Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Overall Design First off let me say that I will be posting the same review for both the ZR 500 and Elura 100 since I found them both to be basically the same in design, video, and audio quality. That being said the first thing to talk about is the overall design and ergonomics of this years ZR and Elura models. The main problem I had with the design is that the camcorder is simply TOO SMALL. It is much smaller than my old Canon ZR85 and almost as small as my Kodak CX7530 digital camera. It is so small that when you try to hold it your pinky finger will sit very close to the lens and will move in front of it occasionally and you will be videotaping your own finger. This also causes video to be shaky since you can't even get your other hand onto the camera to brace it from movement. My hands by the way are not large at all and I can't imagine how somebody with larger hands would be able to use this camcorder. As for design changes there are a few from the previous models and none of them are to my liking. Canon has decided to make the viewfinder sit in a fixed position flush with the back of the camcorder for some very stupid reason on the three ZR and one Elura model this year. Not only does the viewfinder not extend out and upwards like the old models but also it is smaller and virtually unusable. I would guess that the viewfinder is probably about half as large as the one on older models was. You will have your face pressed against the camcorder when trying to see through the viewfinder. Personally, I choose to use the viewfinder rather than the LCD screen on my digital camera and camcorder and this was a major inconvenience to me. If you get a longer lasting battery on the ZR models I can only imagine that this will be even more of problem for you since they will sit out further than the viewfinder. The second design change that I did not like was that the lens and body of the lens now sits flush with the front of the camcorder instead of protruding out like it used to. This causes problems when trying to grip this small camcorder and as I said earlier your finger will occasionally slip and cover the lens. The next questionable design change is that this camcorder does not have an accessory bracket on the top meaning that even if you did choose to get an external microphone or light there is no place to mount it. Another problem is that while the ZR500 has a plug for an external microphone the ZR600 and ZR700 do not. I have no idea why this is the case but it is pretty stupid. An Elura specific problem is that the battery sits underneath the LCD screen meaning that you cannot buy a longer lasting battery unlike the ZR models. The Elura battery is about a quarter inch thick and I would imagine does not last very long regardless of what Canon claims. Controls/Menus Canon has chosen to go to the joystick for most menu controls and this is not the best system in my opinion. I would rather have the controls on the body of the camera instead of trying to navigate with a clumsy joystick. I found that when trying to push the joystick in to accept a change in the menu I would often nudge it to the side and enter a submenu instead. The second problem with the ZR and Elura models this year is some of the defaults. By default the sound is set to 12 bit, video is set to widescreen, and the wind screen is on. After changing the sound to 16 bit and video to full screen they stay set to your liking but to keep the windscreen off you must be in manual mode and change it every time you turn on the camcorder. I have never liked the performance of the Canon windscreen since it seems to cut out a lot of lower sounds that you may like to hear and this was a big inconvenience to me. I also found that the widescreen button is too easily hit and can be accidentally turned on very often. Now I know somebody will probably argue here and say that widescreen is better but personally I absolutely hate widescreen and I'm surely not the only one with the preference for full screen out there. Video Performance Now I will review the filming performance of the camcorder. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the low light brightness of this compared to others that I have tried. Compared to the Panasonic GS120, GS150, Sony HC26, Sony HC21, and Canon ZR85 this was clearly the brightest picture in low light. Under a streetlight outside on Auto mode it looks very bright, even brighter than my old ZR85 was when turned on Night mode. The picture does have a LOT of noise and grain in low light situations but at least you can see something. Night mode however is still absolutely useless since it slows down movement so much that people look like blurry robots. Indoor performance is basically the same as older models which is very grainy with a large amount of noise and overall a pretty poor picture. Also I found that whenever you zoom in on something indoors the camera automatically slows the shutter speed down and movement looks about the same as when night mode is turned on. This can cause a problem when taking video of anything moving indoors. Overall, after trying many different camcorders I would say that there is not a single Mini DV camcorder out there that can produce better or even comparable video quality indoors or in low light than VHS-C, Hi8, and even the old VHS camcorders did, sad but true. Perhaps if they stopped trying to make them smaller they would have larger CCD's and take better video but that doesn't seem to be happening. Outdoor performance is basically the same for the Elura and the ZR models compared to my ZR85, no real improvement there. It's not the best and has some washed out looking areas when viewed on a large TV but overall is pretty good for the price. The image stabilization that Canon uses is horrible compared to Sony or Panasonic camcorders. The image basically floats around the whole time and is very annoying to watch in slow motion, as I like to do with many videos. I would rather have no image stabilization rather than this garbage; also it takes up pixels that could otherwise be used for sharper video. Audio The motor noise of the ZR series camcorders and also the Elura 100 is a problem that cannot be ignored and was the main reason that I returned them both to the store and bought something else. It is a high pitched squealing sound that feels like somebody is scratching a chalkboard in your ears, and makes any video you record unwatchable unless you watch it on mute. There is no way to get around this motor noise. I tired using an external microphone held a few inches away from the camcorder and above as if it were mounted there but it just picked up the noise anyways. Hey, don't take my word for it go ahead and take a look at any Canon forum and see how many people are complaining about this problem. While some may say that the motor noise may be different from one camera to another due to a defect I personally tried two ZR500's and an Elura 100 and all of them had the same problem. I would say overall that the Elura was even louder than the ZR model. This noise is apparent in any recording situation whether there is a lot of background noise filming outside or in a silent room Overall Overall I would say that this camcorder is not a good buy unless you can put up with the motor noise constantly grinding in your ear when watching anything you record. Also, have a good look at the design and realize that the viewfinder does not move and see how it feels in your hands. Definitely the low light performance is improved from past models but still falls short of so called old technologies such as VHS-C, Hi8, and VHS camcorders. If you have tiny hands, a small budget, and can put up with the motor noise this may be for you otherwise keep looking, I would recommend any VHS-C camcorder over this though. I would say the Elura 100 is a better buy than any of the ZR models this year since it comes with a brighter video light than the top of the line ZR700 and also allows an external microphone for the same price, other than that they are pretty much the same.