JVC is the best

Let's be honest: at one point in time anybody wants a camera; for shooting family movies, friends or for travelling or whatever you want. I got my share of desire about one month ago. I finally got some money put aside and I decided that a camera would be a good investment. So I went into the first Best Buy store to try out a few.

At first I was confused. There are so many models on the market that I didn't know what to pick: Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Canon, RCA etc. After more than an hour of looking around my eyes fell on this model of JVC (GRDVL300U). It was small, shiny and incredibly easy to use. It only had 3 buttons on the surface and I was able to zoom, take pictures and adjust pretty much everything I wanted only using these three buttons. Plus it had a built in light and a microphone and a 10x optical and 250x digital zoom. It's true that at first I found that the LCD screen was a little bit small (2.5 in) and I was wondering if I should buy the 500U model which has a 3 in screen. I am happy I didn't because although small, it fits perfectly with the size of the camera and never bothered me.

The camera also came with some software packed on a cd. There are programs that allow you to transfer images and we even movies onto your pc via a serial cable (also provided). It is really easy to use too. After the software installation you plug in the cable and the camera and restart the computer. The camera is automatically detected and that's it. At this point the fun begins: you can control your camera with your mouse and transfer pretty much everything you recorded on your pc.

One of the factors that made me decide for this camera was the digital DV cassettes it uses. Although a little bit more expensive than the Hi8 ones used by Sony it is worth the price. I must have recorded more than 10 times on the same tape (I bought Fuji) and the quality of the sound and image didn't change: still crisp and nice, beautiful colors. And lately I saw that the price for these is going down each day (now it is about $8 for an one hour tape).

The battery is not one of it's strong points: it lasts only about 45 minutes if you shoot using the black and white viewfinder. If you want to use the light or even the LCD screen you have to expect running out of power a little bit faster. Anyway it is not difficult to upgrade. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is directly from JVC website. You can buy a 2 hours battery or a 6 or even 8 although I have to mention that for the last two you also need another adapter/charger. Speaking of charger, it even works on 220V (so if you travel to Europe your safe).

Same model also comes with a memory stick (GRDVL550U) so if you want to record pictures directly on it and move it much faster on your computer you can buy this model (although I don't think it's worth another $150-$200 only for that). The software provided is Windows compatible only so for Linux or Unix fans this might be a nice alternative.

The camera also comes with a remote, a shoulder strap, three manuals (and very well written ones) and if you check JVC website you will see that you can buy some more extras from them. I think this is one of the best camera on the market at this point and JVC is a company that really respects themselves and their customers.