I am in the market for a new DV cam to replace my Sony TRV22. I was almost sold on the Panny GS250, but the 16:9 mode in the Optura 60 is what I am really looking for. Before I bought the Sony, I had the Canon ZR70. I returned that cam due to the really bad indoor performance. The video quality of the ZR70 was horrible (tons of noise), with typical indoor lighting.

Is the Optura 60 better at low light than the old ZR-70? My main concern is noise. I know the color quality won't be there with indoor lighting.

Thanks for the help.

Steve

Yes, the Opturas handle low light video noise much better than the ZR series. You'll also get better color rendition.

* I own a couple of ZR60s, that are relegated to just recording audio.

Steve,

If you go with the Optura 60, it would be interesting to see how you think it compares to the TRV22, which has a reputation for having good low light capabilities.

Thanks for the info. I will definately update you when I make my decision. The Sony has been a good camera, I just want to go with a cam that has OIS and true 16:9.

Thanks,

Steve

can you rotate the optura 60 LCD screen 180 degrees and then put it back towards the camera facing outwards?

I'm planning to do some interviews alone and this feature would be important to check composition when I sit next to the camera to focus the interviewee's sight away from the camera's lens. I know that the Canon GL-1 does this. I hope the optura 60 can do it too.

thank you

Yes. In fact I don't know of a single camcorder that does *not* do that. Hope this helps,

Does the Optura 60 provide any sort of exposure metering (zebra bars, etc.)?

I couldn't find anything in any of the reviews that indicated either way.

The Optura 50/60 do not have the zebra bars.

Is there anything in this price range that does?

I've been using a laptop with a scope for this but it's alot of gear to haul around.

Is there anything in this price range that does?

I've been using a laptop with a scope for this but it's alot of gear to haul around.

I think the Optura Xi is probably one of the cheapest cams with zebra. So you're probably looking at about 2-300 bucks over the 60.

Perfect, I thought I had read that one of the Optura's did it but I couldn't remember which.

Thanks!

I was in the process of deciding how big of a memory card I wanted to buy for my new Optura 60 when I started wondering if it was desirable to go with one of the high speed cards. I did some testing with a standard (slow) speed card and with the high speed card I use in my Canon SD300 digital still camera.

The Optura will write to and read from cards formatted in the Optura or cards formatted in the SD300. If I format the card in the Optura, my USB memory card reader on the home PC, running XP Professional, can’t see any pictures on the card. If I format the card in the SD300, my USB memory card reader does see the pictures and can copy or delete them.

There appears to be no difference in how long it takes to move from one picture to the next, in playback mode, whether the card is a standard speed or high speed card.

The Optura 60 is incredibly slow viewing still shots compared to the SD300. Pictures that take several seconds for the Optura to process pop up almost instantly on the SD300. I don’t really understand why the Optura is so much slower than the SD300 when both of them are listed as using DiG!C processors.

Is there some setting that I have wrong causing me to get such slow performance from the memory card?

Don't know why that would be. I'll look into it and see if there's an answer.

I purchased an Optura 60 a week ago. There is a Canon $100 rebate that ends Sept 30, and with the rebate my price was less than $500. I have a Gl2 and wanted a small camera for vacation use, and also to use for rewinding and capturing DV shot with the GL2 to extend the GL2 tape transport life.

Because of at least one notorious review I was concerned about low light capability of the 60. I'm happy to report that IMO the Optura 60 low light capability is not bad. It is no match for the GL2, but it is better than my old Sony Digital 8 TRV-120. With one 60 watt light in a small room there is certainly some grain, and color is weak. In a small room with 2 60 watt bulbs there is not much grain and color is decent.

In good light the image quality looks great, and I'm anxious to compare shots side by side with the GL2, and also using the 16:9 mode, where I expect the 60 might be even better than the GL2.

I shoot a lot of nature video and the 20X optical zoom capability of the GL2 is superb, and the digital zoom up to 40X is also quite good. I was hoping this would also be true for the optura 60 because it's CCD has more pixels (in the one CCD) than the 3 CCD GL2. This appears to be the case. The 60 has two digital zoom modes, 56X and 280X. Forget about the 280X on the Optura like you can forget about the 100X in the GL2. But the Optura 60 like the Gl2 has minor image degradation with the digial zoom up to twice the optical zoom. You can't really tell (as far as I know) what the exact digital zoom is in either camera except at the transitions from one to the other or at the end of the range. My opinion is that picture degradation in the 60 is not too bad all the way up to 56X.

