Canon DC50

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/camcorders/0,39029967,49294363,00.htm

Reviewed 27 November 2007

Reviewed by Will Greenwald

Typically, when shooting still photos, camcorders offer few exposure options and turn out low-quality images. Conversely, most dedicated still cameras tend to offer disappointing video, and are best left to only take pictures. The Canon DC50 manages to avoid these limitations, to an extent.

At around £450, this standard-definition DVD camcorder not only fulfills its primary role as a video camera, but its 5-megapixel sensor and generous still-photo feature set makes it a capable tool for taking snapshots.

Design
The DC50's design feels very similar to its little brothers the DC210, the DC220 and the DC230 and because of this, it retains many of the awkward aspects those lower-end models carry. Fortunately, its generally strong build quality and minor design tweaks make the DC50 much easier to work with.

Its 480g frame sits a bit heavier in the hand, feeling solid without seriously weighing you down. The tiny joystick with which you navigate menus and settings feels slightly tighter than on other models, as do the function and display buttons that sit on the camcorder's side.

The viewfinder doesn't slide out, but it sits slightly further back and at a steeper angle than the ones in the DC220 and DC230, reducing the chance of mashing your face against the camera while shooting. The camcorder's flip-out LCD screen seems nearly identical to the other Canons, offering a 69mm (2.7-inch), pivoting wide-screen view.

Features
As Canon's top DVD camcorder, the DC50 includes several high-end features not found on less pricey models. Its 10x optical, f/1.8-to-f/3.0 zoom lens features an optical image stabilisation system to help reduce shake and can accept 37mm accessory filters. While its less expensive brethren include 35x lenses, they can't use filters and they omit the optical image stabilisation found in the DC50, in favour of a less effective electronic solution.

The DC50 also sports both a video light and a flash with red-eye reduction; two valuable features not found on the DC230, DC220 or DC210.

Besides the onboard features, the DC50 comes with two useful accessories. A small remote control comes in the box, identical to the one included with the DC230. The remote offers a handy alternative to the camera's tiny control stick when navigating its various menus.

Performance
Most camcorders offer still pictures as an afterthought, a simple feature that captures a still photo and copies it to the memory card with few, if any, options. The DC50 bucks this trend with a remarkably wide range of still-photo options.

Besides the standard automatic photo mode, the camcorder features multiple scene presets, shutter and aperture priority modes, multiple white balance and metering settings, 9-point autofocus, a manual focus mode and even a histogram. Many of these features, such as aperture/shutter priority modes and manual focus, go missing in many low-end digital cameras, so seeing them on a camcorder pleasantly surprised us.

The camcorder even offers a continuous-shooting mode that can snap pictures with the flash at the fairly brisk pace of about a shot per second. Unfortunately, the camera uses miniSD cards instead of regular SD cards, so you can't use any of your old camera memory cards and will likely have to use an adapter if you own a card reader.

Image quality
Indeed, the DC50's still pictures look surprisingly good. Details come out quite clean for 5-megapixel stills, noise remains generally low, and colours render accurately.

While the DC50's 5-megapixel stills look puny compared with many still cameras' 8 and 10-megapixel photos, they're large enough to email, post to Web sites and make small prints.

You can't realistically crop them down a great deal or blow them up for large prints, but if you just want a simple way to take decent snapshots to share with your friends and family, the DC50 provides a viable alternative to a dedicated still camera.

For a single-sensor, standard-definition camcorder, the DC50 also produces very nice-looking video, in both bright and dim lighting. Fine details render sharply, even on larger screens, and colours look accurate. The image stabiliser works well under most conditions, though you should still use a tripod if you want to use the full 10x magnification.

As expected, low-light video looks a bit softer than footage shot in brighter conditions, but it's not overtly noisy, and there's sufficient tonal range. The camcorder's video doesn't look significantly better than the less expensive DC230's, but that speaks more to the DC230's fine video quality than any deficiency in the DC50.

Conclusion
If you must buy a DVD-based camcorder, the DC50 definitely belongs on your short list, along with the Panasonic VDR-D310. With plenty of useful features and a surprisingly robust still photo mode, the Canon DC50 presents both a very good home-movie DVD camcorder and a competent snapshot camera.

Its rather hefty £450 price tag might give you pause, though. If you don't mind carrying around multiple gadgets, you might want to instead consider pairing the much cheaper DC230 camcorder with a budget snapshot camera.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday