Canon MVX30i

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/camcorders/0,39029967,39188513,00.htm

Reviewed 23 March 2005

Reviewed by Denny Atkin

Don't let the Canon MVX30i's small size fool you. It packs a full-featured MiniDV camcorder and decent still camera into a jacket-pocket-size design. Though you won't trade features for size, you sacrifice some convenience, with odd control placements that make zoom shots difficult. Its still photos are better than those of typical camcorders, but can't compare to most dedicated cameras. The MVX30i is therefore most interesting if you're looking for a compact but full-featured camera for shooting movies. You might also want to consider stepping up to the MVX35i for its better low-light capabilities and higher-resolution LCD.

Design
Small enough to fit in a jacket pocket and weighing only 470g, the Canon MVX30i's light weight and sleek vertical design make it an easy travel companion. The camcorder sports a variety of dedicated control buttons that provide instant access to common functions, and it makes relatively few compromises to achieve its compact size. Menu items are logically named, and the two-level menus are easy to navigate.

For the most part, the buttons and dials are intelligently placed, except for the zoom control and the photo-capture button, which sit very far forward on the camera, near the lens. While some people find this a very comfortable design, others may find it awkward, so definitely try this camcorder out before you buy it. If you have small hands, you may end up holding the MVX30i with two hands due to the difficulty of reaching the zoom control -- ironic, given the camera's small size.

Canon plays up the MVX30i's still camera features, but the controls are clearly camcorder-focused. Most of the photo settings are either buried in menus or doubled up with the tape controls behind the LCD, making adjustments more cumbersome than with dedicated digital cameras. Manual focus is particularly awkward in both still and video modes, requiring use of the jog dial to adjust focus.

You'll need to remove the MVX30i from a tripod to swap tapes, as the tape-access door is on the bottom of the camera.

Features
The Canon MVX30i incorporates a 2-megapixel CCD; 1.2 megapixels are used for video (which is then downsampled to DV resolution) and 2 megapixels for still photos. The 10X optical zoom can reach 400X in digital zoom mode -- but as is typical with digital zoom, the results are too blurry to be useful at maximum zoom. You can shoot video in both traditional 4:3 mode and a wide-screen 16:9 letterbox format.

Despite its relatively small size, the MVX30i doesn't sacrifice the features typically found on a camcorder in its price range. You'll find six preset shooting modes, manual exposure and white-balance settings, automatic and manual focus, and digital image stabilisation. There are nine built-in fader/transition effects, nine digital effects, and multi-image screen capabilities, which create a mosaic from a sequence of still shots.

The MVX30i's night modes use a slow shutter speed in dark conditions. While this avoids the green tinge that afflicts the infrared mode used for night shooting on Sony's camcorders, the slow frame rate makes for jerky footage and blurry panning. There's also a bright LED assist lamp; it has a fairly short range but lets you shoot close objects in the dark with a better frame rate.

Still-image capture isn't an afterthought on the MVX30i. The camera captures 2-megapixel stills to SD cards; you can capture to tape as well. Though the resolution remains on the low side, the feature set is on a par with many low- to midrange still cameras, offering manual shutter-speed adjustments, a stitch-assist mode for panorama shots and exposure presets for Sand, Snow, Sports, Spotlight, Portrait, and Low Light shots. There's a focus-assist light, as well as a flash with manual, automatic, and red-eye-reduction modes.

Along with video-out modes, the MVX30i also offers video composite and S-Video inputs, allowing you to convert your old analogue tapes to digital format.

Performance
The Canon MVX30i holds up very well in the performance department. During testing, features simply worked as they were supposed to, with no notably frustrating moments. Once you master the control placement, the zoom offers smooth, consistent speed, whether attempting a slow or fast change in magnification. Electronic image stabilisation tempered typical hand jitters at all but the highest zoom settings, without noticeably degrading video quality.

The 64mm (2.5-inch) LCD offers a sharp, vibrant image, though it's lower in resolution than the one found on the MVX35i. Its smallish size didn't negatively affect typical shot framing, but precise manual focus was somewhat hard to achieve. The colour viewfinder is similarly sharp and bright, but it sits at a slight angle and doesn't allow for adjustment or extension.

Audio quality with the built-in stereo microphone was very good overall. However, the microphone's placement just above the viewfinder means it picks up the cameraperson's voice far better than the subject's. You can connect an external microphone; an optional adapter bracket lets you attach the external microphone directly to the camera.

The included battery pack emphasises size over capacity, and we were able to exhaust it in about 75 minutes of shooting and reviewing a combination of video and still photos. Larger-capacity batteries are available, though the placement of the battery on the left side of the unit may make the MVX30i awkward to carry if you attach a high-capacity cell.

Unfortunately, we also heard a bit of motor noise in quiet recordings, which may hamper your videos of sleeping babies and other silent subjects.

Image quality
Overall quality of video shot with the Canon MVX30i is excellent, with sharp images and vibrant, but not exaggerated, colours. The automatic white balance does an admirable job of adjusting for shifting lighting conditions, and shots with both bright and shadowed areas maintaining detail throughout. Low-light performance is an improvement over some other Canon models we've tested, with graininess evident in only very dim conditions.

But if you plan to shoot frequently in low light, we suggest you upgrade to the MVX35i for its video light. At the very least, use Night mode: don't leave it in autoexposure mode, which will result in the camcorder dropping to a very slow shutter speed and produce unusable video. With Night mode, the video is grainy, but definitely usable.

Still-image performance is a mixed bag. Images are generally sharper and more detailed than you typically get using a camcorder's photo functions, yet they still don't hold up to direct comparison with typical images from digital still cameras. Significant graininess is evident in throughout shots, particularly in areas of consistent colour and texture, such as walls or faces. Also, the MVX30i is more sensitive to movement of the photographer's hand than most digital still cameras, resulting in a higher-than-normal percentage of blurred shots.

Edited by: Lori Grunin
Additional editing by: Nick Hide