Canon ZR40 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, & Digital Still Mode (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

Love this little camera. Video taken outside is outstanding, inside can be a little fuzzy without bright lighting. Zoom is fabulous. The only thing I don't like is the fact that you can only charge the battery while it is mounted to the camera, which defeats the purpose of having multiple batteries if your wanting to have one battery charging while still using the camera with another battery.

I did extensive research on this model (the whole ZR series) and I must say, a lot of things are positive for this little camera.* light weight, * small, * bright outdoor pictures, * PRICE.And some negative points raised by many so far, which of course I have not been able to test as I have not bought this item, is the motor noise being recorded and the night shots being grainy.I will not discuss anything about it as they have been beaten to death by now.What I want to talk about is the smaller CCD resolution on the ZR series camcorders.As we know, the US spec ZR series have the 460K pixels, out of which only 290K pixels are used for video (effective pixels). We need about 420K effective pixels to get a 500 line video resolution on the TV. Most of us know that, the VHS format (video tapes) allow upto 240lines of horizontal resolution. The S-VHS tapes allow upto 400 lines and the Digital Video format goes to 525 lines (really crisp and sharp pictures) on the TV/visual media.So now, with mere 290K effective pixels of video resolution being recorded on the ZR40/45/50, the best lines of resolution would be around 300. Now, not everything is bad. If you intend to transfer your videos into VHS tapes for storage and future viewing, you will not have any complaints as VHS tapes store at 240 lines of resolution. But someone like me, who wants to store the video digitally, by burning them into DVDs or storing them in DV tapes, I would like to get the best resolution that I can, right?In simple words, I want 500 lines of resolution for my video, full stop! Even though ZR40 is a DV camera, its resolution is very poor for real digital quality video.By the way, the resolution has got everything to do with what we call SHARP, crisp and colorful pictures. It is the same difference you see between the movies played from the VHS tape and movies played from the DVD.Oh by the way, if your TV doesn't have a 500 line horizontal resolution capability, you are not getting the money's worth by renting DVDs. The TV I bought about 4 yrs ago, a proscan 32 inch, has 700 lines of horizontal resolution. So I can assume most TVs in our houses have capable enough TVs. Going slightly off topic, do you know why the picture quality of HDTVs are so sharp? Bcoz their resolutions are almost double than the 500 lines I am talking about.

Great luck getting this camera. However, since it was used, the sender accidentally left a video tape inside that I'd like to get back to them. Looks like video of a father and son flying kites and doing other activities together. Memories I'm sure they would like to have back.

The camcorder was little dirty, and had a missing lens cover...Joanne did not have the missing cover and did not know why it was dirty...The power cord was defective...ordered a new one...Looked like it was chewed into...The case (cassette) compartment was slightly bent and unable to open at first...made some adjustments to it...Fred

I used this camera for 9 years, beating the hell out of it on Disneyland vacations etc. Everything you read about it is true - excellent quality in bright light, mediocre quality indoors. Poor in low light conditions. "Stabilization" feature, though enabled, doesn't seem to do much. And though I retired this camera long ago (still works fin actually) this needs to be said - Canon's camcorders have a rich, bright, "warmth" of color that no other camcorder has. It captures way more color. I primarily use Panasonic camcorders, but when my current camcorder gets retired, I'm going to get another Canon.

When this arrived to my house today, it was missing battery, a plug in cord and who knows if it works. I do not want to go buy parts for this camera because I've already paid 75 dollars for it.

I'm always been fond of the Canon line of consumer DV cams. They always have great optics, electronics, and durability. But what really sets them apart is thier menu systems! It's totally disgusting that on most any other brand, including ones as prestegious as Sony, that they lump all the menu options into a hoard of small, finger nail sized, buttons for most of thier consumer models. For Canon's you simply press the menu button then scoll and press a togele wheel. This way, once you get the hang of the wheel, you now understand how to use the whole menu system for any function. This is a great improvement over those that require the manual to find that "secret button combination". This is a consumer camera but I use it for many large applications. It has been sized down from it's Optura and Ultura ancestors but pretty well all the functionality and then some. It has other sister cams such as the ZR45MC and ZR50MC. These pack the all-in-one memory card digital camera and mini Dv. I have friends who love these models dearly. Personally I go for a seperate camera with larger resolution. Whatever your needs are ...I've noticed a large number of reviews that say something to the affect of "I pulled it out of the box, plugged it up, and the image was grainy" or "I turned on steady shot and nothing happend".This might be old news for most but to explain for those of you that might be concerned by this ...Video cameras these days still thrive on ample lighting! This and other cameras have a sort of slow motion low light mode (accessible from the menu) that works by slowing down the frame rate and sucking every bit of image data off the CCD. THis is ok for an emergancey but if you want good image, turn on an extra light or two. Human eyes are so adaptable that you might not even notice if the lighting is more subdued than usal but it will make a mile of diffence for the camera. Secondly, get to know the manual menu and exposure system. The auto functions can't always guess what your trying to do.About steady shot... this only takes of the headache inducing shock that occurs when you jar the camera. It's extremely useful in it's own right but it won't keep you from waving the camera around.This is a great cam that I fully recommend. THere is one issue that doesn't dampen my five star rating but is noteworthy. To size this camera down to an even more portable size, the engineers made it with the DV cassette loading from the bottom instead of the top. THis is fine except that if you are a true believer in tripods, as I am, then you have to take the camera off the tipod or tripod plate every time you need to swap tapes. Just a minor concern...