Canon ZR400 Camcorder Review

If the Canon ZR400 is your first camcorder, your choice has set the bar at a high level. As Canon's lowest priced Megapixel camcorder, the Canon ZR400 combines features found on higher priced cameras with a variety of versatile functions and the brilliance of a Megapixel CCD. It's also three-cameras-in-one, giving you great performance as a camcorder, a digital still camera, and a webcam. With features and automatic settings that make your life as a videographer easy, you'll find that the ZR400 is both powerful and easy to use.

Canon ZR400: Brilliant Digital Video AND Photography

You can get them from the same camcorder - thanks to Canon's exclusive DIGIC DV signal processing circuit. DIGIC DV is just one of the DV Photo Plus technologies that unleash the full digital imaging power of your ZR camcorder. Because video and digital photos have different color requirements, the DIGIC DV circuit in the Canon ZR400 processes them differently. The result is video images that are maximized for viewing on TV, and digital photographs that look brilliant on computer displays or as prints.

Canon ZR400: Vivid Canon Optical Quality

Get video and digital photographs that never disappoint. Genuine Canon Optics is one of the DV Photo Plus technologies that set the ZR400 apart. The camcorder comes with a 14X optical zoom which - along with the camera's 280X digital zoom capability - gives you an expansive focal length range that meets virtually all of your needs. It also comes with a Wide Angle Attachment, great for those tight interior shots or breathtaking landscapes.

Canon ZR400: The Brilliance and Sharpness of Megapixel Performance

Get the best out of a well-priced camcorder, packed with features. The ZR400's revolutionary CCD sensor - another DV Photo Plus technology - works like film to deliver crisp images with extraordinary detail. When light is captured by the sensor, it registers an image and then uses advanced processing to convert the pixels into digital data. The result is outstanding image clarity for both your video and photos.

Canon ZR400: Fast and Easy Printing

Print & Share, one of the powerful Canon DV Photo Plus technologies makes fast and easy printing a reality. With nothing more than the touch of the Print & Share button, you can print directly from your ZR400 to select Canon printers or any PictBridge-compatible printer - without going through a computer. (The same button lets you quickly download images to your computer.) Print & Share gives you all the printing controls you need - right in your camcorder. Choose borderless prints, crop, and rotate your photos. With the ZR400 and Print & Save, no one has to wait for their copy of your great shot.

Canon ZR400 MiniDV: From Camera to Computer with Ease

The Canon ZR400 lets you record video and digital photographs, then quickly and easily transfer them to your computer to edit, archive, or share over the Web or through e-mail.

Store and transfer your digital photographs with the ZR400's MultiMediaCard, connected to the camera's built-in memory card slot. In the same slot, you can also use an SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card. The memory cards make it that much easier to transfer images from your camera to computer - which means you can show and share your memories with friends and family that much faster.

You can do the same with Motion JPEG movie clips. Record your movie directly to the ZR400's memory card, transfer it to your computer, and e-mail or stream it over the web. When using an SD Memory Card, you can record for the full length of the card. That's a 60 minute movie with a 512MB card. (With MultiMediaCards, movie clips are limited to 10 seconds in 320 X 240 resolution, and 30 seconds in 160 X 120.)

Make your Canon ZR400 part of your computer. You can access the images on your ZR400 through your computer without additional software using Picture Transfer Protocol (requires Windows XP; or Mac OS X, versions 10.1 or later). PTP creates a direct link between camera and computer, so you can access your camera as if it was an external card reader.

Canon ZR-400: Turn Your Camcorder Into a Webcam

Your Canon ZR400 can not only be a webcam, but will let you use Internet Video Chat with Microsoft Windows Messenger. With your camera and your friend's camera, you can chat and see yourselves at the same time. You can also preview thumbnails, transfer photos, and watch video playback from either camera. Simply download DV Messenger2 software for free. It turns your ZR400 into a webcam and lets you control the zoom, focus and playback.

Canon ZR-400: Shoot Steady as a Pro

Whether you're shooting sporting events, fun & games at your child's birthday party, or capturing a shot at a long focal length. Thanks to Canon's superior electronic expertise, the ZR400's image stabilization system corrects camcorder shake instantly, thereby eliminating one of the telltale signs of amateur video.

Canon ZR 400: Focus with Ease

Even if your subject isn't in the center of the frame, the ZR400 lets you be more creative and able to handle a wider variety of shooting situations. Why? Because it lets you select between three different focusing points. So, even if you frame your subject off to one side, you'll still get the shot you wanted.

Canon ZR400: Automatic Settings

Get the help you need to get great results with a wide variety of pre-programmed, automatic exposure modes that compensate for a range of lighting conditions. They include: Easy Recording, Auto, Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Sand & Snow, Low Light and Night mode. There is even an Auto Slow Shutter mode that gives your video a dream-like quality.

More experienced users will appreciate being in complete control with manual control of focus, exposure level, white balance, and shutter speed.

Canon ZR-400 Mini DV: Don't Let Low Light Stop You

With the ZR400's Night Mode, the sensitivity of the camera's CCD is automatically boosted and the shutter speed is lowered to give you better performance in low light conditions. In SuperNight mode, your camera's white LED assist lamp lights up, providing you with added illumination under even tougher conditions.

Give Your Shots the Widescreen Look

The Canon ZR400's high resolution, 16:9 Widescreen Mode - a feature typically found on more expensive camera systems is available whenever you want it. And in widescreen mode, the LCD viewscreen gives you a letterbox-style display for accurate composition.

Canon ZR400: Add Some Dazzle with Digital Effects

A variety of Fade effects let you do a simple fade that makes your video look that much more professional. Other Fade effects include Wipe, Corner, Jump, Flip, Puzzle, Zigzag, Beam and Tide.

Digital effects can work well for a documentary approach or they can be the perfect look for a wedding video. The only limit is your creativity with: Art, Black & White, Sepia, Mosaic, Ball, Cube, Wave, Color Mask or Mirror. The effects can be switched on during recording or playback (except in Card mode, during which only Black & White is available).

Form and Functionality

This is a great looking camera that's easy to use. Like the entire ZR line of cameras, the Canon ZR400 minimizes the distance between lens and viewfinder, giving it a compact, easy-to-hold, easy-to-carry form - without sacrificing functionality.