JVC GZ-MC500

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Gadget Guy Review

Just months after the groundbreaking release of the first hard drive-based Everio camcorders, JVC has surprised the market with the release of the GZ-MC500. This 3CCD hard drive camcorder promises a great performance enhancement and exceptional still image performance in a very small, innovative package. Peter Blasina takes the latest Everio hard disc camcorder for its first Australian review.

Bullish about the success of its first two Microdrive camcorders released in Australia last November; JVC has launched the amazing GZ-MC500. Built on a similar design principle to the MC200, the MC500 adds several new features and the spectre of greatly enhanced colour rendition via its 3CCD image sensors.

Of course, the MC500 now holds the title as the smallest 3CCD camcorder ever to have been released. Now it becomes a little vague here when we try to determine what to call this moviemaking device. JVC's preferred option is 'Digital Media Camera'.

The newest member of the JVC Everio family records 60 minutes of DVD-quality video or thousands of photo-quality stills to a Microdrive removable hard disk.

The use of three CCDs combined with advanced pixel shift technology allows the MC500 to deliver 5 megapixel-class (this will be explained later) digital stills with a maximum size of 2560 x 1920 pixels, and a broadened dynamic range when recording still or moving images. The result is naturally sharp, vivid colour, good contrast and clean mages or videos with surprisingly good low light performance for a three CCD camcorder.

The benefits of recording video to a hard disk are the same benefits that have made hard disk-based audio players so popular - random access to quickly locate desired material, the ability to effortlessly delete unwanted material, and easily rearrange playback sequence. What?s more, there's no danger of mistakenly recording over something you want to keep.

Design and layout

As mentioned, the MC500 is built on the same basic design as the MC200, except it looks as though it has been on steroids! It has a rotating grip - so the camera section can move 45 degrees up and 45 degrees down.

And what about the name 'Everio'? Well, let's not be too harsh on this. When developing the Everio digital media cameras some wunderkind in Japan came up with Everio as a play on Everi-o-cassion, Everi-where, Everi-one and Everi-time.

The killer functionality for this unique new micro sized camcorder line is that there is no tape, no disc and no docking station.

JVC says that its Everio digital media cameras mark the leading edge for video products adopting new types of digital media. With Everio, JVC claims it has established a new benchmark with a format that combines convenience with the high storage capacity. The result is a pair of ultra-compact camcorders that offer video and still image capabilities, mobility, high image quality, extended shooting time, and ease of use.

The MC500 features a compact little body that fits snugly into the hand. The limited controls are laid out at strategic points around the camcorder?s body making them easy to access whilst recording.

The front of the MC500 is dominated by a high-resolution lens specifically matched for the camcorder's a 1.33 (1.23 effective) megapixel 5.6mm (1/4.5 inch) CCD to each TV colour ?- red, green and blue. JVC's advanced prism optics and filterless 3-CCD pixel shift technology quadruple the pixel count to record 5 megapixel-class stills. Simply put, the pixel shift technique, used also in JVC professional video cameras, captures double the 1,228,800 pixel information in both the horizontal and vertical directions, creating a real full colour image pixel count multiplied by four for stills. (Everio uses 691,200 effective pixels for each RGB video colour.)

To fully capitalize on the MC500?s inherent picture performance, JVC's Megabrid Imaging Engine separately processes video and still signals, providing optimal processing for each. Megabrid technology assures high sensitivity and a high signal-to-noise ratio for moving pictures, and clear, high-resolution progressive still images. Encoding of the image to MPEG-2 data is handled, according to JVC, by the world's smallest MPEG-2 codec chip.

This newly developed 9-group 11-element structured lens, which offers a 10x optical zoom for video and 8x optical zoom in still image mode, includes a glass-molded aspherical lens. There are also 40x and 200x digital zoom ranges. The f=4.5 - 45mm focal length and F1.8 minimum aperture delivers very good pictures, with minimal distortion or aberration at either end of the optical zoom range.

On the left side of the MC500 is a large dial for selecting a variety of recording or playback modes. Three icons indicating the camera's active mode - Video, Still and Audio - are located above this dial. These modes are set using the Mode button in the centre of the dial.

A large Program AE dial makes it easy to select from Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Twilight, Sports, Snow, Portrait, and Auto/Manual modes. Furthermore, the MC500 offers Auto Bracket, which when the shutter is pressed automatically shoots three shots, each at a slightly different exposure setting. Other controls include Backlight and Spotlight Compensation, as well as a Real-time Histogram Display to graphically show exposure distribution within the still image.

