My wife and I decided to buy a camcorder to record our wedding. Our wedding was on the beaches of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, so it was something special and we wanted to tape it. Unfortunately, the cost of hiring someone to film it would have cost us $750. So, in the end we decided to invest in a camcorder, set it up on a tripod on the beach next to us and tape it ourselves.
Before buying I spent over 20 hours reading reviews all over the net and the Canon Elura 60 consistently came out on top for camcorders under $400. It even beat out other camcorders costing twice as much! So we bought it and couldn't be more happy. We bought a $20 tripod from Circuit City, an extra battery, carrying case and tapes. It comes with a Fire Wire too, so that's a plus. Overall its easy to use, great picture quality, fair battery life, lightweight and does well in low light. Take my word for it or search the review sites yourself, this is a great camcorder!

Hi, my name is Steven Berk. I am an attorney in Washington, DC, who specializes in representing consumers who have purchased defective products from technology companies. I am currently working on cases of that kind against HP and JVC. I noticed your posting concerning Elura 60. I have been investigating other complaints about the ZR, Optura, GL, and Elura series of camcorders. In connection with that investigation, it would be very useful if I could interview you about your experience with the remove cassette error. If you are interested, please email me at stevenb@cuneolaw.com or call me at 202-789-3960. Thanks for your consideration.

After doing extensive research I decided to go with the Elura 60 versus the Sony HC30. I received the Elura and filmed my kids playing for about two minutes. The kids wanted to see themselves on the LCD screen. I switched the camcorder to VCR mode and rewound the tape. After rewinding the tape it gave me an error saying "Remove the Tape". I removed and then reinsterted the tape. The automatic loading mechanism wouldn't accept the tape. I then tried a brand new tape and had the same problem.

This all occurred on Thanksgiving, so I was unable to talk with Canon about the problem. I did some research and found that many other Canon users had the same exact issue. Most had to return them to Canon for repairs that sometimes still didn't fix the problem. Not to mention you are without the camcorder for two weeks.

After having the camera for one day I returned it very disappointed. Today I bought a Sony HC30 and I'm hoping for better things.

Good luck if you decide to go with Canon.

So our Sony HI8 died after only about 20 hours of use :(

We decided to give a canon a shot. The ejection door for the mini tape seems less "mechanical" so fewer things to go wrong.

This camcorder is very easy to use. you are able to take decent pictures while taping video and it does not interfere with the video.

Some people complain about "motor sounds". I don't here it, even in my kid's room at night when it is silent.

At low light, the colors are not all that great, kind of surprised. At night the "night shot" is terrible. I would recommend getting the attached light for $60.00.

The things I like:
Size.
ease of use.
Zoom works fast and decent.
Focusing is fast and accurate.
When you turn the camera on, it is ready in about 2 seconds.
When it is on and you hit record, it is ready in about half a second(fast).
In decent lighting, takes pretty good pictures, I was surprised.

The things I don't like.

A lot of these camcorders don't have lense caps or covers that are permanent? They snap on and off, hang from a strap.
I don't have really big hands, but my fingers are too big for the buttons, or should I say that the buttons are very small.
As I mentioned, the low light use is not too good, make sure the room is bright.
Comes wit a 8 mb card with some stupid graphics on it (I erased it all).
No mike input.
No light?

All in all, for the price (when on sale) I highly recommend this camera. Now that I have used it for a while, for a little more money, I probably would have bought the model (Elura80?) with the light.

Like buying a pair of shoes, try several different camcorders, "feel" them at the store. you will see big differences.

Enjoy!

John

When it worked, this camcorder is a thing of beauty. The pictures are brilliant, the sound is good, and the battery lasts a respectable amount of time. The menus were fairly straight-forward for a novice to use. However, this thing spent to much time in the Canon factory shop because it kept needing to eject the tape, but couldn't. It basically became unuable. 1-2 tapes and it would go back to the shop. The factory is great - free repeairs, motherboard and fuse replacement - and returned in about a week. However, all these returns and lack of confidence and we've barely recorded anything of our newborn, now a year old! I'm going to buy a non-Canon camcorder for my baby's 1st birthday. Can't take that risk again!

Great value for your money, lot of great and excellent features, clear and crisp picture, very good audio quality, zoom is better than any sony camcorders.

The e-mail I sent to Canon.
Hi ,I have a Canon Elura 60 the I bought from a store as a display but looked like new. I used this camcorder for maybe 10 hours before it would lock up and I would have to unplug both batteries and then it would work but not be reliable. Then I bought a used Sony hc30 and it is trouble free except for the still picture quality is not as good as the elura.So then I decided to fix the elura and bought a used for parts camcorder off ebay.This is when I found that the pc main board had connection problems mostly to the ccd and tape eject motor.When the connector is not perfectly strait it will short out and burn the power in from the battery to the board or the three small fuses in the board.So I bought two more camcorders off ebay this was still less then the 170.00 you want for the new board that they say is not an updated board and they do not recognize it to be a problem.Well now I have 3 elura 60s and one 1 elura 65 camcorders that all have boards that are dead in the same way. I used my first 60 to test all three .I was able on one dead board to solder the three fuses that I could see burned with a magnifier and bring it back to life but It would not eject the a tape.Now I see on the elura 70 to 80 to 90 models that you say Condensation is detected - If condensation is detected by the camcorder, the "Remove the Cassette" warning may occur.But I still think this is a connection problem with the pinch style connector you have to the pc board and the video board.So now I am thinking of buying the elura 90 and I am asking if this camcorder is updated from the what I see to be a board defect. And if I order this new pc main board for my Elura 60 will this updated and trouble free.

The camera is pretty good, if you ever get to turn it on.
It also has issues with ejecting the cassette.
Do not waste your money.

Add me to the list of customers who have been burned by Canon camcorders...and for me this is the second time around and with a completely different camera.
I owned an expensive Elura 2MC and liked the camera a lot - until it began eating tapes. I took care of this camcorder, live in a dry climate (i.e., have no condensation issues), and used the camera as intended so was surprised and angry that it failed. Unfortunately the tape-eating problem surfaced just before a trip so instead of having the camera serviced I shelved the Elura 2MC and bought a new Elura 60 - a downgrade at something less than half the cost of the Elura 2MC. My reason, though, for sticking with Canon was I was a fan of Canon optics and I assumed the failure was either a random event or a problem isolated to the Elura 2MC.
Needless to say I nearly blew a gasket last night when my Elura 60 refused to accept tapes (I tried several). The problem, thankfully, does not appear to be the same I had with the Elura 2MC but the camera is not functional and in my view it is completely unacceptable that expensive camcorders from a top tier company like Canon should have these failures. I will likely send this one in for the dreaded repair but I intend to buy a new Sony and donate the Canon when I get it back.
I gave Canon the benefit of the doubt but will not go back to the well a third time.

Had this camera for 3 years. It has always had problems, and the thing just keeps getting worse. Had numerous problems including the 'eject tape' warning, no tape detected, viewfinder has gone out, buttons stop working, photo camera doesn't work, zoom malfunctions and randomly starts zooming in or out, and now something is seriously wrong with the digital chip, as I can't play back the tapes.
All these problems with 1 camera. Wow. What a piece of junk. Seriously, avoid this camera at all costs.

Our Elura 60 also has the "Remove the Cassette" problem that other reviewers have posted. Search for this error code and you'll find thousands of pages of frusterated Canon owners and no fix to be found.

I have owned it for 3 years and 4 months. Within the first two months, we had to return it for service because it didn't have any picture. I was told the whole lense assembly needed to be replaced. Now it has an eject tape error and the tape won't eject. It makes grinding noises. It has been well cared for. People who give it good reviews haven't owned it very long

I had this camera for about 2 years.
The quality of the pictures and movies with low light is very
very bad.
It is also heavy and not so easy to use.
On top of that, mine stopped turning on completely and had to
send it back for repair.
I was very disappointed with the camera from the beginning, even
before it broke.
Thankfully someone stole it from me and I do not have to dispose
of it anymore.