JVC GZ-GX1 Camcorder Review

Motion

The GZ-GX1 captures motion extremely well, with very little artifacting and only minor amounts of blur and color bleeding noticeable in our test. The camcorder offers two frame rates for recording video—60p or 60i—with the 60i setting being the more versatile option (60i clips are more likely to work with video editing software). The 60p mode, however, produces better results, although not by a huge margin. We found the 60p footage looked a bit crisper and a bit smoother than the 60i motion sample, but, again, the two modes weren't significantly different to the naked eye. More on how we test motion.

See below for a full discussion of the available resolution and frame rate options for the GZ-GX1

Resolution & Frame Rates

The single 1080/60p record mode on the camcorder is the GX1’s highest-quality mode, recording at a bitrate of 28Mbps. For 60i recording, the camcorder offers four quality settings, which are detailed in the table below. There are no standard definition recording options on the camcorder, other than the low-quality high-speed record mode.

Slow Motion Modes

The high speed record mode captures a 960 × 480 video image using a 300fps frame rate, which ends up making video that is five times slower than the camcorder’s regular record modes. This is the only standard definition recording option on the camcorder, which is strange considering the ability to record regular SD video is a feature found on JVC’s lower-end Everio camcorders (like the VX700).

There’s also a time lapse record mode on the GX1 that lets you capture one frame of video at a selected interval of time (from 1 – 80 seconds).