Canon ZR70MC Mini DV Camcorder

I feel both fortunate that I wasn't the one who spent the money for this camera, but at the same time disappointed for my mother who purchased it for travel. Luckily (or unluckily) decided she didn't want to be bothered with taking video and so handed it to me, unused and essentially brand new. This not-so-cheap expenditure turned out to be a big dud. At exactly 20 mins. and 26 seconds into it's maiden voyage, I lost video on the LCD panel, though audio apparently continued to record. Thinking it was a battery issue (battery pack had been replaced and fully charged with one I bought as the original was about 2 years old), I quickly switched to the AC adapter. To no avail. Visits for support on the Canon website and subsequent conversations with camera repair tekkies say it will be an expensive fix. And out of warranty to boot.

The camera is made to look classy and is totally portable for travel and recording family events. It has an easily gripped case for my small hands, mostly intuitive controls and pretty colored buttons only for show and are pointless otherwise. It is lightweight (1.2 lbs.) and the LCD panel is a bit larger than my old Sony at 2.5 in. The 22X zoom was a bit dicey to use, but once you got the hang of the slider it wasn't too bad. It has lots of other image features but I never got the chance to try them out. Upon replay the colors look a little flat and clarity is just average. Haven't transferred all of my precious minutes onto the computer as I quickly became disgusted with the lack of quality of this Canon product and lost interest. Maybe this thing is a lemon and I dunno, but suffice to say I will look for different brand when I replace it.