JVC Announces GZ-MG70, Premiere Model in G-Seriesby David KenderPublished on Sep 29, 2005 3:00 PM |
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Today JVC announced the release of the latest addition to their Everio G-series, the GZ-MG70. This camcorder sports a 30 GB hard disk and a 1/3.6” CCD, capable of better stills at 2.12 gross Megapixels. The camcorder will record in 4:3 and full 16:9 aspect modes. The large capacity of the disk drive allows for 7 hours of high quality video and according to JVC 10 hours of DVD-cam" quality video. The estimated price has been set at $1100.
On the release of the GZ-MG70, which replaces the GZ-MG50 as the premiere model in the G-Series, Alan Holland, JVC’s National Product Manager for Camcorders, stated “This is everyone’s next camcorder.”
JVC has lead the consumer camcorder industry in a turn towards tape-less media. JVC leads the other manufacturers by far in number of hard drive and solid state camcorders. Only Panasonic has another flash or hard drive based camcorder, their SDR-S100 (Specs, $1199).
With nearly identical hard drive specs to the GZ-MG50, the new GZ-MG70 features a larger, 1/3.6” CCD, higher resolutions in still mode, and built-in flash. These improvements seem to indicate that JVC intends to capitalize on the ever-increasing consumer demand for camcorders that can double as digital still cameras.
The GZ-MG70 features a 2.12 MP gross pixel count in still mode. It will capture at a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200, up from 1152 x 864 on the GZ-MG50. At this size, nearly 10,000 photos can be stored on the 30 GB drive, with additional room for video. Additional resolutions include: 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480. Each can be saved in Standard and Fine qualities.
Video on the GZ-MG70 is compressed in the MPEG-2 format, and features the world’s smallest MPEG-2 codec chips according to JVC. The new camcorder will ship with a software bundle including PowerProducer, PowerDirector, and PowerDVD. The main purpose of this software is the rudimentary editing of footage, with the end goal of exporting it to DVD for archiving videso shot on the Everio. The MPEG-2 format has often met with difficulty from more advanced editing software like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. Software manufacturers have indicated that this may change in the future.
The MG70 is an update to JVC's newest group of Everio camcorders. The first Everio camcorders featured removable hard drive microdrives and they hit the stores in Novmeber. A few weeks ago a new brand of Everios, similar to the MG70, became available with a variety of features and built in hard drives.
The GZ-MG70 is due out in October 2005 for $1,100.