Canon Announces ZR400, Optura 50 and Optura 60 for PMA

Today Canon has announced the new ZR400 consumer budget camcorder in the run up to the Photo Marketing Association conference in Orlando later this week. The ZR400 adds a fourth camcorder to the ZR line. The new camcorder features a 1.33 megapixel CCD and many of the still photo features which Canon has been placing on consumer camcorders lately. The ZR400 shares the same specifications as Canon's entry Elura camcorder, the Elura 80, which was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The ZR400 features a 1/4.5 in. CCD screen, a 14x optical zoom, a 2.4 in. LCD and also includes a 0.6x wide angle lens adapter. The only major difference between the Elura 80 and the ZR400 is the form factor.

"Canon’s new ZR400 model offers users a compact design that is sleek enough to be carried anywhere and an EASY control switch that sets the camcorder in full automatic mode for point-and-shoot simplicity," stated the Canon press release.

Canon's Tim Smith explained that the ZR form factor has been very popular over the past few years, and Canon wanted to provide the feature set and expanded resolution of the Elura camcorder into the ZR form factor. The ZR400 features Canon's enhanced resolution 16:9 mode, the camcorder also includes a 16 MB SD card for saving digital stills to. The ZR400 however, does not include a microphone input or S-Video jack like the Elura 80.

Both the Optura 50 and the Optura 60 feature a 2.2 Megapixel CCD. The camcorders also feature a built in flash and expanded still features including Canon's DV Photo Plus technology. Canon pulled features from their digital still camcorders into the new Optura to provide better hybrid still technology. The new photo features include a nine-point Auto Intelligent Auto Focus system, a continuous shooting mode, Spot, Evaluative and Center Weighted exposure modes, and a built-in flash. Canon has also added USB 2.0 to the new Opturas for fast transfer of digital pictures from the camcorder to a computer.

The Optura 50 features a 10x optical zoom and the Optura 60 features a 14x optical zoom. Both camcorders also include optical image stabilization. Canon has also attempted to bring additional control to users by putting auto exposure modes on the control dial. They have also added a shutter priority and aperture priority mode for better manual control. In addition, both Optura camcorders feature an external focus ring.

The ZR400 will retail for $449, the Optura 50 for $799 and the Optura 60 for $899. The camcorders will be available in March.