Canon DC50 review

The DC50 is the most expensive standard-definition camcorder here.

Its surprising bulk is offset by pleasing curves that help it sit comfortably in the hand. The front of the camcorder is dominated by a large lens, which lets plenty of light strike the 1/2.7in CCD inside.

Video quality is far superior to that from the other standard-definition DVD and hard disk models. Edges are well defined and there's almost no picture noise in well-lit conditions, meaning the video compression doesn't have to struggle to work out what's noise and what's detail. It's not quite as impressive as the NV-GS330 in terms of colour accuracy, but in low-light conditions they're fairly evenly matched. The DC50 had less picture noise, but the NV-GS330 retained more colour.

The big CCD has over five million pixels, meaning this camcorder can also take decent photos. There's a proper flash, too. Alongside this is a video light for shooting in near-darkness, and there's an automatic lens cover so you don't have to worry about leaving the lens exposed.

Video must be captured to DVD, and photos can be stored on either a DVD or a miniSD card. Disappointingly, there's no option to store video on a memory card. Inexpensive single-layer DVDs are limited to around 20 minutes of footage at the highest quality setting of 10Mbit/s. This means that you'll need to take a lot of discs to get through a two-week holiday.

The battery is tucked neatly away and is accessed simply by opening the LCD. There's no room for a bigger battery, though the supplied one lasted for an acceptable hour and 28 minutes in our continuous shooting test. There's no accessory shoe or surround sound microphone, though you do benefit from optical image stabilisation.

At this price you should expect plenty of extras and good video quality, and the DC50 offers both. However its price is fairly close to that of Panasonic's tiny HDC-SD9, so we'd recommend you find the extra cash for the latter instead.