JVC GZ-HD3 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 17, 2007 5:35 PM 
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (5.0)
The JVC GZ-HD3 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1279.00) is an adequate performer in Auto mode. The weakest area, as with the GZ-HD7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1529), was the auto exposure. The camcorder left almost no detail in shadows and darker areas of the images. It’s so contrasty, even non-experts would be led to criticize it. Normally, a high-contrast camcorder would crush the black in a mixed shot with lots of highlights. However, even when shadows make up the majority of the shot, the GZ-HD3 failed to adjust.
Another of the weaker areas was auto white balance. For whatever reason, JVC has its camcorders skewing toward warmer tones, perhaps on the predilection that warmer skin tones equal better skin tones. If a person was in the shot, you better believe they looked a little sun-roasted. If there were no skin tones in the shot, outdoor shooting was fine. Indoors, the camcorder again tended toward the warm in incandescent and tungsten lighting. Under a mix of fluorescent and natural lighting, it proved to be too cool. Overall, we saw a failure to adjust correctly. Manual adjustments always looked better.
On the plus side, the camcorder’s auto focus proved much better than the Sony HDR-CX7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $882.95) (Review, Specs, Recent News, $882.95). It was not exactly lightning fast, but 1-3 second adjustments for big jumps is about what we’ve seen in consumer HD camcorders.
Another thing we liked about the auto adjustments, as a whole, was the gradual shift from one setting to another. Sony camcorders tend to jump suddenly in exposure and white balance. The GZ-HD3 emulated the smooth transitions of a pro camcorder.
As with most camcorders, the GZ-HD3 offers Scene modes for simple, one-touch optimizations under certain shooting conditions. The Scene modes include Portrait, Sports, Snow, Spotlight, and Twilight.
The Scene mode menu
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
The manual control suite was undoubtedly one of the main items on the chopping block when the JVC figured out how to make a cheaper GZ-HD7. The scaled-down GZ-HD3 has a lot more in common with the standard definition GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626). While the GZ-HD7 offered independent shutter and aperture control, the GZ-HD3 has separate Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, with which you can either control one or the other. The GZ-HD7 has a focus ring. The GZ-HD3 does not. The GZ-HD7 has two exterior buttons: one to engage manual focus and another to engage the Focus Assist feature (a peaking control that falsely colors the in-focus areas). The GZ-HD3 retained the Focus Assist button, but now you have to go into the menu to activate manual focus. Of course, the GZ-HD7 has that great focus ring around the lens, which is lost on the GZ-HD3. The Brightness control (quick exposure adjustment) is also an external button on the GZ-HD7, and was another control shifted to the menu in the GZ-HD3. Some of these changes were necessary in order to reduce the size of the body. Some of them, as much as we hate it, were probably pricing structure decisions by JVC. Nobody would spring the extra money for a GZ-HD7 if the GZ-HD3 performed almost all the same operations.
All in all, the GZ-HD3 offers a solid package of controls in its own right. It’s just important to recognize that it's not on the same tier as the HD7. It compares rather well to the Canon HV20 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $903). Both offer Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, the peaking feature for focus, a number of Scene modes, easily accessed exposure compensation tools, a joystick operated interface, and special features like zebra patterns. Canon takes the upper hand in a few areas, however. The joystick is rear-mounted, which makes one-handed operation possible. In addition, the menus are a little more responsive on Canons than they are on JVCs. Those millisecond load times add up to some serious frustrations. The biggest gap is in the focus controls. Canon really dominates here, with a dedicated focus wheel, an instant zoom feature (which Canon calls “Focus Assist”), in addition to a peaking option (which, confusingly, Canon calls “Peaking” and JVC calls “Focus Assist”). Combine this with Canon’s external sensor for speedy auto focus and you’ve got yourself a camcorder you can trust to focus. The JVC GZ-HD3, as mentioned in the section above, did not have the strongest auto focus, which means the manual focus may be called upon more often.
Zoom (6.5)
The JVC GZ-HD3 has a raised room toggle with a ridged edge for good grip. While the relatively large body size made it easier to stabilize than an ultra-compact, it posed some obstacles for zooming. The hand grip is low-slung, which means you need to grip the camcorder pretty firmly to keep it from tipping over all the time. It’s hard to grip with three fingers and keep the index finger completely nimble for careful zoom shifts. When tripod-mounted or resting on a flat surface, the zoom is fantastic. From 1x to 3x, you can get a super-slow crawl - tré cinématographique. After that it speeds up. With full pressure, it takes about three seconds to traverse the zoom range from 1 to 10x, about the same as any 10x camcorder.
When zooming, JVC is kind enough to provide you both a progress bar up top of the LCD as well as a numerical value. Well done.
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The optical zoom on the GZ-HD3 extends to 10x, which is the same zoom value on all the competing camcorders: the Canon HV20 and HR10 (Specs, Recent News, $0), the Sony HDR-HC7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1128.56), HDR-SR7 (Specs, Recent News, $1399), and HDR-CX7, the Panasonic HDC-SD1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) and HDC-SD5, and the JVC GZ-HD7.
