Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon ZR40 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, & Digital Still Mode

Things I like...

- price
- size

Thing I didn't like and made me return

- performance under regular indoor house lighting very grainy and considerably worse than my 8mm analog. Doing further research it appears this is likely not unique to Canon but common to DV camcorders. I am going to stick with my 8mm for a couple of years until DV tech improves since much of my use is indoors filming kids, etc.

After about a year of use, ZR 40 started eating tapes. Do a google search on the topic, there are hundreds of people with the same problem. 'Remove Cassette' and 'Eject' (use those as keywords combined with 'Canon ZR' to view message boards postings) will appear on the screen, and that's the end of the toy.

I just received my ZR 40 and really liked its size and low weight. But once I tried it, the fun was quickly over. Low light recording (in my apartment with lights on) was horrible and even with low-light mode selected, it was unacceptable. And in night mode, everything moves in slow motion. Overall, the quality was not that great, even in day-time shooting.

I have a regular Sony Hi8 cam, and its low light and night capabilities are 100 times better. I would seriously hold out for a better camera, even if it costs a bit more.

The image stabilization also makes the picture look strangely un-lifelike.

I bought this camcorder to replace an aging 8mm GE unit that I've had since '96. I can't believe how far technologies come in such a short time. The video is amazingly clear with the optical zoom (although it does get grainy when the digital zoom kicks in) and quality is good in many lighting conditions. I just got a firewire interface and even though I'm only using the two "(inexpensive) and free" software packages (the firewire card came with ULead Video Studio and the Canon comes with ArcSoft Showbiz), I'm having a blast editing video with my computer (in near realtime). Quite a difference than just 4 years ago when I was using a Truevision Bravado card and my 8mm (Quality was never that good and it took FOREVER to preview/compile video).

I've had this camera for almost a year now. I'd say that all of the features that I would expect from a digital camcorder meet and exceed my expectations.

Things that I like the most:
1. Perfect companion for my iMac.
2. Great quality analog-to-digital conversion. A must if you want to play with analog videos in digital world.
3. Solid Canon design, made in Japan if anyone cares.
4. Price.
5. No useless features like in more popular brand.

Things I don't like as much:
1. I think indoors quality is reasonable but it's average with low light. I don't really know if any cameras in that price range do well in low light.
2. Some people complained about motor noise? It's possible, I haven't tried to make any silent movies yet. I add music to all my movies that don't already have some sound.
3. Battery life is short but recharges quickly.
4. Shuts off quickly if idle.
5. You probably wouldn't want to use low-resolution Photo feature espesially if you have a good digital camera but this is probably the only "useless feature".

If you are like me and just like to point/shoot/watch on tv/edit on your computer - it's great.