Canon DC100 Camcorder Review

Still Features (5.5)
The still features offered by the Canon DC100 are limited. While this is not surprising in an entry level camcorder, users who are looking for a solid hybrid (Video + Still) camcorder will be disappointed in this model. To begin with, this camcorder captures stills only to DVD, and does not offer the MiniSD card option that the higher-priced DC10, DC20 and DC40 share. The lack of a flash memory recording also means that the DC10 cannot capture stills while recording video – a neat feature that its DC series cousins share.

The camcorder has two size options, 1024 x 768 and 640 x 480, and each size has three quality options: Normal, Fine, and Superfine. This camcorder takes stills only in the 4:3 aspect ratio.

Still mode in the DC100 parallels video mode for most of the manual and automatic controls – focus, exposure, white balance, Image Effects, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Scene Modes. There is no continuous shooting or exposure bracketing function, likely due to the fact that this camcorder records only to DVD, a medium that can’t be written with as quickly as flash media.

The DC100 offers three metering options. Evaluative assesses the average brightness across the whole frame. Center Weight Average favors the central part of the frame, and could be useful for portraits where metering priority is on the subjects. Spot metering assess an even smaller area (but is still not a true spot meter, which would literally evaluate only a precise spot) bounded by a small box that appears in the center of the LCD when in that mode. Finally, there is no flash included on the DC100.

Still Resolution (1.7)
The DC100’s 1024 x 768 stills were tested for their resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running stills of that chart through Imatest imaging software. In all, the DC100 produced a resolution of 174821.88.

The chart below shows how the still resolution compared to other camcorders in its class.

Still Performance (3.75)
The Canon DC100 stills were, sadly, among the worst we’ve seen this year. The main problem was noise: an exceptional amount of dark, grainy noise across the picture. Color balance was not terribly good either, with a bit too much emphasis on the blues. The picture did have a decent amount of sharpness relative to its size.

The Canon DC10 can shoot a slightly larger maximum still size, 1280 x 960 (versus the DC100’s 1024 x 768). The difference in quality, however, was enormous. The DC10’s stills were much sharper and, more notably, had far less noise.

The Sony DVD92, last year’s entry-level DVD camcorder, produced 640 x 480 stills with stronger color performance than the DC100. Amazingly, the pictures are even noisier than the DC100’s. Most edges and outlines are also fuzzy.

The Panasonic VDR-M53, last year’s equivalent to the VDR-D100, had over-saturated yellows. There were, in fact, no real green tones; just variances of yellow. The picture was a little over-sharpened, which made the image too contrasty. Finally, there were patches of blue noise in the blue through violet tones. The VDR-D100 does not take stills at all, but if they’re going to look like this, maybe it’s better off.

With stills this small and this noisy, the DC100 is not in any way a substitute for a dedicated still camera.