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Review: JVC GR-DVL805

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Buying Guide May 1, 2000 I have been researching the market on sub $1000 digital camcorders. The choices are not good at this point. Nevertheless, I bought one, and thought the following information that I collected and synthesized was a useful guide for buying a camcorder. Overall The ultimate bottom line is how does the picture look, how easy is the camcorder to use, and how easy can the images be edited and downloaded to a computer. And all of these goals need to be standardized by price. There is no guarantee that any combination of manufacturer, format, or features will yield great pictures. The only way to evaluate any camera is to view the output. Format There are three digital formats: DV, MiniDV, and Digital8. Sony has a series of camcorders in the Digital8 format. The advantage is that these camcorders use 8mm tapes. The disadvantage is that Digital8 is Sony's proprietary format. It is not an industry standard--there are no VCRs that play them--and the future is uncertain. Of course, the future is uncertain in any technology, but if Sony discontinues the format for whatever reason, the tapes are only as good as the camcorder that can play them. Resolution Conventional VHS format has 240 lines of horizontal resolution. (8mm format has 300 and television broadcast 340.) Digital camcorders produce a better picture because they can record up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution. Yet that is not true of all digital cameras. The Canon Elecutura produces only 370 lines of resolution. This is more than Hi8mm format, and may produce a quality picture, but the point is that 500 lines of resolution is not standard for all digital cameras. Pixels The more pixels or dots that make up the picture, the better. There are some technical nuances, however, so it is not so simple that more pixels automatically make a better picture. Tapes The MiniDv tapes are apparently in short supply, but probably not for long. They are also more expensive. Thus, the Sony Digital8 camcorders that use Hi8 tapes have an advantage with price. LCD Monitor Virtually all digital camcorders have a LCD monitor. The only difference is size and quality. The bigger the size the more the cost. Stabilization. Hand held cameras need stabilization help. Optical stabilization is better than digital. Unfortunately, only Canon offers optical stabilization. Digital stabilization manipulates the picture in order to reduce motion, which can degrade the picture quality. However, one review gave good marks to digital stabilization in JVC camcorders. Still Digital camcorders usually offer photo or still mode. The problem is that the resolution for digital camcorders is not near low-end plain digital cameras. Therefore the stills are not high quality. Just to give you an idea, a cursory look at a mail camara catalog advertisements shows that a $700 digital camera offers 2 magapixels, and a $1000 digital camera offers 4.3 megapixel. In contrast, the most pixels I've seen advertised for a camcorder (under $1k) is JVC which claims 680k pixels. The lesson is to buy a digital camcorder for the video. Don't expect much from the stills. Viewing Most VCRs don't play MiniDV tapes. The camcorder itself must be used to play the tape by connecting to the television or VCR through S-Video or cables. This causes wear and tear on the camcorder. I'm not sure to what degree, however. It is probably not a problem for casual users. Audio It is recommended that the camcorder have an audio in port for a microphone. This will reduce the possibility that noise from the camcorder itself will be included in the audio. One review claimed that the JVC GRDV50 and GRDV70 cameras have a problem with camcorder noise. Links to Computer The IEEE 1394 "Firewire" or "I-Link" connection from the camcorder to the computer is prominently advertised. The protocol is no doubt state of the art because you can transfer DV video from camera to computer in native DV format without additional compression or conversion. But what isn't being advertised is that you need a state of the art computer to handle the speed. The means at least a Pentium II with 300 MHz or more. If you're not willing to splurge for a new computer, the 1394 is not greatly helpful, though you would still want one for the future. Batteries The Lithium batteries are superior to the Nickel Cadmium batteries because they can be recharged at any time. Nickels have a "battery memory" effect, and you have to wait for the Nickels to drain down before you can recharge them. A very useful feature is a battery recharger which allows use of the camcorder while a battery is being recharged. The rechargers can be expensive--up to $200. Thus, it can be a big deal if the recharger is included with the camera. Zoom Optical zoom is better than digital zoom. However, optical zoom beyond 12 power requires solid stabilization such as a tripod. Digital zoom causes distortion of the picture, and it useful only up to about 20 power. Lux Lux rating is the ability of the camcorder to film with low light levels. Certainly it is great to be able to film in poor lighting situations, but if you are trying to skimp on cost, plan on filming with good lighting. Editing Some JVC cameras offer a JLIP interface which supposedly aids in editing. Buying The online market has all the appearance of buying liquor during prohibition. Wild prices are advertised, but the products are not necessilarly available. Some businesses advertise a low price, but need to wait until enough requests for product are in hand so they can get the volume discount. There is also the concern over warranty. Sony has claimed that the warranty is applicable only to camcorders bought from a certified merchant. However, I recently talked to a camcorder repairman, and he said that any warranty would be honored, provided proof of purchase. In addition, be wary of refurbished camcorders offered at low cost. These camcorders may very well be worth the price, but the point is that you are not buying a new camcorder.

