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Using three-inch Mini DVD disks rather than traditional Mini DV tapes, the Canon DC50 allows for immediate playback in any tray-style DVD player or computer drive. The Canon DC50 shoots in the movie-style "wide screen" proportions that are becoming standard in TV screens with the upcoming high-definition mandate. That 16:9 aspect ratio is seen not only in the camcorder's 2.7-inch flip-out LCD monitor, but in its eye-level electronic viewfinder as well. And unlike many other camcorders, which achieve a wide-screen effect by "cropping" the top and bottom of a standard-format (4:3) sensor -- and thereby sacrificing resolution -- the DC50 uses the full area of its 16:9-format image sensor. If you want to switch to standard 4:3 format, you just push a button on the screen. The picture produced by the DC50 is surprisingly good, but its quality isn't due just to the 5.39-megapixel sensor's 2716 x 1983-pixel resolution. Glass is always a big factor, and the new camcorder's 10x optical zoom owes much to Canon's SLR optics. It zooms very smoothly through a focal length range that's about the equivalent of 44-440mm in the 35mm format, when you're shooting in Widescreen Video Mode. You can extend that range by mounting an accessory .7x wide-angle converter (which gives you a 35mm-equivalent angle of view as wide as 31mm) or a 1.5x teleconverter (which gives you telephoto power equivalent to 660mm). The camera zooms digitally to 200x. When you have access to focal lengths that long, image stabilization is a virtual necessity for smoothing out the distracting jiggle that would otherwise be caused by shaky hands. Unlike models using electronic stabilization -- which does its job by stealing pixels from the image, reducing resolution -- the DC50 features optical image stabilization, which works the same way as in Canon's IS (Image Stabilized) lenses for its SLRs. In fact, the Canon DC50 can even shoot five-megapixel stills, saving them to a removable SD memory card. That's a cool feature, and fine for a quick snapshot or two when you're shooting home video. We can't speak for you, but for all its virtues, the DC50 still won't be replacing our Canon EOS 5D. Canon's DC50 DVD Camcorder arrives in stores in late February and carries an estimated selling price of $799.
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January 2007
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January 2007
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January 2007
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