Canon Elura 100 Camcorder Review

Still Features (7.5)
Still features on the Canon Elura 100 are nearly as complete as video feature. Manually speaking, the still image mode still allows white balance and shutter speed to be altered, although the shutter speed range is limited to 1/60th to 1/250th of a second. The still image mode also provides access to the numerous preset shooting modes, image effects, digital effects and burst mode. In addition to still images with a maximum resolution of 1152 x 864, the memory card can also record video clips at reduced video resolutions of either 320 x 240 or 160 x 120. While not as complete a feature set as that given by some manufacturers like Sony, which now offer in-camera flash units as well as hot shoe accessory options at the higher end of the market, the options provided with the Elura 100 should certainly be adequate for the beginning point-and-shoot videographer who is looking for some basic hybrid functionality.

Still Resolution (4.0)
The stills from the Elura 100 were tested for resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. The still size we tested was the camcorder’s max: 1152 x 864; it does not shoot 16:9 stills. In total, the Elura 100’s approximate resolution was 398580.75 (with an average clipping of 0.72%).

Clipping is explained in more detail above in the Video Resolution section. In summary, this is the percentage of information that Imatest could not read. Most Canons show a percentage of clipping.

This is a fairly standard score for a camcorder with this still size.

Still Performance (3.75)
The Elura 100 produced stills that you probably won’t want to stick in the family scrapbook. The first problem is color. The entire image has a washed-out look. There is a distinct lack of red tones, which seems to cast a blue-ish look. Mind you, this was white balanced. The picture is very sharp, however, and deserves credit for that.

The second issue was noise. There is a great amount of fine grain, dark noise. In other areas, there appeared fainter traces of blue noise. Overall, noise was too hard not to notice, and gave the picture a gritty look. Don’t be surprised. Most camcorders do not take good stills; their primary task is to take video.

By comparison, the ZR700 did not fare much better. The colors were more saturated in the greens, but the noise was even worse. The Elura 80 images were noticeably better. Not only were the images brighter, the colors were stronger and more balanced. It did not lack the red tones missing in the Elura 100. Noise was a little better on the Elura 80. The Elura 100 shows more signs of sharpening, which created stronger lines between color tiles but also created halos along some contrasty areas.

The Panasonic PV-GS39, with a maximum still size of 640 x 480, did not come close in sharpness. The two dominant qualities of the GS39 are blur and noise. It did, however, have better color performance. Finally, the Sony DCR-HC26 was also noisier; it gave a chunky, blurry noise that created patterns across the image rather than the fine grain noise of the Elura 100. The colors are heavily saturated, but the image also had an overall blurry look.