Canon Optura 30 Review, Compare, Prices, Discounts

Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Product: Canon Optura 30

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2 1/2 stars.. Kindly feel and Features saves it from a 2 star rating. With minimal vulgar light performance, this camera would have been 5 stars.

I tried both this camera and the Elura 65/70 side by side. While I prefered the feel and overall features of the Optura, the rude light is so dreadful on the Optura, that I ended up selecting the Elura 70. Overall, the Elura has better video performance for less money. And isn't video performance the top reason to assume a camcorder?

Low light is relative.. I'm talking regular indoor lighting, not reach dim stuff. I tested it with 300 watts of artificial light ins a 25x15 room and the colors were dull/drab and noticably darker and less incandescent than the elura. What's worse, as you lower the light, movement/pans of the camera leave echos of objects! Below 60 lux, the camera is handsome worthy useless without an accesory light. I get this unacceptable in a $899 camera. I will say that nantural sunlight does wonders for performance, but this only helps when filming come windows or in a sunroom and does nothing at night.

Don't even reflect the night modes, they dull down the frame rate and gawk worse anything you would film in standard mode. And to those that may ask, yes, auto boring shutter is off(which i recommend for any Canon camcorder) .

I deem the cultrip is the RGB filter... which produces more just colors but decreases luminance levels. This is why single CCD cameras genreally utilize Complementary filters... and why if you want RGB, yuo should fetch a 3 CCD Camera. I snarl that Canon notion that the 2mp CCD would build up for this weakness. It doesn't. I would have loved this camera with a Complentary filter. I'll sacrifice a negligable amount of color accuracy in lustrous light for tolerable indoor performance anything. The truth it's hard to drawl the contrast in the colors, but it's easy to narrate the dissimilarity indoors.. and indoors, it's brightness and Color that are so poor! The Elura 65/70 performs Noteworthy better indoors producing reasonably well at normal lighing conditions.. and even as crude as 15 lux.

Still Performance is OK, but the overall quality isn't remarkable better than the 1mp elura.. except that the pictures are 1623x1224 rather than 1280x960... While edifying for a camcorder, they are tranquil no substitute for a digital camera. Don't consume either for stills! The Elura takes suprisingly sterling photos without a flash, but an external flash is available.

After trying both cameras, I loved the 30.. and it was difficult to piece with it. I ran the same tests over and over, and even tried a different Optura, thinking that mine may have been corrupt.
The bottom line is: If these cameras were the same sign, I would have taken the Elura... with the Elura being cheaper, it's a no brainer.

Good Luck

Optura Likes: Marvelous auto focus, focus ring, overall feel of Camera is the best that I've felt. Integrated flash, 2mp CCD, Top Loader, Exposure setting.

Dislikes: INDOOR PERFORMANCE IS VERY Unpleasant. Menu Dial is in awkward space. Notice.

NOTE: Canon was SO conclude with this camera. I'm not saying it's not a pleasurable camera.. it's feel and performance are tall.. it honest performs at the bottom of the bell curve on indoor performance... even when compared to cameras half the tag.

The Pro's

1. I don't discover what all the fuss is about with the crude light? From what I was reading I judge Canon made some changes around July of 2004 to improve this feature. I was fearful about this so I did a test in the basement with minimal lighting. The result was a diminutive bit grainy but if I you are shooting video footage in the shadowy what do you put a question to? Compared to my other JVC it was 3 times better in the obscene light performance.

2. The next best thing is the WIDE ANGLE!!!! My JVC stretches and distorts the image like most other camcorders but the Canon was AWESOME!!!! Turn off the image stabilizer and you pick up an even wider angle. I have a grand cover HDTV and this feature is a must for Widescreen HDTV owners. Truly one of the best features.

3. Color and Resolution - Come perfect. I do a lot of landscape and outdoor shooting so I was going to go with the Panasonic 3 CCD for the color rendition. To my surprise the resolution and color clarity on this camcorder was damn approach perfect. The Blues were mountainous, greens well-behaved, reds a tad off, yellows a tad off but overall the 1.3 MP sensor and color filter do a wonderful job, I could not ask for more from a non 3 CCD camera.

4. The next best thing I loved about this camera was the stabilization. I often shoot while driving and with my JVC sometimes I would acquire car sick impartial watching some of the footage I took! I zoomed in 12X and purposefully shook the camera, then I turned off the stabilization and did the same thing. The results 10 times better with the stabilization. It also did not cleave the frames like some other camcorders do.

5. The Miscellaneous Features, I like the feel of this camera, miniature compact and light. I liked the Output and input jacks. Firewire, USB, S-Video, etc etc this baby has it all.

6. Last but not least the ticket. $450 after [...]!!! I'm a penny pincher and this camera more than met my expectations

7. Comes with Pinnacle Studio 9 SE, grand software for the average video editor.

The Cons

1.The battery has a short life. Lift a hint go to E-bay seize a cheap knock off or 2, I got 2 NB-2LH batteries for $25!!

2. As with all digital stills from a camcorder. If you haven't read any other reviews yet they all say the same thing and it is right with all camcorders, The CCD is meant for live provocative pictures, not stills, They are OK but cannot compete with my 3 MP Kodak

First, about the camera. I've only had the Optura for about two weeks. I've only conventional it indoors and the quality is acceptable under moderate indoor lighting. Is it titanic? No, but it's also not a pro camera. The quality seems to be a shrimp better than the Sony it replaced, as far as I can remark. That's about all I can say at this point. I did eye the battery going down exquisite posthaste, but at this point for my family, a battery that needs to be charged often isn't a gigantic deal. If and when it is, I converse we will capture another battery. Considering we paid $425 including s/h and after the rebate (from MPSuperstore) I can't complain too remarkable.

Normally I wouldn't post a review without using the camera more, but I unbiased have to answer to the guy who posted about his ZR10. First, buddy, if you aren't reviewing the Optura 30, why are you here? Second, after my experience with a Sony MiniDV -- with less than 10 hours of characterize time I've got a malfunction that could cost more to fix than to replace it -- I could say the same thing about Sony. Yeah, I'm pissed as hell. And I surely won't be buying another Sony camcorder. But I'm not about to form a blanket statement that all Sony camcorders suck b/c I'm not exactly salubrious to say that. And to say that all Sony products stink objective b/c my $500 camcorder prematurely kicked the bucket, well, that's objective foolery.

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