JVC GZ-MG330 Camcorder Reviewby Kaitlyn ChantryPublished on Nov 17, 2008 5:15 PM
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Ease of Use (5.0)For a camcorder that's cheap, highly portable, and simply designed, the GZ-MG330 is fairly accessible to beginners, but could be more intuitive. The biggest hang-up is in using the new Laser Touch controls. While it's usually easy to figure out what's required, the laser touch is sometimes finicky. You might find yourself overshooting menu items with regularity. When it comes to integrating these controls into the manual adjustments, some work better than others. Focus, in particular, is not well implemented. (See Picture & Manual Control.)
Once you're accustomed to the Laser Touch system, however, it's relatively easy to get around. All options are stacked inside a single menu... and it's usually obvious what goes where. The Manual Settings controls things like exposure and white balance, while the Basic Settings are for changing language and time/date. Items in the latter menu are haphazardly organized and there will be one or two things you really have to hunt to find.
If you're interested in ease of use, you probably won't spend much time navigating menus. The real feature is the Auto mode, which is perfectly functional on the MG330. Pressing the Auto/Manual button inside the LCD cavity will hide all manual settings and allow the camcorder to make manual adjustments automatically.
Of course, one of the most time-consuming and frustrating processes in owning a camcorder is usually transferring and editing footage. Hard drives and memory cards don't require any annoying DVD finalizing or real-time tape rendering, but the files still aren't a breeze. The separate audio and video files are a hassle when you just want to click and drag files from one place to another, and the MPEG-2 format can be flaky on Macs. Fortunately, the software that ships with the camcorder works will on PCs and that will usually get the job done just fine. (See Editing.)
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| Laser Touch: some will love it, some will not. |
Handling (3.75)
In hand, the GZ-MG330 has its positives and its negatives. The biggest strength is how the camcorder fits in your hand. One might expect that the camcorder's diminutive size makes it difficult to handle, but the architecture is comfortable and streamlined. The right side is slightly curved and offers the slight bulk of the hard drive as a place to rest your palm and fingers. The Record Start/Stop button falls directly beneath the thumb and the zoom toggle is under your right index finger. The hand strap, despite its cheap construction, is oddly comfortable. You would have no problem carrying the MG330 around all day.
The Laser Touch system is a love-it or leave-it interface. The buttons feel nice under your fingers, but there's no tactile response to let you know when you've activated something. Keeping the system sounds turned on actually helps quite a lot. Whether you have sound to aid you or not, the touch controls could be more responsive. This is fine when you're first getting acquainted with the menus, but when you really want to fly from one option to the next, it's a bit of a chore waiting for the sluggish system to respond to the controls.
When you're simply trying to navigate menus, the Laser Touch is more than adequate. You'll sometimes overshoot the options you want, but the system becomes easier to use. Once you're accustomed to using it, the Laser Touch is... dare we say, fun to use. It's the manual adjustments that are more frustrating. Focus is imprecise and essentially not worth using, while the others are more manageable. If you're trying to change exposure, white balance, or shutter speed while recording, you'll get quickly annoyed when you find yourself accidentally picking the wrong increment.
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| The JVC GZ-MG330 in hand. |
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| Main menu of the JVC GZ-MG330. |
Menu (4.5)
This year, JVC took a departure from a three-part menu system and funneled it down to one large menu that contains everything. In the past, we've had to sift through three separate menus (Function, Administrative, and Program AE) that sometimes left us wondering where to look for some options. On the MG330, everything is thrown into a single menu. We sometimes still have trouble finding one or two options, but at least we only have to back out into the main menu—instead of exiting out and bringing up an entirely new menu.
It's nice to see manufacturers attempt to design a more accessible menu system. Unfortunately, JVC doesn't succeed quite as well as some others, such as Samsung. It's odd that there are some features located in the uppermost level of the menu and some features buried within submenus. The more options you have, the more reason for organizing them sensibly. And in this model from JVC, it's an A for intention, C for execution.
