Jørgen Sundgot pokes and prods JVC's highly impressive hard drive based camcorder, the Everio GZ-MC500E, sporting 3 CCDs and 4 GB of storage.
Although tapeless camcorders haven't been around for long, they're slowly but steadily gaining traction as an alternative to more cumbersome solutions where storage is most certainly cheaper - but also more of a hassle to deal with. Not so with JVC's new Everio GZ-MC500E, which relies solely on MicroDrives for storage, and caters directly to prosumers with three separate CCD sensors at 1.3 Megapixel each.
Similar to the single-CCD Everio camcorders launched in the fall of 2004, the GZ-MC500 is capable of recording up to 60 minutes of DVD-resolution video at 720 x 576 pixels onto a 4 GB Microdrive. New as of this model is the three separate 1.33 Megapixel CCD imaging censors, catering separately to red, green and blue colours. In addition to video, the GZ-MC500 also combines and interpolates data from all three sensors to achieve pictures with resolutions up to 2560 x 1920 pixels, or in leighman's terms 5.1 Megapixels.
 | | JVC Everio GZ-MC500E |
According to JVC, this approach results in several benefits over previous models, including sharper and more vivid colours; from what little I was able to determine whilst playing with the model at CeBIT, performance was quite good when considering the small size of the camera. A 10x optical zoom (8x for stills) JVC lens comes in handy for close-ups, and shoots video in native 4:3 or 16:9 formats.
At its highest quality mode, the GZ-MC500 records at a fixed data rate of 8.88 Mbps including Dolby Digital audio (8.5 Mbps video plus 384 Kbps Dolby Digital Audio) at 50i FPS and a resolution of 720 x 576, which is comparable to DVD quality video. At this setting, JVC lists the GZ-MC500 as capable of storing up to one hour of video on a 4 GB MicroDrive, which can easily be exchanged. If you prefer quantity over quality, the GZ-MC500E can also muster a lowest setting of 30p FPS, a data rate of 1.5 Mbps and resolution of 352 x 240 pixels, which should allow for up to 5 hours of video.
Due to its use of hard drives as the storage of medium of choice, the GZ-MC500 is also equipped with a floating suspension system to dampen vibrations through polymer shock absorbers that automatically engage when the disk is writing/reading and disengage to allow disk ejection/loading. With JVC representatives out of sight, I managed to give the GZ-MC500E a run for its money in this department, and found that despite relatively rapid and unpredictable movement - as we all know can happen after a night on the town and a drink too many - the GZ-MC500E kept on recording as if nothing happened.
 | | JVC Everio GZ-MC500E |
Storing data on an included 4 GB Microdrive card, the CompactFlash Type II slot of the GZ-MC500 should also easily accomodate Flash-based memory cards for those who really want to party, and there is also a separate SD/MMC Card memory slot. The camera supports USB 2.0 for PC connectivity, as well as the PictBridge standard for direct-to-printer connectivity.
Slightly larger than the previous two Everio models, the GZ-MC500 also includes a manual focus ring on the lens barrel; a Program AE dial on the side of the unit; a three-shot Auto Bracket using different exposure settings for each shot, as well as other controls such as Backlight and Spotlight Compensation and a Real-time Histogram Display.
Slated for availability this month in both the U.S. and Europe, the JVC Everio GZ-MC500 is expected to sell for a whopping $1,799.95 USD.
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