Video Camera Review

What could be more convenient than a camcorder that burns its own DVDs? Shoot a soccer game or a birthday party, pop the disc into your set-top player, and presto–video on demand. Panasonic’s compact, single-CCD VDR-M75 records video on inexpensive 3-inch DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs, thus giving you the kind of instant playback gratification that you can’t get from tape-based camcorders. Unfortunately, that’s the only real benefit to this model, which suffers from mediocre image quality, a surprisingly limited feature set, and a poor choice of rewritable media.

Though a tad on the heavy side at a bit more than one pound, the svelte Panasonic VDR-M75 measures just 3.4 by 2 by 4.8 inches. Its controls are simple and straightforward, with clearly marked text labels on most of them. A four-way controller makes for easy menu navigation, and the menus themselves are self-explanatory. The only problem lies with the membrane-style buttons that reside in the LCD compartment. This recessed locale makes them difficult to access while you’re shooting. But worse than that, the plus and minus buttons used to manually adjust focus and exposure have almost no tactile feedback. Thus, it’s hard to know if your presses are even registering and harder still to gauge your adjustments–especially for focus, which has no corresponding onscreen meter.

Panasonic provides five autoexposure modes, including sports and low-light, and a handful of white-balance presets, but the only manual controls are the aforementioned focus and exposure. That’s a pretty slim roster for a camcorder in this price range. Even Panasonic’s own MiniDV PV-GS35, which costs considerably less than the VDR-M75, offers more options. Also, according to the tech specs on Panasonic’s Web site, the VDR-M75 includes manual iris controls, but we found no such controls on the camcorder itself, nor any mention of them in the instruction manual (which is excellent, however).

Equipped with a 1/4.5-inch CCD, the Panasonic VDR-M75 features a 2.5-inch LCD, a color viewfinder, an SD slot, 1.3-megapixel still capabilities but no flash, backlight compensation, and a 10X optical zoom–the last definitely on the low side. At least you can accessorize, thanks to the dedicated microphone input and an accessory shoe. Panasonic also supplies a corded lens cap, a wireless remote, and an AC adapter that can charge batteries outside the camcorder–always a nice plus.

Using the VDR-M75 isn’t quite as convenient as you might think. (For details about general issues with DVD camcorders, read “Camcorders and DVD: all it’s cracked up to be?”) Third-party software support is sketchy: Panasonic does provide some software for capturing video from DVD-RAM discs and burning simple DVDs, but if you want to edit your movies, choose a MiniDV camcorder instead.

Taking media out of the equation, the Panasonic VDR-M75 performed reasonably well. We found its zoom controls suitably responsive and its autoexposure suitably quick at adjusting between indoor and outdoor lighting. We like the onscreen countdown timer that shows the number of minutes remaining on the disc. We didn’t like the several-second delay between the time we pressed the record button and when recording actually commenced. And speaking of delays, it took about 12 minutes to finalize a half-full DVD-R–not the kind of wait you want when everyone’s crowded around the TV to see the video you just shot. Plus, the camcorder didn’t even build us a thumbnail menu of our scenes, just a shot list organized by date and time.

The VDR-M75 produces video that could best be described as fair. Colors reproduced accurately but lacked the warmth and vibrancy we’ve seen from other camcorders–including other Panasonic models. The camcorder did a decent job in dimly lit settings, although the autofocus produced a noticeable pulse effect as it attempted to lock on. As we’ve seen with other camcorders, switching to low-light mode actually made things worse: although the subjects looked much brighter, even the slightest movement resulted in major blurring and shaking. Still photos were about what we expected: soft, grainy, and good only for TV viewing.

Needless to say, we came away fairly unimpressed with the Panasonic VDR-M75. Although it’s compact and easy to use, Sony’s similarly priced DCR-DVD203 offers more features, better video quality, and support for more versatile DVD-RW/+RW media.

