JVC GY-HD110U Camcorder

Pros: A highly capable, smartly designed pro camera that can cover a remarkable range of applications.
Cons: A few hardware design nits.

When the JVC ProHD line of cameras débuted around 2005, it heralded new and a broad range of video capabilities and set a standard for camcorders in its price range that still reverberates in the market today. The JVC GY-HD110u is a significant ...

Pros: Neat ease-of-use layout, excellent images in the right lighting conditions, good sound, removable lens.
Cons: Poor lowlight performance, flimsy plastic construction, poor SD images, cumbersome 720p codec.

I am pretty disappointed with this one. The images look great but they're only 720p HD, which is not full resolution HD. Shooting guerilla or in low light, color depth is lacking, the image gets extremely noisy if any gain is added, and there is a lack of latitude (even with recipes applied to give it more). The 1/3 inch 17x Fujinon lens is nice AND removeable but a PL mount adaptor costs nigh $6000 which is as much or more than the actual camera!

My Final cut HD cannot batch capture from the camera, and every point where I stopped and started recorded counts as a timecode break and interrupts the capture process. This makes capturing the footage I shot a real headache!

My biggest disappointment is in the quality of construction. JVC builds the camera out of a crummy plastic which cracks or breaks easily under pressure. My eyepiece cracked from merely being transported in a padded bag - I submitted two service requests to JVC with zero response.