OK, but only worth your time if you are dead set on HDD
Pros:
-uses a harddrive, not tape or a disc, so you can have long recording sessions
Cons:
-image quality is just par
-poor image stabilization
-expensive
-poor bundled software
The Bottom Line:
a good camera with nice HDD technology, but just doesn't match up to competitors in other areas with other features.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
when I first heard about this camcorder, I was really excited to see what it could do. The Harddrive medium is an amazing idea, something never before done (to my knowledge), and is an excellent choice. When using the camera I noticed two major pluses that using the HDD offers you (in addtion to long recording times:
-the medium is infinitely reusable (at least for a couple of years until the HDD breaks or the lens breaks or something else renders the device unusable). Record anything you want, delete anything you want, no matter how many times you delete and record something, the quality of that section of the HDD will not decrease (unlike tape). And unlike mini dvds, you don't have to buy expensive discs everytime you want to record something, or pop in and out the discs when you run out of room.
-every time you hit the pause button, it creates a new image file. This means that in playback mode, you can browse from file to file, without to much fastt forwarding to find where you want to go (unless you have some very long files- in which case you can tell the camera to make new files every X number of minutes)
The design is great, you hardly ever have to go "inside" the camera (you know, where lcd folds up and there is usually a myriad of buttons that are impossible to reach without moving the camera and ruining your shot). Like I said, this doesn't happen with this camera.
However, the cons are what they are, and for me (someone who LOVES the HDD idea) they still don't outweigh the pros. The software is negligable since you can go through the contents of the drive in windows explorer and tehn drag and drop files where you want. The image stabilization just doesn't cut it though, and nearly ruins everything that JVC worked so hard to achieve.
