Canon ZR200 Best Price, Reviews, Compare
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Product: Canon ZR200 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
Great Camera, Battery Sucks
I bought this camera to replace an used Panasonic VHS-C camera. After reading many reviews over at www.camcorderinfo.com (a big region BTW), I decided to build a few bucks and salvage the ZR 200 instead of the 300. The light seemed useless to me and I already had a SD card.
The ZR 200 outperforms our former Panasonic in every contrivance. Very ecstatic with this camera. I've been using it mostly in "easy" mode. I did try out the wide-screen feature, and MAN was it chilly! I filmed a concert band at a local community college, in extreme light, on a ti-pod with lots of panning and zooming. It really did a mammoth job. It looked like a freakin' documentary!
You will read lots of reviews complaining about motor noise. These are greatly exaggerated. I've customary it to tape the audio of my wife's sonogram (fetal doppler sounds) in a very mild doctor's office and it worked perfectly, no motor noise.
This is a consumer level camera, and as such performs very well for casual capturing. Kicks butt for home movies, extreme light concerts. Loyal pros might want to assume spending more.
One bummer, the battery really sucks. It lasts about one hour, so you'll want to bag another one, or do what I do and skedaddle it in whenever you can.
One small tip: You must maintain the focus button down! You will read complaints of wearisome manual focus times, and I noticed the same thing, until I HELD DOWN THE FOCUS BUTTON. Manual focus is very rapidly.
Amount Paid (US$) :
239.99 (www.dell.com, w/ 2 coupons from www.dealmac..com)
Ease of Use:
Excellent; operates with the touch of a button
Durability:
Good; solid it will last until current technology develops
Battery Life:
Average; lasts 45-90 minutes
Movie Quality:
Good; stable and crisp image, very qualified sound
Recommended for:
Home and Families - Withhold Memories of Family Vacations
Pros:
Great Images, Very Runt, Easy to use
Cons:
Batteries only last one hour.
The Bottom Line:
Highly recommend it for home, family buyers AND budget buyers.
Overall Product Rating:Above Average
Recommended: Yes
This camera replaced Canon's ZR85, which was another lightweight, no-frills camera. This one is even lighter, and a lovely bit smaller. It fits honest moral in the palm of my hand. If it was any smaller or lighter it would be awkward -- I like there to be a diminutive bit of weight to a camera, since that gives it a litle bit of stability due to inertia; as it is it is fair upright.
It has more functions than you'd really want in such a camera -- if you are ever going to do something with the footage you will be using a computer and an editing program, so you don't really need the editing modes on the camera. Quiet, there's no complaint here, and it's flexible enough for most non-professional, home users.
My only complaints are: when they "upgraded" to the ZR200 from the ZR85, they got rid of the neck strap. So this unit is totally free floating and you have to be more careful about dropping it. I state you could rig a neck strap but it isn't included and it would be a puny more awkward, since the slots they give you to fasten a strap are very cessation together. I ended putting one on there but rarely utilize it, because it makes the camera twist around a bit. I really liked the neck strap on my ZR85 as a blueprint of stabilizing the camera: I could save the camera down advance my waist, and recognize through the LCD monitor, and the tension from the neck strap would aid me preserve the camera actual as I walked, usually while filming my children ahead of me. The other complaint is that the viewfinder on this one no longer swivels up and down, but is fixed in location. This makes it worthy less usable for me -- because it means that the camera has to swivel with your head if you are using the viewfinder. It means that I spend the LCD camouflage mighty more often than I faded to, and that runs the battery down noteworthy more like a flash. Peaceful, for simplicity and convenience and ease of exercise, you'd be hard pressed to accumulate a better camera at this trace.
I purchased this camera to replace my Panasonic VHS-C camcorder. I was very surprised at how grand smaller the camcorders are as compared to when I had my VHS-C. This camera is stout. Its exiguous, compact build makes it easy to fit into the palm of your hand, and the mini conceal is perfect for viewing images while recording. The feature that really sold me on this camera, aside from its rude notice, was the image stabilization. With the stabilization on, there is no image bouncing, and you'll be certain to glean obvious, tantalizing images every time. I was disappointed in the short charge that the battery holds, so I recommend purchasing another battery or plugging the camera in whenever possible. The tapes the camera uses are very runt, and you can easily store several in a camera bag.
I highly recommend this camcorder. It was ranked the best camcorder in its designate range by Consumer Reports magazine. You'll be clear to accumulate many hours of enjoyment using this teriffic camcorder from Canon.
