Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon ZR50MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, Digital Still Mode & MMC Card Slot

I just got this camera YESTERDAY, so obviuosly there's a lot I cannot attest to, but I'm writing this primarily because my experience is so different from the review posted above. I spent about 4 hours working with the camera, its programming, its settings, and hooking it up to the TV. I also read part of the manual and utilized its suggestions for optimum performance.

The features are outstanding, and it is small, sturdy, and versatile. The 22X optical zoom is TREMENDOUS; much better than the 10X cameras that are out there. As for low light and night taping, the camera is also exceptional, but it takes a little work to figure out how to shoot in these environments (which is what the other reviewer clearly neglected to do).

You cannot shoot at night or in low light using the "auto" setting. It doesn't work well in low light, at night, or in cars. Instead, you must manually adjust the shutter speed or switch to situational modes like "night mode" or "driving mode" (while in a car) or "sports mode"), etc. This is VERY easy to do once you read the instructions. With a little bit of experimenting with these settings, you will find that the camera takes great pictures in low light, at night, while moving, etc. As for the "buzz" the reviewer above describes, mine doesn't have that. Sometimes the zoom "clicks" when you release it quickly, but some practice should do away with that.

In all, EXCELLENT picture in a variety of lighting, environments or situations, as well as easy connection to TV's and VCR's. The remote is awesome too. I have yet to connect it to my computer.

I think, for the money, this is an A+ camera; better than the others that I looked at in the same price range.

I like Sony. But 10x zoom, size and weight steered me away from them. After reading MANY reviews on this site and elsewhere, I wanted to get the ZR40. Then the ZR50 appeared in my Gold Box and I decided to order it. I'm sure glad I did!!

I ordered it together with the external mic DM-50. (You have to order some tape with it, too. Why doesn't Canon include a tape?) I also have a Mac PowerBook G4. Here are my findings:

1. The video quality outdoors is just great. When you play back on a TV, it looks like any professional TV program. Crisp, colors are great.

2. Optics are excellent. 22x zoom lets you fill the screen with an orange 15 ft away. Shake is no problem. Digital zoom only marginally beneficial.

3. The stills are nothing special. But even a megapixel (like other brands) is nothing special. (My first digi camera was a Kodak 1.3 Megapixel. Nice but only good enough for very small printouts. I have a 4 Megapixel Olympus for hi-res printouts today.) Quality is OK if you want to send 640x480 web images.

4. Sound: The built-in mics are better than expected. They are sensitive and omnidirectional. There is some hum from the motor. Not a lot. But the real kicker is the DM-50. It's not totally cheap but it's worth it (in my eyes). The mic is very sensitive and audio is CRYSTAL clear. I taped my wife singing about 25 ft away. She is an opera singer, soprano. Her voice in the high range is a challenge to any mic. It's sensitive enough that I could hear her muttering with the organist, her pageturns. And yet her singing did not distort. The quality exceeds my 2 semi-pro mics. People only 10ft off to the side definitely sounded off mic. And even people right behind me were softer on tape than people in front 20ft away.

The DM-50 has also 2 stereo settings that are more omnidirectional. I haven't explored them yet.

5. Connection to the Mac is absolutely a breeze. Just plug in the firewire and load iMovie and you have the camera image on the computer monitor. You can record/import the camera image directly to hard drive w/o hitting record on the camera. iMovie also controls the camera to load the edited movie back onto the camera tape.

6. After the first 15min of taping I got a message that the heads would be dirty?? I ignored it and kept going. No problem. Maybe there was some residue on the heads from the factory? (The handbook says to clean the heads every 20 h.) 3 h of taping later, the message still hasn't come back.

I'm so glad I got the ZR50. 22x zoom and DM-50 are worth it!

I was concerned about the motor whine being picked up on the tape. I have not found this to be a current problem. The motor whine at playback is due to the motor AT playback. After cutting a DVD and playing back in a DVD player the whine was not present. Outdoors, I found the colors to be vibrant. Shooting indoors does require adequate lighting otherwise the picture will appear slighly "grainy" (but this is to be expected with any camcorder). Connecting to a PC via the FireWire port was automatic with Windows XP. The system recognized the camcorder immediately and was ready to transfer data in less than one minute. The digital camera option is not impressive but that is not the primary function and would suggest purchasing a digital camera if digital photography is of interest to you. The external microphone is recommended if you will be shooting objects more than 15 feet away. Overall, this camcorder exceded my expectations.

I actually own a zr25mc, but I had a run in with a cup of coffee and the thing is all done. Just ordered the ZR50MC because of the 22x optical and the success I had with the ZR25MC.

I hear a lot of complaints about the motor noise. yes it is there, and yes you can work around it by using an aux mic. The camera is so compact that the tape mech sits very close to the audio. To me, the size outweighs the noise. You can tuck this thing in a pocket.

One of the best things about this camcorder, is the placement of zoom. I looked at some of the vertical style camcorders out there, and was disapointed/confused by there placement of zoom. Camcorder functions are very intuitive, as oppose to like a sony, where everything is done by hunting around in menus (like I feel like using an operating system when filming).

Image quality is superb. For those of you that whine about its low pixel count (460K is a bit low), you should realize that this is not even noticable on standard TVs, unless your some kind of cyborg that can distinguish those things. I'd even say its not noticable on an HDTV, but thats beyond my knowledge.

Personally, I would recommend Canon over Sony. Although Sony has tremendous extra features, I'd imagine you would use them about 5% of the time. I hardly even use the features on the Canon, opting to do that kind of stuff with adobe premiere/after affects.

I'd say, the only negative about the ZR50MC is the plastic housing, it can and will get scuffed up.

The Canon ZR50MC offers upper end features at a mid-range value. I purchased a ZR50MC a few weeks ago after it first came out and am very satisfied. It offers features such as true analog pass-thru so that you can send tape from your analog video camcorder straight to your hard drive (then to cd, dvd or back to tape)without taping first on DV (most models at this price don't offer these options); you can have multitrack recording (such as a music soundtrack under the taped audio) and the ZR50 offers USB and 1394 "firewire" connections. The video is very good in average lighting. In low lighting, it advertises a "night mode" feature that we should sell (make that give) to Al-Qaeda. It only works well if the subject is dead, though for a previous owner of a 10 year old VHS-C unit, even this feature is cool if overrated. With some practice using the AE shift or the "low light" mode you can obtain acceptable low light images. I compared this unit at the store to the Sony DCR-PC9 and found the ZR50 images very favorable in medium to low light. The unit also takes digital still images, but I wouldn't sell your digital camera quite yet. The ZR50 will take clear, web-acceptable 640 by 480 images. I would recommend the Canon ZR50 to anyone looking for a solid, compact, easy to use, midrange DV camcorder. It is very easy to operate, well designed and seems to be solidly built.