Camcorder News

February 8, 2007 – In a press release for the Japanese market issued by Victor Company of Japan (JVC), the company announced new details about the company’s 60 GB HD Everio camcorder.  Unique among camcorders on the consumer market today, the GZ-HD7 will record video using a high-data-rate MPEG-2 codec that appears to be a shot across the bow of competitors, who have touted AVCHD as the HD format to watch. 

Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic) co-developed AVCHD, an MPEG-4 codec that brings HD video recording to convenience-oriented formats including DVD, SDHC, and HDD.  In Camcorderinfo.com’s first tests of AVCHD-based camcorders, Sony’s HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1, we found the format produced very sharp video that was plagued by noise issues.  AVCHD also lacks support from leading video editing applications such as AVID DV Express Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Apple Final Cut Pro.  While support for AVCHD is on the way, users of AVCHD camcorders have been hard-pressed to find practical post-production solutions. 

The HD7, by contrast, uses MPEG-2 compression, a codec that is more mature and more widely supported than AVCHD.  For PC users, the HD7 includes the CyberLink BD Solution software suite for HD video playback and editing, and Blu-ray high definition DVD authoring; a plug-in allows Mac users to edit footage in iMovie and Final Cut Pro.  The HD7’s MPEG-2 compression also produces HD video at a much higher data rate than AVCHD - up to 30Mbps in the case of 1920x1080i video.  This compares to a peak data rate of only 15Mbps in today’s AVCHD camcorders, though the codec’s specification supports up to 24Mbps.  With post-production solutions already in place, the HD7 may appeal to shooters who have been discouraged by the slow progress of editing support for AVCHD. 

Camcorderinfo.com published a First Impressions Review of the JVC GZ-HD7 based on information made available by the company when the camcorder was announced last month.  That review lacked some of the information that came to light in today’s Japanese announcement.  The newly available specs and features are listed below. 

•    AE Modes:  aperture priority, shutter priority
•    Focus Assist (red, blue, and green peaking)
•    Quick Power Off (an auto shot-off feature)
•    200x Digital Zoom
•    Minimum brightness 18 Lux (shutter:1/60, sensitivity up: AGC)
•    Print support for DCF, DPOF and PRINT Image Matching III
•    Approx. power consumption 6.7 W while using viewfinder, 7.1 W while using LCD monitor
•    Dimensions (W x H x D)  91 mm x 77 mm x 186 mm (including maximum extrusion)
•    Weight 665g (750g while shooting including battery)
•    Approximate continuous shooting time with included BN-VF815 battery (typical time including zoom in parenthesis): Using viewfinder 85 min. (45 min.); Using  LCD monitor 80 min. (40 min.)
•    Still Image sizes:  1920 x 1080, 1440 x 1080, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480
•    Still Image modes: Fine, Standard
•    Provided Accessories AP-V14 AC power adapter, BN-VF815 battery pack, S-Video/AV cable; lens cap, power cable, shoulder strap, wireless remote-controller, software CD-ROM, USB cable ('A type' mini)