Cheap Canon Camcorders

Canon introduced three new low-end digital video camcorders at CES, and they looked pretty nice, especially when I heard the prices. The ZR-500 (pictured at left) costs just $299, but it has a 25X optical zoom and shoots 16-by-9 video. The ZR-600 costs $350; it adds an SD Card slot for capturing 1-megapixel still images. The ZR-700 costs $399; the bump in price gets you a higher-capacity battery and a video light. All three of the new models have 2.7-inch LCD screens, and they all have a microphone jack, something that was lacking on preceding ZR series models.

Canon's new Elura 100 camcorder (on the lower left) costs the same as the ZR-700 ($399); it has only a 20X zoom (that still plenty of length on a camcorder). But it's also smaller that the ZR-700, has a video light that's twice as bright as that model's, captures 1-megapixel stills, and it has a long list of extra features that, frankly, makes me wonder why anyone would buy the ZR-700 over it. In the past, Eluras cost hundreds of dollars more than ZR models, so the fact that this one's price is so low is a puzzler.