one for your computer (fireware cards aren't difficult to install and are fairly cheap), DO NOT buy this camera. Since most cameras record on harddrives nowadays anyways, this camera is definitely a little dated. However, if you have a firewire port this is a non issue since getting the video onto your computer is a painless process. Second, if sound is very important to you, DO NOT buy this camera. Now I'm talking more production quality sound, not your average home video sound. The microphone on this camera is very poor and does a terrible job at isolating important noise from background noise.

With that said, image quality with this camera is incredible considering its price. Also, you can't beat the zoom on this camera! If you're looking for a camera to make web videos with this is definitely a camera I would consider buying. If you're at all considering making anything on the professional end I would avoid this camera at all costs as it does not measure up with today's HD cameras. Great budget camera!

Everything worked OK except you cannot have the camera plugged into your Apple computer via firewire at the same time anything else is plugged into your firewire.

So when I wanted to log footage into Final Cut Pro, I'd have to unplug my media drive, change my Final Cut settings to capture back to the computer, and then capture footage, unplug the camera, replug in the hard drive, and transfer the footage to the external, delete it from my computer, and proceed as normal.

Any other brand of camera I would just plug the camera in and capture the footage to the external drive.

The only reason I bought this was to use it as a deck to get footage on the computer which it does not do well, so I returned it today and will get a Panasonic or something.