JVC GR-D395 Camcorder Review

Compression (8.0)
The GR-D395 compresses video in standard DV compression, which has a bit rate of 25Mbps. This is still the best quality standard definition compression in the consumer realm. DVD camcorders only have a bit rate of 9Mbps.

Media (8.0)
The D395 records video to 8.35mm MiniDV cassettes, which are widely available in almost any store that sells blank media. MiniDV cassettes are great for archival, and they’re sturdy; unlike DVDs, you can drop them and not damage the data within. The main downside is that you must capture footage to a hard drive in realtime in order to edit.

Editing (8.0)
The D395 ships with a disc containing Digital Photo Navigator. You can use this software to copy your still photos and view them. None of the JVC MiniDV camcorders ships with any video editing software, except for the GR-X5, which was released last year. Fortunately, MiniDV footage is the easiest and most universally accepted video format for editing software to import. There are dozens of free and cheap rudimentary editing programs, and several more, like Avid Xpress or Adobe Premiere, that are advanced and costly.