Released in September 2006 with little fanfare, the JVC Everio GZ-MG57 seems to do nothing more than fill a hole in JVC’s hard-disk camcorder lineup. Similar to its predecessor, the GZ-MG50, JVC made several small changes without really changing the overall product.

For one, the GZ-MG57 is slightly more compact than the GZ-MG50; it’s a very good size for small adult hands and might even be comfortable for older children. At 14 ounces, it’s also quite light compared to most other camcorders. Like the other Everio models, you control most of the cameras options via a joystick on the bezel of the LCD. The menu system is fairly straightforward, and it provides quick access to all the shooting settings, including white balance, shutter speed, and scene modes.

JVC switched sensors for this model. Though still 1.3 megapixels, the MG57 uses a 1/5-inch CCD instead of the 1/4.5-inch version in the MG50. That probably contributes to the camcorder’s lower power draw, which should presumably increase its battery life. But the video quality seems to suffer; there’s a significant amount of visual noise. In general, the video is soft and full of other artifacts. That’s at best quality, at which it can store 7 hours of video; you can get up to 14 hours of even lower quality recording. The audio, too, sounds slightly more muffled than usual for this price range. And despite increasing the still photo resolution to 1,280×960, they’re still suitable only for Web posting and e-mailing.

It performs adequately, but that’s about it. As you’d expect from a hard-disk-based model, it starts up relatively quickly. But it doesn’t seem to be able to remember the date and time, which costs it some points for efficiency. Autofocus operates just a hair too slow, taking a critical moment to really lock on the subject, and the zoom switch doesn’t feel like it has enough play to comfortably cover the 15X zoom range.

When it lacked competition, the JVC Everio GZ-MG57 might have merited a salutary recommendation. But in its price range, the Sony Handycam DCR-SR40 is really the better choice now.

I’ll start with the good news. Hitachi’s goal of an inexpensive camcorder, combining the long recording times and stability of a hard disk drive with the easy playback and distribution of a DVD, merits attention. Furthermore, from that limited perspective, the hybrid DZ-HS300A succeeds. Its one-touch dubbing from the 8GB hard disk to the internal miniDVD is definitely more convenient and less expensive than the docking solutions from companies such as Sony and JVC.

Though 8GB doesn’t seem like much, it’s enough to hold about 110 minutes of highest-quality video, which should suffice for most purposes. If not, Hitachi offers a 30GB model, the DZ-HS500A. Aside from capacity, the only difference between the two is the HS500A’s 30X lens, which outzooms the HS300A’s 25X version. Since even 8GB is far more than you can fit on a 3-inch DVD–a disc can only hold about 18 minutes per side of best-quality video–the camcorder includes some limited editing capabilities, allowing you to select, combine, and add effects to clips, as well as create and edit playlists. It’s kind of hard to see what you’re doing on the small 2.7-inch LCD, though. You can choose from among a broad selection of 3-inch optical media for recording or distribution as well; the HS300A supports DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM.

In most other respects, the HS300A is your typical budget camcorder, and that’s bad news for a hard drive/DVD-based model. Its 1/6-inch 680,000-pixel sensor records 340,000-pixel video, which simply isn’t enough for the MPEG-2 compression algorithm to encode without significant degradation. Severe edge crawl and jaggies, fringing, and a variety of false-color artifacts–especially around light sources–render the video close to unusable. Even for YouTube.

At least it performs reasonably well, with decent focus speed and accuracy. The zoom switch is a tad sensitive, but not too bad if you’re not mainlining caffeine. If you plan to hang out at the extreme end of the zoom range, though, use a tripod; you don’t want to rely on the HS300A’s electronic image stabilization as your only means of support.

On the off chance that you don’t care about the mediocre video, perhaps you’ll find its design problems a bit more off-putting. At 1 pound, 1 ounce, the HS300A is relatively light, but it’s large and bulky and won’t quite fit into a jacket pocket. The four-way switch that you use to navigate the menus–necessary if you want to choose from among the handful of scene modes and white-balance presets–feels stiff and is frequently nonresponsive if you move too quickly. It forces you to slowly and deliberately cursor through the menu choices. But the design of the Power/Mode switch ranks as the HS300A’s biggest flaw. It slides far too easily to the Off position from HDD and SD modes. There’s a tiny lock switch to prevent it from accidentally moving from the HDD to the DVD position, but not the reverse.

