Canon Optura 20 mini DV camcorder

In March 2004, I purchased the Canon Optura 20 camcorder from Best Buy for $809.99 CDN plus tax (it was a display model regular $899.99 CDN). This is a fairly small size mini DV camcorder, though rather long (625 grams or 1.4 lb.) that takes adequate video, but not superb video except under ideal lighting. I was not sufficiently happy with this unit to want to keep it for vacation use. However it is better overall than most camcorders in this price range that I have tried so far.

Likes:

• The stereo mic seems to be somewhat unidirectional & picks up a bit more from the front (as it should) than the rear. I did not hear camera operator breathing noises, yet it still picked up operator narration fine. Picks up music very well & mic doesn't overload even with a trumpet at 5 feet away (using 16 bit mode which has more dynamic range).
• The tiny BP-512 battery (1100 mAh of power) that comes with this camcorder lasted slightly over 2 hours while shooting (using viewfinder, not LCD screen), which was pretty good, although the power consumption isn't as good as some other camcorders (i.e. the Sony CDR-TRV19). I recommend getting a second battery (possibly a larger one).
• The charger/power supply is capable of working on European 240 Volts 50 cycles, or North American 120 Volts 60 cycles.
• Has a 16X optical zoom (video camcorders with 10X optical zoom are not sufficient in my view).
• Auto focus usually worked well & there is a manual over ride.
• Auto white balance usually worked well & there is a manual over ride.
• Camcorder has video/audio out & in, for composite & Y/C, so you can record from another source (cheaper camcorders often only have video out for playback).
• The lens cap when shooting (hangs on a string), but can clip on the leather handle, so that on a windy day the lens cap doesn't flop all over the place.
• You can flip a switch & change this camera to a low resolution (1.22 mega pixels) still camera (or 10 second web movies with audio) & record that data on a removable non volatile SD memory card. It comes with an 8 MB card (almost useless, holds maybe 18 pictures at fine resolution) & I bought a 256 MB card for $99.99 CDN at Best Buy. The 256 MB card could hold perhaps up to 570 pictures at the middle compression quality (fine) mode & they averaged 446 KB per 1280X960 picture (your mileage may vary). In Fine mode, the compression rate was similar to quality level 9 in PhotoShop for JPEGs, which is why I felt it wasn't necessary to use the "super fine" mode (a waste of storage space). "Normal" compression mode would yield even more pictures on a chip, but with some loss of detail. It's also possible to switch to a smaller 640X480 size (0.3 mega pixels) for still pictures which is nice if all you are doing is emailing pictures, but not printing out the digital pictures. I would have liked to see a feature where you could choose to take 6:4 ratio pictures (1280X854) by trimming some off the top & bottom of the picture, because this is the same shape as photo labs usually print.

Dislikes:

• I was not overly impressed with the electronic image stabilization. When it was turn off the image was much worse on maximum optical zoom, not because of an unsteady camera operator, but because the image itself wanders on the oversize CCD image block (apparently a major design flaw).
• The low light sensitivity was rated at 0.5 lux but that was in night mode, which compromises the picture quality because of image lag (latent image build up from slow shutter speed). This camcorder just wasn't light sensitive enough in a low light situation, but that has been a problem lately as manufacturers are going to smaller & smaller CDDs, with less light gathering surface. Although this CCD chip is larger than most (1/4"), often only 25% of that chip's surface area is actually used for video at any given point in time (with the rest used for still pictures), which might explain why it wasn't very good in low light (CCD too tiny).
• The stereo mic picks up significant wind noise (sometimes excessive) & does not have a mechanical foam wind filter, but it does have an electronic one (they never work anywhere near as well as a mechanical foam wind filter).
• In a quiet environment, you could hear the motor noises from the camcorder that the built in mic picked up. Sometimes during shooting you could hear handling noises too, both of which indicates that the built in mic isn't insulated from mechanical noise very well.
• Doesn't seem to handle high contrast real well, in fact I routinely found that detail in mid - dark tone areas was too dark (video or still pictures), which means that this camera doesn't put the correct gamma on the pictures in high contrast scenes, but instead lets the iris gauge the exposure, which pushes darker detail too dark. A well designed camcorder would have changed the gamma curve whenever the imager experienced a very bright high contrast situation, so that picture content in the mid to darker areas didn't suffer.
• Low contrast scenes often seemed washed out (too bright). In this case the iris was probably opened too much. Further examination of medium to low contrast pictures in PhotoShop using the levels histogram (Image/Adjust/Levels) verified that the auto iris was often too bright under low contrast (blacks weren't black enough).
• I did not like the length of time it took for this camcorder to turn on before it could start to take a picture (minimum about 7 seconds). By that time, you've missed important stuff.
• I liked the large size of the 3.5" LCD screen, but not the low resolution of 123,000 pixels, which is far lower resolution than a really good TV monitor which can have as much as 345,600 pixel resolution. Over the air NTSC broadcasts have a maximum of 212,480 pixel resolution & I feel mini DV camcorders should have at least this much too on the viewing screen. The mini DV format has the capability of capturing up to 320,000 pixels resolution, so an LCD screen that can only display 123,000 pixels, isn't doing justice to the picture resolution (only displaying 38% of it), nor does it make it easy to see for sure if the subject is in focus. The newer Canon Optura Xi also has a 3.5" LCD screen, but it has 246,000 pixels which is enough resolution for most picture content.
• The viewfinder that Canon chose to put on this model is in color (113,000 pixels), but that is a bad choice, because tiny color viewfinders have very low resolution compared to tiny black & white viewfinders. I would have preferred a B & W viewfinder for better ability to see if it was in focus & then if the operator really wanted to see color while they are shooting, they could simply flip out the large 3.5" color LCD screen & shoot with that.
• Picture was grainy a bit when auto electronic gain was all the way up in low lighting, though not as bad as the Canon ZR60.
• The zoom button is not intuitive, it's mounted sideways instead of forward/backward.
• Colors seem adequately saturated only in ideal lighting, perhaps slightly undersaturated colors at other times.
• Digital zoom function can be set to 64X, 320X, or off. I turned it off because digital zoom can significantly soften the picture sharpness & often is semi useless. I suggest using off or 64X for digital zoom. Digital zooms only magnify what isn't there to begin with, once you zoom in beyond the extra screen raster of 1,330,000 pixels (four times what is required for NTSC). In my opinion, digital zooms are mostly a worthless feature (especially in the higher magnification range), thrown in to impress the consumer who doesn't realize the compromise in quality that comes with digital zoom.
• White luma levels went up to about 110 IRE & made no attempt to keep levels down to 100 IRE where they belong & like all consumer camcorders, makes no attempt to compress white levels so they don't clip or affect overall picture brightness.
• Camcorder made a poor attempt to keep black levels up to the proper 7.5 IRE pedestal level, often the black levels went well below this level.
• Audio clicked frequently at transition points where the camcorder had been paused between recording sessions.
• There can be a significant sun flare in the lens when the sun is near the lens field of vision, so a lens hood option would be advisable.
• You must charge the battery on the camera (can't charge battery & use camera at the same time), unless you purchase the optional CG-570 battery charger cradle.
• Can't display camcorder functions (f stop, gain, auto, AWB, time, date, etc) on camcorder LCD screen without also superimposing them on video output through AV jacks. Unfortunately this information is only available when played back on the same brand of camcorder.
• If you were reviewing shot footage & didn't cue up to the tail of recorded material, but instead started recording in blank tape, the counter would reset to zero, which makes it more difficult to locate footage later.
• Comes with an A/V & USB cable, but no S-video or firewire cable (IEEE 1394).
• To view the LCD screen in proper contrast, you must tilt it up. Looking straight on doesn't give the correct contrast (typical of most LCD screens).
• Still & video images were sometimes blown out (clipped, detail lost). This is an exposure latitude problem that consumer digital imagers have, that more professional digital imagers & film often don't have this problem with high contrast lighting.
• It took a VERY long time to transfer still pictures from the SD memory card to the computer, approx. 10 seconds per 1MB or about 43 minutes for a full 256 MB card, so presumably the problem may be that this camera uses the very old USB 1.0 speed (125 KB/sec or 1 Mb/sec). Had this camera used USB 1.1 speed (1.5 MB/sec or 12 Mb/sec), it could have transferred a full 256 MB card in as little as 3 minutes, or if it had the USB 2.0 speed (60 MB/sec or 480 Mb/sec) which has been out for a couple years now, it could have transferred a full 256 MB card in as little as 5 seconds (although 30 - 60 seconds would be a real world transfer rate). Also the digital still portion of the camera isn't seen as a removable dive when plugged into the USB port, you must install software & drivers to transfer it over to your computer, so in this regard it isn't like some still digital cameras.
• The Canon Optura 20 comes with computer software that will rescale the larger 1280X960 size still pictures to 60% or 30% of the size for emailing purposes, but the scaling quality (noticeable aliasing on edges), was nowhere near what PhotoShop is (using bicubic scaling).
  
  By Doug Hembruff.
  First written March 19/2004, last updated March 29, 2004