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Review of JVC GR-DVL805 September 12, 2000 I bought the JVC GR-DVL805 because: 1) JVC has a good reputation. In fact, I'm told that JVC is the company that introduced the first VHS VCR back in the '70s. 2) The base cost of the camcorder was $753. However, I ended up paying $932 after purchasing a case, tripod, 5 mini-dv tapes, and freight charges. An additional battery is $79, which I should have but haven't bought yet. The total is thus $1011. Still the $753 base price is a good one. 3) It purports to capture 520 lines of horizontal and 480 lines of vertical resolution. This compares to Hi8mm camcorders which record their signal at about 400 lines of resolution. 4) The camera has a 680k 1/4" CCD for still mode, which is not much for a digital camera but very good for a camcorder. 5) An i.Link Digital Input/Output (IEEE 1394 compliant) port for use in the future. 6) It has an 3.5" LCD screen. 7) It comes with a recharger for the battery. My out of the box experience was favorable. The camcorder comes with comprehensive manuals. Perhaps they are too comprehensive. The small print in the 83 page manual is daunting to look at. The most important features to me are quality and durability. The picture is clear. The colors look good, especially facial tones indoors. I have no way to verify that the camcorder has the resolution it claims to have, but the picture definitely looks better than I get from the cable feed. You can judge the quality of the stills by looking for the picture on the Camcorder Images site. As for durability, it has survived one slight knock, so I'm pleased. The digital stabilizer for still images works very well. I was trying to take stills of a scoreboard a quarter of a mile away. The image jumped when I was just holding it. But I turned on the stabilizer and the screen indeed stabilized. I was still doubtful, but the picture turned out great. It captured some difficult lettering. The camcorder came with software which is supposedly worth $180. The software is the biggest negative to this point. The software does not function smoothly, and it is very confusing and difficult to manage. For example, in the Picture Navigator application, I selected and album, then clicked on the Read Camera Data function. The camera pictures were transferred to the computer. Then I selected Save, and selected my album again. Yet again the pictures were transferred to the computer. Then I selected Close (since I had saved), and looked at my album. Only one of five pictures was there. Why one? This is just one example of the convoluted software. Also, when the Presto! Mr. Photo software loads, I have to manually Ctrl+Alt+Del to end the task of the Envoy 7 driver task. This may be an idiosyncrasy of my computer, but after all the other interface problems, it just seems symbolic of the software. There are manuals to the software that may explain everything. But I shouldn't have to read a manual in order to download an image to the computer and save. One of the problems is that it is annoying to have to hook up the camcorder to the television. It would be better to be able to just pop the tapes in the VCR. That said, the Sony DHR-1000 dual cassette mechanism accepts full-size and Mini DV cassettes. This makes it extremely easy to copy from a Mini DV to a VHS tape. I'm continuing to test. I haven't tried many features, especially the JLIP interface. Eventually I will get a video card and hopefully post video to this web site. I'll keep you posted.