Camcorder Reviews

This has been one of the greatest cameras until...problems...And I have two of them! On fast re-wind they will sometimes destroy the tape. On both, I only re-wind on slow rewind. Now one will not accept a tape at all. I think someone rewound on fast and hurt the mechanism somehow. A call to Cannon did not admit that they have problems. Still trying to determine cost to fix...if possible. I am reading others on internet with Elura 40 which is similar and they are having problems with totally destroying the tape and $600 to repair??????

To be somewhat fair, I use mine with a helmet camera, carrying the camcorder on my chest. I have not crashed on it but it is not a perfect lifestyle. As a back-up, I bought another... Almost out of the box I had the rewind problems. I could live with those...until now! Changing brands of tapes made no difference.

I use the picture MMC side alot, but remember that it is only 2.0 megpixles and can't take much blowing up. But the pictures are e-mail friendly. The digital zoom is AWSOME!

Other than Tape problems, where you can loose everything, a great camera! 5 stars and falling fast!

This Canon Elura is the best camera iv'e seen my whole life from Canon. Its good quality pixels is so much better than the sony brand, and its small size and new mini-DV ability is sumething everyone needs to get out of the dark age of cameras!

I need an Adapter ( power adapter) for CANON MV20 ( Canon DM-MV20E , it writes on the battery spot ). My cam is same as ELURA but the difference is that MV20 is" PAL System " and ELURA is on " NTSC System ". I guess that Power Adapter would be same for both types.If someone knows where could I find a product please let me know. Camera is perfect, no doubt.

Bought one from dell.com, after one day test with this "high" rated DV, decided to return it back. It's a horrible canon DV.
Pros:
None
Cons:
1. Very bad resolution of recording on SD card, even worse than my cheap webcam.
2. Unaccept noisy while recording tape.
3. Compare to USB stream or usb mode webcam, DV messager is a joke function, hard to use and bad compatibility.
4. Light shoot is another joke from canon DV.

Not sure what the reviewer below is talking about but based on his lack of details I imagine it's not a genuine review.

Anyway, I spent allot of time researching before buying a camcorder and decided on the Elura 65 -- check out the review of the Elura 70 (the 60, 65, and 70 are basically identical) on http://www.dvspot.com .

The Elura 60 didn't have a hot shoe which I knew I would need since most camcorders in this price range do not have a good light -- if any at all. Daytime recording is excellent.

Some argue that it's only a single CCD camcorder but it's a large CCD as apposed to the three small CCDs in the Panasonic PV-GS120. The Panasonic was my second choice but I read allot of negative reviews about the image stabilization. The Elura also fits more comfortably in the hand when compared to Panasonic. In addition, the Canon has virtually no tape noise when operating.

I highly suggest that you get the double capacity battery BP-2L14, the hot shoe light VL-3, and the portable battery charger CB-2LT. The double capacity battery will last about four hours and adds very little weight to the camera. The supplied batteries drain very quickly. Night shots are notoriously bad for all camcorders in this price range even though some are better than others. The VL-3 light will make a big difference in picture quality at night. Also, the portable charger is more convenient to travel with than the big and cumbersome charger supplied in the box.

I can't comment about the reliability yet since I've only had it for a couple of months. But based on my experience with other Canon products it should be good. Enjoy!

Well, choosing between the cameras, and after going for MVX250i (European twin for Elura 70, as I live in Europe), I'd like to point out some really strong sides of the cam: 16:9 is really WIDER than 4:3 (not just cutting upper & lower parts only) and is taking full advantage of 1.3 MPixel CCD, which btw, let's the stills be captured to SD card in 1280*960 res.. not bad at all for screen viewing. The optics are absolutely superior in its class, the angle for close-ups IS wide and the optical zoom is remarkable. It HAS mike input, unlike new ZR series (which I was considering at some point), and the motor is much quieter also, comparing to ZR. Its shape & size is excellent, it feels solid and is really comfortable to held - thanks to the low height. On table it may seem somehow thick, but to palm it fits perfectly.
If to mention one con, then in lower light conditions the cam tends to boost the sensitivity of the CCD too much, making picture quite grainy. Also, any faster movement in dark will result in blurry picture. The built in white LED sure does its job well, but the sand in the picture remains... So you'll get some of the advertised colours with the price of noise, the opposite of Sony's night-mode. Sure you can attach external lamp any time ..
As a conclusion, it seems there is no other cam offering this level of features & design at this price.. at the moment. If you are looking for something small & capable, this is it. Absolutely no regrets so far..

