Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon ZR65MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder

The only good thing about this entry-level camcorder is its low cost. However, the poor quality should be of a great concern:

1. It takes the camera too long to re-focus when you zoom in/out.
2. The digital zoom is virtually useless although the 20X optical zoom is reasonable.
3. There is an audio/video synchronization issue. The video appears to have a fraction second of delay.
4. When a recording involves some quick motions, say playing a violin, the motion will become blurry. I have never experienced this even in the first generation Sony MiniDV camcorder.
5. The playback sound is poor, stemming from the low-quality speaker.

I am very disappointed at this camcorder. Canon offers good digital cameras, but this product line is light years behind other brands.

I got this as a wedding present, and opened it right away. It takes great low light pictures and the image and sound have no hiss or noise. The playback mode is great. It takes good pictures on the move. The microphone is omni-directional, so it does not pick up conversation in noisy situations well, such as at a reception.

I have owned a number of analog video camcorders over the years and have been very impressed by the Sonys I have used however thanks to the excellent canon digial camera I have I decided to try a Cannon for my second MiniDV camera.
My first venture into MiniDV was a disaster with a faulty JVC that managed to lose an entire vacation by corrupting the data to a point even JVC could not recover! After this I was far more careful with my second attempt some 12 months later.
Initially I was impressed by the ZR65MC, it feels good in the hand and has a load of features for the price. The zoom is fantastic and the software it comes with is solid and worked well to connect to the PC.
The video quality was good and the photos to SD card worked okay (about the standard of a 4 year old digital camera, okay for family snap shots)
Where things went wrong was over the next week testing the camera on vacation, the startup time for the unit is far too slow (approaching 6 seconds!). The first time you miss a "magic" moment waiting for the camera to startup you are very likely to reconsider your choice. Couple this with the annoying "binging" it goes through when you leave it on (to avoid the startup time) and you have a serious niggle that will make you wish you had looked elsewhere. I have returned the camera and am trying out the Panasonic DV203D as I really can't afford the Sony TRV33 that offers similar features. If the Panasonic works out, great, if not I will have to return to Hi8 and save up some more money before venturing back into the world of MiniDV :-(

HTH

My canon zr65 suddenly went black (No image detected). From what I found on the web (a lot of people have the same problem), the CCD may be the cause. It looks like there is a quality issue about this part. To replace a CCD is very costly. Take your chance.

To it's credit, this camera has alot of neat bells and whistles - the most exciting of which is the 20x optical zoom. It's easy and intuitive to use without having to spend much time in the manual, and ergonomically feels pretty good to hold and shoot. Outdoors, this camera takes video of phenomenal quality. If an outdoor mid-range single CCD camcorder is what you're in the market for, the Canon is not a bad choice.

Unfortunately, despite its deceptively low 1.4 lux rating, this camera completely disappoints in anything but the very brightest of conditions (> 100 lux). I literally had to shoot within 2 or 3 feet of a 300W incandescent light source to get any kind of acceptable image. Even in modest indoor lighting conditions (i.e. a living room with 2 or 3 60W incandescent lights), the images are extremely grainy and washed out. There are a number of tricks that some have applied (adjusting exposure, changing the shooting mode to 'low light', limiting zoom, disabling image stabilization, and so forth) - and while these did improve the image quality somewhat, the improvement was marginal at best. The image stablization and auto focus capabilities of this camera leave something to be desired as well - even at minimal zoom. You'll be disappointed at the slow response and jittery motion as you zoom in and out on your subject. Again, I think much of this can be attributed to the camera's low light response. I found I frequently had to set a zoom and manually focus the unit to get any kind of acceptable picture while filming indoors. The refresh on the low light modes is also very low and renders it almost impractical for anything but tripod use.

After a fair bit of research, the limitation of this camera seems to stem from it's 640K 1/6" CCD. The smaller CCD (which seems to be more prevalent in the newer cameras) are much less sensitive to light (and cheaper to manufacture). Inevitably, I traded my ZR65 in for a Sony TRV22 with a 1/4" CCD. While I lament not having 20x zoom, the light sensitivity of the TRV22 to the ZR65 is night and day (or day and night as the case would be). The autofocus is far more responsive, the pictures are not grainy - indoor or out - and the night shot mode on the sony actually takes a pretty decent B&W image in the near absence of any light. You can (and should expect) better in quality indoor shooting from your digital camcorder - and these products do exist, but do your homework in advance. This camera is lacking in the basics and will disappoint those users who simply want to videotape their family, children, and day-to-day social events.