Review Camcorder

Product Spec: Positives: Long zoom lens; decent image stabilization; fast autofocus; shutter-priority exposure mode. Negatives: Fair-to-middling overall video quality; poor still photos. Facts: A simple DVD camcorder with decent performance and image quality, the DC220 won’t blow you away but neither will it let you down.

Canon DC220

Perhaps it’s the convenience of popping a DVD out of the camcorder and straight into your living room player, or maybe you just don’t feel comfortable with a hard-drive-based model, but whatever the reason, you’re looking into buying a DVD camcorder. Positioned in the middle of the company’s 2007 DVD-based camcorders, Canon’s DC220 is a decent, though not very impressive model. Astute observers will notice that the DC220 shares most of its features with the slightly less expensive DC210. In this case, the extra cash gets you an autofocus upgrade to Canon’s nine-point AiAF system, a miniSD card slot for capturing still images, a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection, PictBridge compatibility for direct photo printing to compatible printers, and Canon’s Digital Video Solutions software package. That means that if you’re not interested in shooting still images with your camcorder and you don’t need Canon’s software, then you may want to consider the DC210. Weighing 15.9 ounces with battery and a DVD installed, and measuring 3.5×2.1×5 inches, the DC220 is fairly light and somewhat small for a DVD-based model. Compared to similar models from last year, it shows some improvements in design. Canon now includes a tiny joystick, well located for your thumb, to navigate the menus. That’s a big step up from the array of buttons on the left side of the DC100’s body. However, the DC220 does have a triad of annoying buttons on its flank. You use them to access the menu, change the information displayed on the LCD, or enter and exit quick start mode (aka standby mode). In our field tests, we found these buttons less responsive than we would’ve liked. In many cases, it took more than one press, not to mention more force than we prefer to exert on the side of a camera body that we’re trying to hold still. It might make sense for Canon to put the menu and display controls along the bottom of the LCD, though the dual-function playback, zoom, and record controls that are already there might not leave enough room. Fortunately, Canon placed the rest of the controls in all the right places. Canon includes a decent array of controls and features for a midlevel camcorder. You can choose from program, shutter-priority, or night exposure modes, and there are four white-balance settings, including evaluative. We were impressed with the DC220’s long 35x optical zoom lens as well as with the camera’s electronic image stabilization, which remained effective out to about 85 percent of the zoom range. That’s quite good for such a long zoom. Plus, if you have a hard time keeping those variable-speed zoom rockers moving smoothly, the DC220 includes three constant zoom speeds. That brings us to the DC220’s biggest weakness: its 680,000-pixel CCD sensor. Right now, as a general rule of thumb, it’s best to try to find a camcorder with at least a 1-megapixel sensor if you can. While video from the DC220 had respectably accurate color reproduction, and the camera’s autofocus system does an admirable job of quickly locking on your subject and adjusting to scene changes, the footage we shot lacked the extra sharpness we’re used to getting from megapixel-plus cameras. That said, it did a fine job for a 680K-pixel model. Though, as we’ve come to expect, Canon’s night mode doesn’t help capture decent footage in very dark situations. Sony’s NightShot mode, while monochrome, yields much more useable footage in extremely dark environments. In our tests, the camcorder also had a hard time focusing in very dim light. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive DVD-based camcorder and you don’t expect to shoot in dim lighting much, the DC220 is pretty safe choice. Of course, as I said earlier, if the DC220’s added features don’t make a difference to you, you can save a bit of cash with the DC210. If you’d like to step up to a DVD-based camcorder with a greater pixel count, Canon offers the DC230, which sports a 1.07-megapixel CCD.

