The Canon ES55 & ES50. Hi Quality & Cheap - A Bargain

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great Optics, nice Zoom, high quality Hi8 - Great all around camera for a bargain price

Cons: You may need to purchase a second (and third?) battery.

Author's Review
For non-professional, family use, this is one of the best camcorders on the market!


If you have read some of my other reviews, you'll know that I am quite happy to give products bad ratings if they are deserved. In this case, however, I'm quite happy to give the Canon ES55 five stars and two thumbs up. I purchased this camcorder early this year. Now that I've had a chance to use it a bit, I have very few bad things to say about it. The ES50 and ES55 are the same model of camcorder, the only difference being that for (usually about $50 extra) you get image stabilization with the ES55. The ES50 is frequently used as a "teaser" in electronics ads to get you come into the store, at which point the salespeople will try to sell you on a more expensive camera. Aside from spending a little more money for the ES55, I'm here to tell you that most people DON'T NEED TO SPEND MORE MONEY!, because this camera works superbly.

The first time I used this camera was this April when I travelled to Fort Collins CO, from California for the US National Kayak Polo Tournament. My wife was unable to come along, so I used the camera to record my trip along I-80 in the early spring, the scenery around Colorado whilst I was there, and of course the action in the tournament. This provided a great chance to really test out the features of this camera in a variety of conditions, and I'll use several examples from this trip to illustrate what I thought of this camera.

I am not going to make a big list all of the details about this camera to pad out my review (if you want that information on the ES55, you can visit the Canon site at: http://www.usa.canon.com/camcambin/camcorders/8mm/es55.html) Rather than that, I'm going to focus on the features of this camera that I as a user find noteworthy.


Da Zoom
OH YEAH! I was ripping through southern Wyoming trying to make the training camp by noon, when I passed by a field with a huge herd of Antelope. We get Elk in California, but not Antelope - this was COOL. I screech to a stop, grab the camcorder and start zooming in on the hundreds of animals. Held in my hand, the zoom was pretty useless because I could not steady it enough to get a decent picture. Luckily though, I had a professional quality tripod in the boot of my car, and the antelope cooperated while I set it up and shot some great pictures. LESSON: The 500X digital zoom is good, but you'll need to invest in a tripod if you intend to actually record things with it (and at 500X the quality is poor - I think 100-200X is about your max useful). Fast forward to the action at the kayak tournament. This took place indoors in a large swim centre in Fort Collins. The spectator stands were about 30 feet above the pool. I tried taking video of the games both by hand and using my tripod, but in this case I found that following the action by hand using the 22X optical zoom only worked better. I tried using the "Flexi-zone" feature which is supposed to keep the camera focused on a chosen object to keep the camera focused on the players as I panned and zoomed, but I'm not convinced it made a big difference.

Exposure Settings
While at the training camp and tournament, I used the camera to record the games so I could improve my play. Since the games were played indoors, there were very often variable light conditions, from nearly natural light coming through windows to completely artificial light at night. Especially during the day when much of the light was natural there was a lot of contrast between areas of the pool. The ES55 comes with a very generous selection of programs for recording (ie. sand/snow, portraits, sports etc.). I experimented with these and found that they do make a big difference when you choose the correct setting, but there is a learning curve to choosing the right one first!

Picture Quality
A high-8 camera for only 300 bucks? You bet! The only way to get a better picture is to go digital. Going with a digital camera is going to cost you alot more, but for your standard home-movie which will be shown on a TV you probably won't notice the difference. TVs will be digital soon enough, so if you have the cash it might be worth the money, but for $300 this will give you your money's worth in picture quality.

Battery Life
This is the only area in which I was not satisfied with the base model ES55. The battery that comes with the camera does not last all that long if you are needing to do rewinding, ff, viewing etc. If you plan only to record straight through, it might work OK, but otherwise plan on buying another battery or two. I was lucky in that I was able to recharge the battery during games I wasn't interested in recording, but in many situations that will not be possible.


So - if you are looking for a good video camera for general and family use, and you do not plan on professional editing etc., I think you'll be very happy with this camera. Every electronics store tried to sell me a better camera, but I was fortunate to get the advice from a friend that for the money, this is one of the best cameras around. The Optical Zoom is one of the best in the industry at the price range, the Hi8 quality is excellent, and the programs and features are intuitive and superb.