Canon ES4000 video camcorder Review

The ES4000 is my favorite non digital canon camcorder with a MSRP. the ES4000's higher price is justified. The ES4000 has a 22x optical zoom, the biggest of Canon's camcorders, as well as a 44x digital zoom (big but not too big). I feel that huge digital zooms are not important while big optical zooms are highly useful since a digital zoom invariably and noticeably hurts the picture quality. The ES4000 has a 1/4-inch CCD with 410,000 pixels and offers the usual 2.5 hours recording on the Hi8 tapes with canon bp-911 battery. The camera also packs a color viewfinder and a remote, both very nice features that are commonly overlooked in Hi8 and 8mm camcorders.

Unfortunately, most camcorders with time code fall into the prosumer category, where prices are a bit out of reach for the average consumer. With the introduction of the ES4000 Hi8 camcorder, however, Canon brings the price of time code down into the realm of the affordable. Boasting a 22:1 optical zoom (44:1 digital), manual exposure and white-balance controls, headphone and microphone jacks, LANC edit control, optical image stabilization and RCTC (Rewritable Consumer Time Code), the ES4000 is a rare find in the consumer video marketplace: a really good camcorder at a really good price and bp-911 battery with longer life.

CANON ES4000 feature

• 2-way Pan Head Video Tripod - Center Brace, 20mm legs, 49" height


• Performance Pak - Tripod and Bag


• Recording Format Hi8, 8mm


• LCD Screen Size 0.55 in


• Audio Format Hi Fi, Stereo


• canon bp-911 rechargeable battery,lithium ion


• Weight 1.79 lbs


• Dimension 4.29 in x 4.17 in x 7.24 in (HxWxD)


• Optical Zoom 22 X


• Digital Zoom 44 X

Image and Sound

To match its excellent selection of features, the ES4000 delivers a very colorful, sharp picture and crisp, clean stereo audio. The inclusion of headphone and microphone jacks makes it possible to get a microphone closer to the talent and monitor the audio signal as you shoot--both essential for high-quality audio work.

All of the camcorder's automatic systems performed very well, including autofocus, autoexposure and auto white balance. The autofocus circuitry, for example, was very quick to respond to movement in the frame, and didn't hunt for its focus as some systems do. The only drawback to the manual controls was the lack of old-fashioned lever-controlled outer focus- and iris-adjustment systems, instead of the tiny servomotor-controlled inner systems so commonly found on today's camcorders.

In summary: the ES4000 is a full-featured Hi8 camcorder that performs very well for hobbyists or prosumers. Canon ES4000 battery (BP-911 battery) is very attractive. it records excellent images and sound, it's easy to use and (perhaps best of all) it supports RC Time Code. Good job, Canon! You've succeeded in bringing the power of professional camcorders down to a level that even many first-time camcorder buyers can afford.

In our comparison, we'll be looking at five areas that we think the demanding hobbyist or prosumer videographer will want from an entry-level DV camcorder: image quality, audio quality,battery life(canon bp-911)manual controls, image stabilization and connectability. Each camcorder will receive a rating from 1-5 in each of these areas so that you may decide which features are most important to you and make your purchasing decision accordingly.