Canon Optura 300 MiniDV Camcorder
List Price: $1,299.99
Details
- Annals for up to 75 minutes on one battery charge
- 2.5-inch LCD with 180-caste rotation
- 10x visual zoom lens (digital zoom to 220x) and image stabilizer
Description
The Optura 300 makes having the most of everything a reality. Offering unparalleled expertise in video and digital photography, it puts sardonic edge performance in the palm of your hand. Its sophisticated, streamlined lay out makes it compact enough to carry anywhere. Dreams materialize before your very eyes as two imaging worlds are seamlessly linked together with mind-boggling detail and unprecedented realism. Sight and sound have been elevated to the pinnacle of transcendence.Customer Reviews
Notable Family Camcorder, but in low light. . .I bought this camcorder in the draw back of 2003 (it is Jan 2005 as I write this). We bought it to take with us on our trip to Disney Time. It replaced our Sony 8mm Steady Shot camcorder that we bought back in 1994. I wanted a camcorder that was immature enough to pack into a belt pack. The old 8mm required a good-sized camera bag that was a distress to lug around places like Disney World.
I really liked the truth that the camera could take still pictures too, as it meant there was a chance we wouldn't have to lug our Olympus D510 (2MP camera).
It worked a certain extent well for that trip. An added benefit of it being so small was the fact that I could bring it along on extensive hikes. I took it with us the next year when we went to South Dakota to tramp the Black Hills & Badlands.
Outdoors, this camera is excellent. The still photos are OK, I wouldn't exhort getting this camera to replace a camcorder AND digital camera, you won't be satisfied.
Advantaged and in low-light, however, the camera leaves a lot to be desired. It is understandable, the small lens can only heap so much light. I would say that our older 8mm camera performs better in low light. For indoor shots, I normally try to make sure we have ample lighting. The lack of an acessory shoe on this camera prevents you from attaching one of those [frustrating] video camera spotlights.
The swing out LCD is the right size for viewing, it rotates around hook so you can use it for self-portraits, or just getting some really odd-angled snapshot (my relatively new Canon A85 has a similar LCD, though much smaller).
The one thing that I find is the most useful as of late is something I did not examine as a requirement when shopping for a camcorder. The Analog->Digital pass-through drawn in blew away two other Analog Video capture cards. My old Dell (4550) came with a video collar card that would drop numerous frames. I bought an ATI All-In-Wonder bank card card joker to import all my old analog and it didn't even compare to the pass through on the canon. Now I connect my old 8mm to the Optura 300, set the video style to pass through and capture the video through the 1394 port, storing as .avi (on a ticklish big drive).
I've never used any of the funky digital effects. I would suggest redeeming your $$ and not making the inclusion/lack of effects part of your criteria for choosing a camcorder. You can do everything you shortage in your video editing software (I use Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0 now).
Somehow I have become a Canon-Fan over the former few years. When I bought this camcorder it was the only Canon gadget I owned. This past year I extra the Canon A85 and the Digital Rebel to my collection of digital toys. To add to that last note, I am 'looking' at another camcorder and am only looking at Canon models (the Optura Xi to be correct).
I realize it might be late in the game to be rating this camera as the Optura 400 & 500 are out now. If you are researching those please take my experiences with Canon & the Optura file as positive notes on their offerings.
Gigantic camera with certain limitations
I bought this camera honest a day before my trip to Alaska and it worked out great. Since there was not much time to read the thick guide, the controls were intuitive enough to operate. The video quality was great.
Pros:
- Spectacular size. Very compact
- Great video quality with 2 Mega Pixals
- Calmly to operate.
Cons:
- Still pictures come better in light. Not orderly if the light is less
- Red eye reduction does not seem to work well for still pictures
- In the video, the balanced recording seem to pick up wind and other noises more than you actually hear.
- Some times still pictures are not in nave.
Remarkable Digital Camera Choice
I would extremely recommend this camera to anyone who is in the market for a camcorder. I purchased the optura 300 several months ago and have been utilizing it heavily ever since. The camera takes A- movies of both indoor and outdoor events. I could not be happier with my choice. I did attain a longer-lived battery which has worked out well. I keep the standard battery charged as a jam, but the larger battery has never died on me even during days that I shot a significant amount of footage.
I would like to inconsequential in reference to out of few issues I have had with it:
1) The instruction manual leaves much to the imagination, especially with how to download the recorded going pictures onto a PC. There are many other gaps in the manual.
2) This camera is not for the technologically challenged. I would surmise that this is not limited to this specific camera, but is an issue with the entire class of cameras. To itch DVDs and do any kind of editing, the user must have a video capture credit card & firewire installed on their PC. In addition, downloading movies onto a PC requires LOTS of methodical drive space. I installed a 2nd hard drive for this purpose. In putting together I needed to install a DVD RW drive so I could burn DVDs. I also upgraded my RAM. Although all of these are uncomplicated installs in newer PC's, it can be a daunting task just for a person to presume out what is actually needed not to mention knowing how to actually install it. Linkage with shortcomings in the manual, I could see this being fatal for some users. If you are technologically challenged, I would promote the cameras that burn directly to DVD.