Conclusion: Do not buy

Review by Marc Maynard from NC

Keywords: camcorder quality, hi8 camcorder

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In our lab: Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550

May 29th, 2009 — Camcorder Reviews, Handycam Reviews, Video Camera Reviews

Product Spec: Positives: Decent video performance; relatively lightweight and compact. Negatives: Noisy video; weak flash; poorly integrated design; slow still-camera performance; lacks the infrared Night mode of its predecessor. Facts: It’s a better still camera than most camcorders, but the SC-D6550 nonetheless forces compromises compared to individual products.

Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550

With a few rare exceptions, camcorders are, at best, mediocre still cameras, while still cameras are very limited camcorder replacements. To get top-quality still and video images, your choices are either to make quality compromises or to carry two devices. Samsung offers a third choice with its DuoCam series, camcorders that pack a pair of lenses, one optimized for video and the other for stills. The Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550 is Samsung’s third-generation entry in the line, bumping up the still resolution and adding a few new features while dropping the bulk and the substantial weight of its predecessors. Unfortunately, the performance of both camera and camcorder remains less than you’d get from dedicated devices in this price range. Weighing just less than a pound, the Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550 is both smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the SC-D6040, as well as many competing camcorders. Fairly compact, albeit a bit wide, the boxy, silver-and-gray plastic case seems, at first glance, to hold a rather nondescript camcorder. Looking at the front of the device gives away its duality: a smallish camcorder lens sits in the traditional position at the top of the camcorder, while a telescoping zoom lens for the still camera sits below it. Samsung’s weight-reduction program was so successful that the camcorder almost feels too light, but the plastic seems thick and sturdy enough to hold up to shooting in the field. Even in this third generation, the DuoCam’s camera and camcorder designs each lack the consistency you’d expect from a dual-function device. While the menus are attractive and well laid out for both modes, they look and feel very different. The camcorder uses a colorful text-based, vertically scrolling menu, while the camera’s menus are icon-based and scroll horizontally. The still camera lens has an automatic, built-in cover, while the camera lens uses a separate, tethered lens cap. Most of the options for both still and video shooting are controlled using the menus and a small joystick mounted on the left side of the camera. There are a few additional buttons for functions such as activating the color slow-shutter mode, deleting stills, and controlling tape playback. A still-camera-style mode dial for selecting shooting modes when using the still-camera functions sits at the top rear of the camera. The zoom, start/stop, and still-photo buttons are well placed for one-handed operation, though those with large fingers may find that the mode dial makes pressing the still button somewhat difficult. The LCD boasts a Manual Focus button, as well as a small rocker switch for adjusting focus. This works well and offers reasonably good precision, though fine adjustments are more difficult than they’d be with a focus wheel. Both the memory card slot and the tape door are on the bottom of the SC-D6550, so you’ll need to remove the camera from the tripod to swap recording media. The Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550’s resolution lies in the middle of the range for similarly priced competitors. Behind the 10X optical zoom lens used for video is a 1/6-inch, 680,000-pixel CCD. The still camera lens features a 3X zoom (with a focal range equivalent to 38mm to 114mm on a 35mm camera) and is paired with a 5-megapixel sensor. The SC-D6550 offers a wide range of shooting modes for both video and still photos, from the one-touch EasyQ button that puts all the camera’s settings on automatic to completely manual control. In camcorder mode, you can set both shutter speed and exposure. When shooting stills, you can choose aperture