[Continued From Page 1]

Picture Quality
The ZR10 has a very nice picture quality. With a 1/4" CCD sporting 460,000 pixels, the ZR10 reproduces colors and tonal range very nicely and is the best I have seen from cameras in this same category. The camera will perform best when video is shot in more than 100 lux but can shoot in as low as 2.5 lux.

As with most video camcorders today, the Canon ZR10 sports a flip out LCD display

While the camera unit is small, the menu dial is even smaller and cause camera shakes if accessed while shooting.

Canon has also done a great job at incorporating many of the shooting options found in its other models (such as the GL1 and XL1). There is, of course, the standard movie mode, which allows you to shoot video quickly and easily with the push of a button. While most of the features default to automatic (the easiest to comprehend by non-video people), you can switch to manual mode to control focus, exposure, white balance and shutter speed. This can be a bit tricky with the ZR10, since every change is made from a selection dial found on the side of the camera. In order to access these manual features you have to first push in on the dial, then rotate it. Manual focus is probably the most difficult to do while shooting as the action of turning the dial can cause unnecessary vibrations (unless you're using a tripod, as I highly recommend).

If you must insist upon not using a tripod, the ZR10 also has an image stabilizer, which will knock most of the normal shakes and vibrations out of your picture. While shooting, you have the option of two different viewfinders. The viewfinder you would normally expect to find on a video camera is there, mounted on the top of the camera. The biggest problem with cameras that are built this way, is the inability to swivel the viewfinder down if you are shooting in a crowd. The answer to this problem is simple and comes in the form of the flip out, and flexible color LCD screen. This gives you the freedom to shoot from any angle including turning it 180 degrees so you could conceivably hold the camera in your hand and shoot yourself at the same time.

The camera has a 10x zoom for it's 4.2mm lens (definitely a wide angle, but not a true telephoto), and has a 200x digital zoom. The main problem with digital zooms is that it is interpolating the data it receives from the pixels, so if you did zoom in all the way using the digital zoom, chances are you are going to have an image full of garbage. The lens housing is also threaded to allow for additional optical accessories such as filters.

The first time I took this camera out, I went to Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach, California. I wanted to shoot water and sand because these elements are highly reflective, which can can cause problems with digital images. One of the other shooting modes available, is the auto exposure mode that has different presets when shooting under various lighting circumstances (spotlight, sand and snow, portrait and sports). This can be very helpful to those who are not experienced in shooting in manual mode.

One final mode that may be helpful if you plan on webcasting is digital photo mode. Instead of having to take a still camera to capture images for your Web site, the Canon ZR10 allows you to capture still images directly to tape. Later it's a simple process of transferring the images from camera to computer editing system.

Probably the least important to those shooting for the Web are the special effects options of this camera, which will let you shoot your video in Art, Black and White, Sepia or Mosaic.