The rear of the MC500 is dominated by the bright 4.6 cm (1.8 inch) 130,000 pixel LCD screen, that works adequately even when recording in bright sunlight. Having a good quality versatile LCD is critical on a camcorder that does not have an optical viewfinder.

The design of the MC500 makes it fall into the curve of your cupped hand, and there are indentations to accommodate your fingers. The design also makes your spare fingers fall naturally to the controls - basically your index finger and thumb on the right hand are used to control and navigate the camcorder's few operations.

The ergonomics of the MC500 is one of my only bugbears with this camcorder. Because the camcorder lacks a grip you find yourself gripping it more tightly than you otherwise would. As well, holding it with the camcorder angled through its 45-degree tilt tends to cause fatigue after a short time, in my case introducing a fair amount of hand shake. It isn?t a huge issue, but it means that I have to mark the camcorder rather harshly on ergonomics.

The top of the GZ-MC500 features the camcorder's flash, which pops up. The flash is one of the best you will find on a camcorder.

The GZ-MC500 offers automatic control over all of its features and functions, including shutter speed and iris settings, white balance and focus. All of these automatic defaults can be locked into place in the camcorder's automatic mode. This mode is denoted by the green icon on the camcorder?s menu dial.

Also, automatic defaults for each individual feature are located locally. For instance, automatic exposure compensation is located in the camcorder's manual control menus screen, along with an automatic white balance setting. Shutter speed and iris controls are automatic unless the camcorder is in Aperture or Shutter priority modes.

Aperture settings are available in Aperture Priority mode only. F-Stops between F1.8 and F32.0 are available. This is an impressive range for any camcorder, and definitely welcome here. Shutter speed adjustments are available when in Shutter Speed Priority mode only. Options between 1/2 - 1/4000sec are available as well.

The MC500 offer a lot more in manual control that any of the previous Everios, which makes sense since it is a three CCD camcorder aimed at the prosumer market. A focus ring is also a very useful addition to this Everio.

Most controls are menu-based. The obvious zoom at the top of the camcorder is easily operated while the menu system that has the majority of the camcorder's controls is accessed via a novel joystick controller on the rear of the body. The joystick is the main control of virtually all the MC500's functions - even in playback mode it doubles as the transport control.

There is an interesting LED light on the rear panel that flickers when recording or playing back footage. Called 'Access', it is the clearest indicator that this is not a tape-based camcorder. 'Access' refers to recording to the camera's hard drive - but more about that later.

JVC has developed a great new GUI ? Graphical User Interface - for its camcorder. It makes it easy to navigate and control a huge range of settings and functions easily. In addition, there is access to the camcorders? video and still files via thumbnails, the surest sign that we have left the tape domain and entered the more accessible world of hard drive recording.

Recording media

The revolutionary aspect of the MC500 is its recording media - it uses a Microdrive as its primary storage medium. What is a Microdrive? It is a 16g hard drive that has been physically reduced to the size of a Compact Flash memory card. A Microdrive is a hard disk drive that?s the same size as a CompactFlash card, but with much greater capacity. It can be removed, just like a CompactFlash or SD Memory Card in a digital still camera, and the data recorded on the card can be loaded into a PC using an optional memory card adapter.

It's exactly the same storage device used in some of today's most popular portable digital music players, for example the iPod Mini uses a 4GB Microdrive. The MC500 has concealed the 4GB Microdrive and SD card slots. The Microdrive is located next to the battery in the handgrip part of the camcorder. The SD slot only becomes visible when the camera section of the camcorder is rotated down.

These Microdrives are really something quite spectacular and JVC has made an amazing decision to use these as the basis of its new model range.

Another technology innovation making the Microdrive system functional as a video recording medium has been the development by JVC of a 'Floating Suspension System'. Using gel shock absorbers positioned on the sides of the card slot, the disk is 'floated' while writing and reading so the shocks associated with general camcorder use are absorbed. JVC claims that this is the first shock absorption mechanism for removable disks.

The MC500 can shoot up to 60 minutes of DVD-quality MPEG-2 video. A choice of four recording modes lets users choose between more shooting time or higher quality, depending on their needs. The highest quality Ultra mode records at a fixed data rate of 8.88 Mbps including Dolby Digital audio (8.5 Mbps video plus 384kbps Dolby Digital Audio) - comparable to the DVD (average 4 Mbps video/9.8 Mbps maximum) data rate - for essentially DVD-level quality in the same video and audio format as a movie DVD.

