Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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JVC Everio HD Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom
$119.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

Hmm -- that looks a little weird for a Box of Crayons for my birthday -- I thought Woot! got the memo -- clearly not. Maybe next year

Same $119.99 last time:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4692975

My comments last woot:

Product page: edit--website changes

http://camcorder.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028900&pathId=171&page=14

with manuals, including basic (edit):

http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/01/49/LYT2257-001C-M.pdf

and 6 reviews:

http://camcorder.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028900&pathId=171&review=read

Edit: Sorry, had to update the links.

Never ever buy JVC equipment, Every JVC product that I personally purchased and used ended up going to goodwill, I work at a company that purchases large amount of electronic equipment we gave up on JVC because of poor quality and short useful life.

I'm so mad that I just bought myself a new camcorder because I had my eye on this one. It's an amazing camera! I'm trying really hard to rationalize spending the money in order to buy it.

Since it has a Minolta lens, does anyone know if it also has the Minolta developed anti-shake in-the-sensor (superior) rather than in-the-lens anti-shake (inferior)?

I bought this new last year. Great camera, a little bouncy when you do a far away zoom, but still, great sound and picture.

Here's a review.

What's the lens' focal length? What is it's 35mm equivalent?

I don't know if I have the same model being offered here, but I have an Everio and am reasonably satisfied with it, albeit with a couple of gripes. First, the battery life seems pretty short-less than an hour. This surprised me as there are no moving parts to motor as you would have in a digital tape camcorder. Second, transferring videos to a computer hard drive isn't quite as easy as click and drag. Although not overly difficult, the transfer system could have been made a little easier and more intuitive. Despite those two issues, I've been happy with my Everio. For the price, it takes decent videos and I particularly appreciate the convenience far quicker transfers to a computer than a tape system. Is it a high end camcorder? No, but again, for the price, it does a pretty good job

any one know what the internal memory space on this is?

Bought won last time they were on Woot. Very light, easy charger, very good video quality. It isn't touchscreen though and the buttons are hard to negotiate. Good deal for the price.

I just bought two, does anyone know what the best media card to buy for it is?

I know about SD cards, but not much about the other two menitoned

Thanks

I have a older everio its nice but it also has twin sd card and battery life was pretty good on it .

Just remember that extra batterys are cheap on the net and its not a bad camera for the price

zenhound wrote:What's the lens' focal length? What is it's 35mm equivalent?

It's very likely that the widest it goes is 35 mm equivalent, which makes the max zoom 35x40 = 1400 mm. Better hold still!

I wish x720 was not called "HD". Note that this is not a "Full HD", er, x1080 recording device.

B&H 9 reviews, 4+ stars, $179:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/749372-REG/JVC_GZ_HM30BUSM_GZ_HM30_HD_Everio_Camcorder.html

Best Buy 1 review, $199.99

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/JVC+-+GZHM30BUS+HD+Flash+Memory+Camcorder+-+Black/2276326.p?id=1218324524071&skuId=2276326&cmp=RMX&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=2276326

Google video search comes up with multiple of varying quality including:









Really have to go now. Bye.

Thought about it because of the price. But Consumer Reports rated it a 52/100 and felt like its picture quality and battery life were inferior. Highest rated was 72 lowest was 41, so 52 was towards the bottom end. On the other hand the models that scored higher tended to be 2X to 4X the price.

The specs are pretty good but this is strictly a no frills basic camcorder. Some thoughts:

1) Only 12 of the 20 English pages in the manual actually teaches you how to use the camera. The rest are warnings, troubleshooting and legalese. That shows you show sparse the features are. And the pages aren't exactly packed with text and figures. All in all, I'd say that there are only 5 pages of real instructions.

2) It doesn't do still photos, which is a common and easy feature to implement. A video is a basically series of still frames, so why not have allow users to capture just one frame? This is a stupid oversight by JVC. Having a still mode allows some users to leave their still camera at home, and is especially useful because of the super optical Zoom. Having to take video first, and then capture the still frame on your is a waste of space and time.

