Have now produced reams of tape, in all conditions, and can thus update this review.
The 240 has proved a little gem. Although it has enough manual settings to suit just about every condition, practical experience shows it's very reliable on "Auto".
Obvious manual changes you might want to make - eg night and backlighting - are easy and obvious, and don't require the use of the menu system.
The "snap shot" feature is handy, but most mobile phones will probably give you a better resolution picture.
Once switched on (a tad difficult with a gloved hand), it's ready to go in a few seconds. It's small enough to keep in a jacket pocket, so no problems wondering if you want to take it or not.
The auto focus works well, and the zoom is easy to use. For best picture quality, I've normally kept it within the 25x optical range, but even straying into 100x digital has given acceptable results - although I wouldn't want to go beyond that.
The standard battery life is around 1 hour. Instead of the JVC 5 hour battery (£95) I bought a generic on ebay for £21 and it gave me at least 5 hours - although it remains to be seen how many recharges it will take.
As most of my footage was shot in conditions of around -10C, I needed to keep the battery warm. I found a good solution in one use hand warmers, designed for fishermen, at a cost of around £1 for 8 hours heat (again on ebay).
The documentation that comes with the camera suggests that most people will transfer to Video tape, although it comes with a firewire port to enable transfer direct to PC for editing, which is what I wanted to do, and was what I thought might be the weak link in the chain.
However, Windows XP Home Edition had enough software to enable allow, once plugged in, control of the camera, and fast download of any tape. I'd set the camera up to record/playback in 16:9 ratio, and the DVDs I've made have been great - although this option does seem to give people rather long and thin faces on the LCD screen when recording.
In theory, XP also offers a basic editing suite, although I reckon most users will want to pay a few quid for something more specialised.
So, in conclusion, this tiny, cheap camera far exceeded my expectations. It did every thing it promised, at a really low price.
My only warning is, to make the most of your money, don't get fooled into buying the "Starter Kit" which costs around £80.00 in the UK - part number VU-AF70KIT.
For your money, you get a carrying case (@£10 on ebay), a single recording tape - £4.00, but worse still, an additional battery (the same one that you already get with the camera - i.e. the lowest capacity (around 1 hour of recording time) - again about £12 on ebay.
So, you end up with 2 batteries of the same spec, each with just 1 hour of recording time, a single tape, and a rather average carrying case. And finally, make sure you get the 4x6, rather than 4x4 firewire cable - and whatever, don't order it from the JVC website - if you need it, even PC World will sell you one for 1/3 the price.
And just a small addendum - I noticed that in the December issue of "Good Housekeeping", this was rated as best value "Uultimate Gift" digital camcorder, with a rating of 89/100, with the Hitachi DZ-MV750E, at twice the price (although recording direct to mini DVD instead of tape), rated at 85/100. Reviews of 6 other camcorders tested at the same time can be had by emailing consumer.query@natmags.co.uk , and just asking for the other non-published reviews. Whilst doing this, you could also request the reviews for the 8 Digital Cameras they also tested.
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Good review bordering and ok bit just up to good.... biut more information and experience would be good and you gcould be certified with a very helpful review from everyone rating it.
Advantages: Small build, comfortable to hold, great picture quality in normal daylight. Disadvantages: Bad picture quality in low lighting situations, tape-loading can be tricky if using a tripod.
angeleyes1802 12.10.2005 ·
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Review of JVC GR D240
Advantages: Small build, comfortable to hold, great picture quality in normal daylight. Disadvantages: Bad picture quality in low lighting situations, tape-loading can be tricky if using a tripod.
angeleyes1802 12.10.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of JVC GR D240
Nov 20th, 2005
(Jan 4th, 2006)
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