List Price:
$799.00
Details
- Analog archaic-through ports for direct connection to computer
- Digital photo fad records onto included 8 MB MMC card
- MiniDV camcorder
Description
The ZR50MC is on Canon's merry-end of MiniDV camcorders, but still sells for a reasonable price. Its 22x optical zoom out focuses the ZR50MC's siblings and much of the championship, letting you get extremely close to a subject without any of the degradation associated with digital zoom.
Its ingenious 2.5-inch LCD can be swiveled around, letting you record from a variety of angles. And if you opt for using the viewfinder, you'll see in feel ashamed instead of the black and white many other camcorders use.
You can enhance your ZR50MC via the advanced attachment shoe, which allows you to connect a directional microphone or video window-pane. And the camera comes with an 8 MB Secure Digital card to capture still images, although the je sais quoi is only fair--typical of digital camcorders.
The quality of captured video, on the other disseminate, proved quite excellent. Our video was sharp and bright, even when viewed at great resolution on our PC. The camera's night mode, while not a true IR darkness course, did record well in low-light situations. You can also take advantage of the ZR50MC's extended recording special attraction, which let us capture over four hours of video on a single tape.
We did sometimes hear a little hum from the camera's motor when watching recorded video, but it wasn't forward and often wasn't noticeable.
The ZR50MC also functions as an analog-to-digital converter, letting you take the analog contents of your VHS or 8mm tapes and metamorphose them to digital, either recording them on the ZR50MC's tape or saving them to your PC.
For all the features that are packed into the compact, lightweight stiff of the ZR50MC, its price tag makes it a perfect fit for a digital video enthusiast looking for a weighty camera at a still reasonable price. --J. Curtis
Pros:
- Analog-to-digital emancipation
- Extended recording function
- High optical zoom
Cons:
- No unerring night mode
- Motor hum sometimes recorded
Improving on an inventive can be a daunting task. Canon has succeeded quite well, thank you. The ZR50MC is the successor to the ZR30MC. Canon increased the visual zoom to 22x--the digital now sits at 440x--and added an analog pass-through haven. Although the ZR line featured analog-in for dubbing your movies to MiniDV, the new pass-through haven allows you to go straight to the computer, eliminating a possibly cumbersome step.
The ZR50MC also has a lot of the same features that made the firsthand a lot of fun. A 2.5-inch LCD is swivel-mounted, permitting the shooter to use the camera at odd angles. Individual digital effects and autoexposure modes help ensure your footage turns out well. The digital still manner makes a return, letting you capture 640 x 480 stills onto an included 8 MB MMC.
For good, there are a couple of new features that Canon threw in to make the ZR50MC just a little bit more attractive: an accessory shoe that fits a light or zoom mic (both sold individually), an extended recording function that increases recording time by 2x to 3x, and a low-light-hearted color-shooting mode.