priority, shutter priority, or full manual control. Still aperture range is now f/2.8 through f/11, a marked improvement over the still camera in the SC-D6040. Manual focus is available in both modes as well. The camcorder features 5 automatic exposure modes for sports, sand, snow, and so on, while there are 10 different shooting modes for the still camera. The requisite cheesy special effects–sepia and negative, to name two–are present in both modes as well. Though there’s a color slow-shutter feature for shooting in dark environs, Samsung removed the infrared Night mode found on the SC-D6040. There’s a flash for use in still shooting but no video light. Though the SC-D6550’s appearance suggests a camcorder that’s had a camera slipped in, the camera actually offers the most power and flexibility, while the camcorder is fairly basic. For instance, while the SC-D6550 offers all the features you’d expect in a midrange digital still camera, it lacks some key camcorder functions, such as the ability to copy video from composite and S-Video sources. The SC-D6550 lacks expandability; there’s no accessory shoe, nor does Samsung offer add-on lenses for the camcorder lens. One nice feature is the ability to select from among SD, MMC, or Memory Stick cards to store still images. The Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550 performed its video tasks well but fell short as a still camera. It’s ready to start taping just 3 seconds after you flip the power on. Automatic exposure adjusts quickly to pans from light to dark subjects, and its autofocus response is relatively quick and accurate, even in somewhat dim light. Image stabilization does a good job of masking slight hand movements, even at 10X zoom levels. We found the zoom control precise and smooth to operate, and the dedicated manual-focus rocker is easy to use and conveniently placed. The 2.5-inch LCD is somewhat small to use for precise focusing, however. Unfortunately, the viewfinder’s resolution is so low that it’s an even poorer choice as a focus aid. The microphone’s placement about 1.5 inches behind the lens is good for balancing the levels of sound coming from in front of and behind the camera. Sound is clear, and a wind guard helps keep it that way when shooting in breezy situations. However, the microphone frequently recorded a distinct thock just after the zoom reached either of its extremes. The still camera is annoyingly sluggish. There’s a delay of about 2 seconds between pressing the shutter switch and the actual shot. The camera must then write to the memory card before you take another picture, so you have to wait another 3 seconds (11 seconds in TIFF mode) before you can press the shutter again. This camera is a poor choice for sporting events, candid shots, or any situations where you need to shoot quickly. The Samsung DuoCam SC-D6550’s digital-video quality was acceptable. Outdoor scenes were sharp and properly exposed, with accurate, saturated color even on a cloudy day. Indoor shots in bright light were comparably good, but color saturation begins to suffer in dimmer lighting, and the video becomes decidedly noisy; even well-lit video suffered from excessive visual noise and various edge artifacts. While color appears accurate on NTSC displays, viewing the SC-D6550’s footage on a PC shows that the camcorder still suffers from the same white-balance issues as its predecessor. There’s a mild but noticeable bluish cast when using automatic white balance. The Color Nite function helps preserve colors in darker shooting situations by slowing the shutter speed to 30fps or 15fps. This helps in dim but decent lighting, but in truly dark situations, we missed the infrared mode found on the SC-D6040, as the SC-D6550 can’t see in the dark. The 5-megapixel snapshots should print well at sizes as large as about 8×10, as long as you’re not picky. Outdoor shots have good, if somewhat soft detail and slightly oversaturated colors. A few shots had noticeable chromatic aberrations–purple fringing–though this was most evident when zooming in to crop an image. Indoor shots had good color but were somewhat grainy, even when using the built-in flash. The flash is short-ranged; it barely illuminated subjects more than about six feet away. Overall, the quality is about what you’d expect from a bargain still camera, which is still better than most camcorders.

