JVC Cybercam GR-DVL120 (gr-dvl120u) Battery

Pros: Low price, high feature content, picture quality, 16x optical zoom
Cons: For this price, there is nothing to complain about

The JVC GR-DVL120 is a MiniDV digital camcorder, which costs less than $500. Unlike more expensive models, it has no USB or RS232C port, but it still features a FireWire (i.Link) interface, which is faster than either USB or RS232C.

The...

Pros: Excellent Optics. Impressive, smooth zoom capabilities. Low-price CCD power.
Cons: No USB connection. Little else.

There's never been a better time to go out and purchase a new digital camcorder. With so many brands and models to choose from, you can easily custom fit your choice exactly around your own needs. And where in the (recent) past, most models with decent...

Pros: Spectacular Features, Price, Video (and sound) Quality, and 16x Optical Zoom...
Cons: Bottom Tape Loading

Pros: Price, Weight, 16X Optical Zoom
Cons: Low light recording, Lack of built in light

Background

I'd been waiting for digital camcorders to come down in price over the last year and decided in Nov. 2002 to finally go out and buy one. I used Epinions to spec out some of the cams that Best Buy Circuit City and Brandsmart had on...

Pros: Cheap, Easy, high quality recording, good sound
Cons: no inputs, no light, steadyshot is cheap, low light quality

This JVC camcorder is a really great camera for a lot of people. It does everything that I want from it, and has more. There are great settings on it that do nice things like cutting out the wind noise and helping with color.

The battery life...

Pros: Price, features, 16x optical zoom, video & sound quality.
Cons: Position of snapshot (still picture) button, bottom loading tape compartment. Minor stuff...

How I got it:

After months of pondering, I finally decided to get a camcorder. Of course, which one? Being that I set a mental limit of $500 (including accessories), digital models through retail outlets were out of the...

Pros: Great picture quality in good light
Cons: Faulty cassette load mechanism and tape drive.

I bought one of these about a year ago. Shortly after the 90 day warranty expired, I started having problems. At first I would occasionally get error messages telling me to eject and re-insert the cassette. Now, I get this message about 9 out of 10 times...

Pros: Great picture quality, easy and smooth zooming, nice transitions, compact design.
Cons: Shell's paint is very thin, Stock battery sucks (1 hour max), NightShot is bad.

I have owned mine for about a year now and I have taken some nice shots with it. I create VCD's out of my home movies and it works great with Pinnacle Studio 8 and a good Firewire card and cable. The only things I didn't really like about it is that if...

Pros: 16X Optical zoom, great picture quality, price
Cons: No ext. mic jack

We have a 6 month old daughter and wanted to film, edit, and distribute videos to family and friends. Being the gadget guru that I am, I decided that MiniDV was the way to go. I have been researching and testing MiniDV camcorders for the last 4 months....

Pros: Video quality, zoom, video modes
Cons: Low light recording, lack of inputs and a few others

I was in the market for a basic Mini DV camera and came across this JVC at a local store for 300 buc ...

Pros: Great bang for you buck.
Cons: Poor night filming, sound is not very high quality.

This review is going to be short and to the point. If you want a review of special features look at the other ones on the site. This review is by someone who didn’t have enough money to by a high priced DV camera, and chose this one due to its budget...

Pros: Great light weight JVC quality Mini DV camcorder.
Cons: No light.

I've owned this camcorder for about 4 month. I really enjoy using it because it's so easy to use. The camcorder has both Auto and Manual mode. Auto mode is good for people that just want to pick it up and start filming. I prefer the Manual mode that...

Pros: Good image & sound quality when working. Optional manual controls.
Cons: Regular malfunction.How tape is install in camera is stupid,you have to remove camera from tripod.

When this camera work I get good picture & sound Quality But after using for a time the camera stop playing or recording & a message appear on screen "EO3 UNIT IN SAFEGUARD MODE REMOVE & REINSTALL TAPE".

Pros: Good deal... Initially...
Cons: Unusable after 3 monthes of use!!! AVOID!!!

I bought this camera thinking it would be a great deal! Initially, it was! Then the problems started happening, and this camera went straight to hell. There would be a weird winding noise everytime I would try and record and it got to the point that it would actually destroy my tapes!!! I was very gentle with this camera... up until the point i threw it off a cliff and said good ridance! As you can see, many people are having problems with this machine and I actually looked into starting a class action law-suit against JVC. Do what's go for you andf spend the extra 50-100 dollars for a camera that won't break 3 monthes after gentle care. Oh, and the support WAS TERRIBLE as well! AVOID!

Pros: Great pictures when it works. Great zoom.
Cons: Times when it won't record. Unreliable. Having to buy a firewire card for my computer.

I just want to warn anyone buying one of these cameras "reconditioned" as I did. The camera worked fine the first month or so and then started giving errors that the heads needed cleaning and prompting to eject and reinsert the tape. (I don't believe it is a problem with dirty heads since it is practically "new" and when it does work the video comes out great looking.) This problem comes and goes and at times makes it almost impossible to get a video when you want it.
I have also read where others have had this problem.
I'm just hoping that it doesn't get to the point where it is totally unusable.