Product Review - Canon Optura DV Camera

Canon Optura DV Camera

EIS, NTSC, 525 Lines, 60 Fields

Two Rotary Heads for Digital Video, PCM Stereo Audio, 16 Bit and 12 Bit

0.33" Progressive Scan CCD; 380,000 Pixels

F/1.8 - 3.2 Lens, 5.2mm - 72.8mm Power Zoom, 14X Optical Zoom, 35X Digital Zoom, Minimum Focus Distance 0.38"

Two LCD Viewfinders: One 2" External and One 0.55" Internal

IEEE1394, S-Video, and Miniature Phone Plug Outputs for Audio and Video

Weight: 2 1/4 Pounds with Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery

MSRP: $2,200 ($1,600 Street)

That was a long time ago. Since then, several higher resolution analog video formats emerged, including Super-VHS (S-VHS) and Hi-8 for recording, and laserdisc for playing movies. All of these were actually better than broadcast TV, having horizontal resolutions of about 420 lines (all NTSC TV formats have 525 lines of vertical resolution, which are the scanning lines that you can see going across the TV screen side to side). Lately, digital movie playback technology, called DVD, has provided a tremendous improvement in the way we watch movies at home. While laserdiscs use analog methods for the video signal (along with two analog and two digital audio tracks), DVD is totally digital for both the video and audio. This results in the best video signal we have ever had for use in our home entertainment centers. DVDs look like CDs, but they can have dual layers and be dual sided. Plus, they can hold about 20 times as much digital information as CDs. They are truly fabulous.

Digital video (DV) cameras are finally here in sufficient numbers, that the price is within reach of most home video fans. They weigh about the same as analog video cameras do, but the image quality is absolutely sensational, with about 500 lines of horizontal resolution. Finally, those flickering white lines are gone, along with those smeared reds.

DV cameras range in price from about $1,000 on up. The Canon Optura, priced at about $1,600 (street), might seem quite expensive, compared to the $600 that you can pay for a Hi-8 camera, but the image and sound quality, along with the ability to edit the videos in your computer and put the final images and sound onto your family video album, all without any degradation from the original, make DV the way to go if you are a real home video fan.

Because DVs are about the same size and weight as Hi-8 cameras, the manufacturers have designed them to look like props from a Star Wars movie, so that they are easily distinguishable from that old analog stuff. Silvery and sleek, they fit the hand like a velvet glove. The Optura weighs in at just over 2 pounds, including the Lithium Ion battery (a recharger is included, but you might want to purchase an extra battery to have on hand).

There used to be wrist straps on video cameras so you could let go of the camera and have it hang at your side, but still in your hand. Not the case with the Optura. Although it is very lightweight and simple to hold, you have to maintain a grip on it at all times. I would suggest that you attach the included neck strap as soon as you take the camera out of the box. Put it around your neck while you fiddle with all the gadgets and settings. Also, put the battery into the recharger right away. You will have to wait a couple of hours for the recharging to occur (indicated by three flashes on the recharger). After the battery is fully charged, it can be put into the camera by opening a small door on the bottom left corner and sliding it in. You will also need to place the round disk battery (included) into the camera for storing time and date information. Optura Lock Switch

Looking down at the top of the camera, on the front right is the lock switch. This lets you keep idle fingers from activating any of the controls when you are doing other things (if the camera is hanging at your side, accidentally touching one of the many controls is pretty easy to do). Obviously, you would use the Movie setting most of the time, for taking videos, but the Optura can also serve as a still camera, by switching to Photo. It will then take non-interlaced snapshots that you can upload to your computer for use on the Web, or to print out for the family album. Since the lens will focus down to subjects less than one inch away from the front of the lens (i.e., macro), you can use the Optura to take pictures of just about anything imaginable. When the camera is held in the right hand, the index finger rests about where the red dot button is located (see photo). Depressing this button starts taking videos. Depressing it again stops the video (putting it into pause). Immediately below the red button is a zoom toggle that lets you zoom in or zoom out (14X optical zoom, 35X digital zoom). You can see this toggle in the photo at right (remember, we are looking down from the top, so the bottom of the camera is seen at the top of the photo). Optical zoom uses the lens elements to obtain wide-angle or telephoto shots. Digital zoom takes the digital image and enlarges it, filling in the now-larger pixels with smaller ones, making mathematical assumptions. I prefer to use only optical zoom, as the image I get is real, rather than computer generated. And, 14X is plenty for me.

