JVC GZ-MG77 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Aug 7, 2006 10:00 AM 
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (5.0)
The GZ-MG77 (Review, Specs, $467.95) has a button, analogous to the East button on Sony camcorders, which allows users to toggle easily between automatic and manual control modes. This selector button is located in the LCD cavity and labelled, simply, Auto. The camcorder responds well in auto mode, making smooth adjustments in normal lighting conditions for focus, exposure, shutter speed, gain, and white balance. None of these automatic controls were as accurate and refined as on similarly priced Sony camcorders, but they do suffice for most point and shoot situations. The auto control that stood out was exposure, which worked very well in tandem with gain in low light environments. Although this exposure/gain combo added noise to images in low light, it tended to keep them brighter than most consumer camcorders, making it a good choice for shooting indoors at night.
White balance in auto mode was underwhelming, and the camcorder struggled to produce accurate colors in mixed light. We would recommend using the GZ-MG77’s manual white balance function, which is easy to access via the MSET menu, explained in the next section. There are several auto presets for white balance: Halogen, Cloud, and Fine (sunlight). These presets were also less accurate than we would have liked; the halogen setting under-adjusted for the bluish cast of halogen lighting. In contrast, the sunlight setting over-emphasized the red and orange end of the spectrum, creating an unusually warm and saturated image. Users looking for a true point and shoot camcorder should certainly take this control into consideration, and would be advised to get up to speed on the camcorder’s manual white balance function.
JVC GZ-MG77's LCD cavity, where the Auto mode button is located
The GZ-MG77 includes a number of automatic controls that allow users to fine-tune the camcorder without having to enter manual mode. These functions are a hybrid of auto and manual controls and are a means of governing how the camcorder makes automatic adjustments depending on the shooting environment. Backlight Compensation (BLC) is a remedy for very bright environments, like beaches or ski slopes, where the subject of a shot is often underexposed. BLC simply boosts the overall exposure of the image, making it more likely that the subject will be adequately exposed, though it may also blow out the background. Spot Exposure Control is JVC’s version of the spot metering function found on some camcorders, including Sonys. In full auto mode, the GZ-MG77 takes the whole image into account when adjusting exposure, while Spot Exposure Control allows a user to select the right, left, or center of the image for auto exposure. Sony’s version of this feature offers more precision by dividing the screen into nine sections rather than only three.
The GZ-MG77 also features four auto exposure (AE) modes that allow users to select preset exposure and shutter speed parameters optimized for specific shooting situations. These include Twilight, Spotlight, Snow, and Sport. AE modes are ubiquitous in the world of consumer camcorders: they’re shorthand methods for getting the image in the ballpark when auto mode doesn’t yield adequate results. If you do plan on using AE modes on the GZ-MG77, it’s a good idea to test them out so you have a good understanding of how they affect the image. For example, twilight mode will adjust exposure, gain, and shutter speed in tandem, and may add noise or give your video a stuttering appearance, depending on how much light is available.
In addition to these AE modes, this JVC camcorder features NightAlive mode, which is accessed by pressing the joystick left. NightAlive is another low-light shooting mode that automatically sets the shutter speed to between 1/2 and 1/15 of a second. The slow shutter will make the image stutter, but also enables the camcorder to capture colors more faithfully. If auto mode isn’t doing the job, adjusting the picture manually is generally a better option. In general, learning to navigate and apply this camcorder’s manual control features is well worth it.
No consumer camcorder would be complete without a set of cheesy in-camcorder effects, and the GZ-MG77 is no exception. These effects make it easy to apply a look to your video and include Strobe, Classic Film (a slower shutter speed), Monotone (black and white), and Sepia. Some users may find these effects fun to play around with, but working on your footage in a non-linear editing program (NLE) like Adobe Premiere or iMovie will yield better results and give you much more control over your image.
Overall Manual Control (5.5)
Manual controls on the JVC GZ-MG77 are very accessible. As on Panasonic camcorders, manual controls are accessed by depressing the joystick. The main distinction between this JVC and Panasonics is that the joystick is located on the LCD panel, requiring use of the left hand, while the Panasonic joystick can be operated with the right (shooting) hand, enabling true one-handed shooting. This camcorder provides good control over shutter speed, white balance, focus, and exposure, using EV steps. All manual controls can be set independently, which offers a higher degree of control than camcorders with only priority modes. The one enhancement we’d like to see on this camcorder’s manual control set is aperture control in F-stops rather than EV steps, which are a composite measurement of shutter speed and aperture.
The JVC GZ-MG77's Main Menu and Manual Control Menu
The GZ-MG77’s well-designed menu structure is divided between an administrative menu, which governs camera settings not usually accessed while recording video, and a manual control “MSET” menu. Pressing the Menu button, inside the LCD cavity, brings up the administrative menu, and the joystick navigates within it. This menu includes options for recording quality, image stabilization on/off, time settings, etc. Pressing the Menu button again exits the administrative menu.
The MSET menu provides access to adjustments that are typically used while recording video, including exposure, shutter speed, and the other controls noted above. This menu is accessed by depressing the center of the joystick, which reveals a row of options along the lower edge of the LCD screen. Users can easily move through these options using the joystick, making this a very efficient way of accessing manual controls.
The joystick is small, but pretty effective.
The joystick is a big improvement for the MG77 over last year’s GZ-MG70 (Review, Specs, $499.95), which had an undersized four-way touchpad. Although Panasonic was the first company to use joysticks across their line, we’re pleased that JVC and Canon have opted to use joystick-based interfaces on many of this year’s camcorders. Locating the joystick on the touch screen makes one-handed manual control impossible but that should not be a drawback for most users. Most compact camcorder shooters are accustomed to placing a hand on the LCD to help steady the camcorder or to adjust the screen angle as they move.
