JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Camcorder Review

Low Light Performance Summary
• Overall low light performance wasn't bad, although poor sensitivity was a disappointment. • Colors remained fairly accurate in low light and noise levels stayed low. • The camcorder's video light has a terrible range of around 12 - 15 inches.
	Motion & Sharpness Performance	(Page 5 of 17)	Compression & Media

Low Light Sensitivity (0.31)

JVC has shown a trend this year of manufacturing camcorders that are excellent in bright light situations, but have some severe problems when shooting under less-than-ideal lighting conditions. The JVC GZ-HM200 is not the worst offender in this case (that award goes to the HM400's cousin model, the JVC GZ-X900), but it still didn't put forth a good effort in our low light sensitivity test. The camcorder required 29 lux of light to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor—roughly the same amount of light required for the JVC GZ-HM400 to reach the same levels. (More on how we test low light sensitivity.)

Both the Panasonic HDC-SD20 and Canon HF20 did better in this test, but they aren't elite low light sensitivity performers either. In fact, most of the mid-range camcorders we've tested this year have had problems with low light sensitivity. Only certain high-end models—like the HDC-HS300 and TM300 from Panasonic, and the Sanyo VPC-HD2000—have done very well on this test in 2009.

Required Illumination *

* the lower the lux required, the better the performance

Still, we cannot deny that the HM200's performance in this test is sub par. The camcorder does offer an auto slow shutter feature (engaged by setting the gain level to auto), which will boost low light performance. However, using this feature produces motion trails and choppy footage whenever the camcorder decides to let the slow shutter kick in (the shutter speed drops to as low as 1/30 of a second with auto slow shutter turned on).

In the HM200's defense, we did get some rather good scores in our low light color and low light noise testing with the camcorder. So, as long as you're not filming in very low light situations, the camcorder should still be able to capture a colorful image without too much noise. Read the next two sections of this review for complete details.

Low Light Color (7.09)

The GZ-HM200 showed a significant drop in color accuracy when we lowered the lights for our low light color test. This is normal, however, and the camcorder's 5.17 color error is actually better than average for a mid-range model. In low light, the HM200 showed us faded colors and it registered a saturation level of just 55.39%. This is a little below average for a camcorder of its class. (More on how we test low light color.)

Auto Low Light Color Performance
Color Test Chart (above), Color Error Map (right)
The JVC GZ-HM200 produced a color error of 5.17 and a saturation level of 55.39% in our low light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.)

Looking at the comparison images below, you'll see the HM200 isn't alone in producing a washed-out and faded low light image. The rest of the camcorders in this set had even worse color accuracies than the GZ-HM200, with the closest competitor being the Canon HF20, which retained a fair amount of saturation and color depth.

Low Light Comparison
JVC GZ-HM200	Panasonic HDC-SD20
Canon HF20	JVC GZ-HM400

Though the low light performance wasn't as strong as the color in bright light, we were far from disappointed. We should note, however, that the GZ-HM200 had a slight off-color tone in its low light image—something we noticed on the JVC GZ-HM400 and GZ-X900 as well. The HM400 was a worse offender; you can actually see agreenish-yellow tone in the gray parts of the HM400's crop above.

Low Light Color Score Comparison		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the Panasonic HDC-SD20
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the Canon HF20
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the JVC GZ-HM400

Low Light Noise (9.24)

The GZ-HM200 put up very respectable numbers in our low light noise testing. The camcorder averaged 1.28% noise, which is roughly half the amount of noise recorded by the Canon HF20. Unexpectedly, the high-end JVC HM400 also had more noise than the HM200. Of the comparison models below, on the Panasonic HDC-SD20 measured less noise than the HM200. (More on how we test low light noise.)

Noise at 60 lux Auto
JVC GZ-HM200 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-SD20 100% Crop	Canon HF20 100% Crop	JVC GZ-HM400 100% Crop

Part of the reason the GZ-HM200 did so well with this test probably has to do with the fact that the camcorder captured such a blurred image in low light. The camcorder didn't show nearly as much detail in low light as the Canon HF20 or JVC GZ-HM400. Both the HM200 and SD20 had both blurry images and low noise in this test: blurring obscures desirable details as well as undesirable details (like noise).

Low Light Noise Score Comparison		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the Panasonic HDC-SD20
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the Canon HF20
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM200 to the JVC GZ-HM400