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JVC Everio GZMC200 2MP 4GB Microdrive Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom |
- Great video quality if the light is good
- Great sound quality if the person shooting doesn't talk too loud
- Great size
- Massive convenience of not having to rip and encode video
Cons:
- Terrible (useless) video quality in low light
- Cannot focus in low light (making even still photos with flash difficult)
- Sensitive mike results in audio distortion is person shooting talks loudly
- S-l-o-w cold start
- No flash shoe or tripod mount
The above pretty much sums up all that is good/bad with this camera. If it worked better in low light I'd give it five stars.
One tip - the camera produces MPEG2 video with AC3 audio (not MP2), in files with a .MOD suffix. You can rename these to .MPG to play them, but many players will not handle the AC3 sound. There is a free tool to fix this. Amazon won't let me include a link but search for Converio and you should find it.
Bottom line it's a superb video camera. Video clips are very high quality with a lot of details and good colors; you just can't believe such great quality video came form this tiny camera.
Its biggest selling point of quick PC transfer and fast DVD creation works extremely well. I've transferred 41min of video to my old PC and burned a DVD within 21minutes from start to finish with only a few mouse clicks.
Best by the way is to use USB2.0 card reader instead of the camera for video transfer, it works MUCH faster.
It's biggest issue is mediocre indoors performance. It's not "poor" as some people say since JVC did a very good job of reducing noise in low light, so the video looks very smooth and pleasant to the eye.
The problem remains with washout colors and little too dark images.
I came of a way to improve its indoors performance significantly, use "M" mode with white balance set to "Cloudy" and shutter speed set to 1/50 (in extreme conditions 1/30)
The camera store these settings, so you just need to set these once and switch to "M" whenever shooting indoors.
Video will look a little brighter and colors more saturated.
Overall extremely well built very good high quality camera with only a few tweaks, with its recent price drop to about $800 it's a good value.
The picture quality is great under good lighting conditions. The less light, the more grainy the image which is true of pretty much any camera that is in this price range. Lighting conditions also affect the auto-focus capabilities.
I use this camera for video documentation and it works extremely well. With this camera I have a completely digital workflow and don't have to worry about converting analog tapes to digital. No more cropping to eliminate gutter noise, too.
The CyberLink software included with the camera is very basic. I use it for one purpose only: to convert the proprietary capture file to an .avi that i can edit in another platform. I use Sony Vegas which does everything I need for documentation.
The digital camera function is excellent considering it is a secondary function. It is not comparable to high-end Canon or Sony digital cameras, but I think it's better than anything out there under $350. I can set the white balance and capture at 1600 px.
I also like the voice capture function. This is particularly useful with video documentation. After I've edited my video, I can record a voice-over and insert it as an mp3 layer in Vegas.
Two complaints I have are the size of the camera and the software included. The camera is very sensitive to movement. Because it is so small it is difficult to attach to a tripod to maintain a steady foundation. Holding the camera for long distance shots does not work--any movement at all produces a shaky image that is also in and out of focus because of the auto-focus.
Pros:
- very high quality video and sound.
- digital media makes video transfer to PC a snap. just take out the microdrive and plug it into a card reader.
- high quality stills. not as good as a dedicated digital camera, but 4x6 prints still turn out nice. also, the 10x optical zoom is much more powerful than the usual point and shoot.
- small and compact.
- raises eyebrows.
- accepts both CF and SD.
- bundled software is easy to use and creates pro-looking dvds.
Cons:
- expensive media.
- camera gets really hot when shooting long footage.
- battery life is short.
- slow to turn on. can someone tell me how to disable the JVC animation during start-up?
PROS: Super video quality, highly sensitive built in stereo mic with wind cut, built in flash, ultra compact size. 2MB Still capability is very good for daytime shooting. Included 4GB Micro Drive. The fact that the camera accepts two different kinds of media is also a great thing. You can record your movies on the included 4GB Micro Drive while saving your still images to an SD Card.