3) HATE THIS: You can't pause while recording. This means that you'll end uo with lots of video snippets of one event/session. As others have pointed out, it's annoying and time consuming to have to concatenate them later. And each snippet has memory overhead so this is also less efficient than having just one file Furthermore, the playback function isn't like a slideshow where each snippet will automatically play in sequence You have to manually play them. Imagine how annoying then it is to attach this to your TV and having to advance to each new snippet even though they're from the same session.

In JVC's defense, most cheaper camcorders, palmcorders (i.e Flip) and digital cameras also can't pause while recording. Samsung digital cameras are a notable exception. Even their $59 models can pause. BUT ... moro.nically, Samsung's own inexpensive <$200 camcorders can't pause either!!!!

This is especially mor.onic since this JVC has a motion detect mode! In other words, it can automatically pause during recording yet it won't allow users to manually do so.

4) Keep in mind that this uses the AVCHD format (a new standard for HD digital camcorders) for HD videos. This format is not easily imported in many older video editing programs, especially free ones. This fact makes Point #3 all the more annoying.

5) The sound is monaural, not stereo. Since this is HD, why skimp on the sound???

6) I also believe that A.I.S. is only digital stabilization, not the superior optical stabilization (see my other post about this).

In for one.

I don't need some super awesome camcorder, but for the price, I'll finally be able to start filming all my escapades without worrying about my phone dying.

I call that a win.

OK. Bought one. 40X was what won me over. Hope that's enough for some am-a-tour wildlife vids. Anybody want to debunk and break my heart?

Would buy it but it's only 720p native resolution. Had it been 1080p I would have jumped right away. 40x optical zoom? outstanding. Waiting for 3D to watch on my 70" Sharp Aquos 3D TV. Also outstanding

moonshinedistiller wrote:Never ever buy JVC equipment, Every JVC product that I personally purchased and used ended up going to goodwill, I work at a company that purchases large amount of electronic equipment we gave up on JVC because of poor quality and short useful life.

I agree, but for different reasons. I've had 6+ JVC appliances and each one had at least one glaring flaw. These include several VCRs (their high end SVHS VCRs had great specs), stereos, DVD players, etc. Most notably, their remotes had Wakkoic omissions. For example, you can only pause during playback but the pause button didn't work during recording. You had to go to the console itself to pause when recording. I verified that this was the way it was designed. Because of my experience, I haven't bought a JVC product in over 7 years,

jackstephanjr wrote:I just bought two, does anyone know what the best media card to buy for it is?

I know about SD cards, but not much about the other two menitoned

Thanks

Get a class 10 at least. 16gb or 32gb if possible. If it's like my 720p Panasonic Lumix (which I use for video also) the 32gb will hold around 3-4.5 hours of video. Prices on these cards have dropped so much that I don't erase them when I fill them up and copy them to an external HD, I just archive and store them in a safe place. I figure if I used my old DV recorder, the price for 4-5 good quality tapes is around the price of one of these sd cards and I might as well just keep them and buy a new one. Who knows if the HD that you put your videos and pictures on won't crash. Better to have the original in my opinion.

720p is HD though. In a years time you may be laughing at 1080p. Technology advances.....it just does.

jackstephanjr wrote:I just bought two, does anyone know what the best media card to buy for it is?

I know about SD cards, but not much about the other two menitoned

Thanks

brand name?-class 10 is best. look for a number(4,6,10) inside of a "C" on the card itself. This is the data rate. Most HD needs Class 10 to work its best. Capacity is up to you. I would start w/ at least a 16gb class 10 for normal use.

TheFaz wrote:720p is HD though. In a years time you may be laughing at 1080p. Technology advances.....it just does.

I will put away my cc until 2160p exists! It will come!

zracoon wrote:Thought about it because of the price. But Consumer Reports rated it a 52/100 and felt like its picture quality and battery life were inferior. Highest rated was 72 lowest was 41, so 52 was towards the bottom end. On the other hand the models that scored higher tended to be 2X to 4X the price.

