JVC GR DX25

...it to a computer). The JVC DX range has expanded significantly since then, but I notice that the newer models seem to only have a maximum optical zoom of 10x (compared to 16x for this one).


**Technical Stuff:**

Skip ahead to the "**Performance:**" section if you're not going to connect you camcorder to a computer.

Firstly, this camcorder DOES NOT support DV-in (i.e. you can't record back ...
...replacement batteries, let alone genuine JVC ones. These should give closer to 3 hours usage (but it's hard for me to say if they do as I never tried using it for 3 hours in one go yet). Charging time is approximately the same as the running time and done with the battery in the camcorder.

Other accessories it comes with are a little remote control (aimed mostly at using when hooked up to a TV I think - I can't say as I've used it ... more

Before buying anything expensive, try going to the manufacturer's website and downloading the product's manual. It should cover all the specifications in so much more detail than you can find from the retailer and answer pretty much all your questions. So while reading this review, why not download the manual from:
http://books.jvcservice.com/booklist.asp?Model=GR-DX25EK

With something with as many applications as a camcorder, you could write an infinitely long review about how well it performs under every conceivable condition and shooting every single subject, so I'll try to cover the main points and features (but that's still a lot!).

Purchased 7 months ago from http://www.hiwayhifi.com for about £330, it's an entry level Mini-DV camcorder (if you think that's too much to pay, you should probably be looking for older, non-Mini-DV camcorders, especially if you're not going to connect it to a computer). The JVC DX range has expanded significantly since then, but I notice that the newer models seem to only have a maximum optical zoom of 10x (compared to 16x for this one).

**Technical Stuff:**

Skip ahead to the "**Performance:**" section if you're not going to connect you camcorder to a computer.

Firstly, this camcorder DOES NOT support DV-in (i.e. you can't record back to it from your computer once you've edited your video) - this is a bit of a pain at times, but if your intended output is going to be DVD (or hard disk), then you can just keep the un-editted original tape as a backup to the final DVD). Camcorders capable of DV-in cost more (they get taxed in the same band as VCR's or something silly).

Mini-DV camcorders are ideal for connecting directly to a computer! You don't need to connect it with a TV capture card, it connects by USB or Firewire. BUT! And this is a big "BUT" - you really need firewire to take full advantage of a Mini-DV camcorder because (at least with this camcorder), the USB supported must only be USB 1.1 (not the much faster USB 2.0) since it limits the resolution of the video to have half that which it's been recorded onto tape. The USB connection is only useful for using the camcorder as a webcam (which I haven't tried using much, as you'd be wiser to get a dirt-cheap webcam and keep your nice expensive camcorder safely tucked away until it's really needed). So, firewire - it's hit and miss whether your computer has it as it's not exactly common, but you can buy a firewire PCI card for £20 or less - and if you do, make sure it comes with a firewire cable, because you'll need one to connect the camcorder to it (you could buy one separately, but they are often extortionately priced). The exception would be if you have a laptop that already has a firewire port, but laptop firewire ports have a smaller connection than desktop cards, so you'll definitely need to go out and get the right cable. If you're not going to connect the camcorder to a PC, to edit / store video, then don't bother with the firewire card.

The resolution of video captured onto your computer through firewire is 720x576, which shows plenty of detail even in full-screen. Capturing to hard disk can only be done in real time (e.g. an hour of footage takes an hour to put onto computer). To capture Mini-DV you will need either a simple little program like WinDV (freeware) and then other editing programs, or a (simpler to use) editing program like ULead VideoStudio or the many other similar ones (which I advise you test out some demo's to see which you like working with the most).

