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Canon Optura 20 Digital Camcorder - 3.5" LCD - CCD

(1.2 Megapixel Image - 690 Kilopixel Video - 16x Optical Zoom - 320x Digital Zoom - 8 MB Secure Digital SD Card Included - MPN: 8528A001)
Description: The Optura 20 has a personality all its own. It is highly intelligent, yet it's remarkably easy to use. Its sleek, cutting edge design totally meshes with you and your lifestyle. Versatility is at its core. It produces video which blurs the line betw.... Read More

User Reviews

4 Star Review(12 Reviews)
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Date Reviewed:  Feb 26, 2004
  • Bombatta
    • from MN
  • Member Since:
    Feb 2004

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    Product Experience:
    6 Months
4 Star ReviewI've had this camcorder for six months and have ta ...
Strengths: Optura 20 has a nice bright 3.5 screen, easy to operate, and 16x optical zoom.
Weaknesses: Included battery is rated for one hour, must recharge battery on the camera, and you must load tapes from the bottom.
Summary: I've had this camcorder for six months and have taken some incredible video of my infant (now toddler) daughter. The video quality is excellent with accurate colors and clear sharp images.

This camera is easy to use without reading the manual but offers many advanced options with a bit of reading. My spouse has never cracked the manual but consistently takes great video. The menus are easy to navigate with an intuitive scroll bar/button which makes access to advanced features effortless. When you need to use the manual, it is clearly written and well diagrammed.

My three complaints are first, the one hour battery is inadequate for almost all situations. Second, the only way one can charge a battery is to have the camera plugged with the battery attached. Finally, that the tape must be loaded on the bottom. This requires me to remove the camera from the tripod to change tapes (most camcorders have this design flaw).

I've used the camcorder in a variety of weather situations (indoor, outdoor, humid, hot and freezing cold) and have been very pleased with the results. I have not experienced any fogging or internal condensation.

I process my video using an iMac with either iMovie or Final Cut Express. The Optura 20 works flawlessly with both of these software packages.

When it comes down to results the combination of the Optura 20 and my iMac are an awesome video combo. I've cranked out a 30 minute DVD for friends and family each month. I have not been disappointed in the camcorder performance once!

I have no problem recommending this product to my friends and family.

95% of People (73/77) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Apr 14, 2004
  • thefenderbender
    • from TX
  • Member Since:
    Apr 2004

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    6 Weeks
5 Star ReviewThis is a great camera with great features. Has ex ...
Strengths: Great feature set, big beautiful screen, good manual controls,excellent video quality, manual focus ring.
Weaknesses: Can only record 10 second motion jpg clips.
Summary: This is a great camera with great features. Has excellent manual control and produces great video. I got this camera for $489 on-line and at that price I think this is one of the best camcorders you can buy. Some people have complained about low light quality. However, I believe that if they used the manual controls correctly they could fix that. Setting the manual exposure and white balance will allow you to shoot in all but the lowest light situations. The fact is most consumer level camcorders suffer from poor low light performance. This camcorder performs as well as or better then models costing $100s more. Great camera at a great price!

88% of People (35/40) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Mar 13, 2004
  • JFlanagan
  • Member Since:
    Mar 2004

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    4 Months
5 Star ReviewI still love this camera. Easy to use and fast rew ...
Strengths: 3.5" Viewfinder, 16X optical zoom, price, MegaPixel CCD
Weaknesses: Low Light performace, over-active image stabilization on extreme zoom, manual exposure control.
Summary: I still love this camera. Easy to use and fast rewind functions. Bright 3.5" LCD viewfinder is nice. It shoot excellent quality video that is very crisp and detailed. Color accuracy is very good. I did not hear ANY motor noise recorded during playback. Low light performance could be better but most of my shooting is in bright conditions. The tape compartment on the bottom doesn't bother me. If I could take all the best features of Sony and Canon and combine them, I would have one monster camcorder. Feature for feature compared to the Sony equivelent, the Canon Optura 20 wins hands down.

86% of People (25/29) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Jan 5, 2004
  • christhelawman
    • from WA
  • Member Since:
    Sep 2002

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    Product Experience:
    3 Months
3 Star ReviewWhile this camera is a good camera it wasn't all I ...
Strengths: Decent stills, good video image & small size. AV-DV pass-through!
Weaknesses: Tape noise, poor low light shots, bottom tape output & needs a wider lens for shooting in a small rooms.
Summary: While this camera is a good camera it wasn't all I expected from Canon. Shooting low light is almost impossible (Sony does a much better job). It also has a hard time focusing in low lighting.

If you're shooting a quiet play/program you get a lot of tape noise in your recording. You can solve that problem by running audio from the sound board directly in but you depend a lot on a good sound man running the board to give you a "true" sound.

I shoot a lot of moving action while I'm holding the camera and it is almost too small to give a stable picture. Definitely something you don't complain about if your looking for a lightweight and small camera.

For the price and quality it is still a decent camera.

80% of People (12/15) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Jan 7, 2004
  • Toys4sale
    • from KY
  • Member Since:
    Oct 2001

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    Product Experience:
    3 Weeks
5 Star ReviewThis is a great Camcorder! I chose between the Son ...
Strengths: Great zoom range 16x, Color Clarity is excellent, Has nice effects feature. Large 3.5" LCD
Weaknesses: In super low light you must move the camera very slowly or video appears choppy.
Summary: This is a great Camcorder! I chose between the Sony TRV38 and Optura 20. After reading professional and amateur reviews, I knew that this camera excelled and was a great value for the price I paid..