Conclusion: Buy

Review by Amelia Handley from TX

Keywords: 8mm camcorders, refurbished camcorder

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In the lab: Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1

May 29th, 2009 — Camcorder Reviews, Handycam Reviews, Video Camera Reviews

Product Spec: Positives: Records 720p high-definition video; small, lightweight, and attractive; 10X optical zoom; rotating OLED screen. Negatives: Hard-to-maneuver joystick controller; very sluggish autofocus; video and photos look overly processed. Facts: If you want the latest in cool toys, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 certainly has the right gadget quotient. Once you look at the image quality, however, its allure dims quite a bit.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1

If you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, it may be enough that the 5-megapixel Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1’s feature list contains several first-to-market wins: it records and outputs progressive-scan video at 720p, it incorporates a dazzling 2.2-inch OLED screen, and it crams a 10X zoom lens into a device that fits into your palm. But once you factor in its slow focus and overly high-contrast, artifact-ridden photos and videos, that glass begins to look emptier by the minute. Still, the HD1 is an important technical milestone, even if it has some limitations. If you’re familiar with Sanyo’s previous palm-size Xacti camcorders, such as the VPC-C5 or VPC-C6, the VPC-HD1 will feel like an old friend. It has the same overall shape, upward tilting lens, and back-mounted controls, though now it’s a bit larger and heavier–4.7 by 3.1 by 1.4 inches (HWD) and 8.3 ounces, to be specific. It still fits comfortably into a coat pocket, a purse, or a briefcase, just more tightly. Furthermore, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1’s outer case feels very sturdy. Most of the surface is made of metal, and there was no bending or creaking when we twisted it strongly. Plus, compared to the VPC-C6, the VPC-HD1’s extra weight makes it easier to steady with one hand. The 2.2-inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen is one of the best I’ve ever seen on a digital camera or camcorder. OLED pixels self-illuminate to provide more uniform brightness than do most LCDs. OLED technology also consumes power more efficiently and can render a wider contrast range. The VPC-HD1’s screen rotates 285 degrees, allowing for convenient self-portrait, overhead, and low-angle shots. Most of the controls are clustered together for simple thumb access. While all the buttons felt solid and durable, the small five-way joystick with which you navigate the menus is hard to maneuver. I repeatedly triggered the right or left options when I wanted the center setting. Likewise, I occasionally selected the center setting when I wanted up or down. There’s little room for error with this too-sensitive controller, and it may prove a continuing source of frustration when using some of the camcorder’s more advanced features. The VPC-HD1’s onscreen menus are bright and easy to read. The settings are divided somewhat arbitrarily onto three pages: Basic, Advanced, and Options. As with the VPC-C6, when you choose an item, it automatically moves to the front of the group, which breaks the otherwise logical arrangement of the icons. In order to charge the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1’s battery, you have to park it in the bundled docking station. If you equate small size with a lack of manual adjustments, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 will surprise you. Not only does it have the full array of program, shutter-speed, aperture-priority, and manual modes, but the system is fairly intelligent as well. For example, if you use the built-in neutral-density filter with any of the exposure modes, the camera will automatically enable the filter when you return to that mode. The camera also has a collection of scene modes: Sports, Portrait, Landscape, Night View, Fireworks, and Lamp (low light). Most perform equally well with video and photo captures. The 10X optical zoom is a welcome addition to the Xacti line. When combined with the highest-resolution, lowest-compression settings, you have a