Great Camera - Plenty of Features

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great quality of pictures, cool effects, lightweight, great styling.

Cons: A little background noise in quiet recordings, only 0.7MB on the digital camera side.

The Bottom Line: 
I would get the ZR100 which is like a $100 less but without the digital camera function which is not needed anyway.

Author's Review
I did something I swore I never would do when I purchased this camcorder. I purchased it on a whim. I'm usually like most of you reading this review that researches every possible aspect of some major future purchase before I head out to the cruel world of the local Best Buy to even window shop. But with some family functions coming up in the near future and my wife nagging at me to ditch the our old Panasonic VHS-C camcorder I had to give in and get her off my back. Our VHS-C camcorder to her was too bulky for her own use and she prefers the aesthetics of an electronic device than that actual capabilities of the device itself. I knew a little bit about the newer class of camcorders, just basically that there was a Mini-DV (tape) version an a Mini-DVD (disc) version. So after going over numerous models on display we both decided to go with the ZR200. I didn't mind forking over a couple of hundred dollars more for a DVD version but I just couldn't get over the capacity differences (60 quality minutes of recording on a Mini-DV tape as opposed to 20 quality minutes on a Mini-DVD). To me digital is digital, so I went with a Mini-DV brand.

The ZR200 is very light weight (something my wife loves) it ways less than a pound. It has the ability to be a digital camera as well with the addition of SD memory card. I went ahead and forked over an additional $20 to get a 128MB card. The camera portion of it is only 0.7MB so it's not really worth taking any quality pictures except for those that you plan on e-mailing to friends and not developing. We already have a 4.0MB digital camera already so I don't think we plan on using this camcorder much for the photography side. Although you can take some short video clips on the memory card and e-mail them pretty easily so I guess it does have its benefits.

There is an easy switch on the side of the camcorder (tape or card) that allows you to cycle through video or picture taking with ease. It also comes with an Easy or Manual Switch for the quality of the video settings that either lets the camcorder determine the best settings to record at or for you to control the settings. For example, it doesn't have a nightlight in the front of the camera but does have a night mode that will illuminate the background of your night recordings if you set it that function. It also has black & white, sepia, and other cool special effects that you can record in or "pause fader effects" that allow to have cool fade away effects after you the pause button. You can also record in widescreen mode which is great to view on a large TV if so have one.

I have heard some reviews on the noise picked up by the microphone in some quiet recording sessions. I haven't really noticed that because I shoot mainly family functions that are usually pretty amplified so I would say don't worry about it.

I do have to admit that the original factory battery does kind of suck, its rated for 2 hours of recording but I noticed it draining pretty fast with the LCD monitor on. So I did purchase an additional 4 hour battery it that works great, I use the 2 hour for back-up now. But be prepared to pay about $75 for the extra battery.

I haven't really gotten into the Canon software yet because I have not yet purchased a Firewire cable for my computer. The USB cable that it does come with is pretty much only good for the memory card and the pictures you take on it. An additional Firewire cable and a Firewire card on your computer will set you back other $75 (which is what I saving up now for). With a Firewire cable you can turn this camcorder into a Webcam with an additional download from the Canon website as well as better edit you videos with the proper software.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this camcorder and I believe the $349 I paid for it was well worth it. I just will not ever be purchasing major electronics again on a whim.