79% of People (15/19) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Nov 2, 2003
  • Binky
    • from NY
  • Member Since:
    Jul 2003

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    Product Experience:
    4 Months
4 Star ReviewThe sound, picture and audio are all excellent. Yo ...
Strengths: The LCD screen being 3.5, Battery charger is right on the camcorder. Takes excellent pictures and videos.
Weaknesses: While having the LCD screen open the viewfinder is also running and uses the battery.
Summary: The sound, picture and audio are all excellent. You can install your own opening image. I haven't found anything negative about the camcorder. Excellent camcorder the purchase.

71% of People (10/14) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Oct 9, 2003
  • chinomike55
    • from FL
  • Member Since:
    Oct 2003

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    25 Days
4 Star ReviewOverall, this is a great camcorder if you don't wa ...
Strengths: Nice, crisp picture and vibrant color for a single CCD camcorder.
Weaknesses: Slight camera noise picked up in quiet recordings. Low light functions not great.
Summary: Overall, this is a great camcorder if you don't want to fork out a lot of cash. This is coming from a very picky consumer. As someone who works in the broadcast industry, I had high standards in searching for the right camera, but didn't have a huge budget. I just wanted a nice family camcorder, but didn't want to give up on quality. Picture is sharp in good lighting conditions, and the colors are vibrant. Also comes with plenty of manual controls, which is great.

On the downside, there is some slight camera noise picked up in quiet conditions. Also the low light functions make the video way to jerky to use... almost like a strobe effect.

69% of People (11/16) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Sep 29, 2003
  • vaughntan
    • from VA
  • Member Since:
    Feb 2003

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    2 Weeks
5 Star ReviewEverything works very well as advertised. Great im ...
Strengths: Ease of use,quality of unit.
Weaknesses: Cheap door on cable connection section.
Summary: Everything works very well as advertised. Great image quality even in low light. I like the 3.5 screen and to be able to take still pictures while video tapeing. I chose it over the Sony DCR-TRV-38 because I like the SD memory card better than Sony's memory stick. I'm afraid the touch screen would be easy to damage and for me , it is harder to use.

67% of People (6/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Jan 17, 2004
  • Videolady
    • from FL
  • Member Since:
    Jan 2004

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    Reviews
5 Star ReviewGreat camera. Mine does not have the noise people ...
Strengths: GREAT VIDEO PICTURES, LOTS OF ZOOM,
Weaknesses: None I can find
Summary: Great camera. Mine does not have the noise people complain about when recording. Don't know what they are hearing. Takes great video and has excellent features. This Video Camera has high ratings by all the reviewers, that is the reason I bought it and I am glad I did

64% of People (9/14) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Jun 15, 2004
  • walewolf
    • from CA
  • Member Since:
    Feb 2004

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    1 Months
3 Star ReviewAfter spending some time doing research I decided ...
Strengths: Compact, pretty easy to use.
Weaknesses: You can hear the noise from the tape recording in quiet situations. The picture is not very crisp or vibrant in color.
Summary: After spending some time doing research I decided to purchase the camcorder. Unfortuantely I didn't do enough research and am dissappointed with my selection. As stated in other reveiws, you can hear the noise of the tape recording if you are in a quiet setting. The picture is not very vibrant in color. It pays to go to a retailer and get inforamtion first hand and test the models before buying anything online. A leading "consumer" rating ranked this camcorder 14th out of 17 and I find that accurate. There are better models out there for around the same price.

60% of People (9/15) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Dec 22, 2003
  • Noviceuser
    • from OH
  • Member Since:
    Oct 2003

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    3 Weeks
5 Star Reviewa great camera for the point and shoot guy. At abo ...
Strengths: Large 3.5inch LCD, nice zoom, wide variety of attachments,easy point and shoot camera, nice picture, decent battery included, compfortable to hold steady, easy to use.
Weaknesses: viewfinder doesn't extend.
Summary: a great camera for the point and shoot guy. At about $600 its tough to beat. I'd recommend getting a decent wide angle lens attachment. Most Dv cameras have a narrow field of view(except some JVC's. There are a lot of decent cameras, try before you buy and do some research to see what your needs are, then match um up. Good luck, and have fun.

60% of People (6/10) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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Date Reviewed:  Jan 13, 2004
  • noah750
    • from WI
  • Member Since:
    Jan 2004

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    Reviews
    Product Experience:
    3 Months
1 Star ReviewThis camera is a piece of junk, do not buy it. I ...
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: everything
Summary: This camera is a piece of junk, do not buy it. I had 3, yes, 3 defective ones, or maybe Canon just doesn't care about the loud grinding motor noise when recording and during playback. Yes, some cameras have a little motor noise, but this one was horrible, and picked up on the recording, ruining a few of my projects. I had nothing but problems with this camera, the construction leaves a bit to be desired, not to mention the motor buzz and noise. It is easy to use, and the picture quality is ok, but don't buy it. Spend a bit more, and go with a Sony. I did not want to buy a Sony, but they are better cameras. After much bickering with Best Buy, (that is another bad review altogether), I got them to return the camera so I could buy a different brand. I went with the Sony DCR-TRV38, which is a far better quality camera for a little more. I am so glad to be rid of the Canon, I will never buy anything Canon again, I am surprised they let this model go out the door, especially after all of the hype surrounding it. DON'T BUY IT.

47% of People (15/32) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?

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