The Canon Optura S1 may look like any other digital camcorder with its color and look but it definitely stands out in the ergonomics department. Placed side by side with other camcorders with flashier designs, this unit may pale in comparison and not merit a second look but a closer inspection may entice a buyer to purchase one.
Camcorders that have recently hit the market are light and weigh less than a pound and the Optura S1 is no different. In fact, my wallet is longer than this unit. However, I give it two thumbs up for the comfortable hold, which is big deal for me because I have small hands. The zoom controls, shutter, start & stop buttons, and the rest of the controls like the mode switch and navigation bar are comfortably placed to allow for one-hand shooting, well within reach of my thumb and index fingers, thank you. Compared to other camcorder brands with all sorts of buttons and controls all over a unit, Canon cut down on the number of buttons but without cutting down on features and functions.
The Optura S1 does not pretend to be complicated because the tape ejects on top for ease in changing tapes and the ports are easy to identify. It comes with a built-in lens cover eliminating the dangling ones that sometimes gets in the way of shooting.
It has 2 megapixels CCD, 10x optical zoom, and a 2.5” LCD screen that offers sharp images and realistic colors. I brought the Optura S1 for a day at the beach and I was not at all disappointed at the quality of the videos and photos because they all turned out very good. However, images are distorted when totally zoomed out.
I couldn’t say the same about the quality of photos when I used the camera to cover the LeGov 05 Conference at Heritage Hotel in Pasay. I was seated at the last row of the middle aisle, an area designated for guests. I thought I was in the best position to take pictures being at the center of the room but my photos taken in auto mode turned out to be grainy and at some point, blurry. I changed from auto to scene-based exposure that offers the following choices: portrait, sports, night, snow, beach, sunset, spotlight, and fireworks to compensate for varying lighting conditions and subjects. I chose to shift to night mode because the ballroom was quite dim but the shots didn’t come out any better. Since switching to night mode slows down the shutter speed, I got a bit uncomfortable with the dizzying blur on the screen as a result of panning. In sports mode, the camera allows you to shoot a series of images in varying speeds.
The camera is very sensitive to camera motion that at some point I was having trouble getting a good shot and the image on the screen was a bit jerky I had to support my arm in order to steady the camera. But it has an electronic image stabilization feature for taking videos.
It has a built-in microphone with a wind-screen feature which came in handy at the beach but has no jacks for headphones or for an external microphone.
Photos and videos can be stored using the Mini SD card but only videos can be recorded in the Mini DV tape, which is I think an area that can be improved on. Images can be recorded in standard and widescreen format for better image capture and quality.
The Optura S1 provides a generous array of features for sharing photos and videos. It has a Firewire for ease of transfer from camcorder to computer; a USB port to connect with any PictBridge-compatible printers for direct printing; line-in/out for viewing and analog to digital video conversion.
Icons abound on the screen indicating current settings. I was initially overwhelmed with them but it wasn’t difficult to figure them out, as I got accustomed to using the camera. The onscreen menu is colorful and is easy to navigate. However, I strongly recommend going over the manual first to understand the icons on the menu.
There is one particular feature of the Optura S1 not found in other camcorder models. When left in standby mode for some time, the camera emits a warning sound the kind that would drive a law enforcer to think that a time bomb has gone off. At the beach, I heard the warning sound go off and not knowing the camera had such a feature until much later, I got alarmed and looked for the source of the sound. It couldn’t have been the camera that was inside the tote bag, I told myself. But when I lifted it out of the bag, sure enough it was the one that was making the disturbing noise. So remember to turn off the camera when you intend to take a break from shooting videos or photos.
The manuals, for the camera and for the software which runs in both Mac and Windows, in themselves deserve mention for the way they were written. I really find the cross references very helpful because with all the features of this camera, one could get lost in the process of figuring out how to maximize its use.
With usability issues coming to fore, this camera falls into the usable category.
