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1. 

   Kevin Morgan-Rothschild
   April 13th, 2010 - 01:00

   I bought this camera without doing much reviewing, because there was none at the time. The hard drive disk is really conveniant for easily deleting a video file after you just took it. Copying the files to the computer is simple, but actually getting them onto DVDs can be difficult. The main problem is the quality, it is a bit grainy a times in dark rooms. Also sometimes when recording after stopping the camera, it says “video recording failed”. But then I go to preview mode and the video is there and fine. It doesn’t make sense.
   Rating: 3 / 5
2. 

   Gunnar Kossatz
   April 13th, 2010 - 03:58

   I agree with the many other users who have experienced the “Condensation, Operation Paused” defect on their JVC GR-xxxx. Despite numerous others reporting this problem, JVC says its not a recognized problem. I would disagree – it is a recognized problem, but its your problem, not theirs.
   Rating: 1 / 5
3. 

   Bruce H
   April 13th, 2010 - 06:11

   The problem I have with the unit is self created. If I had taken the time to use the unit in the field I would have immediatly found what I consider a glaring fault. There is no EYEPIECE. This may seem like a small inconvience, but, always that but, I have owned camcorders since 1985. I realize that I’m talking about my use. I have gotten use to looking through the eyepiece. The good points about the eyepiece (1) No Glare, or washout of the display as your taking the picture. (2)The extended life of the battery, since it doesn’t have to power the display. (3) The added stability of holding the camcorder against your face and becoming the third leg of a tripod shooting platform rather than holding the camcorder away from your body and trying to keep it steady. Maybe its just me, but I’m the one that now owns a camcorder I absolutly would not have purchased if I had tested it or had been observant of the non-eyepiece aspect of the unit, but then again it was a unit of VERY LIMITED availability.
   Rating: 2 / 5
4. 

   Barry C. Louden
   April 13th, 2010 - 07:13

   WE HAVE USED THIS ITEM SO MUCH! GREAT MOVIE MAKER! EASY TO TAKE ON TRIPS AS IT IS NOT BULKY..FITS IN A BAG SO EASY
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. 

   Georgy K.
   April 13th, 2010 - 09:27

   I bought this to replace my broken Digital8 Sony camcorder and the same sales guy who sold me the Sony 6 years ago advised me to buy this JVC, on one single criterion: the near-infinite hard disk drive storage. This was almost the only claim that was actually fulfilled.

   Summary: infinite recording time, disappointing image quality and control for the price, painful editing. Not for the average iMovie user.

   Positive points:
   
   - the storage capacity: a dream. I thought that 7 hours of high-quality video would barely last two weeks of vacation. Actually it took me months to fill them. Mostly because, as with digital cameras, you can throw away all the bad takes at will. I decided I’d keep all my previous good takes until I really would need the space, well… I still have my best clips from 5 months ago in the camcorder, which means that I can always show them at friends and family on location, even if I don’t have my computer or DVD copies on me.
   
   - the size, weight and shape: perfect. You can take this camcorder anywhere without facing hard packing decisions. It’s small, feels rather rugged. I added a wide-angle lens and the bigger optional battery, which makes the camera 50% bulkier but still manageable. The shape is great, at least for my hand size. I can really grab the camera properly in various situations of verticality and bumpiness… The microphones are not that well placed though, and I often cover them with my fingers.
   
   - image stabilization: very good. By chance I shot a clip with my wide-angle lens in the way, which gave me a good fixed reference to see how the beast is fast and smooth at correcting unwanted shakiness.
   
   - ease of connection: the USB2 link is OK. I’d have preferred firewire, but here we are not dealing with video streams but video files. BTW, this allows faster-than-real-time transfer. A firewire link with the camcorder acting as a hard disk would have been great…

   OK points: user interface, reaction time (even if it takes a long time to get ready), optics, battery life (with the 3 hour batt. – actually a 1.5 hours).

   Negative points :
   
   - Image quality: considering the price, image quality is disappointing. Frankly. The viewfinder is flattering but color saturation is in fact low, and clips shot on sunny days seem sadder than they are as I found out after shooting for a whole week in Yucatan. Clips shot on my digital camera (Canon IXUS 60) look better. There is also a lack of control on image quality.
   
   - Digital camera: simply forget it. My phone takes better pictures. I’d advise you to buy a 2Mpix+ cellphone and enjoy the benefit of sending your pics and videos immediately to far-away family and pals.
   
   - File transfer and editing: pretty horrible with the originally supplied software. In marketing copy, MPEG2 files might seem nice as a target format, but we always have to edit our videos, and this is quite painful, whatever power-users might tell you. You are in for hours of conversion, except if you burn your raw takes, at the risk of boring your audience.

   I was going to write “don’t buy this if you are a Mac user”. This is NOT iMovie ready. I have both PCs and Macs, it’s equally painful and disappointing, except if you buy yourself a real video editing suite.

   Still, if you have a Mac and an Everio get yourself the wonderful MPEG Streamclip free utility from Squared 5. It allows batch conversion of the Everio .MOD files into useable formats. You’ll have to buy the MPEG2 component from Apple first and change the .MOD extensions to .MPG prior to conversions. Time- and disk-space-consuming but worth it, as the image quality is superior to the one generated by the JVC-supplied software.

   Neat thing: leave your computer at home
   
   Though you can’t use the camcorder as an external hard disk (it is write-protected) you can copy the photographs from the SD card to the hard-disk, which means that with the Everio, you wont need to bring your computer on a trip just to store the pictures from your digital camera.

   Conclusion: given the choice, I won’t buy this camcorder, mainly for the below-par image quality, as I’m ready to cope with the complications of conversion and editing. But I’d seriously miss the storage capacity.
   Rating: 2 / 5

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