Your Complete Canon Optura Series Info Center

July 28th: Not one, but two new Optura series camcorders have been announced! The reign of the 1/3.4" two-megapixel CCD used in the previous eight Optura models is over. Each of the new camcorders is using a different image sensor -- a physically smaller 2.2mp CCD on the Optura S1, and a larger 4.3mp CCD on the Optura 600. Like the previous chip, both of the new CCDs include an RGB color filter overlay.

Left: the 4.3mp Optura 600 will sell for $1199 USD, starting 11 August 2005. Right: the 2.2mp Optura S1 will sell for $899 USD, beginning mid-September.

For more information about these new camcorders...

· read the Official Press Release at Canon USA (opens new window).
· check out the Canon DV products main index page at Canon USA.
· see our specific Op600 and S1 model entries with more details.
· our Canon Optura DV Camcorder Lineage article has been updated.
· read some notes about the Canon Optura CCD image sensors.
· our Optura Comparison Chart has been updated.
· see some Optura 600 Camcorder product images.
· see some Optura S1 Camcorder product images.
· discuss Optura camcorders at our DV Info Net online community.

Welcome to the Junior Watchdog Optura pages, an unofficial underground online information resource center for Canon's Optura series digital video camcorders. I hope you find this useful, whether you already own or are planning to buy one of these cameras.

 

Quick Guide to What's Inside

Community more than 18,000 members

Read, register, and post: interact with fellow Optura owners in the Junior Watchdog area of the DVInfo.Net Community message boards.

Reports coming soon

Detailed Optura evaluations from a variety of viewpoints. Comparisons to other DV camcorders included.

Articles 4 pages

Will grow to include all kinds of topics ranging from workarounds, "do it yourself" projects, accessory reviews, and more.

Images coming soon

The Optura in real-world settings, plus actual user-submitted frame grabs show you what the image looks like.

Resources coming soon

Links to important sources for DV information, owners websites and much more.

Thrown together by Chris Hurd