+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

canons. It's perfect for my uses. I also use the cellboost irecharge batteries that last longer than the 815 series batteries and are less expensive. (provide a nice camera grip too). Notes on other reviews. Stabilization is great but when zooming - use a tripod, monopod, or brace yourself against something especially in hi definition where everything is magnified many fold. This is an outstanding value for the price and is highly recommended.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

canons. It's perfect for my uses. I also use the cellboost irecharge batteries that last longer than the 815 series batteries and are less expensive. (provide a nice camera grip too). Notes on other reviews. Stabilization is great but when zooming - use a tripod, monopod, or brace yourself against something especially in hi definition where everything is magnified many fold. This is an outstanding value for the price and is highly recommended.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

canons. It's perfect for my uses. I also use the cellboost irecharge batteries that last longer than the 815 series batteries and are less expensive. (provide a nice camera grip too). Notes on other reviews. Stabilization is great but when zooming - use a tripod, monopod, or brace yourself against something especially in hi definition where everything is magnified many fold. This is an outstanding value for the price and is highly recommended.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

intuitive. I never cracked the manual since all the menus were easy to navigate. If you've used a camcorder before, you'll find this one especially easy to use. 4. Dual SDHC cards! This means you can have 64gb of on board memory (over 7 hours of full resolution HD recording) for just about $180, or 32gb of memory for under $100. Gone are the days of tapes, slow internal hard drives, and other lesser options. SDHC slots also makes it very easy to swap multiple cards in and out if you want to shoot video for an even longer time. The Good: 1. The touch sensitive scroll wheel--well not really a wheel but a touch sensor strip--takes a bit of getting used to but works really well once you've mastered it. It makes navigating menus really easy, but does take a bit of time to master. 2. Takes pretty good static images. They're not as good as a nice digital camera, but they're plenty good enough for most applications that don't involve blowing them up to 11x17. 3. The battery charges quickly. I can get a full charge in a couple hours. This makes up for negative point #4 below. The Bad (although not awful) 1. You can only record to one of the SDHC cards at a time. You must define one as the save location for video and the other as the save location for static images. You can, however, fill up one card and then switch video to the other card. It would have been nicer if the camcorder did this for you. 2. Audio quality is not that great. Of course any serious video work needs a dedicated mic so it's probably not fair to list this as a complaint, but its worth mentioning that the audio will not impress you unless you are very close to the target source. 3. Battery life isn't that long. I can get 2-3 hours of continuous use, but even with the camcorder off the battery slowly loses juice so that 2-3 days of inactivity leave the battery only 1/2 full. 4. Battery location is a bit odd. It actually locks unto the back of the camcorder and is fully external. This isn't that big of a deal, but it does get a bit hot and I thought it worth noting. 5. No external battery charger or dock it provided. This means you must plug in the whole camcorder to charge it. This is a pain, especially if you decide to buy an additional battery, although a kit like this Two(2) Spare NB2L Batteries + Charger solves that problem. SUMMARY: The GZ-HM200 is a fantastic camcorder in a small package. It is full featured, easy to use, and takes great HD video. Well worth the price.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

had it's own light until a friend pointed it out! The facial detection worked very well even given the dubious lighting, and helped me capture the kids in action. I would prefer to see the camcorder ship with at least one SD card, but I guess that is not the standard. This camera can hold two cards simultaneously and apparently automatically switches over when one gets full- I haven't personally recorded an event long enough to test that feature. All in all, a great camera even for an amateur like me. It is simple enough to use right out of the box, but offers enough advanced features to keep me happy as my skills develop.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

had it's own light until a friend pointed it out! The facial detection worked very well even given the dubious lighting, and helped me capture the kids in action. I would prefer to see the camcorder ship with at least one SD card, but I guess that is not the standard. This camera can hold two cards simultaneously and apparently automatically switches over when one gets full- I haven't personally recorded an event long enough to test that feature. All in all, a great camera even for an amateur like me. It is simple enough to use right out of the box, but offers enough advanced features to keep me happy as my skills develop.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

