Canon Elura 80 mini DV camcorder

In August 2005, I purchased the Canon Elura 80 Mini DV consumer camcorder from Wal-Mart for $724.76 CDN. This is a small size camcorder & takes pretty good pictures, but there are lots of minor shortcomings. If you like this Elura 80 model, I recommend you consider the Elura 85 or 90 models because they have several more useful features (LED light built in for video, flash built in for stills & an external mic jack) (Elura 90 also has 20X zoom & a wide angle adapter lens).

Likes:

• Colour saturation & accuracy were pretty good, as was overall picture quality in good lighting.
• Unlike the Canon Optura 20, the Canon Elura 80 did seem to have good gamma correction for high contrast scenes.
• Has a shoe on top to mount a light.
• The zoom control is not noisy (doesn't noticeably pick up on the microphone).
• Handles loud noises quite well without overloading (using 16 bit audio setting).
• Microphone is more unidirectional (front facing) than omnidirectional, which means that it nicely picks up operators comments, without it being too loud or picking up operator breathing noises. Far better built in mic than the Canon ZR series.
• The Image Stabilization system seemed to work quite well.
• Nice feature which can optionally turn on the date superimposed on playback output video for 6 seconds, whenever the date video was shot on changes to a new day.
• Does a pretty good job of not over bleaching white areas, though like any consumer video camera, extreme contrast doesn't come out too well.
• When there is a gap of recording on the tape between one piece & the next recorded piece, the camera lost synch, but didn't lose the time count.
• The actual imager is 1.23 MP (not 1.3 as advertised) (1280X960) which is adequate enough for taking some still photos, although only high enough resolution for a 4.2" X 3.2" print at 300 DPI.
• When shooting still pictures, shooting parameters such at iris aperture (F stop), shutter speed & date are recorded. 
• There is a single button on top of the camcorder that easily copies still images via a supplied USB cable to you computer when the button lights green (when supplied software is installed).
• Optical zoom is 18X which is good. I prefer to turn off the digital zoom. If you use the digital zoom, only set it to 72X because the image area is 4 times what is required for standard definition video (4 times 18 zoom = 72), so 72X won't lower the resolution, but it will affect the use of image stabilization. However if you set the digital zoom on 360X, on zoomed in subjects the resolution will be lowered & seem pixelized & grainy.
• Camcorder can be used for video conferencing on the internet if you have a DV connection (firewire connection) (IEEE 1394) on your computer & the freely downloadable "DV Network" software.
  

Dislikes:

• Doesn't take very good video in dim lighting (grainy & undersaturated colour). Sensitivity is 1.8 lux with night mode on (truly awful). There is a Night Mode button, but it comes with other quality compromises. The Elura 85 & 90 have additional features for the night mode button including Night+ which turns on a small built in LED assist light to help in close up shooting. I recommend you purchase a small light for the Elura 80.
• When taking still pictures, the camera uses the whole imager & requires significantly more light than when shooting video.
• No external microphone jack (models 85 & 90 have this feature).
• Has no Y/C (S-video) in/out connector for model 80, 85 or 90 (a major oversight in my opinion).
• Built in microphone should have more mechanical wind noise (nonabridge foam) protection (not that good & sound oscillates in strong wind), although it is better than some camcorders.
• The plastic cover for the A/V, DV & USB jacks doesn't stay secured well & could let in dirt & moisture.
• Must charge the battery on the camcorder without the optional CB-2LT charger (can't charge one battery while using another). 
• You will want to purchase a second battery as the tiny NB-2LH Li-ion battery included (720 mAh) may only last about 2 hours at most with viewfinder (95 minutes with LCD screen).
• The NTSC model doesn't make a very good attempt to keep blackest levels at 7.5 IRE or above, hence many black details are superblack which crushes them so they aren't seen on a properly adjusted monitor.
• Stereo mics don't actually give much of a stereo separation effect
• Only comes with an 16MB chip for still pictures, which holds roughly 36 pictures at an average of about 450 KB per picture (using Fine mode), it should come with a larger storage chip. Super fine mode is probably overkill & just uses a less lossy JPEG.
• There is no flash built into the Elura 80, although the model 85 & 90 have a flash which can substantially improve still picture quality close up.
• There is a switch on the right side that switches between P (Program AE for some control over shooting conditions) & Easy mode (totally automatic mode), but it too easily gets bumped from it's setting.
• I didn't like the fact that the minimum shooting distance was about 3 feet (1 meter).
• Even on a bright day, it was difficult to get good depth of focus because the iris aperture only closes to about f3.5.
• To view the LCD screen in proper contrast, you must tilt it up. Looking straight on doesn't give the correct contrast. Colour accuracy of LCD screen was pretty good.
• The LCD screen is only 123,000 pixel & the viewfinder is only 113,000 pixels, neither do justice to the resolution this camcorder is capable of, which sometimes makes it hard to judge whether it's in focus.
• The zoom button is not intuitive, it's mounted sideways instead of forward/backward.
  
  By Doug Hembruff.
  Last updated September 29, 2005