Review : Canon ZR400 Camcorder

The Canon ZR400 is one of the camcorders that perform exceptionally well in one scenario, and exceptionally poorly in another. The Canon ZR400 has really good outdoor functions and with the largest image sensor of all the cameras in the ZR series, has the best image quality and captures 2x the pixels as the other camcorders in the same series. However, the very same camera performs very poorly in low-light, so much so that it's a struggle to see the subjects and even the still photos are useless.

To be sure there are some very good things about the Canon ZR400 - such as the Easy mode, which puts everything on auto-pilot and gives exceptional point and shoot capabilities, maybe one of the best of all the camcorders out there. At the same time the Canon ZR400 features a Program Modes which you can use to manually adjust the focus and other settings.

The Canon ZR400 weighs just over a pound and can easily fit in a coat-poc ket. All the buttons are well placed, and just about all of them fall right under the fingers whn holding a camera, which means that over time, you can operate the camera without looking at the camera at all (kinda like typing). Most of the buttons are large and labeled clearly, though some of them are confusing and some people might have a hard time figuring out what they're about (it's the buttons under the LCD screen when you open it). The LCD scene is nice and clear, and offers sharp images. It measures 2.4 inches and houses 112,000 pixels. As far as the other features are concerned, the Canon ZR400 is easy to use even in the Program mode with the preset programs.

Even though the Canon ZR400 costs more than the other camcorders in the ZR series, it might be worth it with the better shooting capabilities, especially indoors. However, even with the better quality than all of the ZR series, the Canon ZR400 still fails to match up to the some of the other camcorders, such as the Panasonic DVR. However, the Canon ZR400 does offer a 14X zoom, which is just above average for camcorders, while the older version, the Canon ZR300 offered 22X.

It's important to note that the Canon ZR400 does have some extra features to help improve it's indoor image quality, such as a LED light (which is a pain to turn on, because you have to engage a the super-night mode with the night more to have it come on), but it still doesn't manage to give impressive results with the indoor images. Also, the three night features are kind of redundant - the night, the super night and such.

The Canon ZR400 doesn't have much to offer as far as still photos are concerned either, and takes only 1 MP , 320x240 resolution pictures which really is just too poor given the competition the Canon ZR400 has. An to add to the disappointment, the Canon ZR400 has no microphone on it. You either have to dub sound on to it, or add an external device to it (which you'll then have to hold or something because there's no room on the camera to place it!).

The Canon ZR400 is a nearly unbeatable camcorder when you're using it outdoors or in well-lit areas, but is one of the poorest investments (just like many other Canon camcorders) when it comes to indoor and dim-light situations. All in all, the Canon ZR400 has some very good features, and some of the improvements that Canon has made are commendable, but at the same time there is much that isleft to be desired from this camcorder that could have been a whole lot more.