Canon MV X3i

...If you have a Canon printer, then you can connect this directly to it to do your printing. There is no PC needed for this. Or PictBridge lets you do the same with a PictBridge compatible printer.

To connect this to your computer, you can use USB and IEEE1394 Firewire connectivity to make transferring images to your computer as easy as possible.

There are a few improvements that I think Canon needs to improve. These are…
...tape handling is fine, but Canon must take on board the lessons that have been learned by other manufacturers and stop using a bottom-loading tape mechanism. There is a poor low-light performance which isn't really expected with a small CCD. The CCD smear is a serious problem when shooting high-contrast videos.

If you want a good camcorder then this is a good one to own, but you may want to take a look at the Panasonic MX500 which ... more

I purchased this about a year ago from a camera shop in Southampton. On the way home I was really eager to open it, but I made myself wait until I got home. So, I got home and opened it and was impressed with what I saw. It looked very stylish and I was impressed by the good size screen. I set everything up that needed to, which took about 5 minutes. I started to go round my house filming anything just to test it out. I put the video that I had produced onto the computer and was impressed with the quality that it had produced. I used it everyday for the next few weeks just videoing anything because I just wanted to use it, and it was fun. I haven't really had any major events or activities to record really, but I have recorded a couple of people's birthdays which has all come out good. Now onto the main part…

The MVX3i is a brilliant camcorder, with an impressive 3.5" colour LCD and colour viewfinder which makes composing and navigation of the menu extremely easy.

The camcorder comes in a nice box, with the following contents:
- The camcorder
- Lens cap and lens cap cord
- Lens hood
- Lithium battery
- Wireless controller
- 2 x R6/AA batteries
- Compact power adapter
- Batter pack
- Interface cable
- AC Cable
- SDC-8M SD Memory Card
- Memory card case
- Stereo video cable
- S-Video cable
- Scart adapter
- Digital video solution disks
- Instruction manuals

As you can see, you get a lot for your money. So people that say it is expensive, then I guess you could be right, but you do get a lot for what you are paying.

It has: a 2.2 mega pixel CCD, a 10x optical/200x digital zoom, an optical image stabilizer, RBG primary colour filter, 3.5" colour LCD with colour viewfinder, 16:9 mode (high resolution), digital camera capabilities, DV Messenger 2.0.

The 2.2 mega pixel CCD makes sure that the video images that are produced are high quality. The zoom range is 10x optical/200x digital for videos, or 9x optical/36x digital for still pictures. The optical image stabilizer keeps the videos and images pin-sharp.
To make sure the reds, greens and blues all keep their intensity, the RGB primary colour filter makes sure it all takes place!
This camcorder produces MPEG4 movies, which are routed to the memory card for easy transfer to you PC. The recording time is limited by the size of your memory card.

With the capabilities of a digital camera, you can take still pictures, with modes such as: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Auto Exposure and Slow Shutter Speed. It is also capable of taking still photos during video recording.

If you have a Canon printer, then you can connect this directly to it to do your printing. There is no PC needed for this. Or PictBridge lets you do the same with a PictBridge compatible printer.

To connect this to your computer, you can use USB and IEEE1394 Firewire connectivity to make transferring images to your computer as easy as possible.

There are a few improvements that I think Canon needs to improve. These are…
1) 8M fore a secure digital memory for a 2meg camera? It's not very good if you want to take more than 3 or 4 pictures.

2) The USB connection isn't really fast enough, and it can only be used to transfer pictures to the computer you can't transfer videos. To transfer the videos you need to use the Firewire cable. I have Firewire ports in my computer but I guess that there would be lots of people that don't.

3) It would have probably been better to not have included the still photo capability so that the quality of the videos would have been improved. Most people have a camera anyway, so the camcorder should have just been used for videos.

4) The 200x lens isn't really good enough quality and a higher quality would have been much better for this camcorder. It is definitely not good enough for a professional, but it is ok for someone like me that just wants it to record things every now and then, but not great if someone wants to record stuff very often.

Conclusion…
The MVX3i has wonderfully sharp lens that is usable at all focal lengths and apertures. It produces little objectionable sharpening of the image.
The onboard microphones are ok, and the menu isn't too complicated. The MPEG4 movies recorded to memory card can be fun, and it is really simple to add them to e-mails. There is full control over audio levels, over exposure and white balance. The tape handling is fine, but Canon must take on board the lessons that have been learned by other manufacturers and stop using a bottom-loading tape mechanism. There is a poor low-light performance which isn't really expected with a small CCD. The CCD smear is a serious problem when shooting high-contrast videos.

If you want a good camcorder then this is a good one to own, but you may want to take a look at the Panasonic MX500 which addresses the tape-loading concerns. The Panasonic camcorder cost just a few pounds more.

But this is a good camcorder has and has never given me any big faults or problems. I recommend it.

Thanks for reading folks! :-)
 

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