Hands-on with the JVC GZ-HD3 camcorder

We've gotten our hands all over the new JVC GZ-HD3 1080i camcorder, and we thought we'd share the good fortune with you. If you'll recall, the new GZ-HD7 kid-brother rocks a 60GB internal hard drive, allowing for something like five hours of 1440 x 1080, 30Mbps recordings. The camera is light and small for the feature set it packs (although it gets some stiff, stiff competition from the new Sanyo HD-1000), and the design is pretty much the plain-jane basics you've come to expect from JVC. Check the gallery and see for yourself.

Gallery: Hands-on with the JVC GZ-HD3 camcorder

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[MashupMark @ Sep 1st 2007 5:26PM]

Looks almost exactly the same as my standard HDD Everio, same button layout and everything! Although that HUGE lense at the front is different!

Any idea if the steady shot mode is better on this HD cam than the standard def Everios?

[Mr. B @ Sep 1st 2007 6:28PM]

I thought the "Full HD" designation was just for 1080p.

[Andy @ Sep 2nd 2007 9:47AM]

Full HD is 1920X1080P/i. It's a "Full pixels" kind of thought. Even Sony markets there 1920/1080i cameras as Full HD.

BTW, I have the GZ-HD7U and it's great. 3CCD 1920x1080 FTW.

[james Prumm @ Sep 1st 2007 10:22PM]

i really hate it when people say Full HD when they can only do 1440. If you cant do FULL HD (1920x1080) you cant claim full HD! u can claim Full Horizontal HD, but not FULL HD. JVC needs a lawsuit to set them and any other company out there preying on idiot consumers with false and misleading advertising!

[LondonConsultant @ Sep 2nd 2007 8:24PM]

Well, "Full HD" used to mean only 1920x1080p, especially in the context of HDTV. Then several manufacturers started applying "Full HD" to camcorders that record at lower resolutions and interpolate to a higher output resolution; for example your GZ-HD7U has 3 chips, each of 976x548, and uses "4X software interpolation" (JVC's description) to output the higher resolution. Then other camcorder manufacturers applied the term "Full HD" to actual 1920x1080i chips, etc. So, the label "Full HD" is pretty meaningless now on a camcorder. Manufacturers should obviously always state x and y resolutions of the CHIP (especially if there's a higher interpolated/recorded resolution) and whether progressive or interpolated...

[james Prumm @ Sep 2nd 2007 8:55PM]

*interlaced, i think you mean (next to progressive, last word) and for you to give me a rundown like that implies either you missed my point or i gave you the wrong impression. sorry if it's the latter. point was, if your camera does not have high definition CCD or CMOS sensors I dont care about the output, u cant call it Full HD, because thats lies. thats like resizing a VGA movie to 720p and saying its HD! its lies! lets make a class action against these rich and deceitful companies

[LondonConsultant @ Sep 3rd 2007 6:17AM]

Oops, sorry James! I clicked on the wrong reply button: I meant my reply for Andy's earlier comment about his GZ-HD7U, not for your comment. And, yes, I also meant "interlaced" at the end, not "interpolated"...

It's a pity the HD standard refers to *display* resolution only, not the quality. The 176x144 cameraphone video of my dog formally becomes HD when I use software to interpolate it to 720p. And it now informally becomes Full HD when I interpolate it to 1080i/p. We wouldn't accept these damn lies with digital stills and we shouldn't accept them with digitial videos! I'll join your class action :-)

[james Prumm @ Sep 3rd 2007 6:23AM]

here here :P

[artifex @ Sep 3rd 2007 1:42PM]

ok, so any head to head on quality and features between this and the sanyo?