JVC Everio HD Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom

Just my two cents…I have an older Everio and am pretty satisfied. Video and audio quality are good. Being a relative technophobe, I like not having to transfer video in real time-ie tape drives- and with the requisite software so I can send videos to the grandparents. For someone who grew up with various forms of video tape, technology like the Everio is appreciated.

However, I will say my experience with the Everio has not been completely positive. The touchscreen controls are not entirely intuitive. Although easier than transferring videotape to the computer, the Everio isn’t quite point, drag, and click. Also is the matter of battery life. Based on the few comments, it would seem poor battery life is something which spans more than just one model of Everio. I would have thought that a device which doesn’t run a tape drive would have a longer battery life than about an hour.

Having said all that, I would recommend the Everio at least as an entry point for the beginner or someone who doesn’t want to risk losing their more expensive equipment on a family vacation.

Or more to the point, the lenses. A cheap point & shoot has a much better lens than a phone and a DLSR can be way better than that. You can’t compare the glass on a $120 camcorder to a Nikon or Canon SLR lens but it’s still WAY better than the lens on my android phone.

The best thing about the phone is that it’s always with you but you’re kidding yourself if you think the quality can compare if you’re looking to do anything even remotely serious.

Have one of these and got it at Best Buy for $150. Its a great camera. We bought an extra battery that extends the life to 4 hours.

I must say, I was almost expecting something kooky from Woot today, being Halloween. Oh Well! Happy Halloween!!!

Some CONS

  1. Unfortunately, the Advanced Image Stabilizer appears to be purely digital and not optical. A clue is this footnote on its website: “*Especially effective when shooting bright scenes at wide angle.” Optical stabilization is generally not affected by the available light. On the other hand, digital or electronic stabilization adds a lot of noise in low light.

  2. Note that the output is not true 1080p. The image is upconverted (via interpolation?). For true 1080p output, get the GZ-HM450 or GZ-HM440.

  3. Shockingly, this doesn’t do still photos.

  4. Unlike conventional camcorders, you can’t pause while recording. The result is a lot of small snippets. That can be a problem for some people. For example, it’s harder to organize and play. During playing, you may need to manually forward to the next snippet despite the fact that all the snippets are of the same session or event. I don’t believe there is an auto-advance like one would do for slideshows. This is especially annoying since the camcorder has no remote control so you’ll find yourself holding it when playing through the TV. Each snippet also has overhead which means wasted memory vs one continuous file.

Do you really want to have to go back to your computer to join all the snippets before you have a usable video? Not only is that time consuming, but joining the video and then saving the resulting degrades the quality. That’s because lossy compression occurs on each frame as well as BETWEEN each frame. Even if the computer cannot compress any more, it will still attempt to do so, degrading the quality. Many people have also said that this JVC uses a proprietary format which will make it hard to join the snippets.

The lack of pausing during recording is unfortunately common in cheaper camcorders and most digital cameras. A notable exception are Samsung digital cameras. Even their cheap $70 models can pause while recording video.

Can anyone explain what is Advanced Image Stabilizer? Is it sensor shift or built-in lens stabilizer? Anyway, electronic stabilizer sucks.

this may seem like a silly question but can you take regular pictures too or only video?

See my post, right above yours. Everything on its website and manual suggests Electronic Stabilization. Yep, that means lots of video noise in low light (so turn off the feature if you’re using a tripod!!!).

This camcorder is a very basic model that lacks common features including Still Photos and a remote. In fact, if you look on the Comparison Chart, this is the worst model.

ANOTHER NEGATIVE:

The sound is monaural, not stereo. That’s pretty shocking since many digital still cameras and palmcorders (i.e. Flip), in this price range record stereo sound.

About the only advantage this Everio has over a good digital still camera is the high optical zoom and time lapse video. But its surprising omissions make it a poor choice for the price.

I looked at the manual and specs, and don’t see anything about Still Photos. I couldn’t believe it.

Woot staff wrote:
***“(12:42 AM, today) sdc100 returns with a list of cons. Wait… where’s the pros?” ***

It comes in pretty c​:relaxed:l​:relaxed:rs. :slight_smile:

I own this one and I am heppy with it but it REALLY depends on your expectations and needs. This is good for a middle school baseball game but I wouldn’t say hand it to your buddy to capture your wedding. :wink:

Can I ask an unrelated question?

I’m looking for a reliable bluetooth set of audio/stereo headphones. I simply want to bluetooth connect to my audio source (iPad, laptop, etc) and roam around the house with a good connection and a few hours play without quick battery drain and constant recharge.

I’m considering the Subjekt PLS-9400 because I’m simply not an audiophile. Does anyone own these? They’re only about $50 and they look fairly manageable. If not, any other bluetooth audio/stereo recommendations would be very much appreciated.

http://www.amazon.com/Subjekt-PLS-9400-Bluetooth-Headphones-Integrated/dp/B0046SLA4M

Thanks!
Jim

:slight_smile:

Probably someone who takes a video of something more than 5’ away.

is there any way to multitask this as a webcam?

Comes with a battery that says it lasts 40 minutes but really lasts less than 20. Bought one last time around and ended up returning it. JVC customer service was horrible. $80 extra bucks for a battery that works turns this into a $200 camcorder. A $199 Samsung Q10 HD would be a much better choice with better features.

The JVC Everio is garbage. I bought it last time and returned it since the batteries did not hold a charge. It is also NOT HD. It’s upconverted and not great quality. Pass on this one.

I have this, I love it.

If cameras/camcorders in general are obsolete, why would they be such a staple commodity for woot!?

I mean, why would woot! base such a huge part of their business on an obsolete item?

OOOOOOooohhhhhhh… Never mind.

If you ever watch or show videos on anything bigger than your iphone/pad then you might find digital zoom to be near worthless - especially in low light. This is why I have both a mini HD vidcam with optical zoom in addition to convenience of my pocket Zi8 (Flip or smartphone like option).

Just received the Woot Panasonic HD cam a couple weeks ago and pleased with it thus far - holidays are coming.

Bought a refurb JVC MiniDV based camcorder from woot way back in '07. Was indistinguishable from new when I received it, except for a ‘refurbished’ sticker that was on it. Still works fine to this day, I use it all the time.

Maybe time for an upgrade to move away from tape.

Don’t even go there Johnny! Macs still set the standard for video editing & multimedia machines, no contest. I work with both platforms in a university lab with 300 machines and the stability of the Mac Pros is far better than the PC’s. We’ve even replaced 150 Dell PC boxes with iMacs that run Windows 7 for those who prefer Windows.

The bottom line with this camera is that the propitiatory file packages are just frankly a pain in the rear compared to working with DV & mp4 files. Whenever you use the converter programs, it degrades the quality.

Unfortunately, we do not have the latest version of FCP “X” which can handle .mts Import MTS/M2TS to Final Cut Pro on Mac