powerful pocket-size camcorder. The lens has a maximum aperture of f/3.5 across the entire zoom range. While not a great light gatherer, it’s unusually consistent across the entire zoom range. The focal length range is 38mm to 380mm (35mm equivalent), which is a bit narrow of an angle. On the other hand, if you favor distant shots, you may enjoy the extra magnification on the telephoto end. At that long a telephoto reach, it can be difficult to grab a steady shot without a tripod. Fortunately, Sanyo has included an electronic image stabilization system to help reduce the jitter and shake. It works reasonably well, though it’s not as effective as the image stabilizers on most MiniDV camcorders. You have to manually switch it on and off, as needed. There are three settings: one for video, one for photos, and an off position that’s recommended for tripod use. The MPEG-4 video recording options include two wide-screen modes (1,280×720 at 30fps, compressing to either 9Mbps or 6Mbps) and four standard modes (640×480 at 60fps, compressing to 6Mbps; 640×480 at 30fps, compressing to either 3Mbps or 2Mbps; and 320×240 at 15fps, compressing to 684Kbps). The photo-capture options include two JPEG compression modes for 5.1 megapixels but only a single compression mode each for 0.3, 1.2, and 2.0 megapixels. On the docking station, there’s a connector for the bundled USB/A/V combo cable; the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 is one of the rare camcorders that supports component and 720p output, as well as both PAL and NTSC. In theory, a tapeless camcorder should be quicker than a MiniDV model to power on and grab your first shot. Tape-based systems have to position the recording head, but with flash memory there are no moving parts. To keep the on/off button from being pressed accidentally, Sanyo designed the button so that it doesn’t register unless you hold it down for about 2 seconds. As a result, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 is faster than tape-based camcorders but not as fast as most digital cameras. Our tests averaged 4.3 seconds from a cold start to our first video frame, though about 2 seconds of that was spent holding down the button. Using the standby mode that’s triggered by closing and opening the display reduced the wait time to 3.3 seconds. In bright light, we measured a 0.6-second delay between pressing the video-record button and the actual start of the shot. In dim light, the delay increased to 0.8 second. For fast-moving sports, kids at play, or other spontaneous activities, this and other fully electronic camcorders have a distinct advantage in capturing the first few seconds of the action. More important, the VPC-HD1’s processor seemed unable to adapt quickly to just about any kind of dramatic change, whether it was a change in movement, contrast, exposure, or focal plane. It sometimes took a second or two to recover the focus when the camera was moved quickly from one subject to another. In an exterior shot where we moved at a moderate pace from one group of flowers to another, it was painfully obvious that the camera couldn’t keep up. This problem occurred both with and without the image stabilization system engaged. If you’re considering the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1, your number-one concern is likely to be how good is the video. Judged purely for its size, the video quality is quite good, though inconsistent. In bright light with minimal movement of either the camera or the subject, you can capture decent video clips. If you prefer not to shoot in a wide-screen format, the highest-quality 640×480 setting provides much smoother video in a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio. However, once you add movement or decrease the light, the quality becomes more erratic. In moderate light indoors, there’s enough illumination to clearly see the subject but often with significant amounts of visual noise, compression artifacts, diagonal jaggies, and discoloration. The camera has poor dynamic range–it significantly clips highlights and shadows–and because that increases the number of high-contrast areas, there’s also a serious amount of colored fringing. And the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1’s photos have that smeary, overprocessed look.