We purchased the Elura 65 for our new baby who is due in one month. This camera is small and sleek with a very nice look to it. We just received it a few days ago and have done several tests in different lighting. The quality is BEAUTIFUL outdoors and indoors with the lights on or with the natural sunlight coming in. However, the picture was very dark and grainy when we filmed at a wedding the other night. Keep in mind that the lighting in the place was very dim...there was little to no light. I've done a lot of research on Mini DV camcorders recently and I've yet to see one that takes good pictures in low light areas. I'm wondering if there is an external light that I can purchase for my new camera. This is not reason enough to return the camera, since the reviews on all the other brands and models state the same problem. I just think it's something that needs to be fine-tuned on ALL mini DV cameras in general.

The 16x optical zoom is fabulous on this camera and there is NO motor noise (or at least none that we can hear) as the Canon ZR models claim to have.

One drawback which MAY be a problem is that since this camera is so small (smaller in height than the Canon ZR models), it seems like it can be hard to hold steady...but I'm hoping that's where the image stabilization will come in.

Overall, it's a great little camera!

I would seriously rethink purchasing this camera, or any from Canon. There is a huge tape transfer problem with Canon Digital Camcorders. Bottom line is that a growing number of them have stopped working after only 7-10 hours of recording - usually just after the warrany expires. There are many theories as to why, but nothing has been resolved. Canon has not been helpful. (...)

I would take a look at Cnet reviews before purchasing this camcorder. I ignored the low light performance issue and found out the difficult way. I discovered low light means general indoor lighting.

This is a well built camera, easy to handle with it's compact design, lovely to behold and most likely the travelers ideal. But, if your going to take home movies in an indoor setting you may find your recordings riddled with grain and with little improvement when placing additional lighting. I also noticed a whirring motor noise picked up in recordings. As frustration set in while fiddling with the settings in an attempt to remedy the grainy video it just became magnified and down right annoying. Although, I will say this is a minor complaint in contrast to it's poor video in low light and would have been easily forgiven. Nevertheless, soon after, back in it's box it went.

Btw, if you plan on purchasing this camcorder make sure you check the video quality through the camera video out to your television. Most folks not privy would never discern the low light issue through the Elura's 2" Lcd until it's too late when they decide to play back through the big screen.

note: Don't let my negative review scare you off. This was suppose to be a gift for a family member and I just wasn't happy with it's indoor performance. Attributing to it's compact design, it's possible I may have kept it for myself for vacation trips and outdoor use only.

good luck,

I just purchased the Elura 50 yesterday. Before I purchased this unit, I did some research online and found a bunch of bad reviews on its previous version Elura 40. I owned a PowerShot digital camera from Canon and because of its ease of use and good software interface with the computer, I decided to check into Canon camcorders. I walked into the store to check it out and was right away impressed with its small size. I spent sometime trying and finally decided the reviews I saw was questionable! I actually saw the one and only review posted on Amazon.com on the Elura 50 model and all other reviews were on the Elura 40. I can tell you now after buying that it is the most impressive camcorder I have experinced. The video was clear, no grainy effects, true to the color and brilliant. There was no motor sound that was suggested by other people. Whatever problems existed on the Elura 40 were not there on the Elura 50. I tested the camera using Auto on the outdoor, inside using low light setting, in quiet surroudning as well as noisy surrounding. I replayed using the camera, as well as connecting to the Plasma display. Everything was so perfect and the interface with the display unit was faultless. The video using Auto setting was impressive and the indoor shots were even more impressive. The colors were so vivid. I cannot believe my eyes the quality of the video and the sound was great. The menu and the controls are easy to use. My husband was standing 10 feet away from the camera and I could still catch his conversation on the video when I ran that on the audio receiver and plasma. I can say that the speaker sound when I did the replay on the camera was not very clear but if you think about it, why do anyone wants to use the camera for replay. It is best to run it on the TV or the plasma so that everyone can see. The great thing is when I replayed the video using the plasma, it automatically displayed using the wide screen format. I will highly recommend this unit to anyone. I decided to get this unit even with the bad reviews because the technology of these things are getting smaller and smaller and I didn't want to buy something that will be outdated in a year. I am not a video professional but the result I got was of professional quality!! This is the first time I got a camcorder from Canon, I used to own a JVC and I think Canon makes great product. I don't work for Canon and I am only an average housewife who loves to use new electronics.