Excellent camera for a low price!
This JVC camcorder packs a pretty solid bang for the buck. The 520 lines of resolution give you a very nice, clear picture, even without going to the extent of buying an HD camcorder. Colors are very well represented, and the sound is of decent quality as well. (Can get a bit rough in windy situations though.)
Aside from the clear picture, the camera is easy to use. There are a share of features in more advanced menus you can access to fine tune things, but for a majority of your recording, you can simply leave it on auto mode. The camera allows you to switch between it's auto mode and manual mode, and saves any settings you change to your manual mode, making it great for fine tuning the camera as you get more used to it's functions, or just switch back to auto mode for easy recording in most environments.
This camera is relatively inexpensive as well, with the original MSRP being somewhere around the $400 mark. That's quite a bit less than many other cameras with similar features.
On the negative sides of things, there are a couple spots for improvement. Sadly there is no capability to add or change lenses on this camera, forcing you to use the standard lense that's built on. This is only a minor drawback though, as most people that would purchase this camera would probably not bother with trying to change lenses.
The other drawback is the lack of a mount on top for placing things such as microphones and lights. This means you use the nightshot mode when in darker areas, and sadly, the nightshot in this camera only works so-so. I found it to be quite choppy.
The 16x Optical zoom on the camera works well, and 16x is higher than a lot of other cameras in this price range. The zoom is steady and smooth, and works great when you can't get in as close as you'd like to something.
The fold out LCD panel is easy enough to use, but can be a bit hard to see in bright sunlight. Otherwise though, is a nice feature.
Battery life on average usually runs around 70 minutes or so, which is slightly longer than your normal miniDV tape lasts, with a bit of time to spare to mess around with functions. No complaints there.
Overall:
Pros: Clear, crisp picture, good range of features, easy to use, great camera for the money, adjustable viewfinder, miniDV, decent battery life, saves user-configs in manual mode, not bulky, 16x Optical zoom.
Cons: Nightshot could be better, no attachment mount, no way to attach lenses.
Summary: A great camera for the money, with a host of features for the average joe, and even a little bit for those getting more serious into video. A solid, stable camera that's a pleasure to use and doesn't let down despite a couple of minor shortcomings. If you're looking for an inexpensive digital video camera, this is a great buy.Read full review