Mini-DV video is actually in a compressed format on the tape (and copied directly to hard disk). The compression on Mini-DV is about 5 times, but an hour of footage will still require more than 10 GB of hard disk space to store - yes, that's right! 10,000 MB! Unless you have a HUGE hard disk (shameless plug for my Maxtor 250GB hard drive review: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Maxtor_OneTouch_FireWire_and_USB_250_GB__Review_5425210 ) you'll want to edit your video and put it onto DVD so you can reclaim your hard disk space (putting it onto a 4.7 GB DVD will lose some quality, but generally won't be noticeable unless you're really fussy, or if you try to put more than 90-120 mins of video on there). TECHNICAL DETAIL: You can of course re-compress the video to any format you like and store it on hard disk, such as DivX, but I have found that unless you want to reduce your footage down to a really small size (say, a 700 MB cd), then MPEG2 format (i.e. the same as is used for DVD) is the preferred method, as DivX tends to cause blockiness or smears out detail whereas MPEG2 preserves this far better (even if you try DivX at really high bit-rates, it just can't compete - trust me, I've tried!).

While most computers over 1 GHz and with a half-decent hard disk (i.e. can record at 10 GB / hour - 3 MB/s) should be able to capture Mini-DV, editing it and re-compressing it or making DVD's can be really demanding on the processor, so unless you're prepared to let your computer spend hours processing, you'll want a fast processor.

"**Performance:**"

So how well does this camcorder actually perform? Pretty well I'd say. I've not owned a camcorder before, but have owned a couple of digital cameras.

Ideal shooting conditions for a camcorder are brightly lit rooms or outdoors. The settings you choose on the camcorder can have a MASSIVE impact on the resulting quality. There aren't too many important options to play with, so it's reasonably straight forward to change them around a bit before you start shooting to see which gives the best results. With time you'll learn what settings work best in what conditions (e.g. the auto-gain control can make a dark picture look really bright, but also tends to make the picture look grainy). There's a "night" mode on the camcorder, but don't expect to shoot in complete darkness - at best it gives an ok image when a medium sized room is lit solely by a 14-inch TV - now you won't find that kind of comparison in the manual ;-)) - the drawback to trying to use the night mode is that the shutter speed is slow and the video will be blurry if the subject moves too fast (that's more of a general photography issue than this specific camcorder).

Colours seem generally quite nice and as far as picture quality goes, I don't have any complaints (if any footage I shoot turns out badly, it's usually my fault and not the cameras - just check your settings before you shoot). Something that is very convenient, is the selection between two different types of recording: Fully automatic settings and manual settings - manual will give the best outcome if set up well, but if you want to capture a moment really quickly, put it into auto mode and be certain that you won't screw things up with the settings you were last using in manual that might have been under completely different conditions.

The zoom - zooming is fun! (but don't do it too much as it wears down the battery and you'll only get dizzy watching the video back afterwards). The 16x zoom is a little better than average (many camcorders only having 10x zoom and the higher ones 20x at the time of buying). It comes in very useful when you don't want to get too close to the subject (such as wildlife) or physically can't get any closer (or can't be bothered to walk nearer if you're lazy). To give some idea of the zoom, 16x is good enough to zoom right in on a bird on a tree 25 metres (75 feet) away, so it's more than adequate for most purposes. I feel I should make the obligatory statement about optical and digital zooming at this stage for those who don't know: You see these huge zooms quoted on camcorders "700x" this one is capable of in fact, but that's only by zooming in 16 times and then just magnifying the image with some digital trickery - the result is useable up to about 30x only - after that, it turns HORRIBLY pixelated (blocky and not much detail) - this goes for all digital imaging products - just ignore what the zoom says it is an look for the optical zoom number!

Tapes - these comes in 2 different lengths: 60 mins (which can fit on 90 mins in long play (LP) mode) and 80 mins (120 mins LP). People warn about recording in LP mode because the tape can be incompatible with other camcorders and is more likely to have the occasional glitch in the picture (a "dropped frame" if you like), but I find LP to be fine so far and Mini-DV tapes aren't exactly cheap so I want to get the best value out of them! (Also note that LP on Mini-DV is different to the way it works on a VCR - there is no loss in quality, the data is just packed in more densely onto the tape). 60 minute Mini-DV tapes can be had for about £3-5 each from shops like Dixons and Currys, but as low as £2 if you shop around (try looking on eBay). As far as brand goes, most of them (JVC, Sony and Maxell mainly) should all be good - I've seen quite a few bad comments about Panasonic tapes in newsgroups so I've not used them (cheap for a reason I think!). Tapes can be recorded over and re-used. Indeed, you can start recording at any point on the tape, if you wanted to wipe over some useless footage - just be careful not to wipe over something you want to keep! There's a "blank tape" search function on the camcorder in playback mode to help find where to carry on recording with a partially used tape - check that it doesn't wipe the last few seconds of your last recording though!

