Canon DC50 Camcorder Reviewby Michael PerlmanPublished on May 28, 2007 12:27 PM
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Still Features (10.0)
The DC50 (Review, Specs, $649.99) records digital stills in compressed JPEG format to a miniSD card or DVD disc in the following resolutions: 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, and 1152 x 864 pixels. You can choose between Super Fine, Fine, and Normal quality modes, and simultaneous recording (snapping stills in video mode) offers two sizes—1280 x 720 and 1152 x 864 pixels.
The approximate number of 2592 x 1944 stills that can be stored on a 32MB miniSD card in Super Fine quality is 5, however, on a 512 card, you can attain 145 stills. At 640 x 480 in Normal quality, a 32 MB miniSD card holds 365 stills while a 512 card holds 6,040. The DC50 can store 415 stills in the highest quality and largest size on a DVD-R or DVD-RW in video mode. The Sony DCR-SR300 (Review, Specs, $761.95) is capable of storing 9,999 2848 x 2136 size stills in the highest quality thanks to its 40GB hard drive, so keep that in mind when deciding between a DVD or HDD camcorder.
The DC50 is equipped with an embedded flash to the lower left side of the lens, which could lead to uneven lighting when pinned against top-mounted flashes found on models like the Sony HDR-UX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $729.95). Auto and manual flash control including red-eye reduction can be accessed by pressing the center joystick and toggling the joystick to the left, which beats wading through a treacherous menu. Exposure and focus can be adjusted in this mini menu as well. The video light is also accessible in photo mode but don’t expect any earth-shattering light.
You’ll find the same program AEs, white balance modes, image effects, and digital effects, offered in video mode, plus a few extras. In photo mode, the DC50 features a light metering mode in which three settings—evaluative, center weight average, and spot—measures the reflected light from the subject and calculates the optimal exposure settings. You can also take single snaps, continuous, high speed continuous, or automatic exposure bracketing, although there is virtually no difference between high speed continuous and high speed continuous speeds. A histogram accompanies each image when reviewed in playback displaying the pixel count on the y axis and the spectrum of shadows and highlights on the x axis.
The DC50 is PictBridge compatible, meaning the camcorder itself can be connected directly to a PictBridge compatible printer via USB. You can choose the paper size, type, page layout, and trimming settings, all operated by the joystick.
Overall, the DC50 is rife with digital still options.
Still Performance (5.94)
To determine the Canon DC50’s still performance, we shot a Gretag McBeth Color Checker chart and ran those stills through Imatest imaging software. At best, the camcorder produced a color error of 10.1, with a saturation of 115% and a noise level of 0.915%. In order to get this best score, we had to lower the exposure from the automatic setting, to -0.50EV.
At a glance, the stills appear to be very strong in their color, with good clarity. Still performance continues to get better in each generation of camcorders. While the colors are clearly oversaturating, this will likely please rather than upset casual shooters. Unfortunately, we score on color accuracy, and several camcorders this year have done better.
Still Resolution (31.38)
This is the best resolution to date for 2007, and may, in the minds of potential DC50 owners, help to offset the weaker color accuracy score.