As a package, the MG77 has a very good manual control selection and an efficient and user-friendly interface. It also produces a much sharper image than the GZ-MG37 (Review, Specs, $384.95) with its 1/6” CCD, though it still falls short of other HDD camcorders like the Sony DCR-SR100 (Review, Specs, $999), (which costs $300 more).
Zoom (6.5)
The JVC GZ-MG77 zoom toggle is located on top of the camcorder, in a convenient if not somewhat cramping spot for most users. This zoom toggle has a familiar rocker-switch design, but, like the camcorder itself, is scaled down to a thin, almost sharp, ridge. The zoom toggle is adequate but did not allow for as much accuracy, in part because it just felt undersized and tuned with too much sensitivity. As a result, executing smooth, constant zooms on the go was very difficult, as the speed jumped from very slow to very fast with barely any change in pressure. With a little practice, the zoom works well, but users will not find it as forgiving as many other consumer camcorder zooms.
Zoom Power/Ratio (10.0)
The JVC GZ-MG77 has an optical zoom of only 10x, representing a significant drop from the 32x optical zoom of the GZ-MG37. While this may appear at first glance to be a downgrade, a camcorder’s optical zoom strength is determined in part by the ratio between chip and lens size – the higher the ratio, the stronger the optical zoom. With a larger 1/3.9” CCD (vs. 1/6” for the GZ-MG37) and comparably sized lens, the GZ-MG77 trades in a 32x optical zoom for better video performance. The camcorder also features a 300x digital zoom, which can be turned off or capped at 40x.
A digital zoom with a maximum of “only” 300x may seem unimpressive, but high digital zoom ratings are best seen as marketing gimmicks instead of features that add value to a camcorder. Digital zooms achieve their high magnifications by enlarging the pixels available at a camcorder’s top optical zoom setting, with the result that image quality falls off sharply in digital territory. Turning off the digital zoom feature of this camcorder will guarantee that your image is always as sharp as it can be, and is the setting used by most experienced shooters. A good rule of thumb is, if you are too far away from your subject, move closer before resorting to digital zoom.
Focus (4.0)
Manual focus on this camcorder works in much the same way as it does on Panasonic camcorders that feature a joystick interface, making it a better control than those found on many consumer camcorders, but not as good as a true focus ring. This control is located in the MSET menu. Selecting the focus option brings up a scale with icons at either end, representing nearby on the left (a person’s head) and far away on the right (a mountain).
At the same time, a cursor moves along the sliding scale to provide the user with a representation of their location in the camcorder’s focal range. The scale is helpful, but would be much improved if augmented by a numeric scale, which would provide an absolute measure for focus. The other issue (common to all consumer camcorders) is that assessing focus accurately using the 2.7” LCD is difficult. Viewfinders are often a superior means of assessing focus, and this camcorder doesn’t have one.
Exposure (Aperture) (4.5)
Exposure is another easy-to-adjust manual control on the JVC GZ-MG77, and it is measured in EV steps in increments of one, ranging from -6 to +6. The EV settings are displayed on a horizontal scale that appears when Exposure has been selected from the MSET menu. There is no pure aperture control, but this EV-based scale does work independently from shutter speed. True f-stop control over aperture would be ideal, but the independence of this control makes it nearly comparable. Another improvement JVC could make would be to expand the scale by adding a few more EV steps or half-steps to enable a finer degree of exposure adjustment.
Shutter Speed (6.5)
Shutter speed adjustment is accessed by pushing in on the joystick to bring up the menu and selecting the S.SP option. Pressing up again brings up a scale of options. As with all the GZ-MG77’s manual controls, shutter speed adjustment requires the camcorder to be in manual mode. The range of speeds on this camcorder is impressive, and includes 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. Shutter speed control is one of this camcorder’s strong points, and we especially appreciate the options below 1/60.
White Balance (7.0)
White balance is reached via the MSET menu, and provides a manual option as well as several presets. Once the white balance option has been selected, the up and down arrows toggle through the submenu. The presets available are Auto, Halogen, Cloud, and Fine (sunlight). While this is a reasonable selection, calibrating the single artificial lighting preset for halogen seems an odd choice when most consumers are more likely to shoot in either incandescent lighting or fluorescent. For these lighting conditions, manual white balance is the best option on the GZ-MG77.
The manual white balance option is selected by toggling to the manual white balance icon, and then pressing and holding the joystick until the icon begins flashing. When the icon stops flashing, manual white balance has been set. While manual white balance yielded good results, setting it with the joystick is tricky because it is such a small control. Holding the joystick in without slipping up or down required some concentration, but with practice, users should be able to set white balance quickly. The white balance overlay occupies only a small portion of the screen, making it easy to assess changes while using the control.
Gain (1.0)
The JVC GZ-MG77 and Everio camcorders do not offer manual control over gain levels, but they have a Gain Up automatic control that can be turned on or off. Unlike the previous manual controls, Gain Up is located in the administrative menu, and accessed by pressing the Menu button in the LCD cavity. When Gain Up is enabled, images shot in low light suffer from the noise and color desaturation issues that are typical byproducts of gain controls. When shooting with the GZ-MG77 or any other camcorder, it’s important to be aware of the drawbacks associated with gain before making use of this low light quick fix. You’ll always get a better picture if you have the option to shoot in better lighting.
Other Manual Control (0.0)
The GZ-MG77 offers no other manual control options.