Good home video camera.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Easy to learn, takes nice pictures, customer support

Cons: Zooming takes practice, needs a larger battery or a spare.

The Bottom Line: 
For the price, a great quality home video camera that is easy to use.

Author's Review
I purchased this camcorder to record video on vacation. I looked at many online reviews of comparably priced camcorders including camcorders by Samsung and Panasonic. I selected the Canon ZR80 because of my past success with the reliability of Canon products, and because Canon is famous for cameras. Canon also has a complete and informative company website.

I am not a professional photographer and was relieved to find the instruction manual very easy to understand. The camera has special preset modes for sports, portraits, spotlights, sand/snow, and low-light conditions, and of course automatic mode. I used the sand/snow mode at the beach and got some excellent-quality footage of seals. I also used the low-light mode to film inside a cave. The low-light footage came out nice and had good color, but if you don't hold the camera steady, the picture can look slightly delayed. Most of the time, the automatic mode took great footage, even though the dirty windshield of our car. This camera also has a wind blocking feature to block wind noise from windy outdoor locations.

You can play back your video on the LCD screen with sound, so you don't have to have a TV around to see and hear what you just recorded. One disadvantage is that the battery that comes with the camera has a very short life, especially if you use the LCD screen. I would recommend purchasing the largest available spare battery if you plan to do a lot of recording in one day.

The most difficult feature for me to initially learn was the zoom. The zoom button moves right and left, so you have to remember which side zooms in and which side zooms out, which gets easier with time.

The camera was very easy to plug into the TV. It also has customizable alert tones that are fun to use. I didn't hear any motor noise while viewing my footage, at least nothing significant enough to notice.

The zoom is 18x optical and 360x digital. I think the camera took very good close-ups, and you can get closer than you would want to get to most objects. I didn't use the photo feature or some of the more advanced features, but based on what I used the outcome was fine.

One more thing to note is that it seems to take a second or two after you press Record for the camera to actually start recording. So it's better to press record a little beforehand. Also, I would recommend getting a carrying case in addition the the spare battery.

UPDATE: Recently the viewfinder and LCD screen went black when the camera was turned on for recording. I contacted Canon, and they informed me that there's a bad chip in this camera. They are going to fix it for free even though my warranty is expired. I am very pleased with Canon's customer service.