Canon Optura 20 Mini DV Camcorder
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- Recording System: NTSC
- Camcorder Type: Digital
- Recording Media: Mini DV
- Optical Zoom: 16x
- Weight: 1.4 lb.
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Motor noise ruins that great camera !
Pros
Great picture, lots of manual settings, comfortable to handle.
Cons
Motor noise picked up by built in mic; 16:9 feature useless when shooting.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
You can shop around to find a camcorder with better audio (less noisy motor) but you will not find any with that picture quality and all these features
This is a great camera for the price. The visual quality is awesome for a one-chip cam. It has all the bells and whistles you ever gonna need. I particularly like the fact that you can make lots of manual adjustments if you wish (white balance - shutter speed - focus...) and it comes with good usable software. The large LCD monitor is a plus. Even if it is heavier and bigger than most DVD cam out there, I still prefer that. You can breathe and shoot at the same time and get steady shots. And if you are into editing on a Window XP platform, you cannot ask for better. I don't expect great performance while shooting in low light condition. So I was not disappointed.
But... the built-in microphone is picking the motor noise badly... I don't understand how Canon, an experienced company, can come up with that less than acceptable problem. They should had located that mike ABOVE the lens, not below, near the motor)... I will have to buy an extra microphone (over $200 in Canada for the Canon model) to hook in the horse shoe.
I am not impressed by the 16:9 feature that is sqeezing the picture in the monitor (like old movies on TV) instead of giving a real cropped, panoramic 16:9 image on the LCD monitor. How can you frame properly and create an interesting image then ?
But... the built-in microphone is picking the motor noise badly... I don't understand how Canon, an experienced company, can come up with that less than acceptable problem. They should had located that mike ABOVE the lens, not below, near the motor)... I will have to buy an extra microphone (over $200 in Canada for the Canon model) to hook in the horse shoe.
I am not impressed by the 16:9 feature that is sqeezing the picture in the monitor (like old movies on TV) instead of giving a real cropped, panoramic 16:9 image on the LCD monitor. How can you frame properly and create an interesting image then ?
