JVC GR-DVX707

The JVC GR-DVX 707 is very advanced and very small camcorder fits in a palm. Very good video quality even under low light conditions. It records high band (520 lines) video in DV format into a miniDV cassette. SP and LP modes allow 60 and 120 min recording time. Image-stabilizator works well for shaky hands. Auto focus is somehow slow but works generally. It has digital photo mode. Uses MC/SD card to store digital photos up to 1280x960 pixels resolution in JPEG format. Poor picture quality in photo mode is unexpected comparing video picture quality of the same device. But it's very nice to be able to capture photo in any moment using build-in flash with this video camera. pictures look soft and nice in 640x480 or 800x600. It has DV in and out, USB out, S-video and AV outs. 2.5 cm LCD screen can turn 270 degrees in reverse. Included remote controller unit is very usefull. Battery is so small that hardly keeps up 20-25 minutes of shoots with zooming + using special effects etc. If you do not touch anything else than record-pause button, it might acheive 40 min recording time. You need an extra battery for travels etc.

It has fully automatic settings for both video and picture shots, but also have manual settings for creative shots, including manual white-balance, manual focus, manual shutter speed, manual exposure, etc. Especially 1/120 shutter speed is nice for shooting luna-park scenes and

manual exposure is nice for shooting in dark.

Overall its very handy, better than average quality and robust, can fit in a pocket of jacket.

For this price, photo quality should have been better.