Conclusion: Undecided

Review by Ellen Saldana from MS

Keywords: best camcorder, hard disk camcorder

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Review: DXG DXG-506V - camcorder

May 29th, 2009 — Camcorder Reviews, Handycam Reviews, Video Camera Reviews

Product Spec: Product Short Spec: Video input type: Camcorder

DXG DXG-506V - camcorder

Conclusion: Undecided

Review by Alexis Hursey from CA

Keywords: cheap camcorder, hi8 camcorder

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JVC Everio GZ-MC500

May 29th, 2009 — Camcorder Reviews, Handycam Reviews, Video Camera Reviews

Product Spec: Positives: Decent blend of video and still capabilities; generally sensible controls; easy searching and downloading; tiny size. Negatives: Mediocre battery life, viewfinder, and low-light performance; automatic features a bit sluggish; limited manual controls; no microphone jack. Facts: This extremely compact, nicely designed camera should please technophiles who want both photo and video capabilities and can afford to splurge.

JVC Everio GZ-MC500

The GZ-MC500 is one of the most advanced models in JVC’s line of Everio cameras, which capture both MPEG-2 video and photos on a little hard drive or a flash memory card. What sets this camera apart from its lesser siblings is its three-chip imaging system. It uses the same three CCDs as the GR-X5, a larger but still very compact JVC model that records video on MiniDV cassettes. And while the JVC Everio GZ-MC500 certainly isn’t the cheapest three-chipper, it is one of the smallest. JVC includes a 4GB Microdrive with this Everio--enough to hold about an hour of highest-quality footage--and recording in MPEG-2 offers some very real benefits, including random access to your clips and easy downloads to a computer. But there are some drawbacks, too. Even though downloading video is easier, some popular video-editing applications still can’t handle MPEG-2 footage as well as DV. Probably more significant for this Everio’s audience is the cost of the media. MiniDV tapes are cheap enough to serve as an archiving medium, but Microdrives and CompactFlash cards are clearly not. That means you’ll have to develop the habit of continually emptying out the Microdrive by transferring its contents to a hard drive or a videotape for long-term storage. This may be particularly challenging if you’re out in the field for any length of time--on a long vacation, say. With the Everio GZ-MC500, JVC lives up to its reputation as an innovator. The camera is far from a bargain, but for those who want a hybrid camcorder incorporating the latest technology in an extremely compact package, it’s a winner. The JVC Everio GZ-MC500 is a very smartly designed little package. The black camera body consists of two parts: a handgrip section on the right and a lens section on the left, connected by a pivot. This design lets you tilt the lens up and down relative to the grip and the viewfinder, making it easy to accomplish high- and low-angle shots, at least for right-handed people. The handgrip part of the camera sports an adjustable handstrap and opens to reveal a compartment shared by the Microdrive and an internally mounted battery. Because the battery charges in-camera, you’ll have to purchase an optional accessory charger if you want to charge a second battery while shooting. The rear of the handgrip wraps around the back of the camera and contains a 1.8-inch 130,000-pixel LCD, which is the only viewfinder. Most of the ports are located on the front of the handgrip, namely connections for power, headphones, and an A/V cable. Annoyingly, the headphone jack is an unconventional design that requires an adapter cable to connect standard headphones. There’s no external microphone jack, which limits this camera’s audio capabilities to what you can capture with the built-in mic. A rubber lens hood clicks onto the front of the 10X zoom lens, which is protected by a conventional lens cap and surrounded by a standard focus ring–an excellent and increasingly rare control. Atop the lens side of the camera are a pop-up flash and a stereo mic, and at the bottom of the rear is the SD card slot. Finally, the camera’s left side is adorned with a sliding power switch, a mode button surrounded by a program selector dial, a Focus Mode button, a tiny speaker, and a USB port. In general, this camera’s control layout makes sense. Since the body of the GZ-MC500 is so small, there’s room for only a few external controls, and JVC has made the right choices regarding both the nature and the placement of these controls. Less frequently used controls are relegated to the LCD menu system, which is about as straightforward and intuitive as possible. Although the menu navigation joystick is tiny, it proved surprisingly usable. The JVC Everio GZ-MC500 uses three 1/4.5-inch, 1.33-megapixel CCDs to capture MPEG-2 video and JPEG stills, interpolating its photo output as high as 5 megapixels. Despite its three-chip design, which is most often reserved for larger, prosumer camcorders, this model’s feature set is unapologetically geared toward the point-and-shoot crowd. It lets you select from a variety of automatic and semiautomatic shooting modes--including Twilight, Portrait, Sports, Snow, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority--and there’s a foolproof fully automatic mode. This is also one of the few video cameras that can be used as a voice recorder. If you are a manual control aficionado, this