Rating:

I finally got my mitts on the new camcorder, and it looks pretty good. They do three versions, all identical except for the colour. They do Silver, Wine and Blue. QVC didn’t have the Blue so I went for the Wine as a change from the bog-standard Silver that everything seems to be at the moment.

Overall design and equipment Rating:

The camera looks good, feels nice and substantial in the hand (yet very light with it), came with a padded carry case and a 2GB HDSD card, good enough for about 27 minutes of filming on the high quality setting, 40 minutes on the standard setting and 1 hour 17 minutes on the long play setting. IT also came with power cables, USB cable, a cable to connect to your television and a remote control, plus batteries. All in all, everything you need to get started straight away without any additional purchases.

Camera Case:

Camcorder and HDSD:

Battery Life Rating:

In use the battery life seems pretty good, I managed to fill the memory card and the battery indicator hadn’t moved. According to the instructions the battery should last around 3 hours of use. On the down side the battery did seem to discharge quite quickly when left turned off for a day or two, and seemed to take quite a while to charge back up. Another disadvantage is the fact the camcorder requires the power cable be connected when using the USB connection to a PC, and the battery does not charge while doing this. A small niggle, but a niggle none the less.

Comfort Rating:

The camcorder is very small and very light, making it incredibly comfortable to use. You can see in the picture, right, just how small and compact it is, and how snugly it sits in the hand. The record/stop button is on the rear of the camera and easily controlled by the thumb, while the zoom controls are located on the top of the unit directly under the forefinger for easy control.

Zoom Rating:

The zoom is incredible, it has a 37 times optical zoom, a 2000 times digital zoom and a 45 times advanced zoom. Obviously the digital zoom is a total waste of time, as it is on all cameras. The Optical zoom is very impressive, it has a variable speed setting on the zoom switch, so the further you move it, the faster it adjusts. The Advanced zoom does some minor digital jiggery pokery to squeeze just a few extra magnifications out of the optics with on-the-fly digital compression. I can’t say I have the faintest idea how it does it, but it does seem to manage nicely, the image is that little bit bigger, and no signs of the distortion you would expect with the use of digital magnification.

Anti-Shake Rating:

I’ve never used a camcorder before, digital or analogue, but I have heard that the handshake can be a nightmare, especially when using the zoom. I’ve also been reliably informed that a lot of the “anti-shake” functions on these things can range from useless to actually managing to make the problem even worse. I can safely say Canon appear to have got it down to a fine art. With my Chronic Fatigue my hands do tend to shake when trying to hold anything for any length of time, but even on full zoom the camcorder seemed to manage to compensate for all but the worst spasms of shaking.

Still Photography Rating:

It has to be said this is the camcorders weakest skill, and more down to a slight design flaw than anything technical. You still have the incredible zoom to play with, but I found the only way to get reliable shots was to have the unit attached to a tripod and use the 2-second self-timer to reduce the shaking. The problem is the location of the photo button. For some reason despite having two modes, one for video and one for still shots, you don’t use the same capture button. The button for video is ideally located by the thumb, but the one for still shots is up top behind the zoom lever, and slightly countersunk. The end result being that the hand automatically twitches to the side as you try to press the shutter button causing pretty much every shot to be blurred beyond all repair. Technically this isn’t such a problem as the unit is a camcorder and it’s ability to take photos is secondary, but it does mean that anywhere I went I’d still be having to take my still camera with me, just in case.

Movie Quality Rating:

The image quality is exceptionally good for the most part, especially at night. I did take some footage at night, but the files are just too big to upload to show you, although if anybody is particularly interested let me know and I’ll see what I can do to upload them somewhere. If you look closely at the photo right, you’ll see a small bulb just below and to the right of the lens. It’s a night light. A little LED light that you can turn on for low light conditions. It’s not terribly powerful (but then it is tiny) but is more than sufficient for those poorly lit restaurants and the likes when you just need that little bit more light to see peoples faces. The camera has pretty good night vision anyway, I took a small clip late one night and I could see far more detail in the camera screen than I could actually looking outside myself, so it should be more than fine for most conditions.

You can also see from the picture (left) just how easy it is to use and what a good, clear screen it has to work with.

Again, it’s my first ever camcorder, so I’m not sure if I’m being overly picky, or if it’s an issue that would affect any camcorder, but I did find I was having an issue with movement. I’ve uploaded two clips (below) both taken the same day at the same location. I was stood at the back door and filming the bird tray at the bottom of the garden. I was using optical zoom only (no digital zooming) and the built in microphone.

The first movie also has me zooming back out from the tray so you can see just how good the zoom is in practice. The second clip shows a Green Finch having a snack in quite close detail. You can see the background is clear, as is most of the bird, but when it’s head is darting in and out of the tray it goes quite stripy. Again I’m not sure if this would affect any camcorder, or whether I’m just being overly picky.

Movie Clip 1 (approx 24Mb)

Movie Clip 2 (approx 42Mb)

If it weren’t for the slight distortion on the movement I’d have scored a full 5 stars for the movie, as everything else is incredibly crisp and clear.

Supplied Software Rating:

Another slight weak spot is the software. I didn’t use the photo software since I couldn’t get any suitable photos worth twiddling with, but the movie software was terrible. There’s a known issue with both the Wine and Blue camcorders, the software will not accept the camcorder serial number. An email to Canon soon sorted that out and all I had to do was replace the first 3 digits of the serial number with 808 (the issue does not affect the Silver model for some reason). After that it installed with out any further problem. It does seem to have a tendency to crash regularly, and has almost no editing functions, so other than converting the RAW files from the camera into MPEG2 files onto the computer it’s really not even worth installing (files can be moved by drag and drop if required).

Overall Rating:

All in all it’s an excellent piece of equipment, very good quality, well built, easy to use, very easy to set up and use (other than the software) and very well worth the price (it cost me £240 on QVC). I can live with all the minor niggles, except the slight distorting on moving objects in movies. I’m still experimenting and trying to decide if I can live with that one, or if I’ll have to send it back and wait to get something more expensive that might not have that issue. (Although knowing my luck I’ll then find out that every camcorder has that problem!)

So if anyone has any experience with camcorders and that particular issue, I’d be interested in hearing from you!

Edit

As requested, here’s a clip taken late in the evening (around 8:50pm) when it was getting reasonably dark outside, and the camera picked up a lot more than I could see with the naked eye.

060508movie-3 (approx 10Mb)

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