2003 CamcorderInfo.com B&H Camcorder Shoot-Off: $500 Price Groupby Robin LissPublished on Sep 21, 2004 12:00 AM 
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The $500 - $599 price group includes the Sony DCR-TRV19 with a 1/4 in. CCD - the largest CCD in the bunch, the Panasonic PV-DV203 with a 1/6 in. CCD the JVC GR-D90 with a 1/6 in. CCD and the Canon ZR65MC (Review, Specs, $259.99) with a 1/6 in. CCD. The first test was the normal lighting conditions, where the lighting was set to 3000 LUX. The Sony and the Panasonic did very well in the pricegroup.
The first camcorder in the group is the Sony DCR-TRV19:
The DCR-TRV19 is the most saturated of all the camcorders as is the trend with Sony camcorders, however unlike the Digital8 camcorders, the DCR-TRV19 doesn't seem to make everything slightly red. The overall color representation of the DCR-TRV19 is very good, better than it was on the Digital8s and combined with the increased 'even' saturation the DCR-TRV19 beats out the other camcorders in the group for normal lighting conditions. The increased saturation is best represented in the blue tile. The colors appear ''richer'' on the Sony. My only major complaint with the DCR-TRV19 is with the bottom left green tiles which appear brown instead of the vibrant green which they should be. Read the full DCR-TRV19 Review - Shop for the DCR-TRV19 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the DCR-TRV19 @ PriceGrabber
The JVC GR-D90 is the second camcorder in the price group:
The GR-D90, with the same CCD as the GR-D30 and GR-D70 again looses out in normal lighting conditions. The GR-D90 leans towards blue making the magenta tile look more purple, and removing a lot of the vibrance from the light skin tone tile. The one area where the GR-D90 does well is with the green tiles, where it beats the Sony and the Panasonic. Shop for the GR-D90 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the GR-D90 @ PriceGrabber
The PV-DV203 is the third camcorder in the group:
The PV-DV203 suffers from two problems. The first is the image is just generally undersaturated. Compare the center red tile to those of all three other camcorders. The other problem appears in all of the lower priced Panasonic's, the yellow tile appears too red, giving it a slight orange look. Shop for the PV-DV203 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the PV-DV203 @ PriceGrabber
The ZR65MC is the fourth camcorder in the group:
The ZR65MC did very well under normal lighting conditions, as did the ZR60. The image is slightly undersaturated when compared to the Sony DCR-TRV19. The Canon does the best with the green tiles out of the entire group, however the blues look drab. The yellow tile also looks unlively. The Sony beats out the Canon under normal lighting conditions because of it's increased saturation - the colors just don't look as vibrant with the ZR65MC as they do with the DCR-TRV19. Read the full ZR65MC Review - Shop for the ZR65MC @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the ZR65MC @ PriceGrabber
Here is a composite of all four camcorders:
Under normal lighting conditions (3000 LUX), the Sony DCR-TRV19 is the winner with a nice balance between color saturation and overall even color representation. The Canon ZR65MC comes in second only because the colors don't look as 'lively' as they do with the Sony. The Panasonic does a pretty good job coming in third however the JVC GR-D90's uneven color representation makes it fall into fourth place for normal lighting conditions.
A lot of differences came through when the lights were turned down. The first camcorder tested was the Sony DCR-TRV19.
The 1/4 in. chip on the DCR-TRV19 did a very impressive job under low light conditions. There is a fair amount of color information and the camcorder produces a minimal amount of grain. Read the full DCR-TRV19 Review - Shop for the DCR-TRV19 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the DCR-TRV19 @ PriceGrabber
The second camcorder is the GR-D90:
As we saw in the $400 price group, the GR-D90 was the worst camcorder of the four. Part of the reason is that the GR-D30, GR-D70 and GR-D90 all include the same chip. The major problem is that there is no color information there, the picture looks practically black and white. Shop for the GR-D90 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the GR-D90 @ PriceGrabber
The third camcorder in the $400 price group is the the PV-DV203:
The picture from the PV-DV203 is okay, however the color information just isn't there to beat out the Sony. There isn't an excessive amount of grain, however the picture looks drab. Shop for the PV-DV203 @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the PV-DV203 @ PriceGrabber
The fourth camcorder is the the ZR65MC:
The 2003 Canon ZR line suffered from a huge problem of excessive grain - evidenced by how terrible the picture is. The picture produced by the ZR65MC will look even more bad when the camcorder is shooting real life 3D objects with depth unlike the flat chart. Read the full ZR65MC Review - Shop for the ZR65MC @ B & H Photo Video - Compare Prices for the ZR65MC @ PriceGrabber
Here is the composite of all four camcorders:
Taking both low light and normal light performance into account, the ranking for the $500-$599 price category in the 2003 B & H CamcorderInfo.com Shoot-Off is 1. Sony DCR-TRV19, 2. Panasonic PV-DV203, 3. Canon ZR65MC, 4. JVC GR-D90. The Sony is the clear winner in this price category, in normal lighting it doesn't suffer any problems and produces a great image, while in low light it produces a great image. The Panasonic does all right in both categories and the Canon falls down again because of it's terrible low light performance.