written by Haywire on 31/12/2005
The Canon MV600 is basically a very good digital camcorder, although it has suffered from CCD problems.
I would hope new MVxxx cameras would now be cured of this defect.
My MV650i failed with 'the black screen of death'. The problem is like the lens cap is permanently on. You can play back OK, but you can't record. I also believe this problem is not restricted to Canon camera's.
written by Johnead. on 25/07/2003
Canon's DV600 is proof that a quality 'brand' camcorder can now be had for a little over £300, something that would have been hard to believe even a year ago.
There are probably two sets of people who will buy this model; people upgrading from older 9mm camcorders, and buyers on a budget. Neither will be disappointed. It boasts a small size, decent build (toughened plastic), good quality video (800k pixels) with 18x zoom, and enough basic features to do the job and everyday camcorder should do. It is really impossible to fault for this sort of use.
I'd recommend investing in a few accessories. First, a wide-angle attachment, either from Canon or the cheaper but nonetheless excellent equivalents from Japanese company Raynox (a '0.7' lens gives you an extra 43% image area or '0.5' if you want a wider field still). This will make it much less stressful capturing most situations. Second, a spare battery is also advisable as the LiIon cell supplied lasts for only about 1 hour in normal use. Third, a polarising filter will help saturate colours and keep out the glare in bright light conditions as well as protecting the lens.
Minor gripes? The digital zoom is a bit pointless but that's true of any of the current generation of digital camcorder. It's also a bit noisy, though not unacceptably so. Picky perhaps, but Firewire was not the best choice for connecting to a PC as most come with a USB 1.0 or 2.0 port. Mac users will be fine however.
Written on: 10/12/2003
The reason that the interface supplied is firewire is that the transfer rate of a USB interface would not be fast enough to transfer digital quality video in real time.
Written on: 18/12/2003
USB 2.0 is faster than firewire actually, by about 80mb/s but thats not the reason its not used to transfer video. Firewire although older can keep up sustained speed on transfers without any loss in quality or any data loss
written by pau11. on 09/07/2003
The Canon MV600 has the basics. Good quality zoom, but the handshake compensation could be a little better, but its satisfactory in the optical zoom range. You dont use the digital zoom range much anyway [who can hold it steady enough] It has some nice digital faders and colour effects. Only connects to a PC via firewire port [DV out] -theres no USB port. I would recommend it if your looking for an entry level digital camcorder.
Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site
271603_Nimaunders's Response to Haywire's Review
Written on: 21/12/2006
I also have the "black screen of death" on my Canon MV600 digital camcorder. It does work occasionally, but it cannot be relied on any more (play back is fine). However, it looks as though I'll have to replace it after less than 3 years.
Md600's Response to Haywire's Review
Written on: 16/07/2007
Hey guess what, me too. Nice that I am not alone. Discovered this problem at my sons 8th birthday party with all his friends there and everything. Thanks Canon, I will be in contact.
Haywire's Response to Haywire's Review
Written on: 19/01/2007
Contact Canon UK and complain. They will eventually advise you where to send your camcorder for a free repair, or search the web for MV600 CCD problem.