BIOS: Technology Means Business

Canon has announced two new, and relatively stylish, compact miniDV 1.3-Megapixel camcorders. The widescreen-ready MVX460 and MVX450 sport a bold new sculpted design and use Canon’s DIGIC DV processing, providing separate signal paths for video and stills to help ensure optimal image reproduction for each. The MVX400 series replaces the MV300 series.

In conjunction with 1.3-Megapixel imaging, the camcorders sport impressive 20x optical zoom lenses to ensure that images, whether recorded in widescreen or normal mode, are crisp and clear.

While both camcorders share the same technology base, the range-leading MVX460 adds DV and AV input to the features list. With DV input, video that has been edited on a computer can be re-recorded back to miniDV tape in the camcorder. Meanwhile, AV input is a perfect way to transfer old analogue home movies to digital tape for archiving.

While all it takes is the push of a single button to switch between 16:9 widescreen and 4:3 shooting, a new 2.7-inch wide colour LCD screen allows you to monitor your video exactly as it will appear on a TV screen.

Since all of the horizontal pixels of the CCD are used in 16:9 mode, footage shot this way is ideal for playback on the very latest widescreen TVs. Even when watching these images back on a regular TV, however, a letterbox style presentation provides the viewer with a cinematic widescreen-style experience.

DIGIC DV has separate paths for both video and stills image processing: colours are reproduced faithfully whether you’re watching movies on a TV or printing out photographs from a Memory Card via PictBridge, claims Canon.

Electronic Image Stabilisation with variable zoom speeds provides more flexible control, while Canon’s Super Spectra coating is used to reduce ghosting and flare. When optical and digital zooms are combined, both the MVX460 and MVX450 achieve an outrageous 800x zoom range.

Control of camcorder functions have also been simplified. A re-designed and intuitive menu system is navigated using a four-way joystick controller. In addition, both the MVX460 and MVX450 can be operated via a wireless controller and feature Night Mode with a built-in white LED light for shooting in the dark. For still images, recorded onto SD Memory Card, both camcorders have a Print/Share button (PictBridge compatible).

The top-of-the-range MVX460 features an AV input jack, for analogue to digital conversion, and DV input, for re-recording footage uploaded to a PC for editing back to a tape in the camcorder. The MVX460 also comes supplied with a 0.75x wide lens attachment.

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