This is exacerbated by JVC's new laser touch panel, which can be difficult to operate at times. The controls are a bit sluggish, so you're not always entirely sure if you've correctly activated something. And they're a bit jumpy too, so you might find yourself rifling past a menu item from time to time. Once you grow accustomed to it, the system isn't bad for navigating menus and it's actually kind of fun to use. Unfortunately, it never works great for fine-tuning manual image adjustments.
To access the menu, press the Menu button. You can scroll through options using the laser touch panel and select an option by pressing the OK button. Three unmarked buttons along the bottom of the LCD are context sensitive—their function changes depending on the options displayed on the screen. The menu contains the following options:
| Video Menu |
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| Manual Setting | Brightness, Focus, White Balance, Shutter Speed, Photometry Area, Effect, Tele Macro |
| Backlight Compensation | Off, On |
| Light | On, Auto, Off |
| Program AE | Off, Night, Twilight, Portrait, Sports, Snow, Spotlight |
| Register Event | Vacation, Holiday, Sports, Anniversary, Congratulations, Baby, Son, Daughter, Birthday, Graduation |
| Video Quality | Ultra Fine, Fine, Normal, Economy |
| AGC Gain Up | Off, On |
| Select Aspect Ratio | 16:9, 4:3 |
| Zoom | 35x, 70x, 800x |
| DIS (stabilization) | Off, On |
| Wind Cut | Off, On |
| Basic Settings | Quick Restart, Monitor Bright, Monitor Backlight, Rec Media for Video, Rec Media for Image, Date Display Style, Language, Drop Detection, Remote, Demo Mode, Operation Sound, Select TV Type, Auto Power Off, Display on TV, Factory Preset, Clock Adjust, Video No. Reset, Image No. Reset, Format SD Card, Format HDD, Clean-Up HDD, Delete Data on HDD |
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| Manual Settings submenu on the MG330. |
Portability (8.25)
The GZ-MG330 is surely a camcorder that excels in the portability department. Measuring just 54 x 68 x 113mm (2.13 x 2.68 x 4.45 inches), and weighing just 315 grams (0.69 pounds), the MG330 is incredibly small and light—especially for a HDD camcorder. It can easily fit inside a small purse or large pocket. With 30GB of built-in memory in that hard drive, you probably don't even need to carry around memory cards. Sure, you might want to have your AV or USB cables handy, but it's better than relying on a dock, as some of the competition does.
A single potential downside is that a hard drive is slightly more prone to failure than solid state memory (i.e. internal flash or memory cards). So, if you're taking the MG330 on a long vacation, you'll want to bring either a laptop or lots of memory cards as a way of backing up your footage.
LCD and Viewfinder (3.0)
You'll find no viewfinder on the JVC GZ-MG330, which is pretty much status quo for small, standard definition camcorders these days. That means you'll have to rely entirely on the low-resolution, 2.7-inch color LCD screen. The screen flips out 90 degrees from the body of the camcorder and rotates up to 270 degrees. The size, resolution, and architecture of the screen is the same as what you'll find on most of the MG330's competitors.
What you won't find on the competition is JVC's new Laser Touch control system, with a touch-sensitive slider and touch-sensitive buttons. There will likely be both adherents and detractors to this new system, but you can see what we think in the Handling section, above.
There are a couple of options for adjusting the brightness of the monitor, but we recommend leaving most of these alone... they will often give an inaccurate representation of what you're shooting. But if you're having trouble with glare, you can select Monitor Bright in the Settings submenu. A vertical scale appears along the left side of the LCD screen, controlled by the laser touch panel. You can shift up to brighten the LCD screen and down to darken it. You can also set Monitor Backlight to Auto, Standard, or Brighter.
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| The Laser Touch controls and the 2.7-inch LCD sure look pretty. |
Battery Life (12.8)
We tested the efficiency of the GZ-MG330's BN-VF808U rechargeable battery pack by recording continuously in Manual mode with DIS disabled and the LCD screen flipped out. The monitor was set to the default brightness and video was recorded at the Fine quality setting to the internal hard drive.
All told, the GZ-MG330 lasted an impressive 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes). This is an excellent performance for a small battery pack running a hard disc drive camcorder. JVC offers two battery upgrades, which would nearly triple the camcorder's battery life.
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| The tiny BN-VF808U battery packs a mighty punch. |
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