Weighing in at only 1.3 pounds, this dainty little camcorder has a lot to offer to the beginner to intermediate videographer who wants to move into the digital world.
Case in point: the new JVC GR-DVM90U mini dv digital camcorder.
A good choice if small size and digital stills are crucial otherwise, you can do better for the same price.Manufacturers are able to fit much more into tighter and tighter spaces these days.Focus and exposure controls could be better.Excellent digital still features, including flash.Weight (sans tape and battery): 0.75 pounds STRENGTHS Other Features: 8MB multimedia card, docking station, slow-motion playback, digital stills, built-in sound effects, audio dubbing, insert editingĭimensions: 1 3/4 (w) x 4 9/16 (h) x 3 3/16 (d) inches Outputs: IEEE 1394, S-video, AV, headphone, JLIP, USB Viewfinder: 2-inch color LCD monitor.44-inch color LCD viewfinderĮxposure: auto, manual, backlight and spotlight compensationĭigital Effects: 16 fades, wipes and dissolves, high and low speed shutter, video echo, strobe, classic film, black and white, sepia, twilight Meanwhile, let the Mini DV battle to be the smallest camcorder carry on. It’s a little expensive for what you get, yet the quality of the stills it captured was sufficient to keep high school graduates, and their parents, happy and proud for years to come. The quality of the digital stills, however, was excellent.Īs stated in the introduction to this review, the GR-DVP3, which can easily slip into a shirt pocket, is best suited to those who value compactness and digital still-image functions over the capabilities of a full-featured DV camcorder. The GR-DVP3’s image quality was adequate for a DV camcorder it sits in the middle of the pack when compared to the image quality of most other DV video cameras. The built-in microphone’s resulting audio quality is excellent, but still pales in comparison to the freedom of moving an external microphone closer to the source of the audio. The inclusion of a headphone jack to monitor audio is a good thing, but the absence of a microphone jack is a notable omission. (Note: both of the aforementioned features are only accessible via the included docking station, another feature that JVC has perfected over the years.)
Also very handy was the unit’s easy-to-use USB port for transferring images from the camcorder’s 8MB flash memory card to a computer. JVC’s tried-and-true Random Assemble Edit feature, along with its JLIP control port, combined to make copying selected scenes to a JLIP-equipped JVC VCR a simple matter. Though the GR-DVP3 includes many features designed to aid those who prefer in-camera editing (such as sound effects, digital effects, fades, wipes, etc.), there are also a few features designed to help those who are interested in selecting shots for recording onto another tape.
#JVC DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA MINI DV MANUAL#
Furthermore, the menu that displays this feature isn’t even available unless you switch over to manual mode. The GR-DVP3 does have a fully automatic mode available, but strangely, this mode does not include image stabilization. If JVC wants to capture the point-and-shoot crowd with this camera, it will have to make some of its essential controls easier to access.
#JVC DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA MINI DV SERIES#
It also proved the need for the unit’s digital image stabilization, accessed only through a difficult series of menu choices. Zooming in to catch a few pictures of specific graduates validated the usefulness of the extended digital zoom to reach beyond the modest 10:1 optical offering. The zoom wheel, however, is responsive to a light touch, and offers a number of speeds. Operation of the zoom control was difficult at first, due to its awkward position. The right-hand thumb controls the record button, as well as a spring-loaded circular zoom control. With the GR-DVP3 held in the right hand, and the 2-inch LCD monitor flipped out, the unit allows access to some, but not all, of the camera’s major controls.