Product Description

JVC is one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of sophisticated audio, video and related software products. Building upon a wealth of technologies the company is moving decisively to offer appropriate solutions for the multimedia age. To remain at the forefront of the audiovisual industry in the 21st century, JVC is marshalling its resources to create the ultimate in appealing, cost-competitive products.PRODUCT FEATURES:Multi-Language On-Screen Menu;Hard Disk Protection with Drop Detection and Floating Suspension;Auto and manual focus;Digital Image Stabilizer;Program AE (Sepia / Black and White / Twilight / Classic Film / Strobe / Snow / Spotlight / Fixed Shutter / Sports);Backlight/Spotlight compensation;White Balance (Auto, MWB, Fine, Cloud, Halogen);Self-Timer;Motor-Drive Shooting;Macro Shooting as close as 5cm with zoom set to Wide;Tele-macro Shooting Distance: up to 40cm;Playlist Video Clip Playback and Slide Show Still Playback;Playback Scene Transitions (White Fader, Black Fader, Corner Wipe, Window Wipe, Slide Wipe, Door Wipe, Scroll Wipe, Shutter Wipe).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3357 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: JVC
• Model: GZ-MG21US
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 10.00" w x 8.00" l, .75 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• 20GB Hard Drive Camcorder, High-Quality MPEG-2 Recording
• F2.0 Lens, 680K CCD, 32x Optical Zoom, 800x Digital Zoom
• 2.5" Clear LCD Monitor, Power Linked Operation
• USB 2.0 High Speed Interface
• 3 Dimension Noise Reduction for Clear picture

From the Manufacturer
Just keep on shooting! Nothing to load, nothing to eject, nothing to finalize. Everio is designed to eliminate your worries. Just keep on shooting, because the built-in large capacity hard drive easily stores hours and hours of your video inside a lightweight compact camcorder. Plus shoot thousands of digital still images. So whether you're at home or on the go, you'll always be ready to record or playback your memories.

Smart Advantages of a Hard Disk Camcorder

No risk of erasing previous recordings by mistake. You won't ever record over those once-in-a-lifetime events. Recording starts automatically from the blank space on the disk.

No cost for or need to buy additional recording media. No tape or disc is required The Everio G Series provides an all-in-one solution, ensuring no interruption during long time recordings, so you won't miss a moment. No media to lose!

Easy deletion of unwanted scenes. So you don't have to worry about getting it right the first time, safely select and erase entire scenes in an instant to free up disk space. Use your camcorder with a freedom never before possible!

Direct access to scenes you want. No need to Fast Forward or Rewind. Just click on the thumbnail image and watch your memories come to life. Makes sifting through hours and hours of accumulated footage a breeze.

Simple editing is made possible inside the camera. Fast, quick downloading to your computer via USB 2.0. Drag and drop editing software provided for Windows and Macintosh computers.

Long-time recording to shoot hours of video on the large capacity built-in hard drive. Now you can record entire events such as vacations, sporting events and more, without worry.

More Everio GZMG21 Advantages

Compact and lightweight design
With a high-capacity 1.8-inch hard disk drive built into a compact body that weighs-in at less than 1 pound, Everio G camcorders are the perfect companion to record your moving and still memories. No tape, no disc. Experience the camcorder that's small, compact, with less to carry, and so easy to use.

MPEG-2 DVD-movie quality video
Get up to 25 hours of recording with 20GB internal hard disk drive. Using Everio's high-quality MPEG-2 data compression format, you can record DVD-movie quality video at a variable bit rate. The average bit rate is 8.88 Mbps with Dolby Digital audio for a superior video and sound quality.

The Everio's drop protection system keeps your camcorder safe

Hard disk drive protection and stability
To protect the hard disk drive from shocks and vibrations, Everio G camcorders incorporate the latest hard disk protection technologies, allowing carefree, active camcorder use.

Polymer shock absorbers

Floating suspension (shock absorbers)
Cushions the hard disk from vibrations using polymer shock absorbers.

16:9 widescreen shooting and playback
The 2.5-inch widescreen LCD offers a 16:9 aspect ratio for wide cinematic video shooting. Naturally the playback picture can be enjoyed in full widescreen dimensions on the LCD or on a connected widescreen TV. This clear LCD cuts surface reflections and glare to maintain a clear, visible, bright view.

Designed for Easy Shooting and Viewing

Stick control
Easily navigate through multiple functions with one-finger control. Everything from menu item selection to changing camera settings for recording and playback.

32x optical zoom with 800x digital zoom

Incredible 32x magnification with full optical quality. Digital zoom takes you up to 800x.

Power-linked operation
Automatically turns on the camera when you open the LCD so you can shoot right away, and turns off the camera when you close the LCD so you won't waste power.

