Canon Announces Updates to the ZR Line with the ZR40, ZR45 MC and ZR50 MC

Canon's ZR line has long been considered some of the best value low price camcorders available, combining manual features with good picture quality.

The ZR40 and 45MC have 18x Optical, and 360x digital zoom. The ZR40MC has a 22x optical zoom. All three models pack a analog to digital pass through ability so you can convert your analog video to digital on the fly. Following other manufacturers, Canon has added full color night shot video to these camcorders.

Canon has worked on the power capabilities of these camcorders by reducing the power consumption of the camcorders, allowing them to achieve 9-10 hours on certain batteries. The camcorders have all the manual features, input output options, and other features of the prior models.

The ZR45MC and the ZR50MC have memory card slots, which allow you to save digital stills to removable memory cards. Using a USB cable, users can transfer their digital stills from their camcorders to their computers.

The top of the line ZR50MC has some added features about the lower models. It includes color lighted buttons in six neon colors (really useful?). The camcorder also includes long play recording abilities in three flavors, Long Play, 2X and 3X. The press release says "When in the 3X mode, up to 4-hours of recording can be achieved on a single 80-minute DV tape." However, long play recording modes are quite unreliable, maybe they've changed in these camcorders but I wouldn't expect it.

The ZR50MC will be available in February with an MSRP of $899. The ZR45MC will be available in March with an MSRP of $799. The ZR40 will be available in March with an MSRP of $699.