Product Description

JVC's cutting edge digital media camera is a totally new way to shoot and enjoy digital video. The Everio records 60 minutes of MiniDV quality MPEG-2 video or over 5,500 1600x1200 UXGA high resolution stills on the included high capacity 4GB Microdrive card. Thanks to its 2.12M CCD imager, Super Hi-Rez Lens and JVC's exclusive Megabrid engine you're getting the latest technology for superior performance. Make digital-to-digital transfers using the USB 2.0 interface for quick downloading to a PC. Print directly from the USB to any PictBridge compatible printer. The rotating grip of the MC200 let's you comfortably transition shooting angles from the palm of your hand.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34601 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: JVC
• Model: GZMC200U
• Dimensions: 9.00" h x 10.00" w x 12.00" l, 8.00 pounds
• Display size: 1.8

Features

• 1/3.6-inch CCD imager with 2.12-megapixel resolution
• Microdrive format lets you shoot up to 60 minutes of high-quality MPEG-2 video
• 10x optical zoom with image stabilization
• 1.8-inch LCD screen
• Also supports CompactFlash and SD Memory Cards, USB2.0, DV-AVI,Windows-AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, Windows Media Video, and RealVideo

Amazon.com Product Description
Still images or video--capture either 60 minutes of DVD-quality MPEG-2 movies or thousands of super-high resolution UXGA-size JPEG pictures with the Everio--the first camera to use Microdrive technology. The included 4GB Microdrive card, though it is the same size as Compact Flash card, has such unprecedented capacity because it is has its own built-in HDD (hard disk drive).

The completely tapeless Microdrive format lets you choose higher video quality or longer shooting times.

Store more photos than you ever thought possible on the included 4GB Microdrive card.

Until now, tapeless formats have been severely limited in the length and quality of video capacity, but the Everio's Microdrive lets you shoot up to 60 minutes of high quality MPEG-2 video--and even more in lower resolution modes. A selection of recording modes lets you choose more quality or more shooting time. The highest quality ULTRA mode records at a constant bit rate of 8.88 Mbps with AC 3 audio -- comparable to the DVD data rate (average 4 Mbps video/9.8 Mbps maximum). Essentially what you get is DVD quality, with the same video and audio format as a movie DVD. And the number of still photos that will fit on the Microdrive card is nothing less than awe-inspiring: More than 5000 of the highest resolution images (1600x1200 fine).

2.12 Megapixel CCD
This 1/3.6" CCD with a total of 2.12 million pixels (effective: 1.23 million for moving pictures, 2 million for still pictures) offers the high resolution capabilities needed for high quality digital videography and photography. And the Megabrid Engine applies separate, optimized processing to moving and still images, for videos with a high signal-to-noise ratio, and high-resolution still pictures.

Versatile, Lossless Data
Store what you've shot on the provided Microdrive card, optional CompactFlash or SD Memory Cards. size as a CompactFlash card, but with many Gigabytes of capacity. You can eject the Microdrive card, just as you would a CompactFlash or SD Memory Card, and load data into your PC via optional card adapter. Or simply connect the camera via its USB2.0 interface for quick downloading to a PC. All transfer is digital-to-digital, so you won't lose any quality in the process.

DVD Creation & Sharing

Three advanced applications are provided: Power Producer offers easy saving (authoring) of your video clips in any order to DVD, even right from a USB-connected camera, so you can share your original DVDs with anybody who owns a DVD player. Power Director offers feature-rich non-linear editing so you can flex your creative muscle with titles, effects, and even mix still with videos. Power DVD for easy video clip and DVD playback with AC 3 audio.

Multi-Format Support
In addition to making it easy to create DVDs, the supplied software converts to a variety of file formats for distribution via the Web or by e-mail. Supported formats include DV-AVI, Windows-AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, as well as Windows Media Video and RealVideo that can be streamed over the Internet.