Finally I want to report my findings on the Digital Optics, or Crystal Optics or Sakar low cost 2X extender. I purchased this cheap ($79) extender with the Optura 60 expecting that perhaps it would not be great, but might be useful. I'm sending it back. It is less than useless and a waste of money. It has very bad chromatic aberation (purple fringing). It has poor resolution, kind of like a fog on everything. The Optura 60 at about 30X digital zoom without the 2X extender has a much better picture than using the 2X extender at full optical 14X zoom on the Optura, which should give about 28X effective zoom. However, the 2X extender is not a 2X extender. More like about a 1.4X at best, if you can believe it! Perhaps I shouldn't have been, but frankly I was amazed that putting a low cost piece of glass on the camera would offer nothing but a degraded picture.

Because of at least one notorious review I was concerned about low light capability of the 60. I'm happy to report that IMO the Optura 60 low light capability is not bad. It is no match for the GL2, but it is better than my old Sony Digital 8 TRV-120. With one 60 watt light in a small room there is certainly some grain, and color is weak. In a small room with 2 60 watt bulbs there is not much grain and color is decent.

Thanks for your real world review of the Optura 60, glad you like it. I believe I know which review you cite and I continue to not understand the obsession casual camcorder purchasers (and apparently many reviewers) have with "low light" performance. Its like people think a $500 camcorder is going to take a 20x15 room with a 20 watt reading lamp and make it look like its sitting on the surface of the sun. Ugh, don't get me started.

I've got an Optura 30 and its been fine for interior shooting. Is it as good as my friend's PD150? Uh, not even close. Good enough for videos of the inlaws trying to sing and play guitar after a bottle of wine? You bet.

Philip Williams
www.philipwilliams.com

On my Optura 60 I've noticed that the color gets much richer when you adjust the exposure down, usually at -3. Has anybody else noticed this? It isn't a gradual change either. As you adjust the exposure the picture gets darker (of course), and then with one click more its suddenly much richer and saturated. At first I thought it was just the auto gain switching off, but I've noticed it on bright scenes as much as dark ones. Anybody know what's going on here?

My initial guess is that at around -3 EXP, you're starting to see the effect of slower shutter speeds. Initially, the camcorder might be lowering the exposure by mostly relying on the aperture, but, as the cam runs out of apertures sizes, it starts to use the shutter speed more to compensate. That would explain the more saturated colors. If that's the case, then an ND filter is a good solution.

A good test would be to put the camera in TV and AV mode and lower the exposure to see which mode gives you a similar effect.

But, I'll have to check it out myself, since now I'm curious.

yes i have noticed this, there are a few factors at work here..

first the optura over exposes by 1 or 2 stops

the optura lcd is overly bright and exposes by 1 stop, turing off lcd backlight and turing down lcd brightness a bit helps, best way to do this is hook up the optura to a tv in a very bright room and try match it up

the optura lcd also has very limited viewing angle, so if its a degree off your video will looked washed out and not as rich

my rule of thumb has been underexpose daytime outside shots by one or two stops in TV mode so i can control the shutter and not get any shutter drag in my shots

I don't know if I could attribute this to the shutter speed. I've noticed it in aperature priority, shutter priority, and regular auto modes. Also, I've noticed it's less likely to want to overexpose in aperature priority mode.

Yes, this occurs in TV mode (shutter priority). I notice it around -2 on my Xi.

I've suspected for a while that I was having focusing issues with my Optura 60, and during a shoot yesterday a friend of mine brought along his laptop with DV Rack (awesome program!) and it confirmed it. There was plenty of light in there, so the auto focus shouldn't have had trouble locking on, but it seemed to. It would look fine on the LCD, but on his monitor you could see that it was a little soft. I'm talking about a fairly small difference. It probably wouldn't be noticeable on a regular television. Also, in the past I've generally focused by zooming in and letting the autofocus lock, and putting it into manual mode before zooming out. Again, judging by the image on the screen of his laptop, the image would seem to lose focus when I zoomed out.

I'm using the WD-58 with two step-up rings. Could that be the problem? I have a one-step ring on order (for the months now), but I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just get Canon's 34mm adapter lens. There isn't some kind of sensor outside the lens that is getting blocked by that big ol' lens, is there?

Another possible clue -- I was using auto mode with the exposure dropped to about -7 on many of these shots. Could that have made difference? Maybe I was starving the camcorder for light after all.

I don't think there's anything wrong with your camera.

