List Price: $499.00
Sale Price: $479.00
Today's Bonus: 4% Off
I gave this product a single star review because anyone thinking about buying this product should be aware of the abysmal battery life with the included batter (BP-709). I will revise after I have used it for a while, but out of the box this is starting with my lowest rating because in an effort to make this appear to be a less expensive product, Canon designed an entirely new, cheaper battery with only 25 minutes of recording time per charge, compared to 75 minutes for the batteries included with the other products they sell in this price range. The net effect is they are selling this as though it is price comparable to their M500, when it would cost you an extra $100 to get the 75 minute life battery that comes with the M500. Details are below..... Please note, this review is (currently) only focused on the battery so if you have heard enough, there is no need to read on, but if you really like hearing details, see below.
I spent a significant amount of time comparing brands before settling on Canon, and then comparing models at the Canon website. In comparing prices for the R32 against similarly priced models (M500) and higher priced models (M52), I was surprised by the fact the R32 seemed to be the a no brainer choice when comparing features (at least the ones I wanted) and price. I read all the details on the Canon website in the side-by-side comparisons and decided that when compared to the M500 at the same price, it made sense to by the R32.
Unfortunately, the one piece of information that Canon did not share on its website, or in the detailed product specs it provides on Amazon, was information on the battery. To be clear, if you read the "what's in the box" section on Amazon it will list the battery type (BP-709), but it is clear that Canon did not want to call attention to this little tidbit of information.
Why, you might ask? Well, according to the manual that came with the product, I am guessing the reason is that the manual states that this little battery will last for a whopping 25 minutes of recording time (FXP mode). 25 minutes. It will then take 2 hours and 50 minutes to recharge the battery. It reminds me of the old Sony practice of including an incredibly low capacity memory stick in its cameras, enough to hold a handful of photos, to make the product cheaper, knowing you'd be forced to pay up for a larger memory stick to make the product close to useful.
It turns out that the the M500, and the M52, come equipped with a BP-718 battery. The Manual for these camcorders (it is the same manual for the M500 and M52) says the BP-718 lasts 75 minutes (FXP mode), and an optional higher end BP-727 lasts for about 115 minutes.
So the net of all this is that you can buy the higher end battery for about $100 and get a battery life that is close to credible, or you can revisit the entire purchase decision and think about getting the M500, which at list price is the same as the R32 but has a battery that is worth $100 more. For that matter you can spend an extra $100 and get the M52 given that the effective "apples to apples" price difference (when you have the same battery) is only $100 at list price.
There is another option, which I will try first. There are knockoff batteries that claim to have the effective life of the BP-727 that sell, with charger, for only about $30. These cannot be charged in the Camcorder and the camcorder will not report on remaining battery life (Canon has developed "smart" batteries, which essentially means they have locked up their software so if you are using a knockoff battery the Canon branded charger will not charge it, and the camera will not provide data on its remaining juice. This is, of course done to make you think twice about buying the $30 battery and instead purchase Canon's $130 BP-727 battery.
So anyways, if you read this far thanks for letting me rant a bit. When the battery this R32 came with is fully charged I will set it up to record and run a stopwatch to see exactly how long it lasts until it runs out of juice. I'll update the battery life on in this review if it comes out to something materially different than 25 minutes.
I'll then either return the product and buy something else, or will try the knock off batteries to see how they work. If the camera is just lights out fantastic I might pay up for the BP-727 and admit that while they tricked me, their stupid ploy worked and I ended up paying up in the end.
Here's hoping the camcorder is at least a good one, and that 25 minutes is enough time to figure this out......
0 comments:
Post a Comment