Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon ZR65MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder

(correction: i just noticed 12/3 i actually have a zr50mc..duhh...) guess i bought it around 3/2002 since my first tape is dated 3/18/02. (online for $580 or something like that...cant remember.) i've shot 12 90minute tapes since that time (60mins set at SP for 90min recording). like i said, i thought it was a great camera for video until recently. my main reason for getting it was to record my new kids, one now 4yo and one 2.5yo, becaue my vhsc panasonic camcorder began recording very warbly audio (video was/is still good) and i wanted to capture their early talking, etc. the zr65mc problems started recently while i've been converting those tapes to dvd to share selected clips with the grandparents, aunts, friends, etc. (i found ulead's products very good for this, by the way, after first using windows movie maker to import to dv-avi format. had to buy a new 120g hardisk though to add to my 60g since each imported tape took up to 19gigs each. i always wondered why people needed such big harddisks - now i know.) anyway on importing about the 7th tape, while rewinding, it jammed. i was able to eject the tape and used a pencil to wiggle and extricate the caught tape inside but it was chewed up pretty good and about 6inches was hanging out. after some scary tinkering with the cassette since i didnt want to loose the rest of the tape i was able to figure out that you you can manually rewind the tape. if the window side is up, operate the latch to open the tape cover on the right bottom. by using a hairpin or something small to depress the little latch on the bottom back middle and use the eraser of a lead pensil to either rewind or forward past the chewed up tape. sometimes i had to rewind or forward a bit more if it wouldn't work again after the first reloading. but i was able to convert all the tapes with only a few seconds of lost video. the problem is i thought it was only with the rewind, but yesterday (11/27/04) on a bart outing to the metreon with 12 of my family, after working at home, at the bart station i pulled it out to continue shooting on the same tape and it gave me the dreaded red eject tape message on the lcd blue screen of death. i put it back in the car and used my old reliable casio qv2300 digital camera the rest of the day. let me just say, i am a video, digital camera, computer and internet sorta guy...the rest of the family luvs it but the wife often hates it.

now, i'm researching the problem and found many postings for the zr10 of this problem. i suspect all these zr models are the same camera and canon just changes the model number each year...they're up to what zr95 or something and its still probably the zr10 inside. if i figure out a non expensive solution, i'll post it. at least it can be used still as a analog-digital av converte, since that doesn't require a tape...and i did use it with my panasonic to convert 18 vhsc tapes to dvd. all very time consuming tho.

by the way, i had another problem with a canon product before - a digital camera a70, that i bought for my workgroup in cupertino, early 2003 i think. out of the box new, one week later it stopped functioning completely! i sent it back east somewhere and two months later it came back working. but i didn't like that that camera didn't have the ability to choose whether you wanted to have the date stamp on the picture. when i called canon they said to use exifer for that. how lame i thought (after being used to the casio)! also the battery life indicator didn't work right. [thats why i like my casio (plus the swivel lens) and the casio software].

i'm thinking i shudda bought this tiny sony (forgot model) like i wanted to at the time, but i didn't like the $1k+ price then and the mic wasn't in a good spot. this one beat out the jvc's too for some reason i cant remember now. but its a whole new ballgame now with all the different stuff out there. maybe have to start the headache of trying to choose a replacement if i cant fix this one, and i doubt it worth paying to fix so....

anyway bottom line is i'm kinda thinking i'm not gonna buy cannon anymore or recommend it to people who ask me, and recently prior to this, i did recommend cannons to at least 4 of my friends.

I was very excited to receive this camera a few months ago for my Birthday. I have to say though the features are fun and it is very easy to use the low light video and still is horrible. Absolutely terrible. My very old digital camera is of better quality. I mean you can't take a good picture with the light attachment when it's cloudy out. Really do your research and spend the extra money for something you'll be happy with.

I bought a ZR40 soon after my son was born, and filming most of my son's video in the house during day time or night time. It is a simple camera and zoom is good. However, the video quality is very grainy in door, and slightly better out-door. It is much worse than the parasonic my father in-law brough about 2 years ago. I read a lot of reviews on circuit-city, and find out the same problem still exist for the ZR65.
Tommorrow is my son's first year birthday, and I just got a Sony TR38. Although it is a one year late, I hope to have all the good video memory from now on.

I bought this camera to replace my Sony TRV-140 but am returning it due to very grainy, washed out indoor imaging. The Sony blows it away in picture quality even though the Canon is supposed to be better because of the Mini DV format. Other than the picture quality, I really liked the camera. Oh well, at least Best Buy lets me take it back.

I have use the ZR45 and ZR65. I like the ZR45 that I bought. The only problem was within the 24hours that I had it. It want you to eject the tape and would not do nothing else. It was return to the store the next day. Their were no more in stock and they were not going to be back in stock. So I bought the ZR65 the replacement to the ZR45. Their was some added bells that are fun like tide, ball, and cube)but I found that the night and low light features are just not very good at all. I tried taking pictures of my kids at the Oregon Museum of science center. The shots that were taking there had a fair amount of light because of the windows and gave good pictures. When we more to a floor that did not have the windows to help out on the lighting the pictures looked under exposed and dull. I tried using the AE shift and MF bottons on the shot around the house. Our house has large living room windows that bring alot of glare to our TV because sun coming in the the room is not dark but not bright either. The pictures turn out at points a bit fuzzy and alway dull. I was so disapointed. If you thing you will get great shots of your kids birthday cake with the candles and light low forget it. I have taking the ZR65 back to the store and and waiting for the out of stock ZR70. The ZR70 has super night mode will see how good super really is. On the up side I love the size and all the neat features. It comes with the USB cable to download stills. The ZR60 does not have the stills pitures taking option. The ZR45 I fell in love with because I was playing with the camera durring a planeturium show and it recorded it wonderfully. We were suprise to see that. I wish I would have flim the whole thing. not less that five mintunes. My husband loves the color viewer as that is the only was he will flim. I like the opion to use the LDC screen. The ZR65 is great it you have good lighting other wize for get it. It is a very quite motor to problem there.