JVC Everio GZ-HM340 Camcorder Review

Still Features Summary
• The JVC GZ-HM340 has a number of still features, but it can't take very good still photos. • Camcorder tops out with an effective pixel count of 1.09 megapixels for still photos. • The camcorder did alright with our still color and noise test, but performed very poorly in our still sharpness test.
	Manual Controls	(Page 8 of 17)	Handling & Use

Still Features (7.61)

Let's be clear, the GZ-HM340 is not a good camcorder for taking still photos. Its sensor is very small, which means it doesn't have a very high pixel count for still images (its effective pixel count in still image mode is between 0.56 and 1.09 megapixels depending on what aspect ratio you shoot with). You are guaranteed to get better still images from even a cheap digital camera. Still, if you're in a pinch you can capture photos with the GZ-HM340 and the camcorder even has a dedicated still image mode.

The video/photo button switches between photo and video mode.

You can take photos in three sizes with the HM340: 1920 x 1080, 1440 x 1080, or 640 x 480. The thing is, only the 640 x 480 setting is a native resolution—the other two are interpolated because they use more pixels than the camcorder has available. The camcorder has no built-in flash, but you can capture still images during recording. See the table below for the full list of still image features.

Still Color (8.75)

The GZ-HM340 did well in our still color testing: the camcorder measured a color error of 4.00 and produced a saturation level of 108.5%. These numbers are similar to what the camcorder earned in our bright light video testing, which means there shouldn't be much of a difference in color between photos and videos captured by the GZ-HM340. (More on how we test still color.)

The still photography color error map: the length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.

All four of the camcorders shown below only capture still photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so the samples below are all the same size. Notice that the HM340 has much deeper colors than the Samsung HMX-H106, but it also captured a slightly darker image than the rest of the models shown below.

JVC GZ-HM340 Still Color Comparisons
JVC GZ-HM340	JVC GZ-HM200
Panasonic HDC-TM10	Samsung HMX-H106

Still Color Score Comparison		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the JVC GZ-HM200
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Panasonic HDC-TM10
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Samsung HMX-H106

Still Noise (5.7)

The 0.75% noise we measured on the GZ-HM340's still images isn't the best score, but it's not awful. We would have liked to see a noise level that was more akin to what the camcorder earned in our bright light video testing (around 0.58% noise). Still, the HM340's still noise performance was roughly on par with the JVC GZ-HM200 and Samsung HMX-H106. (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Noise Score Comparison		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the JVC GZ-HM200
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Panasonic HDC-TM10
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Samsung HMX-H106

Still Sharpness (0.0)

The GZ-HM340 doesn't capture high-resolution still images, so it should come as no surprise that the camcorder flunked our still sharpness test. At best, the HM340 measured a horizontal sharpness of 718 lw/ph with 23.6% oversharpening and a vertical sharpness of only 458 lw/ph with 24.1% undersharpening. These numbers are simply no good—even for a mid-range HD camcorder—and they are significantly lower than what we measured on last year's JVC GZ-HM200. Still, we can't really fault the GZ-HM340 for doing poorly on this test. The camcorder really doesn't have the photo specs to succeed as a still image camera. (More on how we test still sharpness.)

Still Sharpness Score Comparison		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the JVC GZ-HM200
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Panasonic HDC-TM10
		Compare the JVC GZ-HM340 to the Samsung HMX-H106