use, and that doesn't compromise quality at all.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

hours of footage before having to upload. The JVC Enverio is a great camcorder for people who have never used one before and are looking for something simply and streamlined to welcome them into the world of making home videos. I can't wait to use this for Hallowe'en this year in Salem, MA.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

hours of footage before having to upload. The JVC Enverio is a great camcorder for people who have never used one before and are looking for something simply and streamlined to welcome them into the world of making home videos. I can't wait to use this for Hallowe'en this year in Salem, MA.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

with the Everios. I anticipated problems.

I was wrong. I connected the USB cable to my Mac Mini, started iMovie (part of iLife '09), and opened up the camcorder. The USB menu opened, and I chose the "Upload" option. iMovie detected the camera, asked me a few questions (video quality, destination, whether to check for stabilization issues), and then imported the video clips. It was trivially easy - just the way I like it.

The Everio has a "Snapshot" mode to take still images, and I had tried it out. This meant that while I was working with iMovie, iPhoto also started up and offered to import the photos I'd taken. My verdict: it's OK for casual 1x use, but no substitute for a real digital camera. The problem is that the Everio's autostabilization mode only works for video, not for still images. This meant that a couple of 20x zoomed images, while impressively magnified, were hopelessly blurred. I'll stick with my Panasonic DMC-TZ4 for the still shots.

The JVC Everio is a tremendous little camera: compact, easy, light, and producing excellent HD video. (Yes, my Mac Mini feels a little underpowered for working with this.) The dual slot SD card design is excellent; the camera will automatically switch from one card to the next during recording, and you can swap cards on the fly. In XP mode (17 Mbps VBR 1920x1080) 16GB is good for 2 hours of recording, which feels about right. (You can crank it up to 24 Mbps, which will give you 1 hr. 20 min., or drop down to 5Mbps, at which point you can run for over 7 hours!) No more media juggling.....

There are tons of additional features in this camera, and sometime I may try them out. But for the basic job of plug-and-play HD video, this is hard to beat.

Recomended.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

be lost or unusable due to poor lighting * Dual SDHC Card Support - The ability to save video to SDHC cards is great, coming from miniDV tapes this is a huge advantage since the footage doesn't have to be re-captured into the computer * Quick Startup - The camera is ready to record almost instantly after opening the LCD display * Good User Interface - The "Laser Touch" interface is simply cool and, more importantly, easy to use * Easy Upload to YouTube - The "One Touch" upload works very well Cons - * Weak Image Stabilization - The digital Image Stabilization does make some difference, but the lack of mass of this small camera makes it harder to keep steady (especially at higher zoom levels) * Poor Low Light Quality - Video and stills shot in low light are very noisy, the built in light helps to some degree * Slow Auto Focus - Auto Focus can be sluggish when zooming * Lack of Accessory Shoe - Can not use standard video accessories like external light or microphone * Lack of Microphone Input Jack - No external microphone jack * Weak Software - The included software for video and still images is ok for clip management, but not useful for any real editing or project use * Lack of HDMI Cable - This was a huge surprise and disappointment. The camera has a mini HDMI port, but does not include a HDMI cable for connecting to HD equipment (does include composite video and audio cables) I also picked up the following accessories (see my reviews) - * 16gb SDHC Cards - Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging] * Protective Lens Filter - Tiffen 30.5MM UV Protector Filter * Longer Life Battery - JVC BN-VF815US 1460-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders * HDMI Cable - Mediabridge - 5ft Mini-HDMI to HDMI - Version 1.3b Category 2 - 1080p - Blu-Ray Overall, the pros outweigh the cons with this excellent camcorder and the small size makes it really convenient to take anywhere. Recommended!

