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Quick Review Camcorders: Canon ZR830

by Michael Perlman
Published on May 11, 2007

Amongst Canon’s new line of ZR camcorders, the ZR830 finds itself between a rock and a hard place. It is the middle child, wedged between the ZR800, which includes a microphone jack, and the ZR850, which offers better video quality and larger stills. Sadly, the ZR830 was fed table scraps and grew up to live a no-frills life of mediocrity. Let’s find out why.

The ZR830’s 1/6” imager is capable of producing 680K gross pixels, which is pretty standard amongst the vast majority of entry-level camcorders. In bright light (3000 lux), the ZR830’s colors appeared saturated, yet remained strong in the greens, blues, and reds. There was a noticeable lack in sharpness, though and the ZR830’s step-up sibling, the ZR850, showed much less noise and saturation. In low light (60 lux), the ZR830’s image was overcast with uneven, washed out colors. The ship truly sank, though, at our lowest light setting (15 lux), as the ZR830’s once saturated and vibrant image was swallowed up into an ominous sea of darkness.

You can’t expect much from an entry-level camcorder in terms of solid construction, and the ZR830 is no exception. It has a thin, low strung hand strap that is attached to the bottom loading tape hatch, placing an added strain on the hatch door. In addition, the ZR830 must be removed from a tripod in order to swap out a tape, sacrificing time and continuity. The viewfinder looks neglected, wallowing in its non-retractable, short, hard plastic design. The ZR830 just feels cheap, but what would you expect in this price range? You do get an LCD-mounted joystick, responsive zoom toggle, and sliding lens enclosure, so don’t bust out the Kleenex just yet.

Canon’s ZR line is equipped with a respectable array of automatic and manual controls. Slipping the ZR830 into Easy (auto) mode disables all controls, aside from the zoom, as the camcorder drifts into autopilot. Even in Easy mode, you can access the Auto Slow Shutter On/Off, Digital Zoom, Zoom Speed, Widescreen, and Self Timer. When the ZR830 is shifted into P (manual) mode, the gates to the manual focus, exposure, shutter speed, white balance, and gain are opened. A gamut of AE, or “Scene modes” are available including Sports, Spotlight, and Fireworks.

The ZR830 records directly to MiniDV tapes. At the moment, DV is superior to other formats such as DVD, HDD, and AVCHD because of its high data transfer rate of 25mbps. In addition, MiniDV tapes are cheaper and provide ample amounts of recordable time on one single tape. An HDD camcorder can store a lot of footage, but requires the shooter to repeatedly dump the footage on a computer in order to clear out more space.

For $299, you could have a mediocre entry-level DV camcorder with no microphone input (the step-down ZR800 does) and subpar video quality. The ZR850 offers a slightly better image, bigger stills, and a video light. Is it worth it? If you’re shackled within the entry-level price range, look online for a Canon Elura100, last year’s Camcorder of the Year from CamcorderInfo.com. It’s still available, and cheaper than the ZR830.

Canon ZR830 - THE BOTTOM LINE
Rating: 174.09

Likes

- Compact
- Inexpensive
- Reliable media

Dislikes

- Cheap construction
- More compelling choices in model-up and model-down

Samsung SC-X210L Compared to the...

Canon ZR850 Rating: 187.42	Canon ZR800 Rating: N/A	Canon ZR700 Rating: N/A	Sony DCR-HC38 Rating: N/A	Panasonic PV-GS39 Rating: N/A

Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Handling	-Connectivity	-Zoom Power Ratio	-Zoom Power Ratio -Ease of Use -Automatic Controls	-Handling -Ease of Use -Manual Controls -Automatic Controls -Zoom Power Ratio
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
-Manual Controls -Automatic Controls -Ease of Use -Handling -Zoom Power Ratio	-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Manual Controls -Automatic Controls -Ease of Use -Handling -Zoom Power Ratio	-Video Performance -Lowlight Performance -Manual Controls -Automatic Controls -Handling -Ease of Use -Battery Life	-Battery Life	-Video Performance
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
-Battery Life	-Supplied Accessories	-Design	-Video Performance -Manual Controls -Handling	-Battery Life

Area	Weight	Raw	Adj.	Poss.
Video Performance	4.00	3.00	12.00	20.00
Front	0.20	3.75	0.75	2.00
Right	0.30	3.00	0.90	3.00
Back	0.25	4.50	1.13	2.50
Left	0.20	4.25	0.85	2.00
Top	0.15	3.50	0.53	1.50
Automatic Control	0.50	4.00	2.00	5.00
Overall Manual Control	0.60	5.00	3.00	6.00
Zoom	0.75	6.50	4.88	7.50
Focus	0.70	4.00	2.80	7.00
Exposure	0.65	5.50	3.58	6.50
Shutter Speed	0.60	5.40	3.24	6.00
White Balance	0.55	5.50	3.02	5.50
Gain	0.50	0.00	0.00	5.00
Still Perfomance	1.20	8.16	9.79	12.00
VCR Mode	0.30	3.00	0.90	3.00
Low Light Performance	4.00	4.15	16.60	20.00
LCD / Viewfinder	0.60	4.00	2.40	6.00
Audio	1.00	3.00	3.00	10.00
Handling	1.25	3.25	4.06	12.50
Jacks / Ports / Plugs	0.80	4.50	3.60	8.00
Other Features	0.70	2.50	1.75	7.00
Value	1.25	2.50	3.13	12.50
Total (weighted)			83.89	170.50