On the top of the Optura (see photo at left) is a large LCD screen (2" diagonal). To the left of that LCD is another LCD screen, smaller, and mounted inside a viewfinder so that you can view the scenes when in bright sunlight. Optura LCD Panel

However, I found that, no matter how bright the scene, I preferred to use the 2" LCD and just cupped my left hand over it to shield it if necessary. Since the 2" screen tilts up and over the camera, I could hold the camera in any position and get my videos, including when I had to hold the camera over my head to shoot something over a fence or shrubbery. This is very handy feature, and is available on most video cameras these days. Switching between viewfinders is accomplished by a small button on the top right of the camera. Next to that button is a second one that turns on the menu display on the LCD. Both LCD screens are color and of sufficient resolution, that I did not have any trouble seeing most details of the video scene.

Most of the controls are on the left side of the camera. This assumes you are right handed and holding the camera with your right hand while you push buttons with your left. My guess is that our left handed readers are pretty ambidextrous, having been used to living in a right handed world. There is no manageable way I could see to hold this camera with my left hand. But then, I can't figure out how one would hold any camera with their left hand. The shutter buttons are all on the right.

Turning the camera on is really a two switch procedure. Optura On/Off Switch

The switch next to the shutter release (shown in the photo above) must be set to movie (or photo if taking a snapshot). Secondly, the main on/off switch must be set to camera, for taking videos, and VCR, for playing them back. The switch has a safety button in the middle of the slider that must be depressed in order to slide it to camera or VCR. Above the on/off switch is a covered set of microphone and DC-in jacks. A stereo microphone is built-in, but a microphone on the camera is not always the best method for recording the audio. For example, if you were recording a family wedding, you might want to put a wireless FM microphone in the groom's breast pocket, and the FM receiver near your camera, with its output plugged into the camera's microphone input. Optura Joy Stick

The most conspicuous control on the Optura is a joystick (it's the protruding item in the right of the photo shown at left). It's a tiny one, but moving it lets you select from the menu. To the left of the joystick are thumbwheels for manual exposure (choice of shutter or aperture priority) and manual focus. I found the autofocus so accurate, I tried the manual focus just once to see how it worked, and never went back to it. But, it would be useful if you had an odd situation where the main subject were very small and to one side of the visual field. Otherwise, the autofocus would select the main part of the picture to focus on. The Optura has one mode that does this for you. It's called Flexizone, and is activated while in autofocus mode, but you merely press the manual focus wheel and hold it down for a couple of seconds. This lets the camera maintain focus on something that is off center. At the far left of this control panel is a push button for digital fade. There are four choices of how the fade appears in the video, which you select from the menu. To use the fade, this button is depressed before the shutter is activated and before the shutter is stopped. This gives a fade-in at the beginning of the scene and a fade-out at the end. Or, the fade can be selected just at the beginning or at the end. Optura Mode Dial

A rotary dial is used to select the camera mode of operation. This operates much like the control on snapshot cameras. The [ ] mode, called "Easy Recording" is for completely automatic operation, when you don't want to manipulate anything, but just want the video to come out properly. This mode does not allow some of the other features, such as digital faders. It is essentially the no-brainer mode (shown at the 10 o'clock position in the photo at right). No fancy stuff, but your video will be there at the end of the day. The "A" mode (at the 9 o'clock position in the photo) is also automatic, but allows the use of other features such as the fader. This is the one you would probably use most often. Next, at 12 o'clock, is the sand and snow mode, which is used for subjects in strong backlit situations (where the sun is behind the subject). At 2 o'clock in the photo is the spotlight mode, for use when the subject is strongly lit in the center, and is surrounded by dark shadows. This prevents the subject from getting over exposed. The mode at 3 o'clock is one that converts a positive image to a negative one, and vise versa. This would be used if copying a negative into the camera. The Tv and Av modes are for shutter priority and aperture priority manual exposures, respectively.

The rear of the camera has a small door that opens to expose the VCR controls (see photo below, left), for use when playing a DV tape. This can be used for reviewing a scene that you just shot, or copying the tape onto the family album tape for permanent storage. For use with the playback features, you connect the camera to your VCR with an S-Video output jack, covered by a small door to the left of the VCR controls, seen in the photo. There are also mini-plug jacks for the audio out, and composite video out. However, if one used the composite video out, the fantastic image quality of DV would be severely compromised. Best to use S-Video when viewing them on a TV, and use either an Super VHS VCR or a Hi-8 VCR for permanent storage. Both of these formats are analog though, so there will still be some image degradation. For the best possible permanent storage, one of the new DV VCRs would be appropriate. We plan to review some of these VCRs as they become available. When using a DV VCR, the IEEE1494 jack on the Optura is connected to the IEEE1394 jack on the VCR, via the included IEEE1394 cable. This connection is also used when transferring snapshots from the camera to your computer. The VCR controls on the Optura also have selections for activating the optical image stabilization feature and the self timer. Optical image stabilization takes care of hand movement, which is especially useful during telephoto shots. Some cameras use digital image stabilization, which can degrade the image. Optical image stabilization employs a mechanical adjustment in the lens-CCD axis. I found it to work superbly in the Optura.

