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Canon MV960

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Features
With its 1/6-inch CCD as well as both 340,000-pixel 4:3 and 450,000-pixel 16:9 effective resolutions, the MV960 is suitable for home and vacation videography. Canon's 25x optical zoom lens is improved by the choice of zoom speeds: 1x, 2x 3x, and variable. The last is typical of zoom controls: The amount of pressure on the rocker dictates the speed of the zoom. But the fixed speeds give you a consistent zoom to prevent amateur-style jerkiness--too bad you have to delve into the MV960's menu system every time you want to change the setting.

As with other MV models, Canon's Easy mode takes the guesswork out of shooting, while Program mode provides access to eight autoexposure modes, three white-balance options (including evaluative), nine digital image effects (including the nifty split-screen Mirror effect), six shutter-speed settings, and even a clever level marker that overlays a horizon line on the LCD to help you shoot even, centered images. That's a lot of manual controls for an entry-level camcorder. Plus, you can add a handful of lens converters and filters, another unusual bonus for this price range.

Performance/Image quality

As for still photography, the MV960 delivers about what you'd expect: Low-resolution images that can't overcome the low-resolution sensor, despite the included digital camera amenities such as scene modes and nine-point autofocus. In our tests, the 0.7-megapixel snapshots exhibited relatively accurate colors but with noticeable noise and a lack of sharpness.

Fortunately, video fared much better. Canon's Digic DV processor helps capture crisp, colorful video under optimal lighting. Indoors, especially under low ambient light, images exhibited considerable noise. And Canon's jerky, blurry night mode continues to be utterly useless, even if you employ a tripod.

We found the MV960's zoom controls quick and responsive, though autofocus seemed to lag, regardless of how fast or slow we zoomed. Also, though Canon's electronic-image-stabilization (EIS) worked reasonably well at moderate zoom levels, it couldn't handle maximum zoom.

These complaints aside, most home moviemakers will find the Canon MV960's video quality perfectly acceptable. And price-conscious shoppers are sure to love its many features and small size.

 
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