JVC Everio GZ-MC200

At last, a review from me of something you can actually buy new !

The JVC Everio GZ-MC200 records your digital video footage on a 4 GB microdrive, a mini removable hard disk instead of a tape. Take good care of this microdrive - it's a mini hard disk - as replacements are quite expensive.

The 4 GB microdrive will let you shoot about one hour of video in MPEG-2 compression at a resolution of 720x576 pixels and a data rate of 8.5 MB/sec (in Ultra Fine mode), more if you turn the quality down.

In addition, the Everio has a 2.12 megapixel CCD sensor (0.28 inches) that can produce still photographs at four different resolutions, with the maximum resolution 1600x1200 pixels. This resolution produces more good quality photos when printed at 4"x6". You can fit 4,500 two-megapixel still images or five hours of audio recording on the microdrive. That's something you might vnot expect on a camcorder, select the "Audio" option, and it turns into a 48kHz/16bit stereo voice recorder (WAV format), that you can use for recording - I've used it to record a few speaker-phone conversations - with the other person's consent, of course....

The Everio also has a slot for an SD card (it's not included in the box - see my other review of one I recently bought), and can record to either that or the microdrive, but video eats up a lot more storage space, so I keep the SD card for photos.

The Everio has a roughly cubical shape (3 x 2.24 x 3.8 inches/74mm x 56mm x 94mm) and is held horizontally. It's very light, weighing only about 12 oz (350 grams.-including battery, Microdrive, lens cap, and hand strap). The central part of the camcorder can rotate, letting you turn the display 90° to hold the unit above the heads of a crowd - or to look up at something from below... There's no viewfinder, but a 1.8" (4.5 cm) LCD display built into the body. This is admittedly a little small compared to other competitors, but is big enough, and helps keep the overall size of the camera down. The 10x optical zoom with image stabilization allows you to get nice and close up to your subject.

For transferring videos and.or pictures to a computer, the Everio uses a USB 2.0 link, and once the drivers are installed, Windows recognizes each of the Everio's storage media (microdrive/SD) as a removable hard disk in My Computer. Alternatively, you can of course remove the media and plug in into a card reader, if you have one...

You can use the bundled Cyberlink applications, PowerDirector and PowerProducer, to play with your videos and make DVD's. NOTE: Software not reviewed here, yet...

If you just want to view your video on the TV set, the Everio has an AV/S-Video multi-connector output (AV/S-Video output cable included in the box) and an adaptor to plug straight into a SCART socket on your TV..

The battery (BN-VM200U 800mAh Li-ion) is alleged to last about an hour, cunningly the same length of video you can record on the microdrive, although I've not yet filmed for a whole hour so cannot confirm, or deny, this.

I've found the Everio very easy to use, taking loads of video clips of my new baby. There are no complex manual features and a single, simple menu system that controls virtually all camera and camcorder functions, accessed via a "menu" button next to the screen. Low-light performance isn't brilliant, although there is a flash, but there's none of the "night vision" mode I've seen on other cameras.

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I hope this helps...