< A href="http://www.usa.canon.com/html/canonindex.html">Canon USA announced Thursday three new mini-DV camcorders, all with high resolution 16:9 widescreen video recording capability.
The Optura 50, at US$799, and the Optura 60 at $899, are identical in features, except the Optura 50 has a for 10x optical zoom and the Optura 60 as a 14x optical.
Imaging Resource: "Other exacting features include a 1/3.4-inch 2.2 megapixel CCD imager, which gives up to an effective 2.0 megapixels depending on the recording media, a 16:9 widescreen recording mode that uses the full width of the CCD sensor rather than iletterboxing" a 4:3 image, a 2.5-inch TFT LCD display, a 0.33-inch TFT electronic viewfinder, and 34 millimeter filter threads."
Imaging Resource: "The ZR400 is Canonis new entry-level mini-DV camcorder. At $549, it has a14x optical zoom lens, 1/4.5-inch CCD with 1.3 megapixels, effective resolution of up to 1.0 megapixels depending on the recording media, a 2.4-inch LCD display, 0.33-inch TFT electronic viewfinder, and 28mm filter threads."
All three cameras have DV Photo Plus still image capture technology, are compatible with Canon and PictBridge-compatible printers and write digital images to MultiMediaCard (MMC) flash media.
The Optura 50 and 60 will ship in March. The ZR400 will ship in April, the company said.
The Canon Optura 60.
(All photos courtesy of Imaging Resource)
The Canon ZR400.