JVC Camcorders
JVC Everio GZ-HD7
Executive summary about JVC GZ-HD7 by Lori Grunin
jvc digital camcorder
The good: Nice manual features; attractive design; high-quality audio; low-noise, low-light video.
The bad: Ineffectual optical stabilizer; needs a built-in ND filter; some horizontal jitter and stuttering during playback; low-resolution video; sad battery life.
The bottom line: If this camcorder cost $500, we’d give it a much higher rating. But for its quadruple-digit price, we expect far better performance and video quality from the JVC Everio GZ-HD7.
Specifications: Video input type: Camcorder ; Optical sensor type: 3CCD ; Optical zoom: 10 x
As many camcorder manufacturers have discovered, three low-resolution sensors can sometimes take you a lot farther than a single high-resolution sensor. Perhaps it’s because JVC uses three extremely small 1/5-inch sensors, each with approximately 976×548 pixels, interpolating and interlacing to generate 1,920×1,080 1080i HD video.
It’s a pity, too, because the HD7 has all the features you’d expect from a camcorder in its price class, including manual aperture and shutter speed adjustment; a very nice manual focus implementation; low-noise, low-light video; bright LCD and eye-level viewfinder; an external mic input; and an accessory shoe.
The latter is especially significant in light of the HD7’s poor battery life. The HD7 can output in two different 1080i formats. The first, 1920×1080, dubbed “FHD” for “Full HD,” uses variable bit rate compression for a theoretically better picture. The second, 1440×1080, dubbed “1440 CBR” uses constant bit rate compression, and is the HD format you must use if you wish to edit your video with iMovie; iMovie doesn’t speak FHD.
All of which adds up to a pretty disappointing camcorder, especially given the JVC Everio GZ-HD7’s relatively high price tag.
