Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon ZR65MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder

Pros: Easy to operate; generally good video quality; strong home-video feature set.

Cons: Constant low-level noise; middling low-light performance; no control over auto power-off.

Summary: As noted many times before, the indoor lighting is not very good..but I expected this much from reading other reviews. But what has really bummed me out is that 3 months after purchasing the camera (with little use in that time) the camera eject refused to open. So now my cassette is stuck inside the camera. We have provided the maximum power to the camera by using the power from the wall outlet and still no tape eject. My wife contacted Canon support. They told her there are only 2 places in the country that fix Video Cameras..(yeah, ok)..and that we would have to ship back to them. According to their tech support, it sounds like an alignment problem. Sounds like I'm taking my car to the mechanic. They said they would have to get it back to the factory to re-align it. Give me a break. If you do not plan on using this camera for alot of indoor footage..and if you are lucky enough to avoid getting a CANON LEMON, such as mine..you may be okay. But my Canon experience has been horrible .regardless of whether or not the problem is covered under warranty (which it better be) I'm disappointed with my decision to choose this product.

I purchased this last week and returned it. The picture (compared to Sony TRV22 in the same lighting) was TERRIBLE! So grainy it looked like a digital effect. I tried all the settings, different tapes and alternate lighting and couldn't get a decent picture.

The motor noise is loud compared to 2 other DV camcorders I have owned. So loud it picked up on the mic and transferred to VHS. Not impressed with this, ...

If you get this camcorder, save your receipt until you've tested it!!!

I used this camera to take close-up pictures easily at the US Grand Prix Pit Walkabout today and I found it outstanding. Even from distances as far as 100 feet, you can zoom in far enough to see very detailed parts of the cars, like small wires used for telemetry. I highly recommend it, although the battery life is incredibly short and there is next to no space (8MB) on the card I got with it. But this is to be expected.

I really love this camera, it has just the right amount of auto functions mixed with user-defined functions. I like the little extras that come with the camera (including the special effects, various transitions, ability to easily customize the video, etc.) I am a film student at NYU and I bought this camera to shoot the many films that we are required to create (unfortunately there aren't always enough school owned cameras to go around,) and it has worked for me just fine... As for the indoor shooting issues that many have complained about, I've found it to be perfectly fine for me (although I do have the use of lighting equipment that could make any place well lighted,) I suggest propping up a desk lamp and reflecting the light off a white wall or centering the light slightly to the side of the subject (this technique is good for just about all cameras and lighting situations; as long as you don't use too powerful a light and get too close, this creates shadows.) I've not only used this camera for my films, but also for personal uses (like my little brother's birthday party) and it worked perfectly for me. Personally, I really am satisfied with this camera and it's great handling and shooting!

As stated many times before by many people this camera does not do well in low light.

Knowing that the camera does very well in well lighted situations. Even turning on extra indoor light will produce acceptable results. I have had no problems with motor noise or audio/video problems.

What makes this camera attractive is the features it has for the price. The digital effects, the chroma keying with the SD card pictures and best of all the digital to analog and analog to digital converter.

The price of this camera puts it in the range of dedicated digital to analog and analog to digital converter. This allows you to transfer old VHS or VHS-C tapes to DV. Cable boxes or TiVos with RCA outputs can also be used. Once on DV they can be transferred to the computer for editing and then burned to CD or DVD. Since it has the onboard converter it can also be used to edit video on a TV screen if your video editor supports it.

The camera also acts as a digital camera but even on the best camcorders the output is not on par with stand-alone digital cameras and is added as an after thought.

If you can live with the cameras low light problems then this camera will do well. If not save your pennies and get a better camera. If your need to get old footage in to your computer to put on DVD then consider this camera. With a Mac it will also work as a web camera without any addition software. If you are shooting a lot of low light footage this is not the camera for you.