Great Little Video Camera
Pros:
Great camera with all the features (and more) that you could want for home movies.
Cons:
Short battery life, must remove battery when not using, no wrist strap.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I bought this camera because I was tired of hauling around our full-size VHS camera, and was missing out on family shots, because it was just too inconvenient. The ZR is almost too good to be true, but it is. After a year-and-a-half, the only complaints I have are that the battery must be removed when you are not using the camera, or else it goes dead, and I wish it had a wrist band or strap--I worry about dropping it, and I don't like the neck strap.
The only other camera that comes close to this in size, features and price, are the JVC MiniDV cameras, but they are at least a few hundred dollars more. Don't let the high zoom rates touted on the JVC's fool you. Digital zooms more than 4x of the optical zoom are useless. The ZR's 11x/44x is as high quality and useful as you get out of the 10x/200x JVC's.
I have also tried out the firewire editing cards/software, and they are a joy to use. If you're considering this, I would highly recommend Studio DV
as the way to go. For under $100 you can get the firewire pc card and the nicely-done software. Being able to edit the movies on your own computer is one of the biggest bonuses of having a DV camera. Works great with DV IMac's as well.