The Optura comes with a remote control (photo above, right). You can use it to zoom in or zoom out, activate or inactivate various modes in the menu, display on the TV, turn on the audio monitor, search through a list of snapshots, and use the various VCR functions. These things would come in handy not only when you are taking home videos while you are in the picture, but during the editing process of sending information into your computer or into your editing VCR.

The menu for activating various features on the Optura, is extensive. Probably because the list of features is also extensive. You can view the menu at any time by pressing the menu button near the bottom right corner of the large LCD panel. Pressing it once brings up the status screen (see photo below, left) which indicates the current status of the camera, including mode, standard or extended play, elapsed time, and remaining battery life. Pressing it a second time brings up the main menu (see photo below, right). In this case, the camera menu is illustrated, but if the camera is in the VCR mode, then a VCR menu will be seen. Using the joystick, you move among your selections and then also turn that feature on or off. For example, you can activate the wind screen for the microphone, adjust the white balance (standardizes for the lighting conditions), turn on the 16:9 mode for use with widescreen TVs, and set the audio to 16 bit or 12 bit (16 bit gives you two-channel stereo, while 12 bit gives you two-channel stereo for the initial recording, and a second set of two-channel stereo for adding commentary or other audio information later). All of this may seem complicated, but most of these selections can be set once and not fiddled with again, except under unusual conditions.

In order to insert a DV cassette, you activate a small slider switch on the right side (see photo at right). Cassette Switch

This causes a door to open, and then you insert or remove the cassette. This procedure operated very smoothly on the Optura, but you have to be careful. When the door is opened, it is easy to push a metal panel below the cassette tray by mistake, because it looks like a cassette (see photo at left). In fact, Canon has placed a warning sticker on this panel. Cassette Loading

One of the most unique features of the Optura is its non-interlaced mode (Canon calls it their Digital Motor Drive mode). Conventional NTSC TV is interlaced, meaning that half the image is shown (every other scanning line), and then the other half is shown. Each of these half images is called a field, and the total image, made up of two fields, is called a frame. So, field 1 would be scanning lines 1,3,5,7, etc., and field 2 would be scanning lines 2,4,6,8, etc. There are 60 fields in each second of video, and 30 frames. The problem of interlacing occurs when the subject is moving. Since each field is taken 1/60th of a second apart, the assembled frame has things slightly out of alignment, and they look jagged because the subject has moved in between each field. Non-interlacing, or progressive scan as it is called, eliminates this problem, because the entire frame is photographed all at once. In the menu, you can select normal for the movie mode, or the progressive scan mode, which is considered to be taking 30 still frames per second rather than 60 interlaced fields per second. I had to get used to the progressive scan, as it appeared jerky, just as the instruction manual said it might. I was really very surprised at this, and in fact, the video in this mode almost did not look like video. It looked like film. Of course, it was video, but just not anything I had ever seen. I have now noticed that some TV broadcast programs, including professional football games, and in one case, a cooking show, use the progressive scan image collection. I think they are getting ready for Digital TV (DTV), which uses progressive scan in some cases. In any case, to my surprise, I preferred the interlaced mode, at least for now.

The picture and sound quality on the Optura are spectacular. I connected the S-Video cable (included) from the camera to my TV, so that comb filters could be avoided. With composite video, the color (chroma) and brightness (luiminance) are combined. They then have to be separated by the comb filter before the image can be displayed. Digital video already has the chroma and luminance separated, so by using S-Video connections, the process of combining and then separating is avoided. This results in color that is not smeared, but also, it avoids something called "dot crawl". The stereo microphone on the top of the camera is very directional, so that, even though the two channels of the microphones are very close together, you still get good directional sound.

In summary, Digital Video cameras represent the highest quality consumer video recording ever designed. The Canon Optura DV is an exceptional quality product that is easy to use, and will give the user lasting satisfaction. I highly recommend the Optura as part of your short list when shopping for the next step in home video.