Editorial Review
Canon's sleek and compact ZR30 MC camcorder provides almost everything you need to shoot both beautiful footage and digital stills. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the ZR30 MC is equipped with a color LCD view screen and a color eyecup viewfinder, a digital image stabilization system to steady the jittery hand, and a digital zoom that magnifies up to 200 times.
To help ensure that you get the quality footage you want, Canon has included a number of preset shooting modes. These modes will automatically adjust the settings of your camcorder for a variety of shooting situations. There is also an additional set of special effects available during both recording and playback that will help add a little flavor to your movies. These effects include black-and-white, sepia, and mosaic, among others.
Also, using the ZR30 MC's photo mode, you can take over 700 still photos with an 80-minute MiniDV tape or store it onto the portable 8 MB MultiMediaCard. The ZR30 MC also comes with customizable light-up VCR buttons: choose from blue, turquoise, and green. You have your choice of four recording speeds, which allow you to record at up to three times the normal recording time on a standard MiniDV cassette. Additionally, with the advanced accessory shoe, you can easily add a shotgun microphone or video light. With the IEEE 1394 port you can connect the ZR30 MC to a DV-ready personal computer to edit video or e- mail photos. Included in the package are an A/V cable, power adapter, shoulder strap, and battery pack.
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Customer Reviews
Awesome camera!!!!!!!! 
2002-04-27
I purchased a ZR-25 which is basically the same camera.
My satisfaction with the camera is overwhelming. I mainly bought it for our trip to Disney, boy did it work great! It fit in my fanny pack! Let's face camcorder facts, if it is to cumbersome to carry, ya just won't use it! This thing is tiny and the video is DVD quality! I cut 2 DVD's so far, and the video is superb! One complaint people have had with this camera is the poor indoor/low light capability. True, it is probably not as good indoors as the lower lux sony's, but I found that if you set the shutter speed to 1/60, the indoor video quality improved noticibly from poor, to acceptable. In the automatic GREEN mode, the shutter speed must be at 1/100 or 1/250 which doesn't allow in enough light in when indoors. The outdoor video is so crisp, I cannot believe it. I'm satisfied with image stabilization also. Some cameras have noticibly more, but this always ends up sacrificing total recorded screen resolution, and I think Cannon made the right choice. BUY IT, LOVE IT, USE IT!
Kev out.
Ignore my previous rant. This is a cool camcorder 
2002-02-14
I must apologize for my previous review of the Canon ZR30. The review was rather negative, but the problem was in my ignorance--not the camera.
I had complained that the recorded picture was too pixelated--That anything with hard edges was represented by over-sized wobbly digital blocks. This temporary problem, I since learned, resides in my iMovie editing software.
iMovie cannot reveal the true quality of the digital footage. It simplifies the images to save processing power for editing. After reading "iMovie: The Missing Manual", I learned that the only way to see the true glory of a digital camcoder's video is to hook it up to a real television using an S-Link connection. By the way, videos edited in iMovie WILL still look great, but only after you dump the project back to the camcoder and then play the resulting DV through a real television. Merely exporting to Quick Time doesn't do it justice.
Well, I finally tried the obvious and connected the ZR30 to my real television (duh?). It was a very pleasant surprise! Gone where the jagged pixels. The picture was very smooth--and I have a large screen to boot.
Probably the main difference between the look of my footage and pro footage is in the lighting. Don't forget, real TV shows are shot under perfectly manufactured lighting conditions. My stuff shot in my house looks like... well... my dark house.
I still find that the ZR30 requires more tweaking than my older Sony TRV did. The Sony was really idiot proof: Hit the red button to record. While the ZR30 does offer automatic modes, I don't feel that they work as well. On the other hand, you can manually adjust many of the parameters and get better results that way.
The image stabling is of the optical variety. It's great because it doesn't interfere with the picture quality. It doesn't respond to bumps quite as quickly as electronic types, though, so some jerking still gets through. Just leave it on and try to be careful.
I'm feeling really happy with my ZR30 now. Sorry if I mislead anybody with the previous review
Outstanding! 2002-01-26
I have thoroughly enjoyed using my new Camcorder. The picture quality is excellent, and the still shots are good also, though less than photo quality.
Good litte camcorder! 2002-01-15
I did a lot of research and finally decided to get the ZR30 camcaorder. I've been VERY happy with the results.
Great design, very small, still pics, digital, and all other features are great!
The only thing that is a "little bad" is the low light isn't that great. Just turn a light on and seemed to be fine.
Highly Recommended!
Consumer digital video still has a way to go. 
2002-01-08
Despite advances in the consumer home-video field, it seems one area where we are still in the Commodore64 age.
The specs are higher than they were for older analog models, but the actual resulting picture quality is only slightly better when conditions are perfect. Imperfect conditions can result in picture quality that is worse than that of analog camcorders.
