oh man… no external mic input is a killer. Crap… I thought it had audio input? Oh well… no woot for me then. Dang it!
I’d totally be down, except it uses MiniDVs and it’s a refurb. MiniDVs aren’t a bad thing, but with things going the way they are, unless you REALLY need a camcorder immediately, I’d wait. That’s just me.
Although, if I had (someone else’s) cash lying around, I’d hop on it.
If you just want to tape little Lisa’s piano recital, i think this camera will suit you well. if you plan on doing anything ‘important’ with it, I’d recommend something else.
MiniDV + Refurbished + tiny size == terrible image quality / watch-ability.
BUT I MEAN, if it’s just for Lisa’s piano recital, it doesn’t have to be Scorsese, right?
It’s only $14.99 for a PCMCIA/Firewire converter. I have the same one, works great!
The Neon wasn’t available until the '95 model year. For '91 try a Lebaron 
WOW film everything…its ok at best
This seems to be a great price. We have one of these and it works well. We just make the basic home videos, but it works for our purposes.
Great deal with only $5.00 shipping.
I bought a Canon ZR85, which I think is older than this model. I had to send mine in because of a CCD recall, but it was quick and painless (and free too). Canon customer support was great. I use it with my Mac over firewire (you need a Firewire to DV cable) and it works great with iMovie. Rewind, import, rewind all automatically.
Used to buy these for the school I worked at, they really took a beating pretty good too, had a problem with a couple of them being dead out of the box, but the ones that worked just kept going.
Seeing some of the complaints about background noise, I looked around for options and found this shoe adapter bracket. Don’t think it’s powered, but if you can rig something (like I plan on doing) having custom-made hardware is always a plus!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12966-REG/Canon_3002A002_SA_1_Shoe_Adapter_Bracket.html
Trigger pulled. Thanks w00t-- my lady and I have been looking for something exactly like this for the upcoming wedding.
I have the ZR800 - only one to have an external mic ( I mean a plug!) in teh new series out (zr800, 830 and850)
Plus, you can now get it new, a bit everywhere for about 170$, with a full year warranty from canon 
Sebastien
HAS NO LIGHT! It can’t record in low light. I wish they all would just make these cameras like the old ones. The old VHS Recorders had everything! Except they were very big!
Canon DC-210 DVD Camcorder Bundle (New) which includes a carrying bag and a free pack of MiniDVD’s and has 35x optical zoom for only $153 at Circut City (in store pickup only).
I am looking for one of these but would rather spend the extra $ for more… like a LIGHT.
How is the image stabilizer? CNET seems to indicate that low light settings are “jerky”, because any stabilizer gets turned off ?
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MiniDV is so 20th Century, i mean really, magnetic data storage?
besides, i’m holding out for a nice 1080p HDD Camcorder to drop low enough… that will be just about the time when 1080p is the equiv. of 420p today…
YAY FOR MOORE’S LAW!
But really, great deal on a MiniDV camera, but i’m seriously waiting for an HD-HDD model to come within range, assuming i don’t go and get me a new DSLR before that…
Hmmm… I suppose 720x480 video might have been “hi-res widescreen” back in the day, but this is the age of HD, baby! Native 1280x720 or 1920x1080 please!! 
I see the DC210 at Circuit City, but at $199. ?? thanks.
MiniDV gives the best video quality of the consumer-level non-HD* storage formats. Better than DVD or SD, slightly better than Hard Drive (see http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7813_102-0.html?forumID=59&threadID=267548&messageID=2604290 ). I would only buy MiniDV if I were buying a non-HD* consumer camcorder today. You might like other formats for their better convenience (direct access as opposed to serial access, and compression format more ready for consumer playback devices). But I thought I’d chime in for others who value video quality.
*I don’t know what formats are offered in HD.
Not a bad buy but refurbished think i’ll pay $50-$70 more for new