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The Canon ZR850 ($329 as of May 11, 2007) is an inexpensive MiniDV camcorder that's ideal for beginners who want to produce home videos. Equipped with a 1.07-megapixel CCD (charge-coupled device), this camcorder has long battery life and captures decent-quality video footage. But its image quality is mediocre compared to that of other camcorders we've tested.
The light, compact ZR850 is designed to fit firmly in the palm of your hand, with the zoom button placed so that your index finger can reach it easily. To access playback controls and recording settings, you can use a small joystick and two buttons built into the casing that holds the camcorder's 2.7-inch LCD screen. Unlike most low-end camcorders, the ZR850 comes with a convenient built-in lens cover, which you can open or close via a small switch. For shooting in dark settings, the ZR850 has a small, bright lamp that is effective only within a short distance. The camcorder's battery-charging port sits beneath the battery, but it lacks a cover to protect it from dust. The ZR850 doesn't have a microphone jack or a headphone jack (for monitoring your audio).
Though this camcorder's interface and menus are user-friendly, the placement of the joystick on the LCD screen is slightly inconvenient: if you're shooting without a tripod and wish to adjust settings (manual focus or exposure, for example), your image can get shaky since you need to use one hand to press the joystick and the other to hold the camera. The included electronic image stabilization feature should reduce the amount of shaking transmitted to the captured video, but it won't eliminate the tilting of the camera that may occur when you press the joystick.
The ZR850 includes eight helpful scene modes to optimize exposure or aperture settings for certain situations. For example, the Beach mode prevents subjects from being underexposed when you shoot on a sunny beach; and the Spotlight mode is ideal for shooting spotlit scenes on a stage.
Our panel of experts awarded the ZR850 a video quality rating of Good overall. Noise was slightly visible under both bright-light and low-light conditions, and motion seemed a bit rough. Colors appeared dark, and the overall exposure wasn't great. Nor was the camcorder's audio quality outstanding. We could hear faint buzzes throughout our sample video, and the microphone failed to capture subtle noises clearly. At a maximum resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, the ZR850's still images looked slightly blurry, and colors were a little off.
On a full battery charge, the ZR850 lasted for 1 hour, 36 minutes in standard-play mode. That figure is a little above average for the group of five MiniDV camcorders we tested at roughly the same time.
The Canon ZR850's ease of use, good battery life, and array of shooting modes make it an ideal camcorder for shooting home videos. Though its image quality pales in comparison to that of higher-end camcorders we've tested, the ZR850 delivers a fine set of features and capabilities for its price.
Brian Chen
