New Canon ZR camcorders will go on sale Feb 1. The ZR900, ZR930 and ZR960 will be the only MiniDV cameras produced by Canon for consumer market in 2008. Obviously, the industry is moving to tapeless solutions, so the 2008 ZR series did not receive major updates this year, compared to 2007 models. But they definitely look better.

The ZR series are just that, ZR. They are not Vixia ZR, he-he.

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Michael, Canon Elura User Pages

Hey guys, Im new on these boards and I just bought a Canon zr950. I really like it thus far. However I had a few questions about it. Maybe some of you guru's can shimee in and shine some light.

1) Is there any way possible to use an external mic rather then the internal one on the zr950? Like maybe something that can convert AV to a mic jack? Or is this wishful thinking?

2)What are the best settings for low light situations? Is there a specific mode that works best on low light?

Thanks in advance...

I don't think that it is possible to connect external mic via A/V input. AFAIK, when the camcorder is recording, it does not listen to A/V input, because A/V is supposed to carry both audio and video, but the camcorder already shoots video itself. It cannot mix video from two sources, sounds logical? So I think it shuts off A/V input when recording. I don't think that this camcorder has been designed to accept audio only via A/V when recording, but you can try yourself, I might be wrong.

If you still can, return it and get the ZR930, it has proper mic input.

In regards to lowlight settings, the slower shutter, the wider aperture the better. I am pretty sure that fully automatic mode will work well in low light, you can also enable "auto slow shutter" option, the camera will slow shutter speed below 1/60 s if there is not enough light, but moving objects will be blurry and stuttery. Oh, read the user's guide too!

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Michael, Canon Elura User Pages

Hey Jockey,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did a little of my own research and came up with the same answer you provided. I went to best buy and returned the zr950 as it does me no good with the stock internal mic.

Damn Best Buy and there 15% re-stocking fee.

Heres a dumb question...

Where can I buy a zr930? I tried to find an online store but all i could find was Amazon. Isnt Amazon's merch all used? I'm not sure I want a used camcorder. So, if you know of anywhere I can purchase the zr930 it would be greatly appreciated.

-Tony

Amazon's merchandise is not all used.

Those models just came out recently.



Rich

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FireWire Survey

Is there a way of knowing which items are used and which arent?

Also, I found this... Canon Estore

Is this fine? Sorry for the n00b questions guys. I just want to be sure of what I'm purchasing.

So, this camcorder can be the only device attached to Firewire? Not good if you want to capture video to a Firewire drive.