ZR-10-My Opinion

I bought this product-the Canon ZR-10 to make short videos at school- I am a teacher and needed something small-easy to use and inexpensive. I looked at the jvc dvm70 and 90--i was very impressed by all the features--
but one thing i didnt think would work for me was the microphone was on the top of the camera and i wanted to tape a lot of students who will be talking directly to the camera--this one has the mic in front--another reason i went with ZR-10 is it has the analog-in feature which the jvcs did not--and another reason i went with this one was the price--i got mine for 712.00 and i had an ecoupon for 20.00 off which brought it down to only 692.00 and this included free overnight delivery-

-when i got it i read the manual and fiddled with it a little--this camera is very very easy to use--there is an brief intro that has you filming in just a couple of minutes--i made a finished six minute video in a couple of hours of playing around--and that included a adding soundtrack from a cd--

this camera is inexpensive but it has very few features as far as editing goes-i was thinking how good my finished video would have been with the effects on the jvc---the two wipes are easy to use and there is a fade in-out also--thats about it-so for any kind of real editing you will need to transfer to a computer---now the jvcs had it all--tons of fades-- wipes-strobe-echo--so i may get one of those also--the jvcs come with software the canon comes with none-the battery that comes with it lasted about an hour and a half using the lcd continuously for recording and editing-the manual says it will last two and a half hours using only the viewfinder and probably not having the stablizer on and no zooms-

-if you want the extreme low end of mini dv--i would get this camera--now by low end i dont mean this has a bad picture--it looks great-and i even think the stills are pretty decent--when you take a picture the camera stops recording and you must press start to begin again-by low end i meant few features but a great price--the camera is very small ---if you want to do editing though-you will definately need the transfer to computer--i would go with the jvc if you want a lot of cool features and the ability to edit without installing firewire on your computer--and if it doesnt matter that the mic is on top--