Canon Elura 85 Camcorder Review

Welcome to the middle of the road. Plant the Elura 85 between its siblings, the Elura 80 and the Elura 90, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find the differences. It’s a matter of negligible extras, none of which greatly improve or detract from performance. All the interior specs are the same. Canon is not a company prone to hype or flair. They release quality products, built on the reputation of their optics. The Elura 85 is merely another in a long line of satisfactory camcorders.

Video Performance (7.5)
The Canon Elura 85 is essentially the same camcorder as the Elura 80 and the Elura 90. They all use the same Digic DV processor and 1/4.5-inch CCD, producing 690K effective pixels. In our testing environment of 3000 lux, the equivalent of a bright sunny day, the Elura 85 performed similarly to the Elura 80 and 90. As we have stated in reviews for the two sibling camcorders, the colors are generally bright and crisp. Blues and violets are slightly brighter than the greens and yellows. Looking back on the all the tests, however, the Eluras have shown a tendency to add ghostly white lines on either side of the black lines of the color chart. The lines are thin, and may merely be a product of capturing stills from what is an interlaced screen in its native state.

Video Resolution (7.13)
With the Canon Elura 85, we were able to capture video footage of a standard resolution chart in both 4:3 and 16:9 mode and export its stills to Imatest Imaging Software. In 4:3 mode, the camcorder displayed approximately 277.9 lines of vertical resolution at its best, with 256.9 lines of horizontal resolution, yielding a true resolution of approximately 71392.51. In widescreen mode, the canon Elura 85 produced approximately 281.9 lines of vertical resolution at its best, with approximately 479.9 lines of horizontal resolution, generating a real resolution of 135283.81.

The Front (7.5)
The Canon Elura 85’s front side is dominated by its sizable lens, with a 34mm filter diameter. Underneath the lens is a stereo microphone. This camcorder comes equipped with both a flash (for stills) and a video assist light, both grouped on the left side of the front with the remote control sensor.

The Right Side (9.0)
The right side, like most of the body, is an exceptionally clean design. The mode button is located at the right rear. Above that you’ll find the manual control / Easy switch. Fanning outward from the mode button is the playback speaker. Towards the front of the Elura 85, hidden underneath a long, thin rubber cover are the jacks for USB, DV, A/V, and a microphone. This last input is a feature not included on the Elura 80. The right side is also home to a large, comfortable strap.

The Back (7.5)
The rear of the Elura 85 is taken up primarily by the battery, fitting snugly into a cavity and jutting out no further than the viewfinder. Above the battery is the release button. To the right of the battery is an almond-shaped record button. Next to this, the mode dial protrudes for easy thumb control. The fourth mode in this dial, Network, can only be unlocked by a holding down a small button under the record button.

The Left Side (9.0)
The exterior of the Elura 85’s left side is perhaps even tidier in appearance than the right, and this is where tidiness and visual appeal can come at the expense of functionality. On the left side, all the way up front, sit the two buttons you’re most likely to use: the Menu button and a multi-purpose jog dial through which the menu is navigated. The rest of the side is occupied by the 2.5 inch LCD screen. Problem? If the LCD is open, you can’t see the two most important buttons. This proved to be a small but constant frustration.

Opening the LCD screen reveals a panoply of buttons – ten, in all: search and playback control, night mode, digital effects on/off, focus/data code, exposure/end search, drive mode/wide screen/record pause, LCD backlight on/off, and card mix/slide show. Underneath this array is the SD card port, covered by a flimsy, cheap plastic flap. If I bought the Elura 85 camera, I’d expect this to be the first bit that breaks.

The Top (9.0)
The top of the Elura 85 comes equipped with the video/SD card mode dial by the rear, crowned by the still photo button. Beside it is the print/share button. Also at the rear is the zoom control, which is more of a sliding button than a proper toggle. The viewfinder pops up from the back to a 45 degree angle. Towards the front is a cold accessory shoe. None of the Eluras are manufactured with a hot shoe.

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.0)
The automatic controls on the Elura 85 are passable, barely. It offers automatic focus, exposure, white balance, and the standard array of program AE modes: Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Sand & Snow, and Low Light. An Automatic Slow Shutter is defaulted as “on,” which helps for shooting in low light environments.

An Easy mode allows for simplest shooting options – just point and record.

This camcorder has some trouble adjusting the exposure automatically, which makes indoor shooting a problem if any of your subjects are standing near a window. Zoom in too close to a subject, and the Elura 85 has trouble staying focused.

Overall Manual Control (6.0)
The manual control is generally good, in that it allows you to bypass some of the poor automatic control. Manual focus and manual exposure are conveniently operated by buttons and the jog dial on the left side of the camera. Or is it so convenient when the LCD is opened? This jog dial may then be a bit hard to reach, let alone control. Manual shutter speed and manual white balance are adjusted through the menu system.