The object you focused on, should look a little softer after you've zoomed out, because in effect, you've created a lower resolution image of that object. When zoomed in, you're using a majority of the pixels in your camera and the result is a higher resolution image of that object.

You mentioned that it was not normally noticeable until you used a higher resolution monitor, that's why I think this is a natural effect and not a malfunction of your camcorder.

Just one tip, when I use autofocus, I make sure that the lens is NOT SET to full wide or full telephoto. This gives the autofocus a little bit of play in terms of moving the lens, and in my past experience gets rid of many autofocus issues.

This is an old habit of mine that comes from way back, and it may be a mute point with newer technology, but it's something I do because it's worked before.

I realize it looks softer when you zoom out, but it was clear after doing the "zoom in, focus, zoom out" routine, that it was still possible to focus the image somewhat sharper using the monitor (at the wider setting). There have been instances where I've gotten the footage home and looked at it on our production monitor and it was unuseably soft. Other times its razor sharp. I don't get it. The manual mentions that the autofocus can struggle when there's no vertical lines, so maybe that has something to do with it. It doesn't seem to be hunting though. Sometimes it locks on, and it's just not very sharp. Anybody know where I can download a focusing chart? That seems like the place to start. I'll try not going to full wide as well. As I recall, that often did seem to be when I was getting focusing issues.

Yes, the passive autofocus system (http://www.howstuffworks.com/autofocus3.htm) of the Opturas isn't 100% accurate. It will do the best it can and make a best guess, but it's still not going be as accurate as manually focusing. Especially, when the object doesn't have strong high contrast vertical lines.

But here are some tips to make a passive autofocus system more accurate

For video, the best way to handle situations without any strong vertical lines, is to just create them. Print or draw black parallel lines onto a sheet of paper and place it next to the object to pre-focus. Or find something close by that will let the autofocus get a good lock

**fyi do this with a flash light, to achieve critical pre-focus in low light situations.


Also, if you only have horizontal lines in your shot, you can turn the camera sideways and get your focus lock that way. Then return the camera to it's normal position. Admittedly, this works much better with a digital still camera, and isn't that great of a technique for camcorders.


The nice thing about these techniques is they are low budget and allow you to avoid using expensive and heavy monitoring systems for focus.

And thanks for bringing it up, because I forgot about these techniques, and it's something I really want to test on an HDV system where achieving focus is more critical and more expensive.

And this is for anyone wondering how a passive autofocus system (http://www.howstuffworks.com/autofocus3.htm) works.

Excellent Michael. Thanks.

Hi everyone. Im new here and new to the Canon MiniDv world. I just bought my Canon Optura a week ago at Fry's for US$599.90 and currently exploring all the functionalities of it. I love it and low light is tolerable and not as bad as it looked based on the reviews though i can say its a not as good as others who are really good in lowlight but then how often do we shoot in lowlight anyway?

anyway, i'm nearing its 15 days to return if it has a problem coz i did not buy the extended warranty and i noticed somethin on the screen when shooting in lowlight and focusing it on a white wall. it seems the lcd screen is divided in the middle (exactly in the middle of the lcd screen and also in the viewfinder) with the left side having a greenish color and the right side of the lcd screen has somewhat a better color. at first i thought it maybe just the lcd screen effect but when i looked at the viewfinder i can see the same thing and when i connected it on TV the display looked the same. Could this be a lens problem? I tried test recording a video on lowlight and focused on a white wall and on play i noticed the same oddity. On bright lights though there seems nothing of this issue can be seen. its very crisp and bright and the video looks great.

Shall i be concerned with this? Shall i replaced it with another one? or is this just normal effect when it is in lowlight? Do you guys here have exprienced this? I wanna have a peace of mind on this. i need your advice here please.

Thanks.

The camcorder should not be behaving that way. I'd get it replaced asap, and see if the 2nd one has the same problem.

Hope the problem gets fixed, and welcome to DV Info!

I had almost the exact same problem with mine. Return it!

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate it. I went to Fry's this afternoon just to check out the camcorders on display and to see if i can recreate the problem not just on Canon camcorders but on the other camcorders as well. I have had problems recreating a dimmer light since its quite bright inside. But then I did not see that oddity on other camcorders but when i tried the Optura 50 I almost had the same issue as on mine. I'm wondering probably its just how it behaves. I showed it to my brother but he's had a hard time seeing what i'm seeing or maybe im just being paranoid about it. I'm going to return my camcorder tomorrow and ask for another one and see if its better. I'm crossing my fingers.

Thanks again guys.