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

on another. I decided to use 8GB and a 4GB SD cards which will give me a total of approximately one and half hours of recording in XP (Avg. 17Mbps) mode. Powering up the camcorder could not be any easier - just open the LCD screen. The LCD screen is crystal clear and playback on the camera for review and deleting is controlled by a touch of one button. The LCD screen also rotates 360 degree. The camcorder takes BEAUTIFUL still images. Vivid colors and what impressed me the most is the perfect focusing of the images. The face detection is a great feature that can recognize up too 16 faces that adjusts the focus and exposure for sharper images. The zoom power is incredible and focuses automatically. Battery life is approximately 1.5 hours of continuous use. Check out the customer images to see how wonderful the images came out. Using the zoom in video recording was not so great. The stability of the video was shaky, but I was also on a rocking boat so it might work better on a tripod.

Now to the not so great functions. The Everio MediaBrowser software is so-so. The easy to search calendar is really neat but playback of videos is choppy and just terrible. I even attempted to use another program, Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus. The video was still choppy but not as bad as the Everio MediaBrowser. I ended up connecting the camcorder via a IOGear Series 2000 Mini-HDMI to HDMI Cable (6.5 feet), which is not supplied, to my HDTV and playback was perfect. Since I have a DVD recorder, I just dubbed the video to my DVD recorder. JVC does offer a AVCHD recorder, JVC CU-VD50 Share Station DVD Burner for Everio Camcorders to burn and play your AVCHD discs but it is quite costly but it might make things easier.

I have inserted a video clip so you can see for yourself how the video comes out.
These are the steps I had to take to do it since you can only upload avi, flv, mov, mpg and wmv files on Amazon. The JVC Enverio saves in mts format.

1. Connect camcorder to PC
2. Choose export to Library
3. Open Enverio MediaBrowser and drag video file to export to iTunes.
4. Start Export, once complete open iTunes (58 second video took 13 minutes).
5. Now you can view it in your iTunes, but iTunes plays mp4 format so next step is to format to a playable mpg format to upload on Amazon. Unless you have a program that changes mp4 format to another format, this option is quite useless.

Now I attempted to change the format with my own program and this is all I had to do.
1. I opened my video editor program Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus [OLD VERSION]
2. Clicked on one button to convert video to mpg. It saves the file automatically (it took only 6 minutes to convert) and I was done and ready to upload on Amazon. So as you can see, using another video editor program makes things much easier and takes less time.

However, uploading to youtube is quite simple. You just need to set the camcorder to upload in the USB setting, open your youtube account and upload the video file directly from the drive your camcorder is connected from on your PC. Since youtube allows pretty much every kind of video format available, uploading the mts file is quite simple.

So as you can see, the Enverio MediaBrowser is somewhat useless and you are better off using another video editing program to convert and save your files to a format you can use easily.

Overall this camcorder is pretty neat, easy to use for video recording and still images. The small size of it makes it so convenient to carry and take with you anywhere. I purchased the JVC CB-V77U Soft Digital Camcorder Case (Black Blue) that was a perfect size to carry the camcorder and AC adapter. Just invest in a more user-friendly video editing conversion program.

Here are some additional links for items to consider:

More battery power-
1.5 hours - JVC BN-VF808US 730-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders
3 hours - JVC BN-VF815US 1460-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders
4.5 hours - JVC BN-VF823U 2190-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders

Battery charger car adapter-
JVC BN-VF808, BN-VF815, BN-VF823 - Replacement Battery Charger (Incl. Car and European Plug Adapters)

Battery charger kit-
JVC AA-VF8US Battery Charger for BN-VF8 Batteries


UPDATE: The video uploaded successfully but I don't know why it is still not viewable.

+ 0 likes

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

...

included. So I had to order an extra mini-HDMI to HDMI cable. That was a pain I never expected. Image quality using standard RCA video jack supplied was so-so. I am really hoping the HDMI cable will increase sharpness dramatically. Overall, I am quite happy with this device. Great for baseball or softball games when only one parent can be present due to work, etc.