JVC GZ-HM300 Dual Slot High Definition Camcorder

I'm new to the digital camcorder world, but this one has been working great so far. I didn't realize we'd need to purchase a separate memory card to allow it work, and a cable to download the images (we didn't have the right drives on the computer for the card) but after we picked those up, we were able to use it and download the videos and still shots. The image quality of the still shots is better than our digital camera, so we've started using this instead of the camera for taking pictures. The 20X zoom is great to capture images from a distance, though it takes a steady hand to keep the distant image in view (or a tripod). But we've had it for about 6 months and its worked without any problems.

I spent several months looking at cameras of different price ranges to find the best one for around $200. I'm confident that this one was the right choice. No other camera that I could find that was this cheap had HD and a zoom of 20x or greater. I really liked the HD in this camera. With a 16GB SDHC card, I'm able to record more than an hour of footage at 1920x1080 resolution. There are also options for recording in lower quality, which will give you more recording time for your card, though one hour suits my purposes just fine. The zoom on the camera is also very useful; other cameras at this price usually only have about 10x zoom if they come in HD. One of the problems for me, though, was that the battery life doesn't seem to be very long. I charged it for about a day, and when I went to film, it only lasted an hour or so for me (though my filming time was very divided, so it might have been more than that). The main problem for me came with the compatibility. I'm using Sony Movie Studio 9, and it seems to be able to read the video files just fine, except for one problem. Each video length will randomly cut off around halfway through, and there's no way to get the second half of the clip into the software. I tried to see if it was a problem with the camera, but windows media player can open all of the files and play the whole clip without getting cut off. So, in order to solve this problem, I've had to leave the camera recording for a while longer to make each clip twice as long. This essentially cuts my recording time down to 30 minutes instead of an hour, which kind of pisses me off. Other than that, it's a nice camera.

This camcorder seemed like a great deal, with a 20x optical zoom, HD filming, Time-Lapse, and CLAIMS of super low-light performance. Reality: Low-Light performance is TERRIBLE !!! Horribly grainy pictures in even moderate lighting. Inside at night, with normal lighting from 3 overhead lights plus a lamp on, the video is grainy and washed out. The video looks like the sample pic in their description that shows what it should NOT look like. This thing has a TEENY TINY little sensor. There is no way this could ever take good video in low or moderate light. I bought this to take video of my soon-to-be-born first child, which will be mostly indoors with normal lighting. To use it for this purpose, I would need to invest in several industrial-strength halogen lights and aim them all at the baby at the same time to illuminate him enough. Outside, this takes good video, assuming there is plenty of light. The time-lapse feature seems awesome at first, but it sucks down the battery very quickly, unless it is plugged in. The screen must be kept open while filming or else the camera will shut off. Why not have a time-driven system that only turns on the camera for a few seconds at a time, which would vastly improve the battery life??? This camera is HD, but it is 1080(i)... Interlaced, and not full true 1080p. The description is misleading when it states that it can PLAY BACK in 1080p... they don't come right out and say "oh but by the way, it only records in 1080i." Quite misleading. This cam does not come with a HDMI cable (most in this price range don't, either). It does come with a RCA type connector and usb cable. This is an HD cam, WHY oh WHY would I EVER choose to use an RCA cable to watch it??? I can't even tell you if it takes decent hi-def video because I can't hook it up properly to my HD tv. Should really INCLUDE HDMI CABLE... they could include one for very cheap, since they would be buying them in bulk at probably 50 cents apiece. I returned this the day after I bought it. I have ordered the Sanyo FH1a instead, which has a MUCH larger sensor, and is actually CHEAPER now than this JVC! Whatever you do, watch some youtube videos showing demo videos of the actuall camcorder you want to buy, BEFORE you purchase. This gets 2 stars, one for good zoom and one for time-lapse. But this cam really is 100% worthless indoors. I tested it indoors first at Best-Buy, but they have those very bright ceiling lights, so I was unaware of how bad this cam really is.

I bought the camera about a year ago in order to film documentaries and use for down hill long boarding. The camera works fine in the setting just below full HD, if you want to save some space. I've been using a class 2 SD card the whole time and it works great, there's no need for a faster card, in my opinion. The picture is great, so is the sound, only problem is that it doesn't perform as well in low light as JVC leads you to believe. But, if you want a cheap and good camera, buy it.

This shipped out in a good time and arrived in new condition. I love the quality of video on the highest video settings. I DON'T like the fact that you can't just take out the chip, put it in your desktop or laptop, and retrieve the videos that you shot. You must use the JVC software included to make a backup copy of these videos to your hard drive somewhere or the audio and video will be out of sync. It's ridiculous and time consuming! Excellent video quality with time consuming and redundant video retrieval. I will sacrifice the extra time for the video quality improvement, but this could be improved in future versions.