Cannon Elura 100 MiniDV Review

The Canon Elura 100 MiniDV Camcorderis my third camcorder. I got hooked on video recording with an early 1990’s era Sony analog followed by a circa 2003 JVC Digital that died after only 2 years. I spent considerable time researching what my next camcorder would be, considering my disappointment with the JVC. Ideally, I wanted a Panasonic PV-GS250 3CCD MiniDV or Panasonic PV-GS300 3CCD MiniDV, but that’s out of my price range for personal use and abuse.

Key features:

• 20x optical zoom
• Captures video in 16:9 or 4:3 ratios
• Smooth 10x zoom
• Widescreen 2.7-inch LCD
• Analog Line-in/Converter
• Twin LED lights for low light situations
• Lightweight at just 3 lbs.

Out of the box, the camera comes with everything you’d expect: camera, power supply, connection cables, wireless remote and software.

The Canon Elura 100 is full of the auto-focus features you’d expect in a consumer camcorder. You can also save video and still photos to an SD card. Keep in mind you are probably better off with a dedicated camera for quality still photography.

The on screen menu is fairly intuitive. Navigation by the new joystick isn’t hard to get used to.

Form factor is good. It’s light enough to be comfortable to hold yet not too light that my video gets shaky. I have a large hand, but I enjoy the compact size of this camera — I can easily slip it into a coat pocket.

Recording in true widescreen was new to me and takes a bit of thinking to adjust old habits of framing the person I’m recording. But the results look great, including the color and flesh tones.

The camera comes bundled with software, but I’d suggest starting with what you already have installed on your Mac or PC. Video transfer to my Mac (OS 10.4) and iMovie HD works fine with firewire. I wasn’t able to get iMovie to recognize the Elura when hooked up via USB cable provided. But the USB connection worked when hooked up to a Windows XP PC with Windows Movie Maker.

I love the built in lens cover. No more hassle with stupid lens caps dangling in front of the camera or getting lost.

Another feature important to me for archiving old video footage is the Analog Line-in/Converter. It lets me use the Canon Elura 100 as a signal converter, switching analog signals from a TV, VCR or analog camcorder to digital. I can record to MiniDV tape or pass through and record directly on my computer.

The instruction manual provided has enough details to answer the few questions I had.

Some consumer reviews I read on Amazon.com cited a motor noise being recorded when playing back their videos. I have not experienced any problem with motor noise in my own recordings.

My main complaint is the battery is mounted internally. You must open the view screen and remove a plastic cover to access the battery. Certainly not easy to do on the fly. Nor can you buy a bigger size battery with greater capacity like externally mounted batteries.

Keep in mind a few things when considering a new camcorder:

1. How much are you willing to invest? That includes buying SD card, spare battery, or any accessories you don’t already have like a new tripod or case. If you say your max budget is $500, then you can get decent video quality for a $400 camera and spend another $100 on the accessories.

2. Who will use it? In my household it is mainly me. But if you have to share with wife/kids, think about how the camera might get abused.

3. Where will you use it. Many early reviews on other sites said the Elura 100 doesn’t perform well in low light conditions. They are right. But if you are smart about where and when you use the camera, low light probably wont be an issue. Take advantage of natural light. Turn all the lights on in a room indoors, even during daytime. Pick well lit part of the room and try to steer your subjects there.

4. Do you want to digitize your old analog 8mm or VHS tapes? Those old memories are deteriorating and Do It Yourself digitization has never been easier. The Canon Elura 100 is one of the few cameras I could find that had A/V input along with decent performance features.

5. Even though this takes still pictures, you should invest in a separate good quality digital camera. The camcorder still camera feature wont provide as high a quality as you can get from a dedicated digital camera.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.