Canon ZR930 Questions?

Question

I am currently considering buying a canon zr930 camcorder. This is because of its low cost and good features/quality. The 80-120 Minute recording time is fine for me as well. But while reading about it, I found that it doesnt come with a battery charger. It just says that it comes with something that lets you plug the camcorder into the wall, but does that charge the battery? They call it the Compact Power Adapter CA-590, after googling, I found out about what it does. So my question is, will this Compact Power Adapter CA-590 be able to charge the battery while it is plugged into the wall? Also, do you think that this camera is a good buy and why. I will be using it to make short films for youtube. I also realized that I'm gonna have to get a fire wire card. What do you guys think?

Answer 1

The battery will charge when it is in the camcorder and you plug the AC adapter into the wall.

Download the manual for the ZR 930 at

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contro...

Refer to page 17 on connecting the power adapter and seeing the camcorder in "Charge" mode. You can also power the camcorder with the power adapter (with or without a battery attached to the camera).

With my camcorder set up, in addition to the short-life battery that came in the box, I got 2 additional high capacity batteries. Each battery can give me 4-5 hours of record time. No camcorder comes with a "good" battery in the box - they usually last for about 20 minutes of video capture.

When going on a shoot, I recharge all three batteries the day before using the camera. That gives me 8-10 hours of shoot time. I do not have a "battery recharger".

I would suggest the ZR800 or the ZR900 specifically because they have a mic-in jack (the others in the ZR family do not). While neither camera has manual audio control the mic jack still gives you more audio flexibility.

The least expensive camcorders with a mic in jack AND full manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9.

Since miniDV tape based camcorders continue to provide the best available quality (DV compresses much less than any other standard def storage methods), it is what I continue to recommend.