Zoom (7.25)
The zoom control, usually operated via a raised toggle switch, has been re-envisioned on the Elura 85. What we get here is a rather clumsy, flat switch that moves left to right along a little track. Pushing it requires more downward force than a standard toggle, pushing the camera (and whatever you’re shooting) down with it. When released, it snaps back into center position with an audible click that microphone is sure to pick up. Conclusion: if you make frequent use of the zoom, look elsewhere.

Focus (5.5)
The manual focus is turned on by a button on the Elura 85’s left side, and is then adjusted with the jog dial. Some higher-end Canons include numerical markings to gauge focus, but we probably shouldn’t expect that from a camcorder in this price range. Here, you’ll have to judge with your eye whether the picture is in focus or not.

Exposure (Aperture) (4.75)
Manual exposure, called Exposure Lock (E-Lock) by Canon, is controlled the same way as the focus: a button and jog dial. Rather than F-stops, the system is numerated by a sliding scale of +/- 10.

Shutter Speed (3.0)
The Elura 85 offers 6 manual options for shutter speed, from 1/60 to 1/2000. The Auto Slow Shutter feature, when turned on, will allow the shutter to open as slowly as 1/30. It would be nice to see some manual options below 1/60, but what can you do?

White Balance (7.0)
The white balance is adjusted through the menu on the LCD, with options for auto, manual setting, and indoor and outdoor presets. These presets are based on average light temperatures in either environment. This is probably the most usable control on the camcorder as far as manual controls go.

Gain (0.0)
There is no manual gain on the Elura 85.

Other Manual Control (0.0)
There are no other manual controls on the Elura 85.

Ease of Use (6.0)
Canon typically does well with making consumer-friendly camcorders. The Elura 85 is no exception. Aside from the poor zoom control, the manual controls are accessible by conveniently placed buttons and on-screen. Easy mode removes all but the simplest tasks from the user’s mind. Our one complaint in terms of ease of use was the placement of the Menu button and jog dial, impossible to see when the LCD is open. The extendable viewfinder is a nice touch, and brings the usability of the viewfinder, nil on most of these cheap camcorders, back into the realm of possibility.

Still Features (7.0)
The Elura 85 records still pictures in JPEG format to an SD Card, which loads in the cavity of the LCD screen. It offers two image size options: 1280 x 960 and 640 x 480, as well as three image qualities: normal, fine, and superfine. Options for continuous shooting are included, ranging from 10-60 images depending on the picture size and memory.

When shooting stills, the Elura 85 allows you to control focus with the Focus-Priority mode. It works by choosing three focus frames, points in which it should concentrate, and displaying them on the LCD screen. The camcorder’s preferred focus frame is highlighted in green. Using the jog dial allows you to change to a different focus frame. This feature is a different spin on Sony’s Spot Focusing, and like Sony’s, it’s a gimmick. The benefit with the Elura is that manual adjustment is relatively easy.

The Elura 85 also allows you to shoot Motion JPEG movies in two sizes: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120.

The Drive Mode is Canon’s name for a still feature found regularly on camcorders like the Elura 85. This function, known as Burst Mode in Sonys, takes three stills in quick succession, each with a slightly different exposure – normal, dark, and light in ½ EV steps.

The Multi-Screen Image effect captures 4, 9, or 16 sequences of stills at automatic intervals, and then tiles them on the LCD for viewing.

Still Resolution (4.5)
The Canon Elura 85 is capable of capturing stills on a SD Card at the standard 640 x 480, and 1280 x 960. Stills can only be taken in 4:3 mode. At 640 x 480, this model produced images displaying approximately 308160.75 (0.3 MP) pixels, while the 1280 x 960 image presented an image with approximately 454429.92 (0.45 MP).

Still Performance (5.25)
The still performance is satisfactory on the Elura 85. As the inner organs of all this year’s Eluras are the same, it performs as well as the Elura 90. Colors are bright, and match up favorably to most camcorders in this price range. This comes as no surprise, as the stills are shot at 3000 lux; and bright light shooting is something Canon typically excels at.

Low Light Performance (3.75)
The Elura 85’s low light performance is much the same as the Elura 80 and the Elura 90. The problem, cited in the other reviews, is that Canon’s pleasing results in bright light shooting fail to cross over to low light environments. Overall brightness has increased from last year’s Eluras, but at the cost of increased noise.

At 15 lux, the noise increases, though the colors remain bright enough to distinguish. The tragedy in the Elura series is that even if you spring for the Elura 90 or bargain down for the Elura 80, the results are the same.

Zoom Power/Ratio(18.0)
The Canon Elura 85 manages an impressive 18x optical zoom, and 360x digital zoom. The menu allows you to cap the digital zoom at 72x or 360x, or turn it off entirely. These are the same specs as found on the Elura 80. The Elura 90 increases the optical zoom to 20x and the digital to 400x.

Wide Angle(7.8)
Wide Angle measurements were taken in both 4:3 and 16:9 mode. In 4:3 mode, the camcorder displayed a wide angle measurement of 39 degrees, while it presented a measurement of 47 degrees in 16:9 mode.

4:3 Standard Aspect Ratio LCD View

Widescreen Aspect Ratio LCD View

The slightly more expensive Elura 90 ships with a wide angle lens for those looking to do a home camcorder version of a John Ford movie.

VCR Mode (6.0)
The Elura 85 has several playback options. An A/V jack allows for simple connection to a TV or VCR. Buttons on the camcorder’s housing make for easy playback control. They include some fun features like playback zoom (5x) on video and stills. When in zoom, the jog dial allows you pan over the image while close up.

Network Mode connects the camcorder to a Windows XP dedicated DV Network Software (DV Messenger), This allows the Elura 85 to be used for videoconferencing or remote access to the camcorder via the Internet. How the latter is a useful feature is yet to be seen, but if you can find the employ, feel free to post below.

LCD/Viewfinder (7.0)
The LCD screen on the Elura 85 is a respectable 2.5-inch, standard aspect ratio. With so many camcorders in this price range now coming equipped with widescreen LCDs, we hope that next year’s model makes the leap. As it is now, the Elura 85 adds black bars to the top and bottom of the screen when shooting in widescreen mode.

Another feature we found wanting was a non-solarizing display. This is not a fault, per se, but the industry is definitely moving in that direction for mid-priced camcorders.

The color viewfinder bends upwards to a 45 degree angle, and telescopes out an extra inch or so.

Audio (6.75)
Audio options for the Elura 85 include 12 bit and 16 bit audio. The accessory shoe on top is cold, but a jack on the front-right of the camcorder allows for mic input. The same input can be found on the Elura 90, but not the Elura 80.

A windscreen mode can be set to Auto or off.

Handling (8.0)
The handling of the Canon Elura 85 could have gotten a great rating. By the looks of it, the comfortable size, balance, and clean, sophisticated design make for a slick-looking camcorder. Unfortunately, form has trumped functionality. The biggest complaint is that the two buttons that will receive the most use – the Menu button and the jog dial – are located on the far side of the LCD screen, blocking them from sight. When it’s opened, finding the buttons with your thumb is no mean feat. This could have been easily adjusted by Canon, as seen on the comparatively-priced Canon ZR400.

The manual controls are all well-placed, with the more frequently used appearing as plastic buttons, while those less used are accessed through the menu.

The zoom control is poor, and we would have much preferred a proper toggle to this sliding-switch contraption.

Portability (6.0)
The Elura 85 is a bit chunky, as far as mid-priced camcorders go these days. Much of that bulk is the result of performance-enhancing electronics, which is the tradeoff for high portability. If you want something smaller, look towards the Canon ZR400, the Sony DCR-HC32, the Panasonic PV-GS35, or the JVC GR-DF550.

Battery Life (5.4)
The Elura 85 has a mediocre battery life of under an hour (54 min, 5 sec.)

Compression (8.0)
The Elura 85 uses standard DV compression to MiniDV tape, which is generally of excellent quality.

The stills are captured to the SD Card as JPEGs. The Elura 85 also allows for capture of Motion JPEG Movies to the SD Card.

Media (8.0)
The Elura 85 records to MiniDV. Stills and Motion JPEG movies can record to SD Cards.

Editing (8.0)
Footage from the MiniDV tape on the Elura 85 can easily be exported to any editing software, which is the great strength of MiniDV over formats like DVD.

Widescreen/16:9 Mode (7.5)
The Elura 85, like all the camcorders, now shoots in widescreen aspect ratio. With image stabilization off, this increases the resolution by abut 1/3. This mode is selected via a button on the camera’s body. As the LCD is not widescreen, letterbox bars are added to the top and bottom of the picture. They are removed when played back on a widescreen monitor.

Standard Aspect Ratio

Widescreen Aspect Ratio

Scan Rates/24P (0.0)
The Elura 85 has no options for scan rates other than its native 60i.

Ports (8.0)
The Elura 85 includes ports for USB, IEEE 1394, A/V, and a microphone input under a rubber flap at the front-right of the camera. An SD Card input is located inside the LCD cavity. DC power is located at the back-right corner.

Other Features(6.0)
Motion JPEG Movie Recording The Elura 85 offers the option of shooting motion JPEG movies that capture to the SD Card. Two sizes are available for recording: 320 x 240 and 160 x 120. A 512MB SD Card will contain approx. 33 minutes of a 320 x 240 movie, in total, but recording times are severely limited for each individual movie: 10 second clips in 320 x 240 and 30 clips in 160 x 120. Audio on the Motion JPEG Movies is limited to monaural.

