We got a hold of JVC's top pint-sized 120GB HD camcorder and put it through its paces. It's a swanky little number, but are looks as important as what's on the inside? Read our JVC Everio GZ-HD320 review here.
Review summary of the JVC Everio GZ-HD320:
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 The 120GB JVC Everio GZ-HD320 is one of the puniest full HD camcorders on the market, yet it’s the company’s top dog for 2009. JVC is carrying over the Everio GZ-HD6 for advanced shooters while the Everio GZ-HD320 is captain of the S.S. Consumer, boarding tourists, beginners and technophiles. We liked the Everio GZ-HD320’s ability to upconvert to 1080P via a full HD monitor, and motion was smoother than any other camcorder we tested this year. However, the Everio GZ-HD320 died a terrible death in low light and offered few solutions for advanced illumination other than a tiny bluish video light. The laser touch track panel was certainly a flashy piece of eye candy, but we found it to be temperamental at times. Connectivity does not include Mic and Headphone jacks or an accessory shoe, so we had to deal with the mediocre built-in microphone. The Everio GZ-HD320’s best asset is its MediaBrowserHD software, which enabled us to upload instantly to YouTube and view our clips using a calendar interface. If you’re willing to sacrifice low light, advanced features and prosumer architecture for smallness, HDD capacity, a cool laser touch panel and 1-2-3 upload capability, then the JVC Everio GZ-HD320 will treat your wallet a lot better than other top HD models in its class. Release: February 2009. Price: $800.
Pros: Great motion and decent bright light performance. Super compact. Large HDD capacity.
Cons: Poor low light performance. Limited controls and features. Spotty navigation courtesy of the laser touch panel and button configuration.
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Full JVC Everio GZ-HD320 Review:
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Design - Good
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 comes to us direct from Munchkin Land. This is one of the smallest full HD camcorders we've ever palmed, and it's also one of the sleekest little buggers out there, rocking chrome trim, a glossy black sparkle coat and enticing LED lights. The Everio GZ-HD320 is JVC's top HD offering for 2009, which is quite a peculiar scenario, given the monstrous HD titans the company has been manufacturing within the last few years. It seems as though size is currently the main course for JVC, rather than advanced manual control and functionality. The 2007 JVC Everio GZ-HD7 was a monster strapped with Aperture and Shutter Priority buttons and a buttery smooth lens ring