CONS: Washout of white light by flash. I wish that the 200 model had the pop-up flash like the forthcoming 3CCD model to avoid the overflash you get with this model. The flash is too close to the lens causing the results of your flash shots to look overexposed, especially with lighter backdrops. Another quirky thing is the fact that there is no remote control as you would normally see on a minicam. I was dissapointed to open the box and not have that feature, especially for tripod shooting or self portraits. Built in self timer is good, but doesnt replace a true remote. If you have big hands you wont like removing the Microdrive. Its very difficult to remove the CF Card and there is little room to get a grip on the card to extract it from the slot. This is a minor flaw, but worth mentioning.
Bottom Line: Give this little camera a higher still shot capability (3-5 MP) and a decent flash and a remote and youve got a perfect, miniature Prosumer camera. I hope that JVC will have a remote control on the 3CCD Model. My overall opinion is very good of this camera, but its not perfect and if you are patient and want the quality of a 5MP Still and 3CCD technology, wait for the 3CCD Model to be released later this year. I am anxious to test that one myself.
Now the upside - the camcorder delivers good quality images when shooting outside. Motion artifacts are occasionally detectable when objects in the scene move quickly but not annoying at all. The zoom is quite satisfying and the auto focus only lags slightly behind when quickly zooming in the 10x optical zoom range. The compact size is spectacular! The standard tripod mount socket is a welcome addition.
And, of course, the whole video editing experience is greatly enhanced by the direct transfer of the camera's hard drive to your editing station's hard drive. (I recommend you get a card reader or PCMCIA adapter, so the camera isn't involved in the video transfer. You can be charging the camera while you are working with the saved video - something you'll do often as the battery only lasts an hour).
The saved video files have a .mod extension. The manual says you should only use the supplied software to edit/play the video files. The supplied software is from Cyberlink and it is adequate. I have found that by renaming the files to .mpg after I have copied them to my editing station, I can edit/play the video files with software not supplied with the camera. Don't know if this will work in all cases, but so far so good.
The still camera images are actually quite nice for a 2 mega pixel camera. They are always saved as JPEG files. I have found no option to save as a lossless TIFF. A real shame since the supplied 4GB microdrive really has enough room to store these big files.
The audio quality is excellent, no complaints what so ever.
One last disappointment - the camera limits maximum file size to 4GB, even if you have a compact flash card that can hold more. As a result it shall forever be impossible for this camera to record more than 60 continuous minutes using the highest quality video setting. Sure, an 8GB card can hold 2 of these 60 minute recordings but something will be missed when the first file hits the 4GB wall and the recording is stopped and the camera waits for you to manually start a new recording session.
Minuses - Compared to my Sony DV camera, the focusing is slow and inaccurate. Holding the camera still is extremely difficult because of its size - the stability feature is essential although not spectacular - you need to work to keep this thing still. Although the resolution is the same as DV (720x480), I think my DV cameras picture is better, probably due to the CCD. The picture is not very sharp, and movement is pretty blurry.
Conclusion: This is an early adopter product. I would love to see a version with a better CCD and flash, which will undoubtably be down the road the next 12 months or so.
The biggest fear of digital recording is quality: this camera says it can record DVD quality video (480i), and it delivers! I have a 50" plasma, so it's very easy for me to discern video compression artifacts. Being able to record at 16:9 aspect is also a must-have for HDTV owners. The only limiting factors to video quality are 1) lighting - this camera records signifcantly better under good light, like most other camers 2) minimal movements - resolution does suffer with excessive panning and zooming. Since the media is recorded natively in MPEG-2, its easy to transfer it directly to DVD format. And played under a upconversion DVD player at 720P, your home videos look fantastic! (Until consumer HD camcorders come out, that is.)
A few negatives I should mention:
- The shape of the unit is small and almost cubical, which is innovative and cool looking, but sometimes awkward to hold in your hand for a long time
- The battery is short-lived, lasting shorter than the 60-min hi-quality image you can record onto the microdrive. So buy a spare!
- The motion-stabilization feature doesn't work too well, so hopefully you have a steady hand or a good stand!
Few faults aside, this is the camera that will usher in the age of digital video recording. I would recommend this camera to those who like bleeding edge technology and don't mind the occasional warts