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"HDD is Amazing!" on by phat78boy
Pros: Compact, Light weight, No media, Good video, and Great stills
Cons: Video not quite as good as similiar priced models with removable media. Expensive. No viewfinder.
Summary: I have been holding out on HDD model camcorders because of the reviews, but have wanted one for quite some time. When this was released I was quick to purchase and have been very surprised at how good this camcorder is. In comparing video, camcorder models with removable media do have an edge. In every other way, this camcorder wins hands down. The built in HDD is even better then it sounds. You can literally record a whole vacation in DVD quality and never have to change media. You can instantly view a recorded session and decide to keep it or delete it. In DVD quality mode you have over 7 hours of video at your disposal. Even more in lower resolutions. The video is very good. I was not disappointed at all. The opitcal zoom is 10X and also very good. This model does not have a touch screen, but instead uses a joystick. In my opinion, I will take a good joystick anyday over touch screen. The camcorder fits almost perfect in your hand. I actually found this camcorder to fit better then any I had previously owned or used. It is very well balanced. The controls are placed perfectly for your most used items, like zoom and record/pause. The manual adjustments are very good and allow alot of control over how your video looks. They are also very easy to get to while shooting and can be implemented on the fly. Stills from this camcorder are very good, probably another best I have seen from any camcorder I have used. While not as good as descent 6MP camera, I would say they would rival any 3MP camera. Again, there are plenty of manual options in camera mode also. One of the things that might be disappointing is the full auto mode. Although it does a good job in a well lit situation, it is not good in dim lighting. I found this very easy to correct by going to manual mode and making the necessary corrections. Although it is very easy to move the video files from this unit to a computer, I would recommend the JVC burn station. With it you can select the videos you want on DVD and burn them right away. Overall, I would recommend this camera. Good manual controls, no media, and great design/portability are my main reasons.
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"Packs a big professional punch in a small body." on by mjrei1
Pros: Very feature-rich for a very portable little camera.
Cons: Minor qualms only, not important enough to mention.
Summary: I am an owner of several other well known video cameras including this camera's everio predecessor. What I found lacking in all the others has been resolved beautifully with this new top of the line everio.
The standout features are the 3 megapixel ccd, the external mic input (totally missing on all previous everio hdd cameras) and the overall functionality of such a compact feature-rich camera.
This is the perfect camera to stem the gap between the semiprofessional "newsroom" style cameras and the common "home video" type cameras. It delivers most of the quality and most of the features of the "newsroom" style cameras with only 1/3 the size and the advantage of the hard disk format vs. the hd tape format.
So far I am very pleased with this camera. Very big thumbs up! Well worth the price and the wait! -
"Amazing camcorder - but why does it record in non-standard files?" on by bruscol
Pros: Compact, lightweight, great picture quality, fits in hand all day, records 7 hrs in best mode
Cons: Non standard .MOD file format; Record indicator red, pause indicator green, small and slightly recessed start/stop recording button
Summary: The other reviews say it all - a wonderful camera that takes fantastic pictures - lightweight - compact - fits in hand and can stay there all day. Fits 7 hrs of best quality video - enough for a whole vacation.
But the cons are there also. First and foremost - why does JVC use a non-standard file format? The .MOD format is not usable by most DVD burning programs, so you are forced to use the one bundled with the camera, a light version that does not work all that well. If you want to convert the files to a more usable .MPG or .AVI format, you need to by converters that should be bundled with a $1200+ machine. The start/stop recording button is small and slightly recessed - and it is sometimes tough to make sure it is actually recording. This is made worse by the fact that the "record" indicator is RED - and the "pause" indicator is GREEN - and intuitively - it does not make sense and should be reversed - or the "pause" indicator should say STOP or something - rather than a circle/|| symbol that, when you are shotting quick - if you don't use the camera all that often - could be mistaken in green for the camera actually recording. Just some minor irritations which I could live with on a $400 camcorder that become more annoying on a $1200+ machine. -
"Possible issues with GZ-MG505" on by gmoriwaki
Pros: Works like a charm when it does...
Cons: Camera crashes with loud ambient noises
Summary: I have recently bought this camera and it works great in most cases. I believe there is some kind of issue when the camera is exposed to loud ambient noises. I recorded our New Years event and the video camera got a "recording failed" message. I again got the same message when I recorded a live band. So I turned off the drop detect option thinking it might resolve the issue, but to no avail, it crashed again. A coworker of mine, bought the same camera and he got the same error message when he went fishing on a boat. Tech support has been responsive, but it resorted to me bringing the camera in for repair....I hope they can resolve this issue...Will post again once I get my camera back from the shop...Also my friend's camera is also going in for repair...
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"Been a good camera" on by mattr111
Pros: Compact, lightweight, good battery life (I carry two batteries with me), quick transfer to computer, good automatic mode but not lacking in manual adjustments if needed
Cons: Problem with cutting out when exposed to loud noises, presumably due to vibrating the hard drive.
Summary: Many people complain about the .MOD file format, but its just standard MPEG-2!!! Some editors will allow you to drop it straight in and recognize its a MPEG video stream, but for those that don't you can easily get around it by renaming the file extension to .MPG. You can open the .MOD files in most media players (assuming you have the correct MPEG codecs installed).
My only niggle is the fact the .MOD files are interlaced with upper-field-first. Its really picky, but considering DVD (the target media for many using this camera) is nearly always lower-field-first, why have it encoded the other way? Ah well, fairly easy to work around if you have a good editor.
JVC Everio GZ-MG505 user reviews
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