This camera is a great value for your dollar. I have taken along time in shopping around and this one is the best value. Not to mention the quality is excellant. Someone in another review mentioned they had problems with this camera in low-light situations. I primarily use this camera to record live bands and I have had no such problems. The quality was great. As well, if you like there is a low-light filter that opens up the shutter wider. Unfortunatly, some blurring occurs with this filter on. However, it looks kinda cool. I would definitly recommend this camera if you are looking for a more affordable, quality camera.

The Canon ZR20 is a Digital MiniDV camcorder with a 2.5" LCD and a color viewfinder. pZoom And Image Stabilizer pThe camcorder has 10x optical zoom and 200x digital zoom. The image is not shaky at high magnification levels, since the camera is equipped with a digital stabilizer. pPicture pThe camcorder records video and still pictures. The still pictures can be recorded on a MiniDV tape and one tape can hold around 700 still pictures. The picture quality (the CCD has 460,000 pixels) in the video mode is very good with low noise level. pSound pThe camcorder has a stereo microphone and a built-in speaker. The microphone input allows you connect an external microphone. You can select between 12- and 16-bit recording. pFeatures pThe camcorder comes with a Li-Ion battery, A/V cable, S-Video cable, power adapter, battery, remote and a shoulder strap. There are several AE modes, including fully automatic "Easy Recording". pBut in addition to automatic settings (focus, white balance, etc.), you can manually adjust focus, white balance, shutter speed, exposure (AE Shift). The camcorder allows you apply faders and digital effects and has widescreen mode. pIt also features FireWire (i.Link, IEEE1394) jack, so you can connect it to another digital camcorder, MiniDV VCR or a computer for editing or making a copy. The remote control allows you search for still pictures on the tape using Data Code recorded during the shooting. pThe camcorder features both composite and an S-Video inputs/outs and LANC editing terminal. The timer allows to perform recordings at predefined time. There is a Low Light recording capability (low shutter speed and high exposure time). pRemote pUnlike entry-level digital camcorders from Panasonic, the wireless remote control is included here. pBottom Line pThe ZR20 is a nice camcorder with good feature set. But the menu system is unnecessary complicated and the Canon camcorders are not among the most reliable (unlike Panasonic ones).

I've looked for a good DV camcorder to replace my old Hi8 camcorder. We need it to be compact to fit into one palm, and have image stablization. We also need it to have analog input to transfer old video. Some of the higher-end model have low-resolution digital camera capability, which is useless to us since we already had high-resolution digital camera. We tried to avoid spending extra money to pay features we don't need, and it leads us to Canon ZR20. Well, what a great buy! We spend less than our old Hi8 camcorder, and got a 3X better camcorder! The picture quality is super, the sound is great! ( I don't have the issue described by another reviewer.) Right after recording, we can also playback the video with sound on this tiny camcorder. All my families just enjoy playing with this new toy and have a wonderful time together. Highly recommended!

I would like to take this time and give my input about the Canon ZR 20 MiniDV. First off let me say that the size of this thing amazes me enabling me to fit it in my pants pocket (compared to my old vhs). There aren't that many high end features on this but for the basic everyday recording this is an excellent camera. Be aware that this DOES NOT have NIGHT VISION if you want it purchase the ZR-40 series. I purchased this at the [store] that sells mac computers. It cost me [money] and for [the same amount] at [a different store] i could have got the ZR-40 but they were out :(. Overall i really do like this camera not overpowered with features but does the job well (my first canon camera). From now on i'll stick with them in the future (Much better than JVC and SONY). Down the road I'll upgrade my pc to firewire for video editing, that looks pretty fun. But if yourlooking for a good quality camera with a GLASS lens not plastic like the others and something stylish and small than go with any of the Canon ZR Series (10,20,25mc,30mc,40,45mc,50,50mc) pHope this Helped in your camera buying experience!

The small size of the ZR20 left everything compact...however Canon chose to place the microphone directly in front of the misplaced video heads (the tapes load from the bottom of the camcorder...a difficult task if you use a tripod). The result...a 'humming' noise so loud that you wont hear your daughter's piano recital from the back of the room, but just the buzzing of your camera. For users who want audio they can hear, skip the ZR20 until Canon fixes the problem.

I ended up returning this camera because I was not happy with the quality of video in low light. If you are going to shoot decent looking video indoors you would need to light the setting in some way -- I know because I experimented with a number of light sources including consumer halogen. I had to use at least 20 50W halogen light sources directed at the subject in a room with two windows to get reasonable detail/resolution. Clearly, this is not the indoor environment the average user is going to encounter.

I bought this camcorder to use for family and work purposes. It is very easy to use, and the picture quality is good. It was simple to connect to my tv for viewing. I haven't tried to connect it to my computer yet, but I will have to get a firewire adapter for my desktop first. No video editing program was included, so I will have to get one of those, too. Although basic, the ease of use and small size make this an ideal camcorder for my needs.

