JVC GZ-MG555 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Jun 11, 2007 9:00 AM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (3.0)
It’s a good thing that the manual control set on the JVC GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) is so good, because the automatic responses are sorely lacking. Of the three principle tasks that you want a camcorder to do well – exposure, white balance, and focus – only the auto focus is really performing up to the standards of a $900 camcorder. The auto exposure is middling, at best. When required to make subtle shifts in lighting, the MG555 makes quick adjustments from bright to dark, but much slower responses from dark to bright. Often, we found the image very gradually ramp up the exposure to brighten, then seem to hesitate, only to suddenly jump up another 1/3 or 1/2 stop with seemingly no provocation.
The auto white balance was the worst, however. We strongly recommend that you acquaint yourself with the basics of manually adjusting the white balance. First of all, the auto white balance response had the same problem as the exposure. It would very gradually shift, then pause, then shift again, though the lighting had remained the same. Also, we found the MG555’s preferred color palette too warm. We held it up against the comparably priced Canon DC50 (Review, Specs, $649.99) DVD camcorder and a Sony HDR-UX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $729.95) DVD camcorder, and both produced much more accurate, well-balanced colors. Under sunny conditions, this didn’t prove to be too much of a problem, but under incandescent lighting, the MG555 panicked and washed the whole image in an orange-yellow tan.
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
The manual control set on the JVC GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) is well-conceived, overall. They were thoughtful enough to put most of the key controls close at hand, often with external buttons or in abbreviated menus. This is what you should expect for a top-of-the-line camcorder in any class or format. The Everio HDD series has had a steep learning curve in terms of handling and design. We’re pleased with its latest incarnation.
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The GZ-MG555's mode dial sits on top, |
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After that, there are five Program AE settings (sometimes called scene modes) on the dial: Twilight, Portrait, Sports, Snow, and Spotlight. These settings can be useful if you need to quickly dial in an adjustment for a difficult shot instead of manipulating individual shutter, exposure, white balance, etc. The last two settings are aperture and shutter priority modes, described in detail below.
Inside the mode dial, right in the middle, is a neutral density filter button, which lowers the exposure about one full stop. A control like this is yet another reason why we think JVC has done a great job with the manual control set. Very few consumer camcorders offer a neutral density filter, let alone one this accessible.
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The handy joystick |
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The list of manual control continues. Push the Function button, located directly below the joystick, to access brightness (exposure compensation), white balance, and image effects. Also included as an external control is the telemacro feature, located in the LCD cavity.
There is one final control, less accessible, in the main menu: Color Mode. This one-touch on/off control allows you to switch between natural and vivid. The vivid setting, as we saw in the Video Performance section, just boosts the saturation.
As you can see from the length of this section, JVC has packed a lot of controls into the diminutive body of the GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626).
Zoom (6.5)
The zoom toggle in the GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) is a slender piece of raised plastic. It’s not the easiest thing to grab onto, but JVC has provided a little gripping area, which is better than nothing. The toggle is position towards the rear of the top, and should fall under the index finger (as it should) for most users. While zooming, an onscreen display appears that gives you both the numerical zoom power and a sliding scale to show you where in the zoom range you are. It’s the double whammy; we love it. The fastest you can traverse the 1x – 10x range is about 4 seconds. There are about three discreet zoom speed all together. Getting a slow crawl is easier on this camcorder than many others, and that’s the kind of zooming your audience wants to see – slow, controlled pushes 
and pulls.
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The JVC GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) offers a 10x optical zoom, which is about par for the upper-tier of consumer camcorders. We’re actually glad it doesn’t go too much farther, as the image stabilization on this camcorder is really lacking. The digital zoom can extend to either 40x or 300x. Unless you’re using a tripod, we don’t recommend going too far beyond the 10x optical zoom.
Focus (4.0)
The manual focus control is easily engaged, but function poorly. Simply push down on the joystick to activate the controls. A small pair of icons, a mountain and a man, appear at the bottom of the screen. Now push the joystick left and right to shift focus. Easy, yes? But there is no scale or numerical indicator to tell where you are in the focal range. You must rely solely on the sharpness of the LCD image. With a resolution of merely 113K, the LCD is really not going to cut it for difficult focusing. What makes this poor control all the more tragic is the inclusion of the neutral density filter, the primary purpose of which is to make for tighter focusing in bright light.
Exposure & Aperture (7.65)
The JVC GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) offers both exposure compensation and an aperture priority mode. JVC refers to the exposure compensation as “brightness,” which is perhaps a bit more dumbed down that it needs to be on a $900 camcorder. Nevertheless, it’s conveniently placed and effective. Brightness is one of the few features found in the function menu. It can be set to auto, or anywhere on a +/-6 scale (in whole number increments). This numbering system is arbitrary, but it can shift either aperture or shutter, or both. For instance, in full manual mode (“M”), brightness would adjust both. But in aperture priority mode, once the aperture is locked, the brightness would only adjust the shutter speed. This works in reverse for shutter priority mode.
The camcorder also offers aperture priority, indicated by the large capital “A” on the mode dial. When activated, the aperture value appears on the left side of the LCD. Push in on the joystick to activate
Shutter Speed (6.8)
The shutter speed can be controlled on the by turning the mode dial to shutter priority mode (the big “S”). The shutter speed appears on the left side of the screen. Push in on the joystick to highlight the shutter display and it’s ready to adjust by pushing the joystick up and down. Speeds include 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, and 1/4000. Though the camcorder does not specifically give you independent shutter and aperture control, you can lock the shutter then use the brightness control, in effect altering the aperture. Of course, you have no way of telling what the exact aperture setting is.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance options are located in the short function menu. They include settings for Auto, Manual, Fine, Cloud, and Halogen. The easy access to this control, with the function button and joystick on the LCD panel, is great. The lack of another indoor preset, like incandescent, is problematic because the automatic response is lacking (read Automatic Controls above). Making a manual adjustment is as simple as pushing in on the joystick until the icon stops blinking. It takes about 5 seconds. The manual setting is fairly accurate. Under incandescent lighting, the picture veered a little towards the green.
Gain (1.0)
Like most JVC camcorders, the GZ-MG555 (Review, Specs, $626) offers the ability to turn the automatic gain control (AGC) on and off. No other manufacturer gives you this particular ability. Panasonic typically offers manual control of the gain after the aperture has been fully opened. The AGC control is located in the main menu under the Video submenu. For this inclusion, JVC gets one point.
Other Manual Controls (2.0)
Neutral Density Filter - JVC has chosen not only to offer a neutral density filter, rare enough on a consumer camcorder, but to figure it prominently with its own external button. Located in the middle of the mode dial, the neutral density button has an icon with a sun and a house, split with a slash mark. For those not familiar, a neutral density filter drops the exposure by an even, fixed amount. This allows you to open up the aperture in bright light for tighter focusing without blowing out the image. Neither the manual nor the camcorder indicates what the actual exposure reduction is, but we found it to be about one full stop down.
Color Mode - This one-touch, on/off control located in the main menu allows you to select between Natural and Vivid color settings. Because the option is buried deep in the menu, you won’t want to be changing it all that often. The Vivid setting boosts the saturation, but we can testify that the image is saturated enough already. It doesn’t need any help. But if you want those blue oceans to really sing on your Caribbean pleasure cruise video, you’re welcome to give Vivid a try.
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