My little jewel

Buying a camcorder is a big decision for the usual people (I am not thinking about the rich guys who are buying, don't like it, through it away...). After all it is around $1000, money that otherwise could be spent on many useful things... Why not buying the best for your money?

The plan: OK. So you want to buy a video camera and you don't know what to pick. Let me tell you how I did my research. First I wanted a digital camcorder, possibly the simplest and the cheapest one, not too big (me and my wife like to travel a lot) and not too many buttons (let's be honest, some of the complicated features you never use). I had my eyes on Sony DCR-TRV110, Panasonic PV-DV100 and JVC GRDVL300U, the product in question. Why did I rule the other two out? First the Sony camcorder works with Hi8 tapes which are not quite "digital". They are however of good quality, cheaper then mini DV tapes but I heard that the quality of the recording is not very high after the second or the third use. Second, I try to stay away from Panasonic as much as I can because of their bad customer service. Maybe it is just a bad reputation and the guys are really great. But I went to their website and I tried to locate a service center around my residence, just in case something would go wrong with it. It turns out that they don't have one in USA!!! I did the same thing for JVC and I found around ten centers located within 5 miles from my home.
I was left with JVC and I decided to buy this model. I have it for over two month now and I am really in love with it. Let me tell you a few things about its ease to use and features.

Use and features: I bought the camera from Amazon (saved on taxes, shipping is just $5, they had a discount). I was a little worried about how sensitive a camcorder usually is and that it might break during transportation. My worries were in vain because the camera was really nice packed, with all those air filled bags that protect it from hits all around it in a big package. I opened, I located the power supply, plugged it in, and start shooting immediately. I forgot to tell you that the camera doesn't come with any mini DV tapes, so if you want to test it as soon as you get it, you have to buy one of those also ($10 from Amazon). Yes shooting for the first time in my life was that easy!!

What else was in the box? Besides the power supply you get a battery that lasts about an hour (the length depends if you use the LCD panel or not and if you use the light). One cable that connects the power supply to the camcorder, audio-video output cable which allows you to connect the camcorder to your TV or VCR, editing cable for PC connection, remote control and specific software for downloading pictures and even movies from it and to edit them. And of course three user manuals for camcorder and software.

Before I go to the features let me just tell you a few things about the software. It is called JLIP (Joint Level Interface Protocol) and it is created by JVC so there are not any compatibility issues. I didn't use it until a week ago because I was so captivated by the camcorder alone that I forgot about the software. The installation was a breeze (comes on a CD). I plugged the cable into one of the com ports and the software detected my camera immediately (there might be a problem if your com port is used by something else like a modem). Then I started collecting pictures from the tape just by a push of a button... I could go on and write about this forever but I have to get back to the "object of my affection".

Some of the features I like most are:
-the 2.5 inch LCD panel may look small but it's not; it is very proportional to the camera. Very crisp image, you can adjust its luminosity.
-image stabilization that really works; you don't get a stabilized image when you zoom too much because the movement of your hand amplifies a lot.
-you can take digital photos just like using a digital camera.
-it has many digital effects like shooting in black and white, sepia, stroboscopic, etc.
-the digital zoom is very good. You can go up to 40x without (almost) noticing that you are on digital. Anyway the maximum digital zoom is 250x.
-you cam manually adjust everything when you shoot: luminosity, shutter speed (when you take pictures) etc.
-680,000-pixel CCD, 500 lines horizontal
-i.Link IEEE 1394 etc
For a full list of features visit
http://www.jvc.com/subprod.jsp?modelId=MODL006275

The battery is not the greatest. Probably I am going to buy an eight hour one from JVC web site. However if you are thinking about doing the same, be advised that the charger that ships with it is only good for the 1 and 2 hours battery. For the 6 and 8 hours one you also need to buy another adapter.

There are many accessories that you can add if you want by buying them from JVC. Check out the list located at
http://www.jvcservice.com/accweb3/searchresults.asp?param=mdlGRDVL300U
I especially like the 3.0X conversion lens.

I really recommend this camcorder (if you cannot tell from the review). I like it a lot, it is my little jewel.