But you can get a digital still camera with excellent video capabilities for roughly the same price or less, i.e. a Samsung or Panasonic. In some cases, the video specs and quality can surpass this. The biggest disadvantages to a digital camera are 1) Videos are limited by buffer size, usually around 20 mins for a good point-and-shoot. You have to start recording again if you surpass the time limit. 2) Optical zoom is maxed out around 15X while camcorders often go up to 40x.

TheFaz wrote:720p is HD though. In a years time you may be laughing at 1080p. Technology advances.....it just does.


I will put away my cc until 2160p exists! It will come!


I know, but my TV right now is 1080p and the 720p video I take now with the camera I have is a little pixelated on that TV so that's the only reason I'm waiting for a 1080p one. plus there is already something in the 4000's out there.

bswxc5 wrote:In for one.

I don't need some super awesome camcorder, but for the price, I'll finally be able to start filming all my escapades without worrying about my phone dying.

I call that a win.

If you only want to record escapades, why not get a digital still camera which will do double duty? They're smaller, can take excellent still photos (this has no still mode), and in some cases, beat the video specs of this basic camcorder. Keep in mind that $119 is low end for camcorders while it's high end for refurbished point-and-shoots.

A good example is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10, which has been on Woot several times for only a bit more than this JVC. It features true 1080p video, which is better resolution than this JVC. And it has stereo sound, which this JVC does not. It also has other niceties like a touchscreen and GPS. The Lumix also features excellent optical and digital stabilization, while this JVC probably only has inferior digital stabilization (see my other post).

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=19450

sdc100 wrote:If you only want to record escapades, why not get a digital still camera which will do double duty? They're smaller, can take excellent still photos (this has no still mode), and in some cases, beat the video specs of this basic camcorder. Keep in mind that $119 is low end for camcorders while it's high end for refurbished point-and-shoots.

A good example is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10, which has been on Woot several times. It features true 1080p video, which is better resolution than this JVC. And it has stereo sound, which this JVC does not. It also has other niceties like a touchscreen and GPS.

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=19450

That's the camera I bought from woot.(Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10) Amazing videos from that camera. Also Dolby 2.1 stereo for the audio record portion. I also have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, This last one is the one that gives me 3-4 hours of video with a 32gb card. Actually the ZS7 does that also. I forgot to see how long the ZS10 is but being 1080p I'm guessing half that at 2 hrs or so. I noticed that if you have a slow card let's say a class 6, the sound for some reason clips and you get a stuttering sound sometimes (I think it's because the card can't keep up with all the data being put on it wheras the class 10 is a faster card and can keep up)

EDIT: I just remembered that the ZS10 has 3D pictures but I have yet to figure out how to see it on my TV.

GluonConcerto wrote:It's very likely that the widest it goes is 35 mm equivalent, which makes the max zoom 35x40 = 1400 mm. Better hold still!

You may be right, A similar model with an f1.2 lens was spec'd at 32.8mm (Wide Angle 35mm format).

This may not be an exact match with the Woot deal, but here's a comparison chart anyway.

http://everio.jvc.com/lineup/comparison.html?GZ-GX1

Seems to be some significantly mixed-feelings about this unit. It would appear that folks either love it or hate it!

Here's my $0.05 (Union wages!):

It seems to me that those who hate it are expecting too much, downgrading it because it lacks features of units twice the price.

OTOH, those looking for a no-frills, decent unit to take good video at a GREAT price (even GREATER thanks to WooT!) are the ones who love it!

My wife is a GREAT example of someone who will LOVE it - she is technologically-impaired and struggles with anything more complex than a doorknob.

After ~5/6/7 years she's finally managed to be able to pick up our old DVD-camcorder (ANOTHER WooT! Score!) and point-and-shoot...

As to the "HD" controversy, it's native 720p which *IS* HD, but it has its own internal "upscaling" functionality and hence puts out HD signals over the wire...

Hence, if you're willing to mess with it, you could use a video-capture device of your choosing to capture full-HD from its output, or you could just rely on the upscaling built into most blu-ray players/receivers/etc. to do the job for you while viewing!

Me, I'm still struggling with the whole "SD-card" stuff, as without the MEDIA (tape, mini-DVD, etc) I find we tend to lose the pics and vids we shoot with our cameras...

OTOH, the tapes/DVDs, etc also go bad over time, so...............

Seems to me that the BEST option is to sign up for some online service and pay the fees for permanent storage -- just make damn sure you don't miss a payment and lose all your crap!!

RE: IMAGE STABILIZATION on this JVC

jjfahey wrote:Since it has a Minolta lens, does anyone know if it also has the Minolta developed anti-shake in-the-sensor (superior) rather than in-the-lens anti-shake (inferior)?

I'm not even sure if this least-expensive JVC has optical stabilization. Their description is very vague, suggesting that it's the less expensive and less effective digital stabilization. After sll, if it's optical, don't you think they would advertise it? For example, their more expensive Everio GZ-GX1 specifically features an "Optical & Enhanced Advanced Image Stabilizer." In other words, A.I.S. is different from optical stabilization. Here is the description of A.I.S. from their website:

"Advanced Image Stabilizer
Advanced Image Stabilizer/Enhanced Image Stabilizer Camera-shake compensation is another important camcorder feature. The GZ-HM30's Advanced Image Stabilizer (A.I.S.) expands the effective area at wide angle to deliver powerful compensation for camera shake. With the GZ-HM30, you can enjoy stable results even if you're trotting alongside your subject. "

In other words, it's probably digital stabilization which changes ISO and exposure, resulting in images are then often darker and more grainy.

jackstephanjr wrote:I just bought two, does anyone know what the best media card to buy for it is?

I know about SD cards, but not much about the other two menitoned

SD cards are 2 GB and smaller. Pretty much impossible to find now. Ignore these.

SDHC cards are 4 GB to 32 GB. Your best value.

SDXC cards are 64 GB and above, and cost a limb or two.

The "Class" of a card is its write speed. Contrary to what others have advised, a class 4 would perform adequately. I use a 32 GB class 4 card on my Canon camcorder that has much higher bitrate than this one. I would suggest getting a Class 6 at least, though, since the price difference is not usually that great. And Class 10 if you can find a good price, or if you don't mind paying more. It might (but not guaranteed) mean a higher read speed, allowing you to copy it to your computer faster.

Stick with better known brands, buy from reputable sellers, and always test your cards with something like h2testw immediately after receiving them. Sandisk is a good brand (and unfortunately one of the most counterfeited brands). I have good experience with Lexar as well. I also have Patriot and Kingston memory cards. But whatever brand you get, remember to test them. Trust no one.

TheFaz wrote:I will put away my cc until 2160p exists! It will come!

It's already here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution

I hope you have a very high credit limit.

dedicateddad wrote:Seems to be some significantly mixed-feelings about this unit. It would appear that folks either love it or hate it!

Here's my $0.05 (Union wages!):

It seems to me that those who hate it are expecting too much, downgrading it because it lacks features of units twice the price.

Actually, no. I bought a Samsung camcorder from Woot for only $50 more and it has stereo sound, good still photography (with flash!) and optical stabilization, in addition to all (?) of the features here. Simply put, stereo sound and still photography are not deluxe features in an HD camera. Even $29 eBay palmcorders have a still mode. Only the Flip lacks it. Ironically, JVC's own Picsio palmcorders has a 5 mp still mode so its omission here is inexcusable.

dedicateddad wrote:Seems to me that the BEST option is to sign up for some online service and pay the fees for permanent storage -- just make damn sure you don't miss a payment and lose all your crap!!

Unless your service was Megaupload, in which case it didn't matter if you were a paying customer, and whether your payments were on time. Everyone lost their crap equally....

R.I.P. Megaupload. (

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/file-sharing-sites-scatter-after-megauploads-shutdown/