It’s too bad about the slippery power switch and poor video quality, because the idea of the Hitachi DZ-HS300A has great mass appeal. I suggest you look at other budget models instead.

Sony’s Handycam DCR-VX2100 is both successor to the DCR-VX2000 and grandchild of the groundbreaking DCR-VX1000, the first prosumer DV camera widely adopted by professionals. As the name indicates, the DCR-VX2100 is just a slightly improved DCR-VX2000, with slightly better low-light performance, slightly cleaner audio, and slightly more convenient controls. In other words, if you’re looking for a three-chip camera, this one is a strong candidate, but if you already own the DCR-VX2000, it probably isn’t worth the expense of upgrading.

What the DCR-VX2100 does–capture crisp, vibrant interlaced video on MiniDV cassettes–it does as well as or better than its competition. The catch is that the competition now offers features that this camcorder simply doesn’t have, including professional audio connections, 24P and HD video, sophisticated image-parameter controls, and interchangeable lenses, to name a few. If you’re after these cutting-edge features, look elsewhere.

If you’re familiar with Sony’s DCR-VX1000 or DCR-VX2000, you’ll be right at home with the Handycam DCR-VX2100. In fact, only close inspection will reveal that the DCR-VX2100 isn’t a DCR-VX2000. Like the earlier models, this camera follows the classic Handycam design: a viewfinder centered on the back with the battery mounted below, a tape compartment and a zoom rocker on the right, a flip-out LCD monitor on the left, and a lens with zoom and focus rings protruding from the front, capped with a rectangular lens hood.

The DCR-VX2100 departs from its predecessors with a slightly darker silver-gray finish and a larger viewfinder and eyecup. Its handle is also a bit taller and now includes a zoom control and a record button for low-angle shooting. Perhaps the biggest improvement is as clever as it is simple: Sony has incorporated a mechanical shutter into the lens hood to eliminate the need for an easily lost lens cap.

You’ll notice the DCR-VX2100’s solid, well-balanced feel as soon as you pick it up. It weighs a comfortable 4 pounds, and its materials and construction are solid. The mostly metal body should have no problem shaking off the occasional bump.

With a few minor exceptions, the DCR-VX2100’s external controls are the same as the DCR-VX2000’s. In a broader sense, this camera shares the control philosophy of its predecessors: while all functions can be adjusted manually, there is clearly a bias in favor of automation. For example, you have to override the automatic shutter speed, white balance, and audio-level defaults with a tiny button, then adjust them with a tiny wheel. This will be fine with casual moviemakers who would rather let the camera take care of itself, but it will frustrate serious videographers and pros who want to take control of the image.

In terms of its feature set, the Sony Handycam DCR-VX2100 is a virtual clone of its predecessor, the DCR-VX2000, with three 1/3-inch, 380,000-pixel CCDs, a 12X zoom lens with optical stabilization, and a variety of exposure modes. Among the other prosumer-oriented features the two cameras share are an anamorphic 16:9 mode, Sony’s Intelligent accessory shoe, a color-bar generator, adjustable zebra stripes for judging exposure, and two built-in neutral-density filters. The DCR-VX2100 does allow slightly more subtle exposure adjustments, with 24 f-stop increments instead of the DCR-VX2000’s 19. The zoom range of the lens is good but not spectacular, and it doesn’t go very wide. If you’re planning to shoot in tight spaces, put a wide-angle adapter on your shopping list.

The DCR-VX2100 also retains a few of its predecessor’s quirks. There is no independent gain control. Rather, gain and aperture share the same adjustment wheel; when you reach the widest aperture and keep turning, the gain starts to increase. Combining these controls isn’t a bad idea for most purposes, but you won’t be able to dirty up the image by increasing the gain unless the lens is wide open.

