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Compared to the slim Sony DCR-HC42 or the rounded Panasonic PV-GS250, the Canon Optura 60 looks positively bulky. But it really isn't that much larger than the others in our August roundup; it fits comfortably in the hand and is reasonably light at 18 ounces. The fingers fall naturally onto the zoom, photo, and record buttons, but you'll need to use the left hand to access the other controls, most of which are located behind the bright LCD screen--11 buttons in all, and most of them have more than one use. There's also a control wheel and a mode dial on the left side.
Although this profusion may look complicated, it does make the controls easily accessible. For instance, the Optura 60 puts the shooting modes (such as manual, portrait, and sports) on a dial, while with the other camcorders you must delve into an on-screen menu to change modes. There are also buttons for things like setting the audio level or automatically finding a blank section on a tape--very useful when, after checking out what you've captured, you want to quickly set the camcorder to record again.
The Optura 60 provides a good degree of manual control, with aperture- and shutter-priority modes, plus a manual focus ring on the front of the 14X lens. It has no fully manual mode, though, which avid videographers may miss. They will, however, appreciate the port for connecting an external microphone and the controls to manually set the audio gain.
The LED is impressively bright: It illuminated objects up to 5 or 6 feet away in total darkness. There is also a small flash for still images. A unique feature is the network mode, which allows a PC running the included DV Messenger software to control the camcorder remotely over a FireWire connection; you can zoom, focus, and instruct it to start or stop recording (useful if you want to find out who sneaks into the kitchen at night to eat the cookies).
The Optura's video quality was good, with accurate color and smooth movement, but its video images lacked both some of the impact of the Sony camcorders' images and the vividness of the Panasonic's video.
We found the still images to be the best of all the camcorders tested for our August roundup, even though the maximum resolution that could be recorded to SD Card--at 1632 by 1224 pixels (roughly 2 megapixels)--was significantly less than that of some of the other camcorders. The still images showed good colors, accurate exposure, and plenty of detail; however, they don't match those from a moderately priced dedicated digital still camera.
Upshot: The Optura 60 includes a lot of easy-to-use features, captures reasonably good still images, and offers a 14X zoom, but the video is not quite as impressive as some of the other camcorders in this spotlight.
Richard Baguley
