I'm Waiting For It To Come Out On DVD! (JVC GR-DX25E)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	JVC GR-DX25E
Date:	01/06/03 (1667 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small and lightweight, More likely to get used, Good price for the quality

Disadvantages: Possibly too small in some aspects, Easy to press the wrong button or cover the mikes, Lowish battery endurance

I'm now on my fifth camcorder, believe it or not. The first, about 10 years ago, was a Sanyo Video 8 job, which was a disaster in terms of picture stability and dirt ingress, and which led to my migration to a Compact S-VHS Panasonic job, which was well up to expectation with a much better picture (and stereo sound). Perhaps if I'd bought a Sony in the first place, I'd have stuck with Video 8 as a format. I somehow managed to sell the Sanyo to my boss, and all without getting fired!

Then we were burgled and robbed of the Panasonic camcorder, amongst other minor items like 350 CDs and a decent watch.

As so often happens with technology, the insurance claim enabled me to buy a better (and cheaper) model, still a Panasonic but smaller and with a lot more functionality.

Then, with the introduction of digital camcorders using the MiniDV format tape, I 'jumped' early, in fact £1300-worth of 'early'! The problem with jumping in early is that you don't always get all the features for which the system was designed, however well made my slinky satin-steel JVC DV-1 was. At first, I was so enthralled to have got my hands on what USED to cost £2000 that I overlooked minor irritations like a lack of digital output, the implication of which, I clearly hadn't at that point thought through.

It was only very recently, like a couple of weeks ago after buying a DVD-Writer for my PC, that I got to thinking how nice it would be if I could edit my footage and make a real DVD of the remainder. This of course requires a camcorder with at the very least a DV-Out socket on it, AND a PC with a 'Firewire' interface card. I wasn't too concerned about having a DV-In socket as well, because this is only for people who want to put the edited recording back onto tape. Mine were going onto DVD remember. Incidentally, the lack of DV-In owes itself to a European directive relating to tape machines capable of recording c
opyright material, such as VCRs. Where this is possible, there is a levy, and KERCHING!!, up goes the price. You can however buy a £30 widget to overcome this.......ahem.

Like most of the 'boy's toys' I buy, I tend to 'wear the ink off magazines' first so I knew my price range and my prices. JVC had always done me proud, so I decided to stick with them, and so it was last week that I strolled out of Hughes Electrical Store* in Norwich, £500 the poorer, and one more camcorder heavier, until my brother in law picks up the other one, that is.

*I'm really impressed both with the price (which is £11 less than even www.dabs.com, prior to their carriage charges) and product knowledge of the staff. If these people ever went nationwide, and I were Dixons, I'd be scared, very scared!

Apart from confirming the existence of the DV-Out link, I was more interested in preserving the facilities I had, like the ability to shoot a true 16:9 picture, since I have a wide-screen TV monitor. Yes it could shoot wide-screen so that was the only obstacle cleared up.

Now I've had time to peruse everything it does, the only functionality I've lost is the ability to plug a remote microphone in, which I never did anyway.

What it does do is far more important.

There's a whole product range of these diminutive JVC camcorders ranging from my DX25 to the 35, the 45, the 55 and finally the DX95, all looking the same, differing only by what has been packed into them. For example, the 95 has a flashlight and the ability to shoot stills to a separate memory card, whereas mine feels its way in the dark and shoots stills to the same tape as the movie. Picture quality-wise, they are all much the same, using the same 0.8 megapixel CCD (approximately VGA in PC terms) to turn light into binary digits, but since TV can only resolve around 480 lines, 500 should be plenty (no you don't get to see 625 lines, ask for
part of your licence fee back!)

FEATURES

Since I bought my first DV camcorder, LCD screens have become very popular, if only so you can hold the thing at arm's length and shout 'oooh, look at me, I've got a camcorder' whilst laying yourself open to every mugger who has tired of cell-phones.