is not the camera for you. That said, this Everio does provide some flexibility to casual videographers who like the option of making manual adjustments even though they usually shoot on auto. You can shift autoexposure, select white balance, and use the backlight compensation button to quickly adapt to a backlit scene. In aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes, you can adjust the iris and shutter speed, respectively. There’s also a spot meter that you use by selecting a light-metering point with the minijoystick. Two essential features included are a digital image stabilizer to take the shake out of handheld camerawork and a 16:9 mode, for display on wide-screen televisions. Unfortunately, only an anamorphically squeezed wide-screen mode is available, so the image appears vertically stretched on the viewfinder and on 4:3 televisions. One thing that’s missing that we’d like to see is a Night mode with infrared illumination or at least a built-in LED. In the gimmicky-feature category, you’ll find the usual assortment of fades, wipes, and digital effects: sepia, black-and-white, classic film, and strobe; 40X and 100X digital zoom; and Tele-Macro, which enables extreme close-ups of objects a couple of feet away. Because it captures MPEG-2 video--a compressed format that can be recorded on the hard drive and flash memory media that this camera uses–the GZ-MC500 offers four video-quality levels. Each makes a different compromise between image quality and recording time. These range from Ultra Fine (720×480 at 8.5Mbps, one hour total on the included Microdrive) to Economy (352×240 at 1.5Mbps, six hours total). Also, due to the MPEG-2 system, the camera offers convenient playback capabilities. You can instantaneously switch from clip to clip via a thumbnail menu system, and individual clips can be reordered or deleted easily, freeing up space for more shooting. Although the native resolution of its sensors is just 1.3 megapixels, the GZ-MC500 outputs stills at five resolutions, maxing out at 2,560×1,920. There are two JPEG quality levels to select from. Other photo-specific features include a selection of three ISO levels, a self-timer, a continuous-shooting mode, and autobracketing. The camera’s pop-up flash has several modes, including red-eye reduction. You can also connect the GZ-MC500 to PictBridge-compatible devices for direct printing. Two Windows software applications come with the GZ-MC500: CyberLink DVD Solution for video editing and DVD authoring, and Digital Photo Navigator 1.0 for organizing stills. The JVC Everio GZ-MC500 responds quickly to inputs from its relatively few external controls. The focus ring and the zoom rocker are particularly easy to manipulate for controls on a camera of this size. Autofocus and autoexposure were accurate but sluggish in their response. While these systems react nearly instantaneously in some camcorders, with the GZ-MC500 we often experienced a significant delay while the camera caught up to a change in composition or lighting. On the other hand, the digital image stabilization system performed well without significantly degrading the image. The greatest limitation of the LCD is its relatively small size, which is hard to avoid on a camera this tiny. However, the screen is bright enough for viewing an image in direct sunlight, which is fortunate since this Everio offers no secondary viewfinder. We found audio performance typical of a small camera that relies exclusively on a built-in mic. Capturing a certain amount of camera noise is inevitable, and there’s an overemphasis on unwanted environmental sounds due to the microphone’s lack of directionality. The quality of sound recorded with video varies with the video-
quality setting you select. A wind-cut filter is available to help reduce low-frequency rumble. The supercompact size of the JVC Everio GZ-MC500 is due largely to its use of Microdrive and CompactFlash media instead of MiniDV cassettes. But using those media has an impact on video quality too, since they don’t record the DV-format footage that MiniDV cassettes do. Instead, video is saved in MPEG-2, the same compressed format used by mini-DVD camcorders and also used to fit full-length movies on commercial DVDs. As is the case with DVDs, this form of compression can render outstanding image quality, but it can also produce distracting artifacts depending on the nature of the image and the degree of compression. This Everio provides four different video-quality modes, from Fine, which fits one hour on the included 4GB Microdrive, to Economy, which squeezes six hours into the same space. Surprisingly, even the Economy mode was quite watchable, though it has a slightly strobelike quality and easily visible compression artifacts. In the better video-quality modes, the GZ-MC500 produces crisp video that has a slightly muted color palate. The quality of this video is not significantly better than what you’d get from the best single-chip MiniDV camcorders. However, the three-chip system does pay off with stills that are exceptionally good for a hybrid camera. Due to its high pixel count, the GZ-MC500 produces wide-screen video that is every bit as sharp as its 4:3 video. Unfortunately, this high pixel count also results in inferior low-light performance. To get a reasonably bright image under less than ideal lighting, you have to set the camera to automatically boost the gain, which results in a grainy-looking, washed-out image.

