Canon MV800 review

Canon MV800 Review

Reviewed by: Rick Broida

Reviewed on: 2 May 2005

Although the ZR300 can capture minimovies to an SD/MMC card in Motion JPEG format, the maximum resolution of 320 x 240 limits their usefulness. Similarly, the camcorder's support for PictBridge and EXIF Print 2.2 seems rather pointless, given the submegapixel photo resolution -- but it's there if you want it.

The MV800 comes with a corded lens cap, an 8MB SD card (which has room for just 13 photos snapped at 1024 x 768 in Superfine mode), USB and A/V cables, a wireless remote and manuals for both the camera and Canon's bundled software. The software comprises only photo-specific programs, including Canon's familiar ZoomBrowser EX, PhotoRecord and PhotoStitch for Windows, as well as ImageBrowser and PhotoStitch for Mac -- there's nothing for video capture or editing. That's a minor letdown, given the MV800's analogue-to-digital converter, which enables the camcorder to record video from, say, a VCR. You'll have to supply the software to download that video to your PC for editing or DVD burning.

A bigger letdown is the lack of a microphone input or an accessory shoe. Although you can dub audio from external sources such as a CD player, the MV800's A/V port works only when plugged into RCA sources using the included cable.

Canon has also neglected to include a separate battery charger. To charge the battery, you have to plug the AC adaptor directly into the camera. That means that if you buy an extra battery so that you can charge one while shooting with the other, you'll have to pick up a charger too.

Performance
We were impressed with the overall performance of the Canon MV800, which should more than adequately handle the needs of family moviemakers. Its LCD looks sharp and bright except under direct sunlight, at which point even the backlight offers little help. We found the zoom controls relatively quick and responsive, though zoom speed seemed faster when we were in standby mode than when we were actually shooting. The MV800 definitely isn't the fastest at focusing, whether it's doing so manually or automatically, but again, for home movies and the like, it's passable.

On the other hand, it was surprisingly quick at automatically adjusting white balance when we moved from a dimly lit indoor environment to a sunny outdoor one and adequately quick at adjusting exposure. Canon's electronic image stabiliser did a decent job with high-zoom recording -- much better than we could manage trying to hold the camera steady ourselves -- but it's not the best we've seen.

The camcorder's stereo microphone, mounted just below the lens, did a good job recording sound both in front of and behind the camera, but, by the same token, managed to avoid picking up noise from the zoom and tape mechanisms. As we noted in 'Features', there's no way to connect an external microphone to the MV800, so if you want more directional audio recording you're out of luck.

As for battery life, the MV800 went the distance, lasting longer than a 60-minute tape. We were able to operate the camcorder -- everything from recording video to rewinding and viewing portions of a tape -- for almost 1 hour, 20 minutes before the battery gave out. That's quite good, though obviously spare cells are a must for holidaymakers.

Image quality
Under optimal lighting, the camera captures sharp, vibrant images with warm colours. In low-light conditions, however, don't expect quite the same results. While Canon has made an improvement over the low-light performance of last year's models, and this camera's various night modes help make for brighter images, the MV800 exhibited a distracting amount of noise in dim conditions. What's more, a tripod is a must if you use the slow-shutter Night mode; even if you're not panning, movies become blurry and jerky with just the slightest movement. The lack of an accessory shoe means you can't add an extra light source, either.

As for still photos, we recommend you don't bother. Although the MV800 managed to reproduce colours pretty well, our sample photos appeared grainy and slightly washed out, with brightly lit areas overexposed. The same goes for the 320 x 240-pixel Motion JPEG movies, which consistently looked jerky and sounded terrible.

Additional editing by: Nick Hide