JVC GR-D395 Camcorder Review

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (7.0)
At first glance, the JVC GR-D395 is a camcorder designed for the Auto-oriented user, and one of the most prominent external features is the large silver Auto button located above the LCD cavity. Pressing this button switches the camcorder into full auto mode, and its location means it’s always easily accessible rather than buried in a menu. But, for a camcorder seemingly geared towards people who want their camera to take care of image quality, the GR-D395 is a sub-par performer.

The first place the GR-D395 falls short is in its auto focus (AF) abilities. Designing a camcorder that snaps quickly into focus as the framing and distance from the subject changes is vital, and it is not an easy engineering feat. Camera operators know what the most important information in the frame is, but a camcorder’s processor can only make an educated guess. In bright light, this is less likely to be a problem, but in low light, even much more expensive camcorders have trouble and tend to search for focus or “breathe” in and out of focus. This JVC had a hard time finding a focal point even in moderate light that other camcorders can handle. For someone who intends to shoot indoors in Auto mode, poor AF performance like this could be a big problem.

The other major Auto mode shortcoming was the Aperture adjustment, which responded slowly. While Auto aperture adjustments are always noticeable as a camcorder responds to changing light levels, manufacturers strive to make these shifts less distracting. The most successful auto aperture adjustments react in-sync with lighting changes and are visually fairly seamless. The JVC GR-D395 reacts slowly to changes in light level, resulting in an aperture adjustment lag that can be jarring. When we panned the camcorder quickly from an indoor shot to a brightly lit exterior view, the image appeared completely blown out requiring several seconds to close down the shutter. From a camera with a large button to facilitate Auto mode use, we would expect better.

Another drawback of Auto mode on this camcorder is that is curtails access to the menu, including Program AE (Auto Exposure) presets like sports and digital effects like Sepia – something that is common to many consumer camcorders, including Sonys. While you can certainly make use of all these menu features in Manual mode, enabling users to pick and choose from the camcorder’s preset options in Auto would make them less intimidating.

The GR-D395 does offer an extensive selection of digital effects, including Sepia, Monotone, Classic, and, interestingly, Strobe. There are also many exposure settings that are useful in difficult lighting situations, including Sports, which increases shutter speed to reduce fast motion blurring, Snow, which compensates for very bright surroundings, Spotlight, which compensates for darker surroundings, and Twilight, for dark environments. This camcorder also features Auto Gain Control (AGC) which brightens the video image automatically in dark environments.

The touch pad, located in the LCD cavity (left). On the right, the mode dial.

Overall Manual Control (6.0)
The JVC GR-D395 has numerous manual control features, offering much more than Sony’s HC line. Canon’s Elura 100 offers a host of presets and more manual controls, but it still falls short of this JVC. Of the camcorders mentioned in this article, only the Panasonic PV-GS59 sports superior manual features. One of the positive aspects of this JVC’s manual control set is its accessibility. Manual focus, which will be the most commonly utilized manual control on a typical shoot, is accessible via an external button. The Function Menu which provides access to the balance of the manual control feature set is reached via the Function Menu, and the large touchpad serves as an efficient means of menu navigation. After selecting a given manual control in the Function Menu, users can adjust it using the same touchpad. This method of manual control access is faster and less convoluted than Sony’s touch screen system, and it is more user-friendly than the Elura’s poorly executed joystick. For users who appreciate good manual controls and like the GR-D395’s other good features, like the 32x optical zoom, this camcorder may make a solid choice.

The Main Menu is divided into five categories

The Function sub-menu

The Setting sub-menu

Zoom (6.0)
With a powerful 32x optical zoom, the JVC GR-D395 is bound to appeal to users who want to get close to the action: bird watchers shooting nesting eagles from a distance, parents recording a child’s performances from the back of the auditorium, or private investigators (and others…) videotaping subjects from a distance. In addition, the LCD screen is sharp and bright, enabling the user to achieve decent focus without squinting. Unfortunately, a poorly designed zoom toggle detracts from one of this camcorder’s standout features.

The toggle has a slider design, which is inherently inferior to the more common rocker design found on competing camcorders. While the slider on the GR-D395 does not protrude much out from the camcorder body, it seems to offer less fine control over zoom speed than rocker-type toggles. Making matters worse is the fact that gripping the camcorder’s right side orients the slider at a 90 degree angle to the user’s hand. The index finger naturally rests at an angle to the toggle slider, so operating it requires cocking the index finger in a cramped position. Simply rotating the slider slightly down the camcorder’s right side would have done wonders in terms of alleviating this problem. In its current iteration, the GR-D395’s 32x optical zoom is not nearly as impressive when its ergonomically-challenged zoom toggle is part of the equation.

