Canon DC22 Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on Nov 29, 2006 12:00 PM
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Ease of Use (6.0)
The Canon DC22 (Review, Specs, $409), like most DVD camcorders, seems to have been designed with ease of use in mind. It’s hard to top Sony’s idiot-proof Easy button equipped on most of their camcorders, but Canon does their best. A small switch to the right of the viewfinder allows the camcorder to be placed in Auto mode which lets the user be free to point and shoot.
The seriously technologically-challenged may still stumble, though. Canon failed to make their record on/off button clearly marked, despite the near-universal consensus that it be marked with a red dot or stripe. Fortunately, navigating the menu is simple, which has a clearly laid out structure. The Function menu, which contains most of the manual controls, can be a little tricky to get a hold of, at first, due to its feature-packed layout, but once you’ve scaled the learning curve, it’s a great feature to have.
The cluttered array of buttons may prove frustrating for some users. The rear of the camcorder has too many items crowded into too small a space: five buttons and switches and one small viewfinder. The left side’s three buttons are all identical in size and shape, which can cause frustration when you’re trying to access the different features quickly.
All in all, this is a generally easy to use camcorder.
Handling (6.5)
At first glance, the DC22 looks like it should be problematic in terms of handling. While it’s a very nice looking camcorder, with a slim profile and flowing lines, some important controls like the joystick and Power switch are packed tightly together. Other controls, like the movie/still image switch are small enough for us to call them undersized for most users’ fingers.
As it turns out, the DC22 is not perfect when it comes to handling – but it’s also not the beast we were afraid we’d encounter. The hand strap is thin, and less comfortable than many, but it can be adjusted quickly and easily. More important than comfort is the fact that the strap places your hand in a stable and confident shooting position within easy reach of the start/stop button, photo button, and zoom lever.
The placement of the joystick almost makes one-hand operation of the camcorder possible – a feat only Panasonic has managed to implement with great success. On Panasonics, the joystick is positioned to be easily accessed by a user’s right thumb during hand-held shooting, allowing full access to menus and manual controls. The joystick on the DC22 is to the left of the start/stop button and just out of reach. However, I was able to loosen the strap enough to allow full access to both the start/stop button and the joystick allowing near one-handed operation of the camcorder. Only the placement of the Menu and Function buttons on the left face of the camcorder stymied my efforts.
The joystick is small compared to many of those found on 2006 camcorders and feels – there’s not a subtle way to say this – kind of cheap. When it comes to navigating menus, making selections, and operating playback, however, it works as well as others we’ve seen. In combination with an intuitive menu interface, it makes this an easy camcorder to manipulate. Panasonics, by contrast, sport a better joystick and a highly efficient menu structure that happens to be tricky for novice users to master. While Panasonic’s joystick controller and independent manual controls are better, the DC22’s interface is more accessible and easier to use. The joystick also tapers as it extends out, when keeping it a consistent diameter or even fattening it out would have helped give it some grip.
Another problem we had with the DC22’s brethren, including the DC40 (Review, Specs, $539.99), is the crowded back side real estate, where so many controls are located. With several buttons and ports relocated to other areas, the DC22 suffers less from overcrowding, and there is sufficient space between the back side controls to allow most users reasonable access to the controls. Two switches lie on the lower side of the back side curve and are more difficult to reach than we’d like: the movie/still image switch, and the DVD compartment switch.
It is worth making a final observation about the DC22 that will affect some users. We found the socket on the base of this camcorder to be too shallow for our tripod plate screw. It was impossible to secure affix the camcorder to our Bogen tripods without applying several layers of tape to the base, effectively increasing the depth of the tripod socket. This is a problem we encountered with Canon’s DC40, and a few other camcorders this year, and we find it a puzzling design deficiency. An extra millimeter of depth would have corrected the issue in our case, and we hope Canon fixes this problem in future models.
Portability (6.25)
The Canon DC22 is a shade larger than 2005’s DC20 (Specs, ), but it’s also slightly lighter, and compared to the DC40, it is noticeably smaller. Weighing in at 410g (about 0.9lb) and measuring 51mm x 91mm x 126mm (2.0” x 3.6” x 5.0”) this camcorder is comparable to most other DVD units in terms of raw size. The DC22 is larger than many compact MiniDV camcorders and downright cumbersome in comparison to devices like Panasonic’s tiny SDR-S150 (Review, Specs, $699.95) – but that’s the price you pay for DVD convenience. It’s possible to miniaturize a DVD camcorder only to a certain point given the overhead of a DVD drive bay and motor.
The enclosed battery is a double-edged sword when it comes to portability. It allows the DC22 to retain its slim profile, without a protruding battery pack to muck up its lines, and the battery itself is scarcely larger than a memory card. Unfortunately, you’re only option when it comes to adding batteries to your camcorder kit is to buy additional BP-208 battery packs. Longer life batteries are not available, so if you intend to take this camcorder on a hut to hut hike in the mountains, stock up on BP-208s, and make sure they’re fully juiced before you leave!
LCD/Viewfinder (6.5)
The Canon DC22’s LCD screen is on the left side of the camcorder and is connected to the body by a sturdy hinge. The hinge opens to 90 degrees from the body, and can be rotated through 270degrees or folded LCD-out into the LCD cavity to accommodate multiple viewing angles. The 16:9 screen measures 2.7 inches diagonally in a widescreen format and has a resolution of 123K pixels. Like many consumer camcorder screens, this one solarizes when it’s tipped at a slight angle. The only company that has thoroughly addressed this problem is Sony, which outfits its consumer camcorders with screens that can be viewed at relatively extreme angles without significant solarization. The brightness and clarity of the screen is good, and it displayed crisp images with balanced colors.
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The DC22 is also equipped with an EVF (electronic color viewfinder) on the top back face of the camcorder. The EVF is integrated into the body, and the surface of the eyepiece angles slightly forward. This EVF measures .27” with a resolution of 123K pixels, and like the LCD, produces a crisp, good-looking image. While the quality of the EVF screen is very good, its position cannot be adjusted in any way, and the eyepiece itself is extremely small. This can make using the EVF challenging, as it’s not easy to maintain an ideal viewing distance and position with an eyepiece this tiny. In its favor, this EVF can be used in tandem with all of the camcorder’s manual controls – something that other camcorders make impossible. Sonys that employ a touch screen menu can only be controlled manually with the LCD screen open, rendering the EVF usable only after all camera settings are established or in auto mode.
A small dioptric adjustment lever is below the eyepiece where it slopes back towards the body of the DC22. The lever is very easy to use despite the fact that it’s extremely small.
Battery Life (8.8)The Canon DC22 ships with the BP-208 battery pack, a thin rectangle that fits into an enclosed battery port in the LCD cavity. Normally, we dislike enclosed batteries because they bar the use of extended life batteries. Sometimes, as in the case of the Elura 100 (Specs, $379.19), the battery happens to give exceptional performance and it’s not so bad. The DC22 was precisely the opposite; this is the rule more often than the exception.
Testing for endurance, we shot video continuously without engaging any manual controls, and replacing the DC power to change DVDs. In total, the battery lasted for only 88 minutes and 19 seconds (1 hour, 28 minutes, 19 seconds).
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