is anyone using the Canon ZR400?

[greymalkin]

hello..

I am looking at buying a camcorder in the $400 range and was thinkin about getting the Canon ZR400. A friend of mine asked me if I would video their wedding and I'm thinking about just getting them to buy me this camera as payment (I will be doing all the editing/dvd authoring..etc).

I was just wondering if anyone else has used this camera and has an example of the video quality I should expect? I'm going to patch my laptop into the sound system so I'll get a good audio track, so the limitation of onboard mic only is not a real big issue. I mainly want fairly good video quality for that price range and the analog pass-through capability.

thanks!

[unclebud]

All the ZR series cams have poor low light quality.
I have 2 ZR cams (1 broken, 1 for pass-thru to a laptop) The small size of the CCD is a problem for most of the cheap camera's, Sony included.

[greymalkin]

When you say low light do you mean like regular indoor settings or night/dimly lit rooms? If there is something better @ the $500 mark I wouldn't mind that but i really can't go much further.

My brother in law had a ZR100 he used for my other brother in laws wedding and he recorded indoors with no issue. Actually I was using an older panasonic that recorded straight to mini DVD...the panasonic picture was better..but it recorded straight to MPEG2 and was too dark so I had to brighten it up and re-compress causing me to lose some quality.

They also set the ZR100 to long play mode which degraded the quality some more as well...I know the 400 should have significantly better quality than it and I really only plan on using it outside or indoors with standard lighting....just some additional info...any suggestions welcome of course if there is a better camera in the 400-500 range.

thanks

[unclebud]

Indoor with room lighting can look grainy.
Try
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/
or
http://reviews.cnet.com/Camcorders/2001-6500_7-0.html?tag=cnetfd.dir

[greymalkin]

Okay..for about $500 I can weasel out a Panasonic PV-GS120

if this is recommended...

okay well this is the one I went ahead and got...I got one off a film student on e-bay for 481...included in the package was an extra battery, 3 miniDV tapes, a carrying case, and a tripod....score!