Battery life with the supplied BNV107 (700 mAh) battery is about 1 hour or a little more (depending on how much you use the colour LCD or the little B&W LCD viewfinder and the zoom). I've recently purchased 2 replacement batteries with a 1500 mAh capacity (BNV114) through eBay for less than £30 total, which is about 50% of the cost of most web sites offering replacement batteries, let alone genuine JVC ones. These should give closer to 3 hours usage (but it's hard for me to say if they do as I never tried using it for 3 hours in one go yet). Charging time is approximately the same as the running time and done with the battery in the camcorder.

Other accessories it comes with are a little remote control (aimed mostly at using when hooked up to a TV I think - I can't say as I've used it much, but it does at least come with 2 AAA batteries supplied). There's the required video cable with a scart converter so you can hook the camcorder up directly to a TV for playback (alternatively, the playback on the camcorder is pretty good and includes sound).

The controls aren't too bad, but they can be fiddly. The zoom is done by rotating a circular control which gives quite fine control over the rate of zoom, but isn't quite ideally positioned - this control also doubles as the fastforward / rewind control in playback mode. The record button is located in the centre of the circle which is good as your thumb rests over it. There's a "snapshot" (photo) button located near the bottom which stores the same frame of video over 5 seconds of tape (for computer usage, you could equally just capture frames from the video). The handle is alright as long as you have it fairly tight - even though it's a small camera it's a solidly built piece of equipment and therefore not as light as a typical digital camera. The battery is clipped on behind the handle, which allows reasonable accommodation of larger, higher capacity batteries (BNV114). There are 3 buttons above the battery - "focus", "night" and "backlight" (when you have a brightly illuminated background). The B&W viewfinder LCD works fine and is surprisingly clear, though it is of course much nicer to view the large colour LCD which flips out and rotates (be gentle with it to avoid an expensive repair bill!). There are 2 menu related touch-pad buttons and + / - buttons located underneath where the LCD folds out from which bring up the settings on the LCD and allow you to change various options and settings. Tape loading is done underneath the camcorder and is straight forward, but do read the manual first.

The manual is well written (it's exactly the same as the downloadable pdf format I gave the link to at the top of this review). It covers just about everything you should need to know and is definitely worth reading to understand the camcorder's capabilities.

**More fun:**
If you want to spend a little more on your camcorder the camcorder has a screw available for attaching lenses or filters. The filter thread diameter is only written around the lens (not in the manual) - it is 30.5mm which is a little uncommon. You need to get attachments that fit your camera or an "adaptor ring" (e.g. a step-up ring of 30.5mm to 37mm, which is a more common size, hence more choice and cheaper prices). Typical attachments you can consider are:
1) Telephoto (zoom) and wide-angle (negative zoom) lenses. I have a 2.0x and 0.5x lens for £25 each from Jessops.co.uk which work quite nicely and respectively double the zoom to 32x or fit in a fair bit more picture for indoors or landscape-type shots.
2) Filters: There are lots of these available. Some give different colours, but the most useful ones are UV (mainly a cheap filter you can leave on all the time and has the benefit of protecting your lens from scratches); circular polarizing filters which reduce reflections from glass and water and can give deeper / clearer colours outdoors; close-up filters (also called lenses) - these allow you to get closer to something before it becomes out of focus (hint: use the zoom to record something really small without having to stand over it and block the light!). Filters can cost £10-20 new but also go on eBay 2nd hand sometimes for half that.

A good (padded) bag should be a consideration for your camcorder. As it's a really small camcorder compared to conventional models, you'll probably find you have plenty of space left in the bag for some tapes, lenses, and whatever else you want. Probably £20 or so.

**Conclusion:**

The JVC GR DX25 should keep most home users happy and it's small enough to slip in a coat pocket, so you will find you're able to take it with you and use it so much more than a bulky model. The quality of footage is nice and the price is good. 

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