Canon Optura Mini DV Blog |

Hey guys. So I have this old Canon Optura 10, and i was outside filming. So the tape comes to an end, so i opened the camera to put in a new one. But the tape compartment (which says do not press) came up, and usually it opens. But it didnt. What should I do. Is there any way I can remove the tape manually?

do not remove manually. the battery is probably old, and ran down as you were shooting. let the battery get a full charge and then try removing the tape again. if that doesn’t work , you will need professional service.

It’s for a video camera. Where can I buy one in store? Not online because I lost the charger about a month ago and I would rather get it today if possible. Otherwise online sites would work. I have an OPTURA 40 Canon digital video camcorder. Here’s a picture of the camera right here. That’s what it looks like.

http://reviews.cnet.com/sc/30869449-2-440-camera+on-1.gif

About how much would the charger cost? Any stores I could get it at? Or if not any online places other than Ebay?

Thx!

You might be able to find one in an electronics store that carries Canon products, but you’ll probably pay $35 or more. You can find it for under $20 online:

http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Adapter-CA-570K-replacement-Carrying/dp/B000FFT632
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&safe=off&q=CA-570K&scoring=p

the choices are the sony sr62, and the canon hv10, hes currently making professional movies with his canon optura 600, he is concerned that perhaps the zoom on it is in the wrong place, but hes okay with it, he thot it had to be under his index finger. he doesnt make nething 4 the TV, just 4 home and internet, he wants sumthing that can fit in his hand, price isnt a concern, first he thot about the sony, now hes thinking about the canon which is similar to the one he has now, so which one wud be the better buy??

First off, grammar and spelling go a LONG way. I was not going to answer you question at first because of the catch line and the details butchering the English language.

Sony has 15X better optical zoom
Canon has 7mm more filter size
Sony has better Wide Focal Length
Canon has better Manual Focus controls
Canon Has Audio-In, Sony does not

Personally, I would go with the Canon if you are not going to be needing distance shots (like nature shots), but if you are, then Sony will be the winner, for it has better optical zoom. (Digital zoom is worthless, all it does in increase pixel size, cutting quality big time)
If you need anymore help, email my profile. The links for the specs of the cameras are below.

Hope this helps,
Randall

i cant choose between these:
*Canon Optura 30 MiniDV
*JVC GRD796 MiniDV
*Canon ZR830 MiniDV
*Canon HV10 3.1MP High-Definition MiniDV
*Sony DCR-HC62 1MP MiniDV
*Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS High Definition

and if you can…tell me why?
xO

If this is all we have to choose from, any of the miniDV tape based camcorders.

1) MiniDV tape does not compress like the hard drive or flash memory camcorders, so video quality even up against the high def or flash memory camcorders.

2) When you fill the miniDV tape, pop it out, lock it, pop in another – not only does that tape become the archive (with a good shelf life), but you can shoot for as long as you have (cheap) extra tapes. At around $3 for an hour, they are affordable. When you fill up the hard drive or (expensive) flash memory), what do you do? When you transfer the hard drive video to your computer, you delete the camcorder video files. If you do not back up those files to an external drive or data DVD, when the project is done being edited, you will delete the video files – so… gone from the computer and gone from the camcorder… gone forever.

The Aiptek lenses are too small to provide any sort of good quality unless you are very close to your subject – and their mics are not very good.

3) I am not aware of a Canon miniDV HV10. The HG10 is hard drive based and uses AVCHD for high-def compression – You do NOT want this camcorder. If you mean the HV20 (or HV30), then I would say go this route.
* As stated earlier: MiniDV tape. DV and HDV are the least amount of compression and results in best available video quality.
* Mic-in jack – you may not want it now, but an external mic is REALLY handy. Better to have the mic in jack and not need it than need it and not have one.
* Manual audio control – I did not check the JVC, but NONE of the camcorders on your list has manual audio control except this one. This is REALLY important if you are in really loud (rock/hiphop/whatever amplified music bands) or really soft environments (you get the characteristc whooshing sound from automatic audio level circuits). It can go auto too – but the manual part is AWESOME when you need it. The closest the Sonys get is a "Normal" or "Low" mic gain switch in the menu.
* The HV20 can record in high definition and standard definition (4:3 and 16:9) in 24p… and 1080i. It the most flexible of the camcorders on the list you provided.

You will need a firewire port on your computer – USB is used for transferring stills from the memory card only – Firewire (i.Link; IEEE1394) is needed for importing video from the miniDV tape. Adding a port is easy if your computer has an available PCI slot (desktop) or PCMCIA slot (laptop). Macintosh computers have had Firewire 400 ports for many years.

Video uses a LOT of computer hard drive space – Standard definition is about 13 gig per hour and high definition is about 44 gig per hour of video imported to your computer’s hard drive. An external hard drive is strongly recommended.

I purchased a Canon Optura 60 miniDV camcorder about 2 years ago. The CCD was over 2 megapixels. I need a new miniDV camcorder. So I went on the Canon website and the newer miniDV camcorder had a CCD of only over 1 megapixels. I would think that newer camcorder would be higher megapixels. Why would they make a camcorder with less megapixels?

You are measuring a still camera capability. Camcorders are for video – not stills.

The other "feature" to ignore is digital zoom – that is useless and should be disabled when you get the camcorder.

Things to consider that matter:
Lens size (bigger is better – lets in more light)
Imaging chip surface area (bigger is better – captures more light).
Least amount of compression applied to digital video stream (MiniDV tape is least – next are hard drive and flash memory – worst is DVD).
Mic-in jack; manual audio control. (Just because a camcorder has a mic in jack does not mean it has manual audio control, but just the mic-in jack is better than not having one. The Canon ZR800, 900 and 930 have mic in jacks but no manual audio control; the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9 have mic in jacks and manual audio control.)
Low lux rating – lower is better.
Manual controls (other than audio) – zoom, focus and iris/exposure controls.

There are pro-grade camcorders that don’t take stills at all and good still cameras (SLR) that don’t take video. If you want good stills, use a still camera. If you want good video, use a video camcorder.

i got a canon digital camcorder optura 30..it works perfectly fine. the only things is that the little mini tv lcd broke so now i cant see what im recording only threw the lil lens old school style i guess. ive look all over on line but i cant seem to find just the lcd part not even ebay.. does any one know where i could get that part?????

try the manufacturer’s website

Which is a better choice for filming action sports(in light and dark places) and for just regular…filming

The Panasonic PV-DV852

or

The Canon Optura Xi

Thanks, please give why to.

It depend on what do you want to do.
But I have good expreience with Panasonic.

Hi, I am a skateboarder and i really want to start filming my frineds. X-mas is right around the corner and my dad already said he would buy me a camcorder. I wish i could get a VX100, because what i hear,is that its amazing.I was doing some research and came across the canon optura 20. It looks perfect, and i already saw videos on youtube of it in use. It can fit a fisheye and everything. However, i just want to know if there is anything better, but that is in my price range of about $400. Please HELP!!!!!!thank you

check out this video i shot with my JVC Everio GZ-hd30 …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vhtMbY3AG4

i bought it off ebay with everything for $300 it was a factory reverb sold by Bestbuy outlet so i knew i could trust the seller… in this vid i even had it on the lowest AVCHD setting and you can see it does great in low light… it is a little shacky at times but with a tripod its perfect!

you can also read CNET reviews on the GZ-HD40 which is the same camera with a bigger hard drive…everything else is the same…

also there should be another video coming from my camera on that youtube channel probly by tomorrow where i used the tripod most of the time… also the loading docks vid on that same channel is from my camera and we down converted it to SD on accident but looks still pretty good.
here it is… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4R1mvB4R-U

I have a Canon Optura 30 and I am trying to plug it in so that I can capture a video using Windows Movie Maker. I have a 4 – 4 pin firewire cable, which fits properly into the computer and camcorder. When the video camera is plugged into the computer (and set on VCR (play) mode), "DV in" keeps flashing on the little screen on the camcorder. The camcorder is not recognized in My Computer, Windows Movie Maker, or in the control pannel Scanners and Cameras. What can I do? I’m getting really frustrated, I’ve been trying to get it to work all day.

Any help is appreciated.

Note: When I plugged it in using the USB cord, it worked perfectly, but USB is for getting things from the memory card, but I need it off the tape.

firewire cable, < probably broke. Get another one from Radio Shack. Or get a USB expansion card, and use it on the USB cable, in additional to memory card.

i do not care about the price. JVC GRD850US, Canon ZR600, or Canon Optura 30

you can consider buying
Sony HDR-CX100 AVCHD HD Camcorder
# Capture 1920 x 1080 HD video to built-in flash memory
# 10x optical zoom, 120x digital zoom; Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with SteadyShot image stabilization
# 2.7-inch wide touch-panel Clear Photo LCD Plus display
# 4-megapixel still image capture; Face Detection
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PY41YQ?ie=UTF8&tag=bestdeals-y-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001PY41YQ