Jesting apart, these are very useful for reviewing your results on playback. Despite only standing 10 cm tall, and weighing a 'metric pound', i.e. 454 grammes, the JVC comes with a generous 6.5 cm LCD screen as well as a monochrome built-in viewfinder, the latter by implication, should make the batteries last longer if away from a plug socket for any length of time. To ease this process, there is also a tiny loudspeaker to monitor recorded sound

The camera sits snugly in most adult right hands, with the thumb poised over the stop/start button and within reach of the zoom rocker switch, which is concentric to the button. A Velcro strap adjusts across the back of the hand for a firm fit.

There are two positions for the Record/On switch, automatic and manual. I have altered the menu-driven settings for Manual to include shooting in 'Squeezed' wide screen mode so that 'no-one's bum looks big in this'! Therefore my Automatic setting gives me 4:3 normal TV screen mode and my Manual setting, a wider 16:9 - very useful if you have to think fast, and haven't brought the instructions with you!

All menu settings, both those relevant to playback and recording are controlled from a panel of buttons beneath the LCD screen. The permutations are too numerous (and tedious) to outline here, but suffice it to say that you even have control over how each scene transits into the next, either by fading or having the old scene ousted sideways by the new scene - very professional so you'd think, but very annoying after a while. Thank God they're not compulsory!

The lens has a surpri
singly large maximum aperture of f1.6, and its zoom lens stretches from 2.7 mm to 43.2 mm (16 magnification). If this didn't make it difficult enough to hold steady when zoomed out, it can also digitally enhance the picture to give the effect of a 700x zoom! Personally, I'm unimpressed by the latter, and have limited the lens to sticking to what the glass itself can do! Zooming is variable speed depending on how hard you twist the control.

To help with the camera shake, there is an SIS (Stabilised Image System), which works electronically at keeping the centre of the frame where it ought to be. Unfortunately, at the last moment, it gives up, and there is an even larger jolt than you would have had, if you had been holding the thing as carefully as possible in the first place. When 'panning', turn it off, otherwise you won't look like you know what you're doing, as the picture surges sideways in chunks.

ACCESSORIES

As well as a battery charger (charged in situ in the camera), you also get a full range of leads for USB download of still, and playback into TV. In fact the only missing lead is the Firewire one, which comes with the PC card anyway (budget about £40 for one of these). There is a full function infrared remote control, including the zoom, which, with the LCD screen tilted your way allows you to star in your own (blue?) movies. Surprisingly and annoyingly enough, it does not come with a tape!

PROS AND CONS

a) The CONS - being very light and small is partly the machines downfall. It is very easy for someone with 'York Hams' like mine to cover the front-mounted microphones over, at least partially, leaving the automatic volume control struggling to find any sound to record, with an ensuing rise in background noise both from its motor and the auto-focus. The rear-mounted 'does-it-all' switch and rocker won't be to everyone's taste. There is no means of jacking a bette
r mike in. Also, battery life leaves a bit to be desired at around one hour's use, but of course, there's nothing to stop you switching it off in between 'takes'. The still facility won't impress anyone with a still digital camera of better than 1.0 mega pixels, which is most of them, so forget it. Low light shooting isn't marvellous.

b) The PROS - being very light and small also means that you'll be more likely to use it. Picture quality is well up with the pack, if nothing extra special, courtesy of its bog-standard 800,000 pixel CCD. Ingenious design means that practically every part of its outer surface has a function - just be careful where you stick your fingers, you might alter something!. There is an excellent large LCD colour screen. It?s easy to pick up and start using, whilst retaining plenty of semi-pro features to 'grow into'. Price - at £500 it's a bargain and £800 cheaper than its predecessor! It has a powerful optical (i.e. real) zoom lens for such a small camera. The DV-Out socket is very intuitive to use in conjunction with your PC. Daylight footage is excellent, so its use on holiday is assured. The charger works anywhere in the world from voltages of 110-240 and cyclages of 50-60 Hertz, so the States or France hold no collective fear - just remember the plug adapter.

CONCLUSION

Glad I bought it? Yes, unreservedly. Now all I've got to do is master the editing software - I can feel another opinion coming on!

Summary: