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REVIEW
HEAD
REVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
INTRO
The popular Canon E230 has been discontinued but in
its place is the even better specified E250, available now for just under £700,
but only from Dixons stores
COPY
The Canon E230 is dead, long live the E250! Actually
the E250 is more closely related to the E110 which came and went last year,
that in turn was based on the E100. As a matter of interest, the E110 cost œ50
more than the E250, but hold on, this is becoming confusing!
Rather than delve too deeply into Canon's pick 'n mix
feature philosophy let's look at what the E250 has to offer. Starting at the
business end there's a 12x zoom lens (the E110 and E230 both had 10x zooms)
with proper manual focus and zoom. It has a stereo hi-fi sound system, two
1-page title generators (alphanumeric and digital superimposer), full IR remote
control and a 6 watt clipon video light, all this plus Canon's unique
'flexigrip' handgrip and sportsfinder eyepiece.
Apart from the 12x zoom the E250 is a dead ringer for
the old E110, though we have noticed a couple of other changes, and not for the
better! Resolution is slightly down on the 110 and the deck is less stable.
Even a slight rocking motion made the picture jump our sample. We hope these
differences are just confined to our review machine. Our advice, if you're
thinking of buying one, is to give it a little shake in the shop and see what
happens to the picture during replay, before you part with your money....
That aside the E250 is a very well-behaved machine,
and very easy to use, thanks to the larger than usual control buttons on the
side and top panels and clear on-screen displays. It's an ideal family machine
with advanced auto exposure and colour balance systems. The 250, like its most
immediate predecessor has a correlated two-field metering (for improved
centre-screen exposure accuracy) and 25-zone white balance assessment, for
more accurate colour reproduction in a wider range of lighting conditions.
Handling and balance are unchanged from the old
E-types, which is generally good news, though the battery is still awkward to
change -- the wrist strap gets in the way -- and the main AV sockets are tricky
to get at. One other thing worth mentioning is that the battery gets quite hot
after its been charged, and because it is part of the handgrip, can be
uncomfortable to hold for the first few minutes (or a nifty hand-warmer,
depending on the ambient temperature). This arrangement also limits the range
of higher-capacity batteries which can be used with this machine.
Canon must be heartily sick of us going on about the
lack of editing facilities on their mass-market machines. Sorry Canon, we can
only repeat that what the E250, and all your other machines desperately need,
are Control L sockets; after all, you do have a quite reasonable edit
controller in your accessory range, why not give it something to do and give
Sony a run for their money?
PERFORMANCE
We
must admit to being slightly surprised by the lower than expected resolution
figure obtained from our test sample. Both
the 230 and the E110 before
it managed to exceed 240-lines in the SP mode, our sample machine only just
made 230 lines. We haven't changed out testing procedures, so we can only
suppose this is (hopefully) confined to this one machine. Noise levels and
colour accuracy are still good, however, and low-light performance is also
unchanged. When light levels fall too far there's always the safety net
provided by the video light; it may only be 6 watts but it's quite capable of
brightening up a dull living-room, and it's especially good for portrait shots.
White balance is fairly
reliable, even under some types of artificial light, but the auto WB system still needs a little human help with tube
lighting and, if left to its own devices, will give the the picture a slight green
caste.
The 250's stereo hi-fi
recording system sounds fine, though the stereo effect is fairly limited due to
the single-point mike. Fortunately there's an external mic socket, for those
who take their audio seriously.
VERDICT
The old E-series camcorders
may not have been the prettiest machines on the market, and they certainly
weren't the smallest or lightest but they were a classic example of good
practical design. The E250 keeps the marque alive, it's simple to use,
(normally) capable of good AV performance, and is hard to beat when it comes to
features per pound. It's like an old friend, and we're pleased to see it back
again.
SPECIFICATIONS
Make/model CANON
E250
Recording format 8mm
Guide price œ700
OPTICS
Lens f2.2, 6.7-80.4mm
Zoom x12
Filter diameter 37mm
Pick-up device 0.3in CCD (320k pixels)
Min illum (lux) 3
VIDEO DECK
Tape speed (mm/sec) 20.051 (SP), 10.026(LP)
Max rec time 120mins (LP mode)
Remote control full-function IR
Main facilities auto/manual focus,
auto-exposure & white
balance, fader, high-speed shutter (7speeds, up to
1/10,000th sec), gain-up mode, self/interval timer, record search, time/date
recording, clip-on video light, fader, title generator (2-lines/16characters),
digital superimposer (1page/8-colours), tape return
VIEWFINDER
Viewfinder 0.6in monochrome
Viewfinder info deck mode and status, low battery, tape
count, shutter speed, fader, focus, tape end,
time/date, title, dew
AUDIO
System stereo FM
Microphone unidirectional
electret
GENERAL
Sockets composite
video, mono audio (phono), stereo
audio (minijack),
headphones, external mic Size
(mm) 110
x 305 x 125
Weight 1.2kg (inc battery and
tape)
STANDARD ACCESSORIES
Batteries (nicad, lithium
and alkaline), straps, AC charger/power supply, RF converter, IR handset,
remote control, DC leads
PERFORMANCE
Resolution 230-lines
Colour fidelity good
Picture stability average
Colour bleed negligible
White balance good
Exposure good
Autofocus average
Audio performance good
Insert editing manual
inserts clean
Playback thru adaptor N/A
VC RATINGS
Value for money 8
Ease of use 9
Performance 8
Features 8
---end---
(c) R Maybury 1993 2402
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