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The quality was on par with most of the DV camcorders we've looked at, though it fell short of the Canon Optura 400, the best DV camcorder in this roundup. Dynamic range and exposure remain similar to that of the DVD101, and it was still hard to determine detail in shadows, but the overall image appeared sharper and in better focus than the DVD101's output. On the other hand, this sharper video made artifacts more visible on the DVD201. Our low-light test video on auto settings revealed a dark but less noisy picture. The DVD201 has the same infrared capabilities as the DVD101.
In our high-action scene, autofocus performed quite well, maybe even a bit better than that of the Canon Optura 400. Some motion artifacts showed up in the form of jagged edges, due to the MPEG compression, but they weren't much of a disturbance. Video of our Gretag-Macbeth color chart revealed realistic colors that were more saturated and vibrant than those shot by the DVD101, though the grayscale remained a tad warm. Detail was crisp and sharp with no anomalies when we viewed our recorded video segments through a set-top DVD player on a TV.
This unit's still-image capture quality is a vast improvement on the DVD101's. The DVD201's pixel-transition ratio averaged 6 percent—generally considered unacceptable in a still camera, but fine for e-mailing and printing in small formats for posting on the fridge. Our resolution results, however, averaged a quite decent 525 lines. The daylight still-life capture was a bit soft overall, with some jagged edges. The exposure and colors were fine, but we detected some graininess in the shadows. The camcorder has no built-in flash, though you can use the hot shoe to attach an external flash.
This DVD camcorder can't quite match the video quality of the Optura 400, but there's no denying the appeal of shooting straight to DVD. If that simple-to-use format is the way you want to go, this camcorder is the one we recommend.