Conclusion: Buy

Review by Howard Abraham from CO

Keywords: camcorder firewire, jvc digital camcorder

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In the lab: Hitachi DZ-GX3100A

May 29th, 2009 — Camcorder Reviews, Handycam Reviews, Video Camera Reviews

Product Spec: Positives: Decent low-light video quality; impressive battery life; in-camera editing. Negatives: Hidden touch-sensitive controls; low-res stills. Facts: If you’re looking for an inexpensive DVD camcorder and you don’t care about stills, Hitachi’s DZ-GX3100A is worth a look.

Hitachi DZ-GX3100A

As the little sibling of Hitachi’s DZ-GX3300A and DZ-GX3200A, the DZ-GX3100A serves up an almost identical feature set, as well as pleasing performance and better than average image quality when shooting in low light. The main difference between the three camcorders is CCD sensors: the 3300A has a 3-megapixel sensor, the 3200A has a 2-megapixel sensor, and the 3100A sports a 1-megapixel sensor. This difference in sensors ends up affecting still images more noticeably than video. Since it can capture only 1-megapixel stills, prints from the 3100A won’t be as sharp as those from the DZ-3200A or the DZ-3300A, even at standard 4×6-inch snapshot size. In fact, you shouldn’t really plan on making prints from the DZ-GX3100A, though they may be acceptable for e-mail. Video is only slightly less sharp than that produced by the 3200A and is noticeably softer than footage from the 3300A, though still very pleasing. Like the others in this line, the DZ-3100A carries over the design of last year’s DZ-GX20A. The downside to that is the handful of touch-sensitive buttons hidden behind the 2.7-inch wide-screen LCD. Since they’re mounted flush on the camera’s body, the buttons are hard to tell apart by touch alone and difficult to use while shooting. Most other controls are well placed, and the menus are intuitive and easy to navigate. The Hitachi DZ-GX3200A accepts four varieties of 3-inch DVD discs: write-once DVD-R and rewriteable DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. It records video in MPEG-2 compression to allow 18 to 60 minutes of footage per side, depending on what quality level you choose. The camcorder packs a 1/5-inch 1.3-megapixel CCD sensor. Though it uses 1.1 megapixels to capture stills, it uses only 690,000 pixels for video. Other features include a 15X optical zoom lens, automatic and manual white balance and exposure options, five preprogrammed autoexposure modes, and three preset white-balance settings. Connectivity includes an A/V input/output jack, a microphone input, and a mini USB jack. There’s no FireWire output, but most users will probably just drop the mini DVD in their computer’s DVD drive to transfer their footage. However, if you have a slot loading DVD drive, the USB connection will definitely come in handy. Performance was almost identical to that of the DZ-GX3200A and the DZ-GX3300A, with a speedy start-up, comfortable zoom control, and pleasingly responsive autofocus. The electronic image stabilization was effective to about 75 percent of the camera’s zoom range, and manual focus was difficult on the LCD screen. Hitachi rates the DZ-GX3100A’s battery life at as much as 145 minutes when using the best recording quality, though you can expect about half that with typical start/stop recording and occasional replay of scenes you’ve shot. The DZ-GX3100A’s video quality is about what you’d expect from a midprice MiniDV camcorder with an equivalent sensor. At low compression, video was sharp with some motion artifacts and edge crawl, along with a bit of blooming. At higher compression levels, banding showed up more often in areas with significant gradations in brightness. Low-light footage exhibited more grain than did well-lit scenes, though the DZ-GX3100A yielded pleasing low-light video that was brighter and more colorful than you’d expect at this price. The low-light mode helps to brighten dim scenes, though it does noticeably lower the frame rate, so moving objects and pans look choppy. Stills weren’t very impressive, though that’s to be expected from a 1-megapixel camcorder. The auto white balance produced slightly warm results with our lab’s tungsten lights but fared better than the tungsten white-balance mode, which had a magenta tinge. Manual white balance turned in the most neutral results. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive DVD camcorder and you don’t need the DZ-GX3300A’s 3-megapixel stills, the Hitachi DZ-GX3100A might be for you. Of course, if you want a little more sharpness in your video, then you may want to take a look at this camcorder’s slightly more expensive sibling, the Hitachi DZ-GX3200A.

Conclusion: Buy

Review by David Ryan from IL

Keywords: 8mm camcorders, used camcorder

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