JVC GZ-MG37 Camcorder Review

The Front (8.0)
The front of the JVC GZ-MG37 positions the 32x zoom lens in the upper corner. The zoom lens has a filter diameter of 30.5 mm and a focal length of 2.3 mm to 73.6 mm. This camcorder comes with an accessory lens cap that can be tethered to the hand strap on the right side of the camcorder body. The in-camera stereo microphone is located directly beneath the lens. A video light is positioned to the left of the stereo microphone directly beneath the remote and camera sensors. A large metal eyelet for the right hand strap is located on the edge between the right and front sides, near the bottom of the camcorder body. It's a small body, but they could have found room for a flash.

The Right Side (9.0)
The right side of the JVC GZ-MG37 has a hand strap that runs slightly downward from front to back and has the standard Velcro pad to allow users to adjust the feature for comfort. A DC-in port is located on the back edge near the top beneath a hard rubber port cover that has two fragile hinges connecting it to the camcorder. The right side has a slight horizontal bulge that tapers from back to center and is otherwise devoid of features and controls, since the hard drive of the camcorder is contained beneath. The body is very small, and smaller hands might have found a camcorder that fits them just right, but larger hands will be palming this like a baseball.

The Back (6.0)
The back of the JVC GZ-MG37 has a massive battery pack which is nearly as wide as the squat body of this camcorder. The battery pack extends out from the body by about 3/8ths of an inch, which would normally be more of a problem if there were a viewfinder on this camcorder. However, the MG57 has no viewfinder. Above the battery pack is another port cover, which is opened via a small tab on its left side. This port cover masks the 2.0 compliant USB port as well as the A/V-out port. There is an immense amount of room between ports and users shouldn’t be concerned about jostling or unplugging cables when switching between these two options. To the right of the battery’s upper edge is a Rec. Start/Stop button that is poorly positioned and forces the thumb of the right hand to readjust itself between shooting periods to compensate for its placement.

The Left Side (8.5)
The left side of the JVC GZ-MG37 features the 2.7-inch LCD, a 16:9 display. This LCD is opened via a tab on the center of the back edge, which bulges out from the LCD rectangle in a half-circle. When the LCD is opened the user will find that there is a joystick on the outer edge along with an index/data batter/and remaining memory button directly beneath. Both the control and the joystick are miniscule and positioned in the area of the LCD frame formed by the half-circle. The joystick has dual features that allow it to not only navigate onscreen controls but to also engage the backlight compensation feature and spot exposure control (up arrow/reverse), switch screen size (right arrow/forward search), Manual Set (down arrow/forward skip), and NightAlive (left arrow/reverse search) features. The joystick has no texture and barely extends past the surface of the LCD frame, making this feature less than functional when sweaty fingers engage this control.

In the cavity covered by the LCD are a number of other controls. In the lower front corner of the cavity is the in-camera playback speaker. Directly behind the speaker along the bottom edge is an S-Video output port with the inset Reset feature directly above. Behind the S-Video port are the delete and menu buttons, both well labeled. Above these two buttons are two other controls, the Auto button and the Light/Info button. All four buttons are the same color as the camcorder body and in poor lighting they get lost. Above the Light/Info button and the Auto button is one final control, which switches the camcorder between still image and video modes. This switch though small is luckily bright blue and should be locatable even in low light.

The Top (7.5)
The power switch is centered on a slight incline between the top and left side of the camcorder. This switch allows the camera mode to be set to off, playback, and record. At the back of the camcorder on the same incline are three LEDs to inform the user when the camcorder is engaged in power/charge, access, or auto mode. Three ridges comprise the grips for the right hand and run the length of the camcorder body on another incline between the right side and the barrel of the camcorder. These ridges would be great if it weren’t for the fact that my fingers extend at least an inch beyond them. Forcing my fingers back onto these ridges was uncomfortable and made the camcorder flap in the palm of my hand in a position that forever restricted the possibility of getting a firm and resolute hold on the camcorder body.

The zoom toggle for the GZ-MG37 is located near the back of the camcorder and doesn’t provide neither the control we’ve come to enjoy with Sony camcorders or the size of the less responsive toggles on Panasonic models. The JVC GZ-MG37’s zoom lever is a small slender sliver of a control that was too thin for such an essential feature. Add a little finger sweat on a hot day in July and you can pretty much kiss the functionality of this feature goodbye. The zoom lever works fine if the user is slamming through the 32x zoom range, but nuanced zoom control and variable speeds is something that this control just can’t produce.

The Bottom(unscored)
The bottom of the JVC GZ-MG37 is being included in this review since the SD memory card slot is located on the right side of the camcorder on the bottom’s face. To the left of the SD card slot is a tripod mount, and the battery release is located along the back edge of the camcorder body.