I was looking for some very specific features when I bought this camera (I actually bought an Elura 90, used it for a week, and switched to the Optura 50 for the S-video I/O.) I'm a strictly family documentary person -- most of my videos are done at home in poor light and using the widest angle settings.

This was my list:

mac iMovie compatible
light sensitivity (good images in dim home lighting at night)
analog to digital conversion w/ S-video I/O
reliable, tough - ideally made in Japan
wide-angle for images taken from 4-12 feet
quiet motor
warranty & service (1 yr base, 2 yr when extended by my AMEX card)
price comparisons include travel charger & extended life battery
image quality
focus capability - ideally a manual focus ring
16/9 ratio playback ok
sensor: 2mpix, 1/3.6 ccd
external mike jack
top loading

Overall the Optura 50 meets most of the items quite well. I think the indoor image quality is pretty good; better than the Elura 90. Not as light sensitive as my old SONY Hi-8, but it's far smaller and lighter. This was my biggest concern, but I think the camera passes this one. The best results come with 3 CCD cameras with larger sensors -- typically costing $3,000 or so.

Canon includes a ridiculous, worthless, still image camera. Sigh. (I have two fine Canon still cameras.) What a waste. They do, however, also include an S-video for higher quality analog I/O (you have to buy your own S-video cable though!). The 2005 Eluras now lack this feature (arghh).

The Optura 50 doesn't have enough wide-angle range for my tastes (I still do 3/4 capture as my iMovie s/w expects that) but it does better than the Elura 90. It's probably as good as one will get nowadays.

Mac OS X compatibilty is excellent. The manual is sparse but adequate. Digital passthrough is tricky to figure out (read the manual carefully) but it works well.

The camera is indeed made in Japan and it feels reasonably robust -- as much as any competing device. The charger is compact, but I bought the reasonably priced very nice travel charger and an extended life battery.

We have been using the Canon Optura 50 miniDV camcorder for almost a month now and we are very pleased with its performance. The picture quality is very good, it is easy to operate, and the digital camera is easy to use with good quality pictures. I have not yet tried the software to burn DVD's, but if that works as well as the camera it should be a breeze. I highly recommend this camera to others.

I own any number of Canon products (printer, film camera, Rebel XT, Powershot A40...), and I'm done. Their business model is just set up so that you just have to keep on buying, and it's driving me nuts (for example, the printer only works well if you use the premium Canon paper, and it has 6 ink tanks, only 3 of which I can ever find in the stores, so I'm forced to buy extra inks that I don't need in a "pack" so that I can get the photo cyan that I actually need -- at a cost of $70. Next time, I'm just buying a new printer. The A40 was ok, but is now broken (just this morning I was considering buying the A60 as a replacement, but when I found out that I still need to buy a whole bunch of stuff to get the video I took onto my computer, I decided I'm going with Nikon.)).

For the camcorder, the whole purpose of buying a DIGITAL camcorder was so that I could transfer to the computer, edit, burn to disk, etc., without having analog loss issues. I've read as much as I could, but NO WHERE did I see that if you don't have a firewire connection or a special video card, you can't transfer with this camera. I actually have the video card, but it stinks (which is why I wanted to upgrade from my existing analog camcorder to a digital one), so you end up with a horrible transferred picture. The included USB cable, as well as the "DIGITAL VIDEO SOLUTIONS" disk are not for VIDEO solutions or transfers, they are for STILL IMAGE transfers (of the 48 pages in the "video" solutions software manual, only 5 relate to "video" transfers -- they deal with how to install the driver, and are for the Optura 60 and 500 only -- the rest is dedicated to the relatively useless still image functions, how to download those, use direct print or something, etc.). How the frig' someone can sell a DIGITAL VIDEO device with NO means of transferring to a computer or doing anything with the video is beyond me (even if you do have a firewire connection, they don't include the firewire cable). Note that the Optura 60 includes all the same cables, etc., that the Optura 50 has, but for some reason video transfer with the (same) included cables is enabled for the Optura 60, but NOT for the Optura 50. I was already on the fence about getting the 60 or not, and had I known I might have picked up the 60 instead. But now I'm just stuck.

The main reason I went with the Optura line is that, all else being equal, it takes the same batteries as the XT, and I already had two of those batteries, with a portable charger. So now I have three, which was convenient on our recent trip. Of course, the $50 I saved on being able to use my extra batteries is going to be more than eaten up by having to buy/install a firewire card and cable, as well as having to buy video editing software. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just something basic to capture the video and let me burn it to a DVD. But Canon doesn't even include that.

As to the merits of the camera itself, with the exception of trying to get the video to some other device, it is pretty easy to use. I can't speak to the quality of the video just yet -- I've spent most of our first day back trying to figure out how to get the video to the computer, and then went nuts when I realized that I just can't with my current configuration and what they include. Most reviews I read before purchase said the zoom range wasn't that great, but it wasn't that bad, either. I tend to disagree -- I really would have liked a little extra room on the wide range in particular -- filming family (young kids) on the trip I found myself continually having to back up to fill them all in the frame (admittedly, they are young kids, so they were getting pretty close -- if you have a more compliant subject this may not be an issue). In keeping with their business model, though, you could get a wide angle attachment for "only" $120. One of the function buttons gets hidden by the screen if you tilt it -- a pretty stupid design, since most people hold the camcorder slightly below eye level, and tilt the screen, and that's when the button is blocked.

The other feature that distinguishes this camera from others is the steady shot (optical on this one vs. digital on most camcorders). I thought this feature worked relatively well, but nothing spectacular.

All in all, I wouldn't buy this again, and I'm done buying Canon products. I just can't help feeling like I'm being nickel and dimed. If you are interested, consider the additional costs of cables, DV cassettes (at least I knew those weren't included ahead of time, and was able to compare accordingly), video capture/editing software, and possibly the wide angle attachment. Even with all those issues solved, though, the limited zoom range is the killer (the attachment shifts the entire zoom range, so it's still only 10x, and doesn't get as close on the tele end, unless you have the action stop and then go back and forth putting it on and taking it off -- too much of a hassle, if you ask me). As for me, I'm done with them.

The Optura 50 certainly isn't perfect and there are any number of higher-priced cameras which outperform it. However, the feature-set and performance for the price make the Optura 50 an excellent value.

The automatic white balance on the Optura 50 is more easily fooled in difficult lighting than rival cameras so you may frequently find yourself manually choosing a white balance setting. It's not a huge problem since the controls are easily accessed but it's something to be aware of. Low-light is not this camera's strong suit due to image noise.

A more serious issue is that a minority of units exhibit higher than normal tape transport noise. Several people including myself have had to exchange cameras that were much louder than they should have been. I haven't heard of anyone who got two bad cameras in a row though.

Strengths:
Optical Image Stabilization (unheard of at this price-point)
Easily accessed controls
True, high-resolution 16:9 widescreen mode
Microphone-in port with manual audio level control (unusual at this price-point)
Accessory shoe (cold)
Tilting, extendable viewfinder

Weaknesses:
Other cameras provide a better image in low light
Automatic white balance could be both more accurate and more consistent.

i'm a mac user who wanted a family camera so i can input footage into the mac and edit the footage. after spending way too much time researching video cameras online and at brick & morter stores, i purchased the canon optura 50.

the optura 50 has firewire which is needed to have the footage transfered from the camera into a mac and have the mac edit software (imovie/final cut express/final cut pro) "see" the camera. this aspect has worked flawlessly.

the optura 50's specs are decent. it has the largest chip size of any 1-chip camera. now u can graduate to a 3-chip panasonic but this generation of panasonics does not come with firewire (see above).

the optura 50 also has knobs and buttons to access menu settings. i much prefer this to the sony's touchscreen menu system which maybe fine for setting up a camera but interferes with the camera when in operation.

the optura 50 also has jacks for an external mic and light. all camcorders at this level have so-so on-board mics so the ability to add an external mic is a cheap solution to an obvious problem. but not all camcorders have an external mic input.

the optura 50 produces quality video outside. its color rendition is excellent. indoors it pays to offer all 1 chip camcorders as much light as possible. when that is done, the canon optura 50 does as well as others in this price class. the kid's birthday parties have been fine, bringing the dog home was great, a surprise party for a friend all caught on tape.

for the price and the results i've gotten, i'd buy the optura 50 again. just one person's experience.

This is an outstanding single chip camcorder. They don't make them like this anymore unless you are willing to spend upwards of $2,000. It has excellent automatic features but the value lies in the manual controls for shutter, aperture, standard/widescreen, white balance and audio. What makes this camera stand out from today's consumer camcorders are features like accessory shoe, mic input, headphone output and top loading. Great camera!