The CanonZR30MC tries to digitally sharpen data-compressed images. The result can be frustrating. If you have ever seen TV shows where they mask faces with that pixel effect, you get the idea. Obviously, the ZR30MC doesn't do it as severly, but it is very noticable.
Because of this, you have to be very careful to shoot images without too much color contrast. Straight diagonal lines also present a problem.
The image stabilizer is subtle. You'll only notice an improvement when zoomed-in tight.
On the good side, the audio is very good. It can record loud live music without distortion. This camcorder also works well with iMovie software (connecting cable sold seperately $20).
Basically, if you can shoot under ideal conditions, the CanonZR30MC provides good picture quality and very good sound. Under less-than-ideal situations (which is often if you don't record in a Hollywood studio), the camcorder leaves too many annoying artifacts in the picture. The softer image of an analog camcorder can look more natural than the mosaic look this camcorder often gives.
Give this field a few more years and I think we'll see much better products coming out. It still has a way to go.
The best ever 2002-01-03
Canon's sleek and compact ZR30 MC camcorder provides almost everything you need to shoot both beautiful footage and digital stills. Small enough to fit in your pocket, the ZR30 MC is equipped with a color LCD view screen and a color eyecup viewfinder, a digital image stabilization system to steady the jittery hand, and a digital zoom that magnifies up to 200 times.
To help ensure that you get the quality footage you want, Canon has included a number of preset shooting modes. These modes will automatically adjust the settings of your camcorder for a variety of shooting situations. There is also an additional set of special effects available during both recording and playback that will help add a little flavor to your movies. These effects include black-and-white, sepia, and mosaic, among others.
Also, using the ZR30 MC's photo mode, you can take over 700 still photos with an 80-minute MiniDV tape or store it onto the portable 8 MB MultiMediaCard. The ZR30 MC also comes with customizable light-up VCR buttons: choose from blue, turquoise, and green. You have your choice of four recording speeds, which allow you to record at up to three times the normal recording time on a standard MiniDV cassette. Additionally, with the advanced accessory shoe, you can easily add a shotgun microphone or video light. With the IEEE 1394 port you can connect the ZR30 MC to a DV-ready personal computer to edit video or e- mail photos. Included in the package are an A/V cable, power adapter, shoulder strap, and battery pack.
What good is a camcorder which records no sounds 
2001-12-25
A few years ago, we purchased a Canon Hi8 camcorder (ES1000). We used it mostly for family and trips and we were quite satisfied with it until a few months ago when its viewfinder went bad, showing total blackness and no view.
We purchased another Canon camcorder, the digital ZR30MC, which was delivered to us from Amazon in November, just in time before we departed for our trip to my husband's class reunion and to meet the relatives he had not seen for many many years. We shot the videos of events and faces and said into the camcorder the names. Sad to say that upon returning home, all the vidoes have no sounds. Needless to say we were disappointed and frustrated.
Amazon wrote to said that this should be taken care of by Canon. Canon told us to mail this ZR30MC camcorder to their repair shop. Will write again about the result.
ZR10 To ZR30MC: Canon Is Batting 1000!! 2001-12-16
Read the specs, compare ALL the features, talk to those who own it, and you too will buy it! Simply the easiest to use and best quality digital video camera you can buy! And the price---what more is there to say?
Some cameras you buy and get home to find no microphone plug! Some no Firewire connection or RCA video jacks to archive all those old tapes you have. You won't have that problem with this Canon gem.
This is the second of the ZR series I have owned. I have also owned Sony among others, always going back to Canon.
it doesn't have a flash,otherwise excellent camera/camcorder 2001-12-13
I'm amazed how much stuff and features they were able to cram into this little camcorder and still have it ergonomical, compact and light. Unfortunately they left out one very important feature to any good still camera... the flash! Stills taken indoors by lamp light are grainy and dark. I'm going to try the optional light to see if that makes a difference. If it had a built-in flash, it would have rated 5 stars with me.
General camcorder tips from someone who has been using video cameras for almost 20 years:
o always use a halogen light indoors: camcorder lights are white light; indoor lighting tends to be yellow. The dimmer the lighting, the more the iris opens up on the camera, allowing in even more yellow light. I ruined a friend's wedding video this way, since it looked like the bride wore yellow.
o and always buy at least one extra battery and an external charger: this way when (not if) the battery dies, you can keep shooting while the other battery is recharging.
Gotta get this one! 2001-11-26
Great size, excellent video quality and very easy to use. It's nice to not have to haul around a big video camera. This one fits in a coat pocket, a purse, or a back pack and doesn't get in the way. Don't let the small size fool you though! It has a lot of nice features, but keeps it simple...
I'm a satisfied customer!
--Mike from Portland, Oregon
