JVC GZ-MG330 Camcorder Review

What’s in the Box?

If you want to use the microSD/SDHC memory card slot, you'll need to provide your own. And it never hurts to get a camera bag for protection and a higher capacity backup battery.

Other Features (4.0)

LED video light - GZ-MG330's LED video light will cast a pale bluish light to help you in extremely dark scenarios. Unfortunately, it's not going to do much in truly dark environments. You also have to use the menu to turn the light on and off; it would have been nice to have an external video light button.

Direct DVD and Direct Back Up - If you have installed the included JVC software, these buttons will access that software when the camcorder is plugged into your PC. The result is, essentially, one-touch DVD creation and one-touch back up. Of course, if you use Direct DVD, you won't be able to edit your footage before it's burned to a DVD. These buttons don't do anything if you're connected to a Mac.

Info - JVC offers a nice capacity and battery meter, accessed by pressing the Info button in the LCD cavity. When initially pressed, a screen containing a pie graph appears, accompanied by a list of the remaining recordable times per each recording quality level. Pressing the Info button again cues a screen containing a vertical battery life meter and remaining digital minute display.

Effects - Located in the Manual Setting menu, JVC offers a handful of digital image effects, just in case you don't have time to apply them in post-editing. The Effects consist of Sepia, Monotone, Classic Film, and Strobe.

Title - During playback, there is a button that will allow you to assign a decorative title placard to each playlist. Many software editing programs allow you to do something similar, often with the same gaudy results.