Quick Review Camcorders: Canon DC10

The DC10 is a remarkably sleek looking camcorder, with a slender frame and great feel in the hand. It features a large 1/4” CCD with 690K effective pixels, which portended great things. The picture told a different story. The sharpness was very good; better than we’ve seen on most DVD camcorders. The colors, however, were decidedly dull, and could not hope to compare with the runaway DVD cam of the year, the Sony DCR-DVD403. By comparison, the DC20 has a slightly larger CCD (1/4”) and nearly twice as many effective pixels (1.23 MP).

The DC10 does offer the ease of use that has become a hallmark of both Canon and the DVD camcorder. Automatic adjustments are available for shutter speed, aperture, focus, and white balance. Canon has also included a number of AE Program and Priority modes. AE modes are pre-grouped exposure and shutter speed settings for very specific environments when Auto mode might not cut it. On the DC10, they include Portrait, Snow, Spotlight, Sports, Beach Fireworks, Night, and Sunset.

Priority modes are pretty much the extent to which Canon will hand over the reigns on image control. Unlike many Panasonics and JVCs, Canon does not include a full manual control mode. Priority modes allow you to make adjustments in one category i.e., shutter speed), after which the camcorder automatically compensates with the other controls. Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority are both available, and can be helpful to beginners hesitant to jump right into full manual mode. There is a manual focus and manual exposure (independent of Aperture Priority), but both of them rely on judging the picture on the LCD and are fairly ambiguous as to how much you should be correcting. Manual white balance is good.

Most adjustments are made via a small joystick in the left side. Navigating through the menus can be tedious. If you were to leave the DC10 in Auto the whole time, you might never even notice. The handling, outside of the menus, is great. The DC10 and DC20 are two of the most comfortable camcorders I’ve held this year. The size and shape are perfect, and the most important buttons – record on/off, photo shutter, and zoom – are within perfect reach for the right hand. Engaging any manual control is done on the left side, and some might consider anything but total one-handed operation a detriment. But because you can’t make adjustments while recording anyway, this does not seem to be an issue.

The DC10 shoots stills to a MiniSD card in two resolutions, 1280 x 960 and 640 x 480. They scored modestly in our resolution testing, but appeared sharp to the eye. Like the video performance, we liked the crispness, but were unimpressed with the color. The images appeared a bit washed out.

The strength of a DVD camcorder is its ease of use, particularly when it comes to playing back footage and stills. The on-board computer is exceptionally fast at drawing up thumbs of each video clip and still. Navigating through them is done with the joystick. Dedicated buttons for VCR control are found on the left side, as well.

Two elements of the DC10 make us hesitant to recommend it. The first is the battery, which is “cleverly” hidden in the LCD cavity. Sure, it may seem like a perfect spot, but realize that what you’re giving up is the opportunity for an expanded battery. Time and again, users complain that their camcorders die too quickly. Our solution – buy a model with room for an extra-large battery. The second problem is the lack of a microphone input. On-board mics rarely give you satisfactory quality. We believe the freedom to extend beyond these limitations is a necessary inclusion.

The DC10 is a decent first DVD cam showing from a reliable company. They’ve made some errors, but hopefully they will be corrected in the next generation. The first time is always the hardest.

Canon DC10: THE BOTTOM LINE... Rating: 179.88

Likes

-Video Performance -Handling -Ease of use

Dislikes

-Enclosed Battery -Ports -Audio -Body Heats Up

Canon DC10 Compared to the...

Canon DC20 Rating:	Sony   DCR-DVD403 Rating: 210.65	Sony DCR-DVD203 Rating: 167.12	Panasonic VDR-M75 Rating: 164.37	Hitachi DZ-MV780 Rating: 175.25
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-Imager Specs -Still features -Built-in Flash -Built-in Light	-Video Performance -Low Light Performance -LCD -Ease of Use -Automatic Control -Wide Angle -Still Features -VCR Mode -Ports	-Video Performance -Ease of Use -Automatic Control -Ports -LCD -VCR Mode -Still Features -Optical Zoom Specs	-Video Performance -Audio -Ports	-Ports -Audio -Still Features -Wide Angle
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
-Optical Zoom Specs -LCD -Portability -Ports -Handling -Ease of Use -Automatic Control Manual Control	-Optical Zoom Specs -Widescreen -Audio	-Wide Angle -Audio -Widescreen Mode	-Still Features -Low Light Performance -Zoom Power Ratios -Wide Angle -LCD View Finder	-Optical Zoom Specs -LCD -VCR Mode
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
-Affordability	-Portability -Manual Control -Handling	-Low Light Performance -Portability -Manual Control -Handling	-Overall Manual Control -Portability -Ease of Use -VCR Mode -Widescreen Mode -Handling	-Portability -Video Performance -Low Light Performance -Ease of Use -Automatic Control -Overall Manual Control -Handling -Widescreen