As a result, Everio video can be enjoyed on a large-screen display, including plasma, LCD and rear projection TVs, without the quality loss suffered by other formats when presented on a large display. A convenient multi-connector AV/S-Video cable is included for direct connection.

Stills can be shot in a wide range of resolutions, including: 2560x1920, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480. For quick downloading of stills or video to a PC, simply connect the camera via its USB2.0 interface. All transfer is digital-to-digital, so there is no quality lost in the process. And rather than real time transfer of video, both these camcorders simply transfer video files by dragging and dropping to the PC's hard drive. So, if you have a USB 2.0 connection, an hour of top quality MPEG-2 video files can be transferred to a PC in less than five minutes.
And since the cameras support PictBridge, they can be connected via USB to a compatible printer to easily print stills directly from the camera. As well, DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) support allows the menus on the camera screen to be used to conveniently select images and quantity before giving removable media to a photo lab for printing.

Performance

From the aspect of being the world's smallest 3CCD camcorder - the MC500 is quite a remarkable camera and camcorder. This Everio certainly has improved on the picture performance of its predecessors, helped in large part by its 3CCD head block.

Picture quality was excellent, with all colours rendered naturally in bright, natural lighting conditions. The camcorder handled mixed lighting conditions reasonably well, although its auto white balance control is not one of its strong suits. Exposure, on the other hand, is handled remarkably well in auto mode - proving to be quick and almost intuitive to react in changing lighting conditions and contrast situations.

Manual mode provides an extensive range of F-stops and shutter speeds which made setting the camcorder and camera accurately a dream. The only real criticism of the camcorder's performance comes in low light situations. As with most 3CCD camcorders low light performance can be an Achilles heel, and that is the case with the MC500. While it is not the poorest performer in low light, it is recommended to restrict your recording to reasonably well-lit situations if you can.

JVC's 3D Noise Reduction technology helps maintain picture quality by removing some of the grain inherent in low light shooting situations. However, compared to even an average single CCD camcorder, the MC500 records footage and photos in low light with high levels of picture grain.

While all these megabits, interlaced frames and progressive frames sounds impressive, how does the video look when viewed on a TV? The answer is superb. Of course, that does depend on the recording mode setting. In Ultra-Fine the quality is as good as movie grade DVDs, in Fine mode the video is better than S-Video quality while Normal mode delivers better than VHS quality. I would only use Economy recording mode in an absolute emergency, as it contains a great deal of video artefacts and the quality is only marginal.

Which of course, raises the question of what do you do if you are out or travelling and you've filled the Microdrive with footage? Well, you could slip in another Microdrive card. However, a 4GB replacement card is going to cost you around four hundred dollars! Suddenly that $10 mini-DV tape doesn't look so unattractive after all.

In my opinion the MC500 Everio is a major leap forward and firmly sets JVC's course down the hard drive media track. I would expect to see quite a comprehensive range of Everio camcorders available by Christmas this year. JVC has shown a great deal of innovation, design credibility and vision with the MC500, delivering a new format with tremendous potential.

Best of all, at just $800 more than the single CCD Everios, the MC500 is excellent value.

Included software

JVC has wisely bundled CyberLink DVD Solution software with both camcorders. The software comprises three applications that make it easy to make and watch full-length DVD movies from the footage. A standard 4.7GB single-layer DVD-R/RW disc holds over one hour of an Ultra Fine mode movie, and over 90 minutes of a Fine mode movie.

The first application is PowerProducer and it offers easy saving and authoring of video clips in any order to DVD, even right from an USB-connected camcorder, so you can share original DVDs with anybody who owns a DVD player.

PowerDirector Express offers feature-rich non-linear editing so you can flex your creative muscle with titles and even mix stills with videos. PowerDirector Express also converts movies to a variety of file formats to send via the Web or e-mail. Supported formats include DV-AVI, Windows-AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, as well as Windows Media Video and RealVideo that can be streamed over the Internet.

PowerDVD conveniently plays back video clips and DVDs with AC 3 audio.

CyberLink's DVD Solution software requires Windows XP / 2000 / ME, a PC with 128MB RAM, 700 MHz or above Intel Pentium III, USB 2.0 terminal and a DVD burner. Recommended: 256 MB RAM, Pentium 4 (2 GHz or faster), 7200 rpm HDD, 10-15 GB free hard disk space. Unfortunately, none of this software is compatible with the Apple Mac.