Canon Announces Optura 400 and Optura 500

Hot on the heels of a similar announcement late last week by Canon Japan, Canon has announced the Optura 400 and Optura 500, two new Mini DV matchbox style camcorders.

The two new models each have a 2.2 Megapixel CCD. As Canon has done with many recent models, Canon is pushing the new Opturas as still/video hybrids. Both camcorders include a 10x optical zoom and a 2.5 in. LCD screen. Both camcorders feature a 1/3.4 in. CCD with 2.2 million gross pixels, 1230K effective pixels for video, and a straight 2 million effective pixels for stills, creating images with a max resolution of 1623 x 1224 pixels.

Along with the 2.2 Megapixel CCDs, Canon is strongly pushing the still features of the new camcorders. Particularly emphasized are Canon's set of photo features which they label DV Photo Plus. This package integrates Canon's optics, large pixel count CCD, DIGIC DV Processor, and Print and Share feature. Both camcorders come with a built-in flash, a continuous shooting mode, selectable focus points, auto exposure bracketing, and a photo review feature.

The Canon Optura 400 and Optura 500 each have manual audio control available, and are packaged with Pinnacle Systems' Studio 9 SE video editing software. The two camcorders resemble each other, but the Optura 500 comes with a ring light adapter for shooting close-up scenes, an accessory which has never before been included on a consumer camcorder. Other features that distinguish the Optura 500 include a small video light, MPEG4 recording capability, and USB 2.0 connectivity.

In what appears as a direct shot at Panasonic's new efforts to market and promote low-end 3 CCD camcorders, Canon has specifically contrasted the technologies in the Optura 400 and Optura 500 with 3 CCD technology. The press release issued on Tuesday, June 8, states that "the RGB Primary Color Filter (also beneficial in capturing digital photos) separates light passing through the lens into red, green, and blue color components, providing similar color quality found in professional 3 CCD camcorders, yielding truer, more natural looking colors."

The Optura 400 and Optura 500 will both be available in mid-July for $999 and $1199, respectively.