Canon Elura 2MC MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Built-in Digital Still Mode

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Manufacturer: Canon
Price at amazon.com: Used from $750.00

List price $1,799.00



Product Features:

• MiniDV
• MiniDV camcorder
• Progressive-scan CCD
• 10x optical, 40x digital zoom
• MultiMediaCard digital still storage
• 2.5-inch color LCD monitor

Product Description:

Canon's Elura 2MC is small and light enough to pop into a pocket, purse, or glove compartment, making it easy to bring along to any event. Despite its diminutive dimensions, the Elura 2MC is an advanced camcorder, featuring electronic image stabilization, a 10x optical (40x digital) zoom lens, a progressive-scan CCD, and digital still mode. The Elura 2MC has been designed for point-and-shoot simplicity, making it easy for even beginners to shoot great videos. A number of different programmed auto exposure modes (including sand and snow, sports, portrait, and low light) automatically adjust settings to take the worry out of shooting in challenging conditions. Besides the different programmed auto-exposure modes, the Elura 2MC also offers three different shooting modes. You'll probably leave the camera set to normal movie mode a majority of the time. Digital photo mode lets you use the Elura 2MC as a digital camera, recording a still image for six seconds on the miniDV tape, and allowing audio commentary. There's a lot of flexibility here: you can switch between movie and digital photo modes and create a unique collage of stills and video. Finally, the digital motor drive mode uses the progressive-scan CCD to capture a full noninterlaced 30 frames per second. This means you can use the footage as a series of independent photographs. The Elura 2MC also comes with a MultiMediaCard for storage of still images. As a DV camcorder, the Elura 2MC has an IEEE 1394 port for digital editing, or for transferring footage between IEEE 1394-compliant devices, such as computers or other DV camcorders. The Elura also features S-Video input and output. Analog inputs allow you to transfer old footage to DV for archiving. Digital effects include art, black and white, mosaic, and sepia, and built-in faders help ease scene transitions.

Description from Manufacturer:Canon's Elura 2MC is small and light enough to pop into a pocket, purse, or glove compartment, making it easy to bring along to any event. Despite its diminutive dimensions, the Elura 2MC is an advanced camcorder, featuring electronic image stabilization, a 10x optical (40x digital) zoom lens, a progressive-scan CCD, and digital still mode.

The Elura 2MC has been designed for point-and-shoot simplicity, making it easy for even beginners to shoot great videos. A number of different programmed auto exposure modes (including sand and snow, sports, portrait, and low light) automatically adjust settings to take the worry out of shooting in challenging conditions.

Besides the different programmed auto-exposure modes, the Elura 2MC also offers three different shooting modes. You'll probably leave the camera set to normal movie mode a majority of the time. Digital photo mode lets you use the Elura 2MC as a digital camera, recording a still image for six seconds on the miniDV tape, and allowing audio commentary. There's a lot of flexibility here: you can switch between movie and digital photo modes and create a unique collage of stills and video. Finally, the digital motor drive mode uses the progressive-scan CCD to capture a full noninterlaced 30 frames per second. This means you can use the footage as a series of independent photographs. The Elura 2MC also comes with a MultiMediaCard for storage of still images.

As a DV camcorder, the Elura 2MC has an IEEE 1394 port for digital editing, or for transferring footage between IEEE 1394-compliant devices, such as computers or other DV camcorders. The Elura also features S-Video input and output. Analog inputs allow you to transfer old footage to DV for archiving. Digital effects include art, black and white, mosaic, and sepia, and built-in faders help ease scene transitions.Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: GREAT CAMERA OVERALL Rating:
Wow, talk about small! I compared it to the Sony PC-100 mini DV before I bought the Elura 2 online -- its roughly half the size of the Sony, with the same size (2.5") LCD screen. I bought it for the promise of quality video and stills from its progressive scan CCD -- the Sony PC-100 doesn't have this feature. It basically allows a full 680k pixel image on each frame of video (and stills too) while most other cameras take interlaced images -- only half the lines of each image per frame. Anyway, it certainly doesn't disappoint. Video taken in daylight or otherwise bright settings are so clear, I found myself with my nose to the TV screen to see if I could pick up any noise, snow or artifacts. There was none. One caveat: images taken in less than ideal light, like at home at night with normal artificial lighting, results in images roughly equivalent to my old Hi8 in similar light. That is, in low light situations, there is noticeable noise and muting of colors. Except for this one shortcoming which may be common in other cameras, I would definitely give it 5 stars. I am extremely happy with its super compactness, optics, ease of use, and overall performance. I easily hooked it up to my computer through a Firewire connection (requires purchase of additional accessories), and editing family movies was a snap and trouble free. Unless you shoot mostly in low light, this is about as close to the ideal consumer camcorder as you'll find.

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Comment: Good things come in small packages Rating:
This camcorder combines ease of use, picture quality and convenience in a very small package. It has a wide variety of features, most of which I have not even begun to play around with.

For travel purposes, I can't imagine going anywhere without this compact yet powerful camcorder -- you can throw it in a fanny pack and hardly even notice it's there (but be sure to buy the 2 hr extended battery if you plan on shooting footage for more than 1/2 an hour). It also doubles as a digital camera, but take note that the digital photos it takes on the multi-media card are not suitable for print-quality photos; rather, it's a handy way to take pics and send them over email or post them to a website with decent picture quality without having to go and buy a digital camera (or travel with both).

It's also great for capturing high-speed action with the digital scan mode. Tape a golf swing, hockey game or skiing action and replay it in slow-motion.

I have no complaints to level against this product, and I have no reservations recommending this if you're looking for a high-quality camcorder that you can take just about anywhere and not have to worry about weight and bulk.

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Comment: Tape Eater Rating:
Sending mine back-- liked the small profile and features. Shot a few minutes of video on a new tape. Brought it home to watch it and ate the tape up when I tried to rewind it. I'm glad I was only trying it out, I'd hate to have the tape of something important get eaten by the machine.

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)