Canon MVX350i review

The camcorder provides a selection of built-in faders and an assortment of gimmicky digital effects such as Mosaic, Sepia and Color Masks. There's also a multi-image capture mode that takes four, nine or 16 shots and displays them on the screen simultaneously -- handy for analysing a golf swing or a jumping cat.

The MVX350i shoots still images at 1,280x960 or 640x480, and it can capture Motion JPEG AVI movies at 320x240 or 160x120 pixels. A 32MB MultiMediaCard (MMC) is included for saving either stills or video clips; the camera can also use SD cards. The built-in flash offers a red-eye-reduction mode.

Performance
In most shooting conditions, the Canon MVX350i's automatic modes perform well. Autoexposure and auto white balance are very quick, and autofocus is snappy in bright situations. In more dimly lit environments, autofocus can take a second or two to lock on to a subject. The digital image stabiliser does an excellent job of smoothing the movements of a shaky shooting hand.

The manual controls work as you'd expect, but are difficult to manipulate, particularly when you're shooting. You focus manually by using the jog dial mounted directly in front of the LCD, which isn't in the easiest spot to reach when shooting and doesn't offer the speed or precision you get from a focus ring.

The LCD and the viewfinder both provide clear, bright pictures. The LCD is too small to use for manual focusing; a magnification mode would be welcome for making precise focus adjustments. The LCD works well even in bright lighting conditions, and the viewfinder adjusts up and outward to offer additional shooting flexibility.

The MVX350i's built-in microphone performed well, but it's not highly directional and was sensitive enough to pick up the sound of the plastic buttons being pressed as we adjusted settings while shooting.

Image quality
In daylight and brightly lit situations, the MVX350i records vibrant, sharp video. Colours are accurate, edges are crisp and well defined, and textures are very evident. The lens seems to provide a very slight -- but noticeable in a head-to-head assessment -- advantage in contrast over the one used on the MVX300 and the MVX330i.

Low-light images have more accurate and saturated colour than we've seen from similar consumer camcorders, but they're also noticeably noisy. In extremely dark situations, you can use the assist lamp, which works in conjunction with the slow-shutter Night Mode to provide reasonably good footage of objects within a few feet of the camera. For more distant objects, you'll want an external light.

Canon enthusiastically promotes the MVX350i's still-photo capabilities, but while stills are decent by camcorder standards, their quality can't match that of shots from most dedicated still cameras. Brightly lit outdoor images are reasonably good, but indoor shots are muddy. You won't want to give up your dedicated still camera.

Edited by Aimee Baldridge
Additional editing by Nick Hide