Canon Optura Pi

I did a lot of research before buying this one. As the last poster noted, many camcorders have huge feature sets, but you need to sift the wheat from the chaff for what really matters. The main reasons I got this model was the optical zoom, large LCD and battery commonality with Canons D-SLR's. The stabliser works very well at wide to normal fields of view, but you still need a steady hand at max zoom (optical, I turned of the digital zoom feature as soon as I got it). The outdoor color balance is very nice for daylight shots indoors and in overcast conditions, giving a flattering slightly warm image. The manual white balance function works very well, but is a bit buried in the menu.

Good image quality. Optical stabliser. Good optical zoom range. Big clear LCD monitor. I show people what was just shot quite often, and the monitor is really great.

The interface isn't great, depending how you hold it, either the menu wheel or the buttons fall comfortably under the thumb. If you rewind and watch the footage you just shot, the procedure to return to the first empty frame is not well thought out. You get rewind back onto the last footage in VCD mode, then have to switch to record mode and hold down the forward search button on the body until the playback stops.) The photo function is a waste of space. Camcrder photo functions are all pretty bad, but the separate media hi res systems are at least convenient. I would prefer the standard zoom being a little wider (I estimate it is about 42mm equivelent. The canon wide convertor is expensive, huge (not designed for this model) and has significant barrel distortion).

I use a Canon SLR kit, and plan on getting a Canon D-SLR, so the battery commanality was a strong factor in my choice.

Not needed yet

Stylish, well laid out, easy to use digital camcorder that wou''t overwhelm you with bloat features and useless effects that many of the other brands have. I love the back loading tape bay vs. the bottom loading of the Sonys. This allows you to change tapes without removing the camcorder from a tripod. Colors with the Optura PI seemed warmer than the Sonys I used, which tend to have more of a bluish cast. The Optura had higher Optical Zoom, 12X, than other comparable models. Digital Zoom is only good up to a certain point, after that it just makes pixelated, blocky video. Other brands will try to fool you with up to 200X digital zoom. At least Canon was honest and kept it to 48X. The Optura PI is nice and light, and fits my hand well. I used a Sony-TRV900 3CCD, which took very clear video, but the camera was large and heavy. My wrist ached after about 5 min. of shooting. The Optura PI is a very good MiniDV camcorder that has all the features you will use, and none that you won''t need. Easy to learn with quality features that are/were ahead of it''s time. I have now seen it online for less than $800. But you can''t wait forever to enjoy a camera of this quality.

Progressive Scan, RGB color filtering (produces warmer, truer colors than others I''ve used), Optical Image Stabilization, Large LCD, Nice form factor, easy to hold, buttons are convieniently laid out, doesn''t have overkill on effects, features you will never use, or digital zoom (which is useless after a certain point) If you are lazy, it has preset auto exposure settings for certain lighting conditions. S-video in-out (newer TVs/VCRs now have S-video in addition to regular AV inputs) 16:9 Wide Screen TV Effect for those of you with wide-screen TVs. Has record search and retrieval very handy for recording, reviewing what you shot, then finding the spot in the tape where you left off recording.

Not many. Hard to find filters for this size lense (30.5mm)in stores. You will have to search long and hard online for filters. Doesn''t have a separate media storage for pictures, but this is a video camera. I still would rather use a normal 35mm for pictures.

Sony-TVR9, Sony-TVR11, Sony-TVR900

Haven''t needed any from Canon. Bought it from Etronics > they had excellent service and shipped it out in an expedient manner.

I got this camera around Christmas last year, and it's been pleasing me ever since. It's a good weight, great looking, and has some of the coolest feature I've ever seen on any electronic device. The image stablizer keeps the picture steady, you can use several different fades, and there are dozens of image special effects.

The fact that you can also take pictures with the same device is a great plus.

- excellent button layout
- sweet extra-large LCD screen, almost like a very small television
- great remote control
- handsome camcorder
- dozens of features to use (fade, B&W, p. scan...)

- watching films on the camcorders built-in VCR thingy can be a real pain in the ass at times, distorted image, etc.

Several Sony camcorders.

digital camcorder, digital camera- which do I choose? Digital was always in my future. The question was when? And which one? Digital Camcorder? Digital camera? Since both my traditional equipment of choice in these categories took the powder at nearly the same time, it seemed opportunistic, and worth the substantial outlay, to go the digital combination- "kill 2 birds with 1 stone" as I put it. It has done it finally! The photo taking seems on a par with a regular SLR camera. Taking home movies is as easy as it once was. The advantage comes with the digital. I can get pictures FROM a movie! Progressive scan technology does that with picture-sharp clarity! I can also apply special effects to the movies as I record them, or edit them later as I might have done before. But that's not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of planning ahead (and a lot of manual reading) to get the menu choices right. But I wasn't a pro the first time I took pictures with my traditional SLR so many years ago either? (f-stop, aperature?) I'm getting better as I use it more. And I love to pick it up and use it more! That says it best!

progressive scanning nice placement of controls color lcd lots of features

learning the manual

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