To be somewhat fair, I use mine with a helmet camera, carrying the camcorder on my chest. I have not crashed on it but it is not a perfect lifestyle. As a back-up, I bought another... Almost out of the box I had the rewind problems. I could live with those...until now! Changing brands of tapes made no difference.

I use the picture MMC side alot, but remember that it is only 2.0 megpixles and cant take much blowing up. But the pictures are e-mail friendly. The digital zoom is AWSOME!

Other than Tape problems, where you can loose everything, a great camera! 5 stars and falling fast!

The Elura has proven to me to be a really good hand held video camera & worth the price. Yes it doesnt have all the features like new ones but how many people use them? When I video tape I want the focus on my subject not some strange color filter or digitized effect. I have had a couple cameras with the night vision & I have used it about 2 times.
If you want a good picture with good color the Elura is the way to go, if you want features to play with a couple of times get something newer.

Newer models have the ability to take hi quality still pictures as well, some with "hard" (memory stick etc.) memory so that you dont have to wait five seconds for the image to record to tape as you do with the Elura.

You may also want to consider a camera with digital output other than Firewire - perhaps one with a USB connection and editing software included.

The camera does take great pictures; autofocus, light sensitivity etc. are good.

But I did have some possible quality issues: the lithium batteries gave out after about 1 1/2 years and it required a ... repair around the same time. I cant say the camera was subjected to hard use and my experience is similar to others who bought Canon DV cameras when they first came out.

Perhaps theyve worked out the kinks by now .

joe

The microphone is on the top and not in the front so Ive found myself accidently covering it with my hand especially when videoing my 2 year old son at knee level.

It doesnt have a microphone port, you have to purchase a separate option. You can slightly hear the tape mechanism, so if clean sound is important, you should get the option and an external mike. My old Sony HI8 was noisier, though, especially when zooming which the Canon is silent.

It tends to pick up wind noise even when the wind suppression is on.

Low light is not nearly as good as my old Sony Hi8. I found it is better if you remove image stablization in low light (which they dont mention in the manual). The low light mode they have results in grainy jerky output. It would be nice to have a light, but this is not even an option (I guess you cant have everything).

One tape was eaten (Ive used 12 60 minute tapes). At one time, tapes I kept inserting were rejected. After many attempts of recycling power and reinserting, it took them again. I havent had a problem since.

The controls are a slight bit awkwardly placed. It is somewhat the nature of a vertical oriented camera versus horizontal. The horizontal are more comfortable (in my opinion) like holding a football instead of a cup. Thus almost all controls are operated only with the thumb if you want to use just one hand.

Progressive scan results in 15 frames a second noninterlaced. The literature is a little confusing on this and makes it sound like 30 frames (it repeats every other one). It makes it clear this will be jerky but doesnt explain why. Think of the progressive scan as 15 photos a second. Ive used it for photos but still prefer my 35mm film camera to any digital still. Anyway, it doesnt have flash capability, which also limits it for stills.

It is a little heavier than you would think but seems sturdy. If you have a large pants pocket, you can squeeze it in but you walk crooked from the weight.

I wish it had a smart battery like the new Sonys so you can tell exactly how much is left. But it is much better than my old HI8 which used NiCad. You probably want to get additional batteries. I bought two extra standard size batteries which are quite compact.

If you leave the battery in the camera and the camera is off, it still drains rather quickly (a week?). They warn you not to leave it in the camera when off, but if you dont read the manual you may think you have a fully charged battery inserted. Ive read others complain about battery life. I bet in reality, they got burned by this and didnt realize it.

A feature I feel would be real handy is locating the next open area on the tape. After videoing, I often replay and find it awkward repositioning it to the end. I think I saw a JVC with this feature, though I dont know how well the implemented it.

It doesnt use HI8 eight tapes like some of the new Sonys. But, even though I have a lot of old HI8 tapes, I actually prefer the smaller dv tapes. I can carry quite a few in my camera case and some in my pockets. And anyway, there are too many limitations in the digital 8 camcorders.

The remote is confusing, but then again almost all remotes are. The remote is better than my old Sony HI8, though.

Consumer Reports thought it was pricey but in reality it is a great value. I suspect they tested it wrong because they made a dopey comment about progressive scan. They compared the digital cameras as if they were analog. I.e. they compared apples to apples but using an orange criteria. Or to use another metaphor, they compared two sports cars on family car criteria; gas milage, interior space instead of speed and handling. It is probably the best 1 CCD digital video camera available. It is a significant jump higher in price to get a 3 CCD camera.