Very small and compact, but well laid out so for as the user is concerned. Has both a color viewfinder and a 2.5" LED that extends out from the left side. To save battery power, you can only use one at a time however. Some of the settings are a bit confusing, but going through the manual (well written by the way) will quickly supply answers to any questions you may have.pLow light capability is not as good as some others, but the camcorder works well in light ample to read by. By comparison with my Nikon FM (50mm F1.8), the Canon ZR-20 will do a good jobbrdown to what would be about 1/60 of a second on ISO 100. It will do a fairly decent job a couple of stops lower, but gets "grainy" at low light levels. Daylight however is excellent. I also found the still feature works well in daylight, but gets rather "grainy" in low light (like an old "GIF" at about 320x240). I'd guess in good light that stills work out to be about VGA level (640x480), which serves.pThis is not a digital camera, and if your major interest is in that direction, you'd be better off buying a regular digital camera. On the other hand the stills I've taken in daylight looked pretty good on a TV, and the recordings create images that are the equal of anything you can get off the air or from your local cable provider. This is using the video in and audio in jacks on a regular TV, as none of mine have the S-video feature. Which no doubt would be even better yet.pTape loading seems a bit slow, but I guess this is the way it is. Works OK, but my old VHS camcorder is a lot easier to load.pDigital is definitely the way to go, and Canon optics seem to bebrpretty good. Lens is a F1.8-2.9 zoom with a range of 4mm to 40mm. I'd guess this works out to about 40mm to 400mm on a 35. The digital zoom can be set at two settings, one giving 40x and the other 200x. The 40x setting is very marginal, and the 200x is nothing but a waste of time. On the other hand the optical zoom is good, and you can shut off the digital zoom if you wish.pIf you're looking for a good small camcorder, this might be the one for you. It is small, but seems to be fairly well thought out except that the mike probably should have been mounted somewhere further away from the tape transport area...

I ended up returning this camera because I was not happy with the quality of video in low light. If you are going to shoot decent looking video indoors you would need to light the setting in some way -- I know because I experimented with a number of light sources including consumer halogen. I had to use at least 2 50W halogen light sources directed at the subject in a room with two windows to get reasonable detail/resolution. Clearly, this is not the indoor environment the average user is going to encounter.

Since I've only had the camera for less than one week, this is just my first impression:pI researched around and finally went with the ZR20 for the following reasons: Price, Compactness, and base features. The ZR20 has a great price after rebate if you shop around. It is very small (palm size for my hand), although it's not as small as the Elura. The size is very important to me up to a point. It has to be small enough so that I will end up using it instead of debating if it's too big to lug along because I wanted a camera for everyday videos-around the house and on trips. Between the ZR and other cameras in this base range, the ZR definitely wins. Other important features I wanted were analog video IN and hot shoe. The ZR has S-Video as well as composite video IN which means I can easily transfer my video from my 8mm and VHS tapes. It also has a hot shoe (which the smaller camera seems to lack) for a video light if needed. The closest competitor for me on the ZR decision was the Panasonic PV51, but it was just too big and did not have the analog video IN like the ZR. pAfter I received the camera, I started to tape within 5 minutes. It was very easy to use and the firewire connection worked right off the bat. I was able to capture the videos to Premiere quite easily. Premiere even had the ZR10 controls build in-the ZR20 and ZR10 is virtually identical for this purpose. So far the camera is exactly what I had expected. There are a few issues that are worth mentioning. The tape transport mechanism (loading and removing tapes) seems to be very fragile. Loading an older DV tape that I had required a slight nudge to get the transport to load. This has happened twice in the beginning, but has not happened again. Canon specifically says in the manual to remove the tape when you are not using the camera. I am not sure if this is true for all DVs, but seems cumbersome. I left the tape in the camera for a couple of days and the next time I turned it on to shoot again, it gave me a HEAD CLEANING warning. I took the tape out and turn the camera off and back on, put the tape back in and started to shoot. The message did not appear again. I shot quite a bit of indoor footage in dim and average light. It was OK for what I expected-note, I shot in the automatic mode, not the programmed indoor mode. I don't really have any thing to compare with either. Assuming the tape transport is not going to be a continuous issue, I am very happy with the camera at this time. As for recommendations, I would recommend if you are looking for a base DV to play with. Look over the features and go to the local store to "handle" the models you are interested in. No matter what "great" features any camera has, if it's not comfortable to use, you will end up not using it. Since I have not had the camera long enough, I have no idea of it's quality, so can not recommend based on that.

I've only had this camcorder for a day but so far so good. Everything worked as expected except the widescreen mode. On a standard TV set it "sqeazes" the picture in instead of the usual black bars on the top and bottom. Despite this this camcorder is still the best deal I found after a couple months of shopping.