Average Rating: 
Rating: - A great cheap DV camcorder, except for the audio
This is really the ideal entry-level camcorder for someone just getting into digital video editing. The optical image stabilization is far better than the electronic kind, and the picture quality is pretty good. It has a tendency to overexpose in bright sunlight, but you can easily adjust the exposure down half an f-stop. It's small and light, the viewfinder and flip-out screen are both color, battery life is pretty good with an add-on high capacity battery. Best of all, you can connect your old analog camcorder to it and import all your old videos to DV! Works great with Apple iMovie.The one downside to this camcorder is the audio. It's a problem with most tiny cameras, and this is no exception: motor whine. DV requires a high speed rotating head, which means fast motors--and because of the small body, they're too close to the built-in microphones. My solution was to spend an extra $99 on a Sony WCS-999 Wireless Microphone kit. It's a clip-on belt pack with a "tie clip" style mic, operating via 900MHz wireless. Just like professional TV presenters use, but at a fraction of the price. After that investment, I got great sound.
Rating:  - lots of great features in a tiny, inexpensive package
I have had my ZR40 for a week now, and it has exceeded my high expectations.
The 18x optical zoom is phenominal. I can read the headlines on a newspaper two blocks away, or a number in a phone book 20 feet away.
I was impressed by the camera's ability to perform in low light conditions. In my poorly-lit living room, I exerienced no graininess or loss of quality.
I took the camera outside 30 minutes after sunset and was still able to record satisfactory video.
Hooking the camera up to my TV for playback was very simple. Recording off my VCR was also very straight forward.
The remote control (which wasn't mentioned in Amazon.com's review, BTW) is handy for recording our nephew who gets shy when he knows he's being filmed.
I recorded in some quiet settings, but was not able to hear the electric motor turning the tape or adjusting the lense when zooming. If that's a problem, it's easy enough to hook up an external microphone to the ZR40.
If you get this camcorder, don't forget to claim Canon's free ShowBiz video editing software (see their web site) with proof of purchase. (I haven't gotten it yet, so I can't rate it now.)
Rating: - Great with a couple of minor complaints
Expecting a baby, I did research for about three weeks before I ended up with this Canon ZR40. Couple of features that I wanted to have were external mic input, analog input, no still images since I already own a nice digital camera, and most of all, affordable price tag. Amazingly, ZR40 had this all! 18x zoom is nice and its compact size is pretty neat. Still, I have minor complaints after extensive tests.1. As pointed out by many people previously, the picture is somewhat grainy specially indoors. Because this is my first digital camcorder, I don't know if this happens for other high-end models, but I suspect it may stand out somewhat more for ZR40 with only 480K CCD pixels.
2. What has also been noted was the motor noise, which is my primary concern for now. Maybe, I would not been able to tell if I had not read those reviews, but I could certainly hear the noise when recorded in a quiet environment. I tried to use an external microphone to remove the noise, in which case the noise is gone, but the external microphone does not match the internal microphone in sensitivity. (I used a low-end microphone for the test with the sensitivity of -75 dBm, though.)
3. This is a really minor point, but the camcorder automatically shuts down if I don't start recording within 5 minutes. Overall, I think ZR40 has great features at such a price and is certainly worth owning if you are looking for one in the price range.
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