More problematic for advanced videographers are this camcorder’s limited audio capabilities. Although it records two independent tracks of audio, the DCR-VX2100 has only one meter and one audio-level adjustment, which affects both tracks simultaneously. This is a very poor solution when you’re dealing with two tracks that have significantly different levels. The camera also lacks a set of XLR mic inputs, offering only a flimsy minijack instead. You can purchase an XLR adapter from a third-party vendor–a somewhat kludgy solution–or you can take a step up to the DVCam version of the DCR-VX2100, Sony’s PD-170. That camera has XLR inputs and a few other enhancements but is otherwise so similar to the DCR-VX2100 that its significantly higher price is a little hard to swallow.

If you want the image quality of a three-chip camera but don’t care to deal with pro audio equipment or the most advanced manual controls, this camera’s feature set might be just right for you. However, if you’re on the pro end of the prosumer spectrum, you’ll probably be disappointed at the omission of features that the competition offers for just a little more money. The DCR-VX2100 lacks full-motion progressive imagery, gamma controls, and focus marks.

We found the Sony Handycam DCR-VX2100 very responsive. Its focus and zoom rings and rockers all work precisely–though with the oddly detached feel we’ve come to expect from servo-controlled devices. The autofocus is remarkably quick and precise, provided you’re interested in whatever happens to be situated in the dead center of the screen. The camera also starts up quickly and takes little time to begin recording.

While the flip-out LCD at first appears identical to the DCR-VX2000’s screen, it is a new hybrid model that provides significantly greater visibility in bright light. Audio capture is another area where the DCR-VX2100 slightly improves on its predecessor. The sound we captured with the built-in stereo microphone was clean and fairly free of camera noise. Be warned, though, that the mic is not very directional and will thus be of limited value in noisy environments.

Thanks to Sony’s InfoLithium battery technology, you can expect to get a full day of shooting out of one standard cell.

If you rely heavily on automatic controls and want to capture interlaced video, the Sony Handycam DCR-VX2100 will give you results as good as or better than what you can get from any other MiniDV camera. Its images are consistently crisp and well exposed, the colors it captures are well saturated and realistic, and its automatic white balance is accurate–even under difficult conditions.

Latitude–the ability of a camera to handle a wide range of brightness within one image–is a weakness of every video camera, but the DCR-VX2100 handles broad brightness ranges better than most. As a result, you should get fewer blown-out highlight areas from this camera than from lesser prosumer cameras.

The DCR-VX2100 also delivers the best low-light performance we’ve seen in a DV camera. Under dim conditions, where other cameras deliver murky, grainy images, the DCR-VX2100 somehow manages to extract a clean, colorful picture.

Despite its high-quality image capture, this camcorder isn’t for everyone. If you’re a very advanced videographer and want to shoot progressive video or make fine adjustments to color and tonal curves, this camera won’t give you the sophisticated controls you need. And of course it doesn’t capture high-def video either.

The DCR-VX2100’s still imagery is as weak as its video imagery is strong. In short, the half-megapixel images the camera can store on Memory Sticks are little better than video stills. But this is a camcorder primarily for video enthusiasts, so that’s not a major complaint.

As they say in This Is Spinal Tap, “this one is one bigger.” The Canon Optura 40 differs in just a few ways from its slightly less expensive sibling, the Optura 30. It includes a 14X optical zoom instead of the 30’s 12X version and adds a video light and couple of extra sound capabilities: audio levels adjustment and a microphone attenuator. Like the Optura 30, this camcorder is compact, has a very bright 2.5-inch LCD, and shoots clean footage as well as 2-megapixel still photos.

Just like the model 30, the Canon Optura 40 captures excellent footage with good color. The extra illumination afforded by the Optura 40’s video light significantly improves the look of video taken in low light. But if you don’t think you’ll be shooting a lot of evening events, it’s probably not worth the extra bucks.