Index/Data button
Gives you one-touch confirmation of disk capacity and battery life. Press the button to check the remaining recording capacities in all four recording modes. Press it again to check remaining battery and recording time.

Auto flash and sensitivity
Illuminate your videos with the Auto Illumi. Light. Everio G camcorders can automatically turn on and off the light or give you the control. What’s more, new video processing assures high sensitivity and a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Data battery
Allows you to check the remaining battery power by % and remaining recording time in minutes at the touch of the Index/Data button, even while the camcorder's power is off!

Easy to Share

Easy video access

Easily locate your desired video clip by either thumbnail, date or event selection icon. The event selection icon allows easier management for your video and still files. Conveniently select the desired icon before or after you record. There are 30 preloaded icons that can be selected such as "Birthday". These category icons can easily open all files associated with the corresponding topic. The icons can also help in creating playlists for on-camera playback, downloading to a PC or burning to DVD.

Easy video viewing

• DVD-quality picture on the big screen: Just hook up to a TV and enjoy Everio’s high-quality MPEG-2 video on a large screen TV. Play just the clips you want in the order you like, pre-arranged right in the camera into a movie Playlist. This can also be done with the provided remote control.
• Simple AV and S connection for dubbing or making a DVD: With the AV cable (S-Video interface also available) connected directly to a VCR or DVD recorder, you can copy Everio movie clips and playlists as many times as you like to a VHS tape or DVD disc for easy sharing with a wide audience. Every copy’s high quality is the same.
• Easy printing with PictBridge/DPOF support: With PictBridge, digital stills can be output to a compatible printer with just one cable connection. Also, DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) information lets you easily order digital printing of your shots from a photo studio.

What's in the box
GZ-MG21 Everio camcorder, AC power adapter, BN-VF707 rechargeable battery pack, AV cable, USB cable, remote control, shoulder strap, lens cap, and user's manual.

Customer Reviews

Convenience, convenience, convenience, and features!
I moved up from a MiniDV camcorder to this one because of the hard-drive recording. It was a *great* purchasing decision. My personal favorite features:
- Plug it into your computer, drag and drop the clips to your computer, rename them from .MOD to .MPG, and then author a DVD. NO CONVERSION NECESSARY! Records AC-3 audio.
- Easy manual control
- Intuitive navigation of the menu structure (MG21 has a 'stick' control while the MG20 did not)
- 16:9 recording! Fills up my HDTV.
- 32x OPTICAL zoom
- ~5 hours of recording time even in the highest quality setting

Downsides:
- Quality out of the box is not so good, BUT with a few adjustments it is much better

How I get good low-light/indoors video (do the following steps indoors with the camera in capture mode):
1) Disable the "Gain Up" feature (major contributor to the grainy low-light video)
2) Turn on "Manual" mode (via AUTO button)
3) Go to the manual control menu (down on the 'stick')
4) Set AE to '+2'
5) Highlight 'MWB' in the WB menu, point the camera at a sheet of paper (position the camera so the sheet of paper fills the view of the camera) and press and hold the middle of the 'stick' until 'MWB' stops blinking (about 5-10 seconds).
6) Set S.sp. to 1/60
7) Press down on the 'stick' to exit the manual control menu

After doing this, my indoors video quality is MUCH better (no more noise/grainy video). The settings will be saved, even if the battery is removed or depleted; they will return even if you switch to AUTO mode then back to MANUAL.

I am really happy with this camcorder.

[...]

Very convenient
I chose JVC everio of course because of its ability to write video files on hard drive and then easily copy them to my PC ( don't forget to change .MOD extension to MPG to play it in any player. Also you may need MPEG-2 codec which you can find on internet). No tapes, disks, etc. Just calculate how much you will spend on these items of the past. I think they still exist just because of companies getting money for this on the regular basis. If you have a tape camera you are busted for all your life to feed producer of DV cassettes... But this is all just thoughts.
About the camera you can read a lot of reviews for other models which are almost exactly the same and get a lot of useful information. I just chose the cheapest model which is totally enough for my needs. Summary is that this camera is very convenient, battery life is less than 1 hour, video quality during the day is good, during the night is no quality at all and in low light you should play a little bit with the settings. I've read other reviews and just want to repeat this: try GAIN UP setting or follow this advise of one reviewer:

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.

I think JVC should give more hints to people, not everyone can guess such things.
So 5 stars for the idea minus 1 star for battery, bad manual and average video quality.

Great palm size camcorder
I recently purchased this product and have been very happy with the performance. It is very small and light and the recording quality is really good. I especially like the ability to record segments directly to the hard drive. It is very easy to delete the bad takes and just get the good stuff. The quality in dark places or at night is not very good (except for close-up subjects), but considering the size of the camera I am fine with limiting recording the well lit places.

I would highly recommend this purchase, especially for getting good video of kids or friends.