DigitalTrends Reviews the JVC EVERIO GZ-HD3

[Jason Dunn]

http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review4796.html

"After years of pretty stagnant camcorder sales of around 4-5 million per year, it’s expected close to 20 percent more will be purchased in 2007. To this observer the reason is pretty simple—HDTV. People are buying flat-panel televisions by the millions and really enjoy HD programming and higher-quality DVDs on widescreens. Standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio video really doesn’t cut it anymore—especially on a pretty flat panel display. Enter the many high-def camcorders now widely available. Walking into a big box retailer recently I saw over a half-dozen on view along with many less-expensive SD camcorders. This trend will continue as HD camcorder prices continue to drop to more reasonable levels. It really is a HD World, as many Japanese companies have hyped for the last decade. A good example is the new JVC GZ-HD3, a hard disk based HD camcorder that’s the less expensive sibling to the GZ-HD7 released earlier this year. We weren’t too thrilled with that one, given its high price ($1,699 USD list) and so-so video quality. Along comes this new one for $400 USD less. Instantly you might think this is a much better deal but looks can be deceiving. Let’s give it a workout and see if it belongs on your shopping list…



The JVC EVERIO looks like a solid HD camcorder with enough storage to capture five hours worth of video - not bad at all! Like most of the other cameras on the market, it's limited to a 10x optical zoom - I wonder when we'll see cameras this size bust into the 15x or 20x range? Although without optical image stabilization - a major oversight in my opinion - that extra zoom would probably result in jittery footage unless the camera was mounted on a tripod. Hard drive-based cameras definitely have their advantages, but this one may not be the best one out there.

[Jason Dunn]

http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/review4796.html

"After years of pretty stagnant camcorder sales of around 4-5 million per year, it’s expected close to 20 percent more will be purchased in 2007. To this observer the reason is pretty simple—HDTV. People are buying flat-panel televisions by the millions and really enjoy HD programming and higher-quality DVDs on widescreens. Standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio video really doesn’t cut it anymore—especially on a pretty flat panel display. Enter the many high-def camcorders now widely available. Walking into a big box retailer recently I saw over a half-dozen on view along with many less-expensive SD camcorders. This trend will continue as HD camcorder prices continue to drop to more reasonable levels. It really is a HD World, as many Japanese companies have hyped for the last decade. A good example is the new JVC GZ-HD3, a hard disk based HD camcorder that’s the less expensive sibling to the GZ-HD7 released earlier this year. We weren’t too thrilled with that one, given its high price ($1,699 USD list) and so-so video quality. Along comes this new one for $400 USD less. Instantly you might think this is a much better deal but looks can be deceiving. Let’s give it a workout and see if it belongs on your shopping list…



The JVC EVERIO looks like a solid HD camcorder with enough storage to capture five hours worth of video - not bad at all! Like most of the other cameras on the market, it's limited to a 10x optical zoom - I wonder when we'll see cameras this size bust into the 15x or 20x range? Although without optical image stabilization - a major oversight in my opinion - that extra zoom would probably result in jittery footage unless the camera was mounted on a tripod. Hard drive-based cameras definitely have their advantages, but this one may not be the best one out there.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I'll keep my HDR-SR5, thank you.

Seriously. It has a flash, has a HD also, shoots in AVCHD (I've heard horror stories about MPEG 2 TS), has optical image stabilization, and doesn't require you to stay within the "Sony ecosystem" the way they said the Everio requires you to stay inside the JVC ecosystem.

And, not for nothing, but my HDR-SR5 also costs about $750 street. I paid $743 at Dell for it two months ago as opposed to the seriously feature-lacking Everio at $1200.