JVC GZ-HM650b 8GB Full HD Memory Camera Blk Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Overall great camcorder, light weight, easy to use, fantastic zoom and good low light videos.
I bought this camcorder mainly for shooting videos in low light conditions (my wife is a singer and performs on stage with variable light conditions) and for that purpose it performs extremely well (I've only done some pretests so far...I'll update with actual footage later this month).
Things I like a lot:
- Very good low light sensitivity with excellent results
- Fantastic optical zoom x40
- crisp high quality video in almost any shooting conditions (both HD and SD)
- Overall, very easy to use
- Intelligent scene mode selection which works great
- Quite good on-screen navigation system
Few issues to consider:
- Default battery lasts barely 1 hour ( bought it from a local dealer so you may get something better :)
- 8GB internal memory is not enough if you use HD modes....I bought additional 16 GB SDHC card class 10 (never go below class 6)
- As noted in previous review the whole body (and especially the right side of the camera) tends to get hot. It is not something unbearable...but it is hot, so this is a bit annoying but not a deal breaker for me (I live in Israel, so it's hot anyway :)
- The file format is MPEG2 transport stream (MTS). I need to check this point and I may be able to change this but MTS is a hassle for most playback and editing software. At this point I can see video with VLC and hear audio with Sony Vegas but not the other way around :(. That said I'm sure I'll soon figure this out.
- No Mic or headphones input and no accessories shoe
- Lens opening is manual ...not a big issue though
Again, overall I'm happy with this camcorder (so far after 2 weeks) and I think it is awesome for its price. For most amateur usage scenarios you will be pleased with it.
Update July 1, 2011: I've uploaded a video clip taken with this camcorder for you review. It was taken 10 - 15 meters away from the stage. I used optical zoom of X2 to X9, no additional lights (beside stage lights) and camera set to auto-sense which gave a candle icon (i.e. low light conditions) most of the time. I used Standard Definition (not HD) mainly because my software has hard time rendering HD.
The sound quality is not very impressive but it was done from quite afar and with noisy audience around me...and anyway we use a direct console recording for the final production so I don't really care that much.
Overall, as said, I'm quite pleased with the video quality I got.
The clip is here [...] (to really appreciate it you'll have to learn Hebrew though:).


Click Here to see more reviews about: JVC GZ-HM650b 8GB Full HD Memory Camera Blk

Click here for more information about JVC GZ-HM650b 8GB Full HD Memory Camera Blk