Skin Detail Function When shooting close-ups of people, this feature supposedly softens the skin’s imperfections. We found no such luck.

Super Night Mode This feature allows for shooting in very low light while retaining a modicum of color. It achieves this by automating the on/off of the video light according to surrounding brightness.

Auto Slow Shutter When shooting in Easy Mode or leaving the shutter speed set to automatic in low light environments, the shutter speed can slow down to 1/30 in video mode and 1/15 in card mode.

Stitch Assist Mode In conjunction with the included software, the Elura 85 can shoot a series of stills intended to artificially create a panoramic image.

Image Stabilization The Canon Elura 85 utilizes an electronic image stabilization.

Digital Effects Effects on the Elura 85 include Card Chroma Key, Camera Chroma Key, Card Luminance Key, and Card Animation, which take a number of inane images (heart frames, sky backgrounds, etc.) from the included software and overlay them on the subject or the background.

Picture Effects Included picture effects are Art, Black & White, Sepia, Mosaic, Ball, Cube, Wave, Color Mask, and Mirror.

Fader Fade options on the Elura 85 include Fade, Wipe, Corner Wipe, Jump, Flip, Puzzle, Zigzag, Beam, and Tide.

Comparison
Canon ZR400
With virtually the same CCD as the Elura 85, the ZR400 is available for virtually the same price. It features a smaller body than the Elura 85 and because of this loses the Elura 85’s accessory shoe, microphone port, mobility of the viewfinder, and a lot of weight. It has a smaller lens as well. The ZR400 does ship with a wide angle attachment which is nice. The ZR400 produces slightly smaller still images due to less effective pixels for still imagers (go figure); it also lacks some of the burst modes found on the Elura 85. While the Elura outperforms the ZR in bright light, they have similar low light performance.

Sony DCR-HC32
Sony’s mid-grade lower-end HC model, the DCR-HC32, is available for around the same price as the Elura 85. With a bigger CCD, the Elura performs much better in bright light, and while this is also true in low light, the gap is smaller. Some of these low-end Sonys have been producing some nasty blue noise in low light, and while the DCR-HC32 is one of the better camcorders at preventing this, it still has a bit of a problem. The Sony is going to have a lesser amount of manual control than the Elura 85, but much better automatic controls. Finally, the DCR-HC32 will be operated, for better or worse, by a touch screen menu system, and will not, like the DCR-HC42, have a widescreen LCD screen.

Panasonic PV-GS35
As Panasonic’s best single-chip camcorder, it shines in its zoom ability - a humongous 30x optical zoom. It also includes a lot of manual control, with a relatively easy-to-use navigational mechanism, upgraded from last year. The Elura will outshine the Panasonic in bright light by a lot, but fail in low light. The Panasonic also includes an S-Video port.

JVC GR-DF550
JVC’s Ultra Compact GR-DF550 can be acquired for about the same cost as the Elura 85. It features comparable manual control with average shutter speed options, and an AE shift-esque exposure. Navigation on the JVC is probably less convenient than on the Elura, and widescreen mode isn’t as advanced. However, there are multiple low light modes and auto gain controls and the like, which are nice, and make the JVC a better low light performer than the Elura. The Elura has better bright light performance.

Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters (6.0)
The Elura 85 would make a good, solid choice for point-and-shooters. The automatic controls are decent, though not as good as Sony. Easy Mode allows users to sit back and watch the magic happen.

Budget Consumers (5.0)
The only upgrade from the Elura 80 that you’ll find here is an added flash. The ZR series is slightly less expensive with similar results.

Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid (6.5)
The still features on the Elura 85 are solid, and the print sharing function might find use among those

Gadget Freaks (3.0)
Not much is to be found in the way of gadgets here. The Elura 90 comes with a wide angle lens included, but so does the less expensive ZR400.

Manual Control Freaks (4.0)
The manual controls are split between buttons and onscreen menu pages, but manual control aficionados will probably look for camcorders with a focus ring.

Pros/ Serious Hobbyists (2.0)
The Elura 85 is not a professional camcorder. This is a family vacation companion with a few added features.

Conclusion
The Canon Elura 85 has a number of qualities in its favor. The video and still performance in bright light is excellent. It falters a bit in low light, but has improved in the last year, and if you’re willing to accept a little noise for brightness, you’ll be satisfied. Handling suffers from the placement of the Menu button and jog dial, and the sliding zoom control. It does, however, come equipped with a number of still features that soften the blow.

Overall, it’s a slick little camcorder with an ease of use that would make for a great casual-to-regular use piece of electronics in the home.