Review on 📹 Capture Memories in High Definition: Canon ZR100 MiniDV Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Pearl Silver) (Discontinued) by Jacob Richmond

This is a good camcorder for those just starting out with digital video. If you already have a camcorder or are looking for something to create movies suitable for submission to Sundance, this camcorder probably isn't for you. Pros: Very easy to learn how to use - READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! It is very easy to convert and control with Mac OS X and iMovie. The battery lasts a long time - about 2 hours of shooting (that's 2 DV cassettes). Captures acceptable still images but not print quality to share with friends as electronic photos. (See some of the photos I uploaded as examples.) Outdoor resolution is acceptable. Cons: Indoors, images are quite grainy no matter what specific settings you use. You need LOTS of light in the room to get film grain. The granularity deteriorates when you reuse DV tapes. USE NEW TAPE EVERY TIME. After playing around with special settings other than "automatic", I couldn't find any significant difference between them. You can't tell in real time what specific settings are doing, you can only see it on playback. Digital zoom goes up to 20x but you will need a tripod for this type of zoom as there is NO "steadicam" assist for digital zoom. Also, the image degrades significantly at the extreme end of the digital zoom. (Normal zoom works better.) For my Mac, I had to buy a $6 cable to convert digital video to FireWire. SPECIAL NOTE: This camera is great for converting your analog VHS tapes to digital. It's so easy. On a Mac, all you need is the $6 cable mentioned above. The digitizer comes standard with the camera. I was able to videotape my wedding video, play it on my VCR, then through my camcorder and on my Mac. I then used my Mac to burn our wedding DVD - media that lasts much longer than magnetic tapes like VHS! With this transfer, there was no loss of quality during generation. NOISE: Some reviewers noted the camera's "noise". I have no problem with mine making extra noise.