Canon ZR50MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, Digital Still Mode & MMC Card Slot

The ZR50MC is on Canon's high-end of MiniDV camcorders, but still sells for a reasonable price. Its 22x optical zoom out focuses the ZR50MC's siblings and much of the competition, letting you get extremely close to a subject without any of the degradation associated with digital zoom.

Its bright 2.5-inch LCD can be swiveled around, letting you record from a variety of angles. And if you opt for using the viewfinder, you'll see in color instead of the black and white many other camcorders use.

You can enhance your ZR50MC via the advanced accessory shoe, which allows you to connect a directional microphone or video light. And the camera comes with an 8 MB Secure Digital card to capture still images, although the quality is only fair--typical of digital camcorders.

The quality of captured video, on the other hand, proved quite excellent. Our video was sharp and bright, even when viewed at high resolution on our PC. The camera's night mode, while not a true IR darkness mode, did record well in low-light situations. You can also take advantage of the ZR50MC's extended recording feature, which let us capture over four hours of video on a single tape.

We did sometimes hear a slight hum from the camera's motor when watching recorded video, but it wasn't obtrusive and often wasn't noticeable.

The ZR50MC also functions as an analog-to-digital converter, letting you take the analog contents of your VHS or 8mm tapes and convert them to digital, either recording them on the ZR50MC's tape or saving them to your PC.

For all the features that are packed into the compact, lightweight body of the ZR50MC, its price tag makes it a perfect fit for a digital video enthusiast looking for a powerful camera at a still reasonable price. --J. Curtis

Pros:

• Analog-to-digital conversion
• Extended recording function
• High optical zoom

Cons:

• No true night mode
• Motor hum sometimes recorded

Improving on an original can be a daunting task. Canon has succeeded quite well, thank you. The ZR50MC is the successor to the ZR30MC. Canon increased the optical zoom to 22x--the digital now sits at 440x--and added an analog pass-through port. Although the ZR line featured analog-in for dubbing your movies to MiniDV, the new pass-through port allows you to go straight to the computer, eliminating a possibly cumbersome step.

The ZR50MC also has a lot of the same features that made the original a lot of fun. A 2.5-inch LCD is swivel-mounted, permitting the shooter to use the camera at odd angles. Various digital effects and autoexposure modes help ensure your footage turns out well. The digital still mode makes a return, letting you capture 640 x 480 stills onto an included 8 MB MMC.

Finally, there are a couple of new features that Canon threw in to make the ZR50MC just a little bit more appealing: an accessory shoe that fits a light or zoom mic (both sold separately), an extended recording function that increases recording time by 2x to 3x, and a low-light color-shooting mode.