Zoom Power/Ratio (32.0)
The GR-D395 has an impressive optical zoom: 32x. This zoom is powerful, and it is surpassed in the consumer camcorder category only by a few Samsungs, such as the SC-DC365 which has a 33x optical zoom but poorer video performance. For people who consider an optical zoom to be of primary importance in their camcorder purchase, this JVC is a good choice. However, they must view the zoom power in the context of a poorly designed zoom toggle that makes achieving finely tuned zoom movements more difficult than on other camcorders, including the Samsung. If you’re willing to work with this shortcoming, JVC’s GR camcorders are the best option on the market for 30x-plus optical zoom consumer camcorders. The GR-D395 also includes a digital zoom that maxes out at 800x, and can be set to off, capped at 64x, or left at the full 800x.

Focus (4.0)
The Focus control on the top of the touch pad, which also serves as the Play/Pause button in playback mode, accesses Manual focus. Rewind and Fast Forward - left and right on the touchpad respectively - make manual focus adjustments. While there is no visual aid to assist in metering the focal point, there are icons that flash to indicate when you have reached the camcorder’s focal limit. In addition, the LCD flashes the manual focus icons [a man, two arrows, and a mountain (naturally)] when information in the image is low in contrast. As the user’s manual helpfully explains, the GR-D395 (and other camcorders) will struggle to focus in low contrast situations when manual focus will achieve better results. The indicator serves as a guide for people who are not confident in their own ability to judge when manual focus is appropriate – or shorthand for users who want to use manual focus only when auto can’t do the job.

Exposure (Aperture) (4.5)
Auto exposure and the remaining manual controls are located in the Function menu. The touchpad can be used to adjust a seven point Exposure Value (EV) scale, ranging from +0EV to +2.0EV. EV is a measure of any combination of aperture and shutter speed that results in the same exposure. Like other camcorders that use an EV scale for image adjustment, the GR-D395 automatically combines aperture and shutter speed adjustments to achieve a given EV, and exposure thus qualifies as a partially automatic control. As such, this camcorder’s EV-based adjustment does not provide as much control as separate adjustments for aperture and shutter speed, features which are found only on the Panasonic PV-GS59 in this price range. Nonetheless, the EV scale is easy to use and will serve most shooting situations well.

The GR-D395 does provide an Iris Lock feature, which takes an Auto Exposure reading based on the whole frame and locks the iris at that aperture. Similarly, there is a Spot Metering function that creates a small frame that you can move center, center-left, and center-right, but not up or down. By default, the camcorder will auto-adjust exposure for the selected region of the frame, but Spot Metering can also be locked. When Iris Lock is used in conjunction with the shutter speed adjustments below, the result is a short-hand version of separate aperture and shutter speed controls.

Shutter Speed (6.0)
There are several manual shutter speed adjustments available on the GR-D395: 1/60, 1/100, 1/500, and 1/4000. Although there is no way to manually slow the shutter speed below the standard 1/30, the camcorder will automatically slow the shutter speed based on available light in NightAlive mode.

White Balance (7.0)
In addition to manual white balance, there are two presets – one for overcast days and one for sunlight. Having presets for both outdoor lighting situations is a good thing, but, curiously, the GR-D395 has no indoor white balance presets. It’s common to see more indoor presets--for incandescent and fluorescent lighting--in a consumer camcorder.

Choosing the MWB option in the menu and pressing the Set button in the center of the touch pad sets the manual white balance. When the new white balance has been set successfully, the onscreen icon stops flashing. Manual white balance worked well, was easy to access, and produced good color balance in a variety of lighting situations.

Gain (1.0)
All JVC’s offer AGC, or automatic gain control, which boosts the signal to produce a brighter image in low light. AGC also produces a grainier image, which is a typical byproduct when gain is boosted. But overall it’s a surprisingly effective (read more in Low Light Performance below). The chief drawback is, of course, that this is not a manual control. You cannot set gain levels. You can only turn the auto gain on and off. Hence, we gave it a 1.0 score. There is a second AGC mode, Auto A, which combines AGC with an auto slow shutter speed. This, too, can only be turned on or off. You cannot set gain levels or the shutter speed.

Other Manual Control (0.0)
The GR-D395 does not feature any other manual controls.