Canon DC220 review

Canon DC220 Review

Reviewed by: Philip Ryan

Reviewed on: 12 November 2007

Perhaps it's the convenience of popping a DVD out of the camcorder and straight into your living room player, or maybe you just don't feel comfortable with a hard-drive-based model, but whatever the reason, you're looking into buying a DVD camcorder.

Positioned in the middle of the company's 2007 DVD-based camcorders at around £230, Canon's DC220 is a decent, though not very impressive model.

Design
Astute observers will notice that the DC220 shares most of its features with the slightly less expensive DC210. In this case, the extra cash gets you an autofocus upgrade to Canon's nine-point AiAF system, a miniSD card slot for capturing still images, a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection, PictBridge compatibility for direct photo printing to compatible printers and Canon's Digital Video Solutions software package.

That means that if you're not interested in shooting still images with your camcorder and you don't need Canon's software, then you may want to consider the DC210.

Weighing 405g and measuring 54 by 90 by 128mm, the DC220 is fairly light and somewhat small for a DVD-based model. Compared to similar models from last year, it shows some improvements in design.

Canon now includes a tiny joystick, well located for your thumb, to navigate the menus. That's a big step up from the array of buttons on the left side of the DC100's body. However, the DC220 does have a triad of annoying buttons on its flank. You use them to access the menu, change the information displayed on the LCD or enter and exit quick start mode (aka standby mode).

In our tests, we found these buttons less responsive than we would've liked. In many cases, it took more than one press, not to mention more force than we prefer to exert on the side of a camera body that we're trying to hold still.

It might make sense for Canon to put the menu and display controls along the bottom of the LCD, though the dual-function playback, zoom and record controls that are already there might not leave enough room. Fortunately, Canon placed the rest of the controls in all the right places.