Fantastic, for the price
Written: Jul 04 '03
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Pros: Image quality, plain and simple.
Cons: I'm thinking, hold on...
The Bottom Line: Best camera for the money. There are better, but be prepared to PAY.
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| rich_novak's Full Review: JVC Cybercam GR-D30 Mini DV Digital Camcorder |
I went up into the mountains today determined to make a video-card for my girlfriend's father, and I just had to write a review.
If you're looking for a camera to use to make the next "Blair Witch" movie... go elsewhere. You're looking for a camera with 3 CCDs (color chips).
This camera, like so many others, has only one CCD, which means that it doesn't capture color as richly as something you'd use to bring something to a film festival or something. This camera, however, have a 680,000 pixel CCD. That's a good thing. It records at 520 lines of resolution. For those who aren't aware, that's better than DVD quality. I decided to put that to the test. I put the video onto a Video CD, popped it into the DVD player, and BAM! My girlfriend plastered on the bigscreen in vivid detail. Neat-o.
While the camera isn't feature packed, it doesn't really need to be. It's a pretty basic camera, but what it does, it does well. It has a snapshot button, which I've used but avoid. It takes good pictures at night too. It has a night feature, which I haven't used yet because it does pretty fine without it. It does not have anything such as fade in, fade out, swipes or linear wipes for transitions, but that's why I got it. I do all that stuff with my video program, and most programs can do that, so why pay for it twice? The math seems simple to me.
While many cameras boast features that you probably can't understand and probably won't ever use, they do so for sometimes double and tripple the price.
I connect the camera to my Lifebook with a Firewire, which is located behind the 2 1/2 inch color screen. The camera also has a viewfinder but it's black and white. I use the viewfinder for days when it's bright outside and the screen is hard to see. I use the screen (which of course flips all the way over if needed) for close indoor settings. Simple.
The camera has a pretty cool 16x optical zoom and a 700x digital zoom. Try using the optical zoom as much as possible, because the quality is supurb. Digital zoom is fine until it reaches way out there, then things get a tad pixelated. It happens with any camera.
Sound is recorded fairly well in stereo, with both a 12 and 16 bit setting.
Overall, you need this camera and a nice editing program, and you're set. Don't pay so much more for a camera where nobody will be able to tell the difference between output. Spend the money you save on something better.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 315.00
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Epinions.com ID:
rich_novak
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Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 2 members
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