7. JVC GZ-HD40

With the Everio GZ-HD40, JVC is preparing itself to do battle with its two main rivals, Sony and Canon, and their excellent camcorders, the HDR-SR11 and HG21, respectively.

To keep up, the manufacturer has abandoned CCD sensors in favor of a top-quality CMOS sensor.

Handling

At first glance, the Everio GZ-HD40 seems solid and is clearly made from good-quality materials. The whole thing is reasonably compact and not too heavy.

Although it boasts quite a lot of features, all of the controls can be easily accessed, but the joystick used for navigating through the menus is just a little too small to be comfortable.

This is even more of a shame because the GZ-HD40 has an extensive collection of manual settings, including focus, white balancing and shutter speed.

Given these many options, a scroll wheel--like that found on the Sony SR11--is a much better choice.

There are plenty of options for connecting to the GZ-HD40, including HDMI, component video, and mini jacks for a microphone and headphones.

A docking station is also included, which allows you to recharge the battery while the camcorder is connected to a computer.

The most interesting aspect of this docking station is the inclusion of a FireWire connection which allows you to upload video quickly to a computer.

Powering the GZ-HD40 up takes around seven seconds, which is pretty fast for a hard-drive based camcorder.

Controlling the zoom is precise, and zooming in and out is slow enough to produce attractive transitions without jerky movements.

Having said that, JVC has got a lot of work to do when it comes to sorting out autofocus during a zoom, which is often very slow.  The wide angle lens at the equivalent of 50 mm on a 35 mm still camera is relatively disappointing.

Another useful feature is a white LED lamp at the front of the camcorder that you can use as an alterative light source if you're in a hurry.

Video Quality

JVC's HD40 can capture video using either the AVCHD codec or MPEG-2 TS.

Over the past few years, the former has quickly become a standard for home video, and the majority of video-editing software can import it.  This system also makes more efficient use of compression, meaning you can fit more minutes of footage on to the hard drive.

The latter, on the other hand, is a little more exotic and less widely supported, but offers better quality.

To talk in concrete terms, using AVCHD at its maximum bitrate of 17 Mbit/s will allow you to record up to fifteen hours on the 120 GB hard drive, but use MPEG-2 TS at 26 Mbit/s and you'll only have room for ten hours.

When it comes down to the quality of the images and sound, though, it can be very hard to tell the difference between the two codecs, but we're glad that JVC has been wise enough to leave the choice up to the end-user.

In general, the quality of the video is perfectly decent, whichever codec you use, even if it's not quite as sharp as with Canon's HF10 or HF11.

The colors are nice and rich, benefiting from the use of the x.v.color color space, and the inclusion of a new image sensor that's one-third of an inch across is another bonus.

Even in low light, images much sharper than they did on some of JVC's earlier models and are getting close to the best offered by its big rival, Sony.

However, image stabilization is still a weak spot for the GZ-HD40, and here it still trails a long way behind the competition.

Finally, although it takes perfectly adequate photos, you'll still get better results from an entry-level compact.

The GZ-HD40 is probably JVC's best Full HD camcorder. Video quality has really improved compared to its earlier attempts, and a lot of new features have also been added. Unfortunately, poor image stabilization lets an otherwise excellent camcorder down.

• Everio GZ-HD40 120GB...
• • Beach Camera
  • $699.99