I didnt use their software for capturing and instead used what came with my firewire card. The bundle was no deal since you had to pay full price to turn capturing on.

Though capturing may seem straight forward, you use quite a lot of disk space and need to think about your final desired output at capture time for best results. But this is an issue with any digital video camera.

Let me add one positive that I havent seen others mention... it seems to be real smart where it focuses. I can video my son walking past a bush where he is just barely visible and it keeps the focus on him instead of the close up bush.

And another,... it transfers quite well to VHS. It looks better than the first generation from a VHS camera. This could be because they dont make high quality VHS cameras since it is limited so much by the tape and price is king in the VHS market. Does anyone buy VHS camcorders any more? Well, I guess my point is, since VHS is a prolific format every relative of yours has, copying it from a digital camera is much better than from an 8 or HI8 camera.

The microphone is on the top and not in the front so Ive found myself accidently covering it with my hand especially when videoing my 2 year old son at knee level.

It doesnt have a microphone port, you have to purchase a separate option. You can slightly hear the tape mechanism, so if clean sound is important, you should get the option and an external mike. My old Sony HI8 was noisier, though, especially when zooming which the Canon is silent.

It tends to pick up wind noise even when the wind suppression is on.

Low light is not nearly as good as my old Sony Hi8. I found it is better if you remove image stablization in low light (which they dont mention in the manual). The low light mode they have results in grainy jerky output. It would be nice to have a light, but this is not even an option (I guess you cant have everything).

One tape was eaten (Ive used 12 60 minute tapes). At one time, tapes I kept inserting were rejected. After many attempts of recycling power and reinserting, it took them again. I havent had a problem since.

The controls are a slight bit awkwardly placed. It is somewhat the nature of a vertical oriented camera versus horizontal. The horizontal are more comfortable (in my opinion) like holding a football instead of a cup. Thus almost all controls are operated only with the thumb if you want to use just one hand.

Progressive scan results in 15 frames a second noninterlaced. The literature is a little confusing on this and makes it sound like 30 frames (it repeats every other one). It makes it clear this will be jerky but doesnt explain why. Think of the progressive scan as 15 photos a second. Ive used it for photos but still prefer my 35mm film camera to any digital still. Anyway, it doesnt have flash capability, which also limits it for stills.

It is a little heavier than you would think but seems sturdy. If you have a large pants pocket, you can squeeze it in but you walk crooked from the weight.

I wish it had a smart battery like the new Sonys so you can tell exactly how much is left. But it is much better than my old HI8 which used NiCad. You probably want to get additional batteries. I bought two extra standard size batteries which are quite compact.

If you leave the battery in the camera and the camera is off, it still drains rather quickly (a week?). They warn you not to leave it in the camera when off, but if you dont read the manual you may think you have a fully charged battery inserted. Ive read others complain about battery life. I bet in reality, they got burned by this and didnt realize it.

A feature I feel would be real handy is locating the next open area on the tape. After videoing, I often replay and find it awkward repositioning it to the end. I think I saw a JVC with this feature, though I dont know how well the implemented it.

It doesnt use HI8 eight tapes like some of the new Sonys. But, even though I have a lot of old HI8 tapes, I actually prefer the smaller dv tapes. I can carry quite a few in my camera case and some in my pockets. And anyway, there are too many limitations in the digital 8 camcorders.

The remote is confusing, but then again almost all remotes are. The remote is better than my old Sony HI8, though.

Consumer Reports thought it was pricey but in reality it is a great value. I suspect they tested it wrong because they made a dopey comment about progressive scan. They compared the digital cameras as if they were analog. I.e. they compared apples to apples but using an orange criteria. Or to use another metaphor, they compared two sports cars on family car criteria; gas milage, interior space instead of speed and handling. It is probably the best 1 CCD digital video camera available. It is a significant jump higher in price to get a 3 CCD camera.

I didnt use their software for capturing and instead used what came with my firewire card. The bundle was no deal since you had to pay full price to turn capturing on.

Though capturing may seem straight forward, you use quite a lot of disk space and need to think about your final desired output at capture time for best results. But this is an issue with any digital video camera.

Let me add one positive that I havent seen others mention... it seems to be real smart where it focuses. I can video my son walking past a bush where he is just barely visible and it keeps the focus on him instead of the close up bush.

And another,... it transfers quite well to VHS. It looks better than the first generation from a VHS camera. This could be because they dont make high quality VHS cameras since it is limited so much by the tape and price is king in the VHS market. Does anyone buy VHS camcorders any more? Well, I guess my point is, since VHS is a prolific format every relative of yours has, copying it from a digital camera is much better than from an 8 or HI8 camera.