Canon ZR800 Mini DV Camcorder

When you first pick-up the Canon ZR, you won't believe it is a full-featured digital camcorder and not a small film or digital still camera. In fact, every time you pick-up the ZR, you will be amazed that you can have an amazingly powerful digital camcorder that fits into your pocket. Originally MSRP'd at $2000, you can currently find this amazing piece of miniaturization at less than $700 -- well below the price of equally capable and significantly larger digital camcorders.

The ZR has all the features of its much larger brethren -- IEEE 1394 Firewire direct connectivity to your computer, excellent video resolution, the capability to take digital still photographs, 16 bit better-than-CD quality sound, digital special effects -- and more! The ZR includes a docking port and cables to allow you to directly connect the ZR to any RCA video/audio connector or even an advanced S-Video connector featured on better VCRs, TVs, and DVDs. The ZR has an 11x optical zoom lens which can be enhanced digitally to 44x zoom. The ZR even includes Canon's advanced image stabilization technology to ensure image quality even in the most extreme mobile environments at maximum zoom.

While the menu-driven commands may take a little getting used-to given the need to limit the number of dials and buttons on so small a camera; and while you may need a larger camera if you are prone to swollen fingers or uncontrollable shaking; there are few faults to find with this camera. Perhaps the only real concern with the operation of the camera is the necessarily short battery duration. You will only get 30 minutes out of a battery -- so you better have at least two on hand, but the batteries charge incredibly quickly on the included charger.

If you have a computer capable of reading RCA, S-Video, IEEE 1394 Firewire -- or if you can get an inexpensive piece of hardware to enable it (such as XLR8's $100 InterView available for the Mac) -- then FORGET about digital still cameras, Webcams, and any other camcorder -- you've found an all-in-one solution with the ZR.