A Great Camcorder for the money

Author's Rating:

Pros: Best picture in class

Cons: Battery life, location of exposure and focus controls

The Bottom Line: 
Pictures rate with the best in 1CCD category range at any price, and with prices dropping to $900, a great value if you can afford it.

Author's Review
I had been thinking about getting a camcorder for some time, and a dream vacation to Rio during Carnaval was the best reason to finally get something.

I wasn't terribly price constrained, but ruled out the 3-CCD pro level camcorders as being far to expensive for my needs, as well as generally being relatively bulky. I narrowed my search to the Optura Pi, and the Sony TRV-20 and DCR-PC100/110.

There were a few features which held no interest for me. 1-Meg still pictures from Sony had zero appeal. All the reviews I read said that stills were average at best compared to a dedicated digital camera, plus they have less than 1/3 the maximum resolution of high end digital cameras. I have a very good 35mm camera and a film scanner if I want excellent digitized pictures, or can use a highly rated 3Meg digital camera for very good to excellent pictures. Why spend extra for mediocre still pictures? Needless to say, the lack of a memory card to save those mediocre pictures carried no weight (and the Optura Pi does store still images on digital tape, not as convenient, but easily downloaded to my computer using the Firewire 1394 port).

As far as digital effects go, I have a PC with Firewire already set up for DV editing and even the free or least expensive software programs are far better than anything you can do directly on camera. The Canon has a number of effects you can employ which are pretty easy to do, but I do everything on my PC using Premiere, a DV editing program. If you want to do anything beyond rudimentary editing and effects, get a decent DV film editing program and a Firewire card and you won't even think about using any camera's built in special effects.

Super small camcorders like the Elura and the Sony PC5 looked interesting, but every review I saw said that the pictures were substandard. My brief examination at a store in side to side tests more or less backed up these reviews. The Optura Pi is small enough to fit in the pocket of some cargo style pants but admittedly, those are pretty big pockets. The super small ones have their place, but they are currently several hundred dollars more expensive, and their lack of great picture taking ability took them off my comparison charts.

I had a chance to directly compare the Sony's and the Optura Pi and thought that the optical stabilization in the Canon was clearly superior to the Sonys' electronic version. Just looking at the Sonys, you would probably be happy since their pictures are pretty good, but the Optura Pi is excellent and clearly superior. The picture looks better with better detail and colors and has less bounce when you are moving and jiggling. If you are going to use a tripod and turn this feature off, it won't make a difference but otherwise, a huge plus for the Optura Pi. Most people don't believe I wasn't using a tripod for a number of my clips because the image was so steady.

The Optura Pi also takes pretty good pictures in low light situations. To get the best results, you have to use manual exposure settings, but they are pretty easy to use. The automatic settings are pretty good, but like all the other camcorders, the camera can get confused for several seconds and lose focus or correct exposure when looking at complex scenes. I've read that the PC100/110 is mediocre in low light.

Of course, the only reason to get a camcorder is to take pictures, and the Optura Pi produces very good to excellent pictures. Colors are vibrant, detail is excellent, contrast and intensity are about the best you can do without going to a pro level 3CCD costing $2000+ or more. I'm a firm believer in getting products that are best in their primary use, and only use auxillary features to distinguish between those that are about the same in their primary use. For camcorders, taking moving pictures is why you are buying the product and anything else is secondary. If your camcorder doesn't take pictures which totally satisfy you, all the extra features are not going to improve the pictures. For the money, the Optura Pi delivers the goods with the very best, along with having a comparable list of features.

Another feature of the Optura Pi and not the Sony (in this price range) is the progressive scan. If you play back on a fairly standard TV, you won't notice much of a difference. But, if you have an HDTV, play back on a computer monitor, or are doing DV editing on your computer, you'll never want to go back to non-progressive scan. You have to spend a lot more money to get progresive scan in Sonys.

I was relatively happy with the sound recording. Recording loud music during a parade was very good. The built in mic picks up a lot of sound (surprisingly, the noise from the tape transport was not noticable)almost too much. Background noise can distract from the source you are filming. Overall, the built in mic is pretty good and better than any of the competitors. I think all of the pro-level 3CCD camcorders have an external directional mic for this reason. I'm going to get the external DM-50 mic which plugs into the hot shoe on top, and expect to get professional quality sound.

Weak points - The included BP-511 battery doesn't last long. With lots of zooming in and out, with the LCD closed and using the eyepiece, and turning the camera off between shots over the course of a night, I barely got 50 minutes of recording. You can get substantially more if you just run the camera without adjustments or wait time between sequences. I have since gotten the BP-522 which is rated about 3 times as long. I strongly recommend getting a BP-522 so you can keep the camera and LCD on between shots for most events. Even so, if you are going to be out the entire day or weekend and want to shoot 4 or 5 hours of film, you are going to run out of juice in your battery unless you have a second BP-522. The BP-522 runs about $100 so it's not really cost effective to get a second one if you don't have a lot of extended shoots. As someone else noted, the BP-522 is big compared to the size of the camera and butts up against the extended eyepiece in the down position, although you can angle the eyepiece up to a 45 degree angle to avoid the battery. It would be nice if there was an all day external battery pack you could carry in a shoulder bag that could be hooked up to the camera's external power socket.

The LCD gets washed out in bright sunshine, although not more so than other camcorders. It would take a lot more juice or a different technology to make it signicantly brighter. I use the viewfinder a lot in bright light. The viewfinder has a diopter adjustment, so if you're nearsighted, you can adjust the picture so it's clear. The 3 1/2" display makes viewing much easier than those with smaller displays. One small point, if you are using the eyepiece, the manual focus and exposure buttons are between your face and the camera. This makes it difficult to adjust without taking your eye off the eyepiece.

Although they give you a cord to attach to the lens cap, I have to note that I have a sub $200 35mm camera with a automatic iris that opens and closes when you turn on the power and I have a sub $100 35mm camera with an iris that you open and close by hand. I note this only because the lens cap has been knocked off several times while in my carrying bag and the lenses are supposedly made out of fairly soft glass that easily scratches. It also take a lot of time fiddling around trying to get the cap back on, especially when you have your hands full of other things. This is a common non-feature of camcorders and digital cameras. How much would it cost to build in an automatic iris?

One note about filters. The threads on the Optura Pi are 30.5mm. Some retailers sell 30.5mm threaded filters. If you attach 2 or more at the same time, the 2nd filter can cut off the corners of your picture if you aren't using any zoom. This isn't noticeable on the viewfinder or if you play back on a TV because the TV overscans so the center portion is expanded and the cut off corners are off the screen, but it is very noticeable if you are doing digital editing. It's better to get an adapter and a bigger set of filters so the casing of the filter doesn't appear in your shots.

Overall, except for short battery life with the included BP-511, not much to complain about. And with internet prices dropping close to the $900 level, if you can afford it, the Optura Pi is one of the best deals available. If you've got more money to spend, you'll have to go up to a pro level 3CCD model in the $2000 range to get better pictures.