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Canon Continues Into '08 with Three MiniDV Camcorders by Michael Perlman Published on Jan 7, 2008 8:00 AM

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The New Canon ZR950 MiniDV camcorder

Today Canon announced its new line of MiniDV camcorders for 2008: the ZR900 ($249 MSRP), ZR930 ($269 MSRP), and ZR950 ($279 MSRP). Despite the trend towards decreasing MiniDV lineups, Canon has released three models for a second year in a row. The models differ little from last year, though there are a few small upgrades.

For Canon, 2008 is the year of Advanced Zoom—a new system that allows their standard definition camcorders to achieve up to 48x zoom lengths. Advanced zoom combines DigicDV processing and Canon optics to scale the recorded image down, changing the target area on the imaging chip. All camcorders have more pixel information than can be used in the final outputted form. The Advanced Zoom simply uses some of those pixels that are normally discarded. If the user prefers, the Advanced Zoom feature can be turned off in favor of standard optical zoom.

“We’re able to achieve focal lengths that are longer and wider than we’ve ever had,” said Mitchell Glick, assistant manager of Product Marketing, Consumer Division for Canon USA. Their new feature may have been slightly undercut by Panasonic’s announcement yesterday of the SDR-H60 (Specs, ), which features a 50x optical zoom.

All ZR models feature a 2.7-inch wide LCD screen and a 16:9 viewfinder. The ZR900 is Canon’s entry-level MiniDV model, equipped with a 1/6-inch, 680,000 pixel imager, 41x Advanced Zoom (37x optical zoom), and a mic jack – one of very few camcorders in this price range to offer such an audio upgrade. All core specs from last year’s ZR800 are essentially the same. The ZR900 will not have the ability to capture stills.

Canon ZR900

The ZR930 also includes a mic jack, along with an enhanced 1/6-inch, 1,070,000 pixel imager. The ZR930 is equipped with a 48x Advanced Zoom (37x optical zoom). Like the ZR900, it lacks the ability to capture stills.

Canon ZR930

The ZR950 features nearly identical specs to the ZR930, only it swaps a mic jack out for an SD/SDHC card slot, enabling still photo capture. The ZR950 also features a remote sensor embedded within the LCD panel. A USB terminal is available on the ZR950, offering PictBridge compatibility. None of the camcorders have filter threads for attachments.

The Canon ZR900, ZR930, and ZR950 will ship late January for $249, $269, and $279, respectively.