3) At the extreme end of the zoom, the camera seems to have fighting focusing and is very shaky. This is not that big of an issue as long as the user keeps this in intelligence while framing the video.
4) I am not really happy with the quality of the still images captured by this camera. These images can be saved onto a outburst card or onto the digital tape. With perfect lighting, the images are high-mindedness, but I have found that when the flash is needed, the images are completely over exposed. The red-eye reduction physiognomy does not work at all to reduce red eye.
Please do not let these negatives taint my review. I turtle-dove this camera but I wanted to put all the issues that I have found with it out there.
Accomplished product for the price!!!
I bought this goodie for less than $700 bucks from onecall.com, an practiced canon dealer so this qualifies me to a get a free 128MB SD card.
PROS: Indeed compact compared to lot of other cameras i compared with that had the same features, it really hysteria in my jacket pocket. Out door videos are amazingly great, had to be with 1.3MP of video grade, the other option i was looking at was sony 330 but that was way too pricey for me.
Still shots are deficient although you cannot compare it with a stand alone digital still.
Menus are not complicated, even my wife can use it without hassels.
I had conclude from reviews about the motor noise from the tape but i found that it had absolutely no noise when you gramophone record at the desired sound level in a quite atmosphere.
I know lot of reviews testify that the microphone placement is bad as it sits right on top of the view finder but i didn't find this to be a serious quandary as it picks up the subjects sound very well. The only problem with the mic placement is the sound divergence when you speak vs. the subject speaking.
Zooming capability is amazing, the zoom is positively smooth when compared to sony.
Image stability is excellent as great as you stay with in the optical zoom, once you hit the digital zoom(beyond 40X) you need to be Non-Standard real still, the manual provides you with few tips to increase the stability. Also, i rarely go to the digital zoom as 10X visual is more than enough for my use.
lots of predefined shooting modes.
This goodie provides a lot of digital effects.
The quondam review said that s/he acciendtly recorded MPEGs instead of DV, but the on evaluate icons give you a clear indication of the media you are recording on, so no problem their as covet as you see the on screen info.
LCD resolution is fantastic and i liked the fact that it is not too big, there by minimizing my mobile drain.
The best feature i personally like compared with sony pc101/105/109 is that this one has all its steer on the body, sony has a touch screen menu option and you could snafu a potter up your screen if you are not really careful.
Cons: The most outstanding problem i found with optura 300 is the low put on lighten recording. This provides 3 various low light recording but in the dark the wonderful night shot mode any moving images create a crawl effect and the recording resoultion is also grainy. Having said that the indoor + low be disclosed mode is adequate when shooting inside a home with no day light. The only can of worms is when it is pitch dark sony seems to be doing better.
Battery life-force is terrible, the battery provided with canon lasts 30-40 minutes, so i had to go in for an upgrade on the battery-operated.
but i guess all camcorders have the same problem.
Overall it is a great camcorder for indoor and alfresco use.
Notable Camera if you have a reeeal steady hand.
I bought this camera as a appendix to by TRV80 to use on hiking trips in the southwest when space and weight are a factor. I pleasure the picture quality and the 2 megapixel shots are definitely better than sony's although not from A to Z as good as a dedicated digicam at the same resolution. As for why I chose this unit over the Sony's 330, it was mostly due to price. I could buy two of these cameras for the cost of the sony and since I do not need the hotshue or the trifling increase in still resolution, I felt the Canon was more cost effective. I should point out that the take it easy of this review will focus on problems I had with the unit. I can't be sure if these negatives are community with vertical compacts like this or if the issues are Canons alone so I will let you be the judge. Also, if you are planning to use a tripod or have a way to coupling this camera while shooting, most of what I am about to say will be irrelevant. However, if you are using it on the go and will be taking action shots or using it at paramount telephoto range, you may be disappointed.
Location of Microphone - It is located on the top of the viewfinder (by the way, the viewfinder is stationary and cannot be adjusted). Up until now, I did not notice that I breathe heavily as it never factored into my other videos. This piece had me holding my breath while I shot so I did not ruin the scene.
Location of Zoom - This emotionally upset will vary with the size of someone's hands but I found it to be difficult to operate and hold the camera stable unless I used my pinky to control the zoom. My hands are feel put down and I needed the top three fingers to steady the camera while I moved it. This problem is further exacerbated by tendancy of the zoom too move to speedily if not properly controlled.
Photo/Tape switch - A seperate reversal is used to move between the SD card and the Tape. Sony integrates this function on the start-up dial scourge which makes it easier to remember to turn to the desired setting when turning the camera on. As it was, if I had last occupied the photo setting and turned the camera off and then wanted to shoot video, I almost always screwed-up and started recording in MPEG order on the SD. Not a terrible problem but it wastes time and may cause you to miss prompt moving wildlife scenes.
In fairness to the mechanical functioning of this item, it probalby deserves four stars and not three. However, if you do not need the still camera feature, there are excel cameras out there for your money and I just can't excuse the location of the microphone.