The digital zoom can be extended to 200x or capped at 40x. It can also be turned off completely. These options are located in the Main menu. One note to beginners here: the menu does not directly indicate that the settings above 10x are digital, and therefore detrimental to picture quality. They really could have done a better job phrasing here rather than just listing zoom options of 10x, 40x, and 200x.
The JVC GZ-HD3's Focus Assist button
Focus (5.0)
As mentioned above in Overall Manual Control, the focus controls pale in contrast to the GZ-HD7, which is extremely powerful. The GZ-HD3 offers a great peaking control, called “Focus Assist,” but it handles in the same weak manner as most consumer camcorders. Manual control is engaged in the menu and shifted by moving the joystick left and right. There is no indication as to where in the focal range you are. Either the picture “looks OK" on the LCD or it doesn’t. Because the LCD is small and of low resolution, it doesn’t offer that much help. Thankfully, the Focus Assist really comes in handy. When activated, the image shifts to black and white, except for the areas that are in focus; they are colored with flecks of bright color to make it immediately obvious, even in touch shooting conditions. This color can be set to display in three options: red, green, or blue, which is also great. Also, when the Focus Assist button is pushed, the camcorder automatically shifts to manual focus. The GZ-HD7 has a separate button for that, allowing you to quickly access manual focus and skip the peaking. It’s a small concession for consumers, but enthusiasts will miss this flexibility.
More crucially, many people will miss the GZ-HD7’s focus ring, which is not here on the GZ-HD3.The Canon HV20, Sony HDR-HC7, and Sony HDR-SR7 all have a small scroll wheel to make the manual focus a little easier. Even the Canon HG10 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1299.99) has a spinning dial on the LCD panel. Ultimately, the Canon HV20 offers so many focus features that it trumps the entire group (peaking, instant zoom, scroll wheel, and superior auto focus system). But JVC’s peaking is better than anything else out there, and helps balance the handling deficiencies to make it about even with the aforementioned camcorders.
Exposure & Aperture (7.07)
The JVC GZ-HD3 has both a Brightness control, which is just a strange name for exposure control, and Aperture Priority. The Brightness control is located in the Function menu as the first item. When activated, a small number appears in the upper left corner with the exposure value. The options range from +/-6. What’s great about this control is that it can be used independently of shutter and aperture, giving you that slight bit of extra control when you need it.
The exposure control in action
The Aperture Priority mode allows you to dictate the aperture of the lens, while the camcorder automatically adjusts the shutter speed for best exposure. The aperture and shutter cannot be set independently. Aperture settings include: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.2, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, and f/8.0. This is not quite the range of settings that Panasonic offers, and not even as good as what the HD camcorders from Canon can do. Sony, however, offers no aperture control. All Panasonics and the GZ-HD7 offer independent aperture and shutter. The GZ-HD7 also has a dedicated, external button to access aperture, giving it a real pro feel.
Shutter Speed (6.45)
The shutter speed can be set when in Shutter Priority mode, located in the Function menu. Once the shutter speed is locked, the aperture is adjusted automatically for best exposure. Aperture and shutter cannot be adjusted and locked independently. Shutter options include: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, and 1/4000 of a second. This is a good, solid range of choices, and should satisfy most users.
All the competitors, except Sony’s AVCHD camcorders (HDR-SR7 and HDR-CX7) offer some kind of shutter control. The downward trend here is that the GZ-HD7 offers independent shutter and aperture, and has a dedicated, external button on the rear to access the control quickly.
White Balance (6.25)
The white balance options are located in the Function menu. Options include Auto, Manual, Fine, Cloud, and Halogen. This is a decent set of one-touch options – a little better than Sony but not as good as Canon. Making a manual adjustment is very easy, and takes about three seconds to pinpoint the right color balance.
The white balance menu in action.
Despite the lack of auto settings, Sony’s HDR-HC7 takes the prize for most powerful white balance control, offering a White Balance shift. This feature, which works in conjunction with the Cam Control dial, allows you to dial in a cooler or warmer temperature right to your specification. This control far exceeds anything the competitors have to offer.
Gain (1.0)
Like all JVC camcorders, the GZ-HD3 allows you the small measure of turning the auto gain control (AGC) on or off. The default option is to leave it on, which we strongly encourage. This is not a low-light powerhouse performer and needs all the help it can get. There are times, however, when you may want to sacrifice brightness for less noise. In those cases, you can turn off the AGC and have yourself a clean, very dark image.
Other Manual Controls (4.0)
Zebra – The camcorder allows you to activate zebra patterns to appear in areas of overexposure. There are two settings, 70 and 100. These numbers refer to IRE levels, which are used to express exposure. The 70 IRE is a very low ceiling, so you can expect a lot of areas to blow out there. Areas hitting 100 IRE means that even the best TVs will be unable to extract information. Zebra patterns can be a useful tool for pros and shooters intent on the best possible video.
Sharpness – The GZ-HD3, like the GZ-HD7, offers a sharpness control in the Function menu. We recommend using this tool in moderation. At a +5 setting in adequate light, the noise levels went through the roof. At -5, the image looked out of focus.
Color Bars – The GZ-HD3 is capable of producing color bars and outputting them through any of the connections that support video-out.