Customer Reviews

A good SECOND camcorder
While there is much I really like about this camera, its short comings prevent me from recommending it to people who want just one video camera. The problems I am experiencing deal mostly with the camera's POOR performance in medium to low light conditions. While many camcorders excel at producing images in standard room lighting, this camera does a dismal job. In normal room lighting the auto focus will occasionally fail and even at the best of the times the images lack adequate saturation. The manual white balance settings improve the situation only marginally. If you are going to be shooting inside your house, use another camcorder.

Now the upside - the camcorder delivers good quality images when shooting outside. Motion artifacts are occasionally detectable when objects in the scene move quickly but not annoying at all. The zoom is quite satisfying and the auto focus only lags slightly behind when quickly zooming in the 10x optical zoom range. The compact size is spectacular! The standard tripod mount socket is a welcome addition.

And, of course, the whole video editing experience is greatly enhanced by the direct transfer of the camera's hard drive to your editing station's hard drive. (I recommend you get a card reader or PCMCIA adapter, so the camera isn't involved in the video transfer. You can be charging the camera while you are working with the saved video - something you'll do often as the battery only lasts an hour).

The saved video files have a .mod extension. The manual says you should only use the supplied software to edit/play the video files. The supplied software is from Cyberlink and it is adequate. I have found that by renaming the files to .mpg after I have copied them to my editing station, I can edit/play the video files with software not supplied with the camera. Don't know if this will work in all cases, but so far so good.

The still camera images are actually quite nice for a 2 mega pixel camera. They are always saved as JPEG files. I have found no option to save as a lossless TIFF. A real shame since the supplied 4GB microdrive really has enough room to store these big files.

The audio quality is excellent, no complaints what so ever.

One last disappointment - the camera limits maximum file size to 4GB, even if you have a compact flash card that can hold more. As a result it shall forever be impossible for this camera to record more than 60 continuous minutes using the highest quality video setting. Sure, an 8GB card can hold 2 of these 60 minute recordings but something will be missed when the first file hits the 4GB wall and the recording is stopped and the camera waits for you to manually start a new recording session.

Has its pluses and minuses
Pluses are obvious - slap the CF card in your PC reader and you can instantly start editing, converting, and/or burning the video to DVD. Much more convenient than (ugh) in-camera DV capture with a regular DV video camera. The accompanying software package is a perfect match for this camera. Also, this camera is freaking TINY. Although the video is not as good as my DV camera, I will undoubtably use it much more. Audio is excellent, Dolby Digital.

Minuses - Compared to my Sony DV camera, the focusing is slow and inaccurate. Holding the camera still is extremely difficult because of its size - the stability feature is essential although not spectacular - you need to work to keep this thing still. Although the resolution is the same as DV (720x480), I think my DV cameras picture is better, probably due to the CCD. The picture is not very sharp, and movement is pretty blurry.

Conclusion: This is an early adopter product. I would love to see a version with a better CCD and flash, which will undoubtably be down the road the next 12 months or so.

Important tip for indoors shooting
Had this camera for a month, used it extensively in recent vacation.
Bottom line it's a superb video camera. Video clips are very high quality with a lot of details and good colors; you just can't believe such great quality video came form this tiny camera.

Its biggest selling point of quick PC transfer and fast DVD creation works extremely well. I've transferred 41min of video to my old PC and burned a DVD within 21minutes from start to finish with only a few mouse clicks.
Best by the way is to use USB2.0 card reader instead of the camera for video transfer, it works MUCH faster.


It's biggest issue is mediocre indoors performance. It's not "poor" as some people say since JVC did a very good job of reducing noise in low light, so the video looks very smooth and pleasant to the eye.
The problem remains with washout colors and little too dark images.

I came of a way to improve its indoors performance significantly, use "M" mode with white balance set to "Cloudy" and shutter speed set to 1/50 (in extreme conditions 1/30)
The camera store these settings, so you just need to set these once and switch to "M" whenever shooting indoors.
Video will look a little brighter and colors more saturated.

Overall extremely well built very good high quality camera with only a few tweaks, with its recent price drop to about $800 it's a good value.