Canon ZR500 Mini DV Camcorder
- Recording System: NTSC
- Camcorder Type: Digital
- Recording Media: Mini DV
- Optical Zoom: 25x
- Weight: 0.83 lb.
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Good for basic MiniDV camcorder unit
Pros
VERY EASY to use in easy mode WIDE mode available LiOn battery Small size
Cons
No still photo options No manual focus ring
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Just buy one while your kids are little or for special moments, it carries over so much better than still photos!
I bought a ZR500 at Best Buy for essentially the employee price of $199 which seems lower than anything I have seen on the internet pricing (lowest is 214).
I have had 2 other camcorders in the past 20 years: a on the shoulder VHS full size for a few years and then for the past 15 years a Sony (Ricoh branded with their lense) palmcorder 8mm unit which started conking out 5 years ago intermittently. I have had fun the past 5 years using a still digicam but now with a daughter getting married this summer I wanted to have some video movies of the wedding, so "Dad" said he'd kick in for a new camcorder. I plan to spend the most money on the wedding so the camcorder was an "extra" not to go crazy and buy a DVD or HD camcorder or anything. The ZR500 had excellent reviews on other sites and with the capability for an external microphone (very useful at a wedding) and Widescreen to view on our 16:9 HDTV sets it seemed to be a fit.
I have recorded all of 15 mins of Christmas weekend videos so far and probably won't do much more until summer but so far so good. Excellent audio using just the internal mic: some have reported picking up motor noise but even with some semi-quiet in the house settings no problems. Video quality using both natural sun light into the house windows and Christmas eve incandecents including some rather dim settings (older teen and 20 something kids playing Nintendo Wii games) were very good. I have edited the movies onto the DVD recorder and the Play mode using the small joystick on camera screen is extremely easy to use. I did some minimal playing around with the white balance but really the "easy mode" is the way to go, set it and hit the button to record (this from a fairly techy guy who likes to tweak his HDTV video settings and the same in his sports sedan, but I am not a photographer I guess).
Again, this is a very basic camera but after 20 years of recording my kids onto low quality VHS and 8mm video media, what is important is not how high quality you have the recordings but that you DO THE RECORDINGS. This time is priceless, so if a low cost camcorder is what it takes, DO IT. You cannot gain that time back.
I have had 2 other camcorders in the past 20 years: a on the shoulder VHS full size for a few years and then for the past 15 years a Sony (Ricoh branded with their lense) palmcorder 8mm unit which started conking out 5 years ago intermittently. I have had fun the past 5 years using a still digicam but now with a daughter getting married this summer I wanted to have some video movies of the wedding, so "Dad" said he'd kick in for a new camcorder. I plan to spend the most money on the wedding so the camcorder was an "extra" not to go crazy and buy a DVD or HD camcorder or anything. The ZR500 had excellent reviews on other sites and with the capability for an external microphone (very useful at a wedding) and Widescreen to view on our 16:9 HDTV sets it seemed to be a fit.
I have recorded all of 15 mins of Christmas weekend videos so far and probably won't do much more until summer but so far so good. Excellent audio using just the internal mic: some have reported picking up motor noise but even with some semi-quiet in the house settings no problems. Video quality using both natural sun light into the house windows and Christmas eve incandecents including some rather dim settings (older teen and 20 something kids playing Nintendo Wii games) were very good. I have edited the movies onto the DVD recorder and the Play mode using the small joystick on camera screen is extremely easy to use. I did some minimal playing around with the white balance but really the "easy mode" is the way to go, set it and hit the button to record (this from a fairly techy guy who likes to tweak his HDTV video settings and the same in his sports sedan, but I am not a photographer I guess).
Again, this is a very basic camera but after 20 years of recording my kids onto low quality VHS and 8mm video media, what is important is not how high quality you have the recordings but that you DO THE RECORDINGS. This time is priceless, so if a low cost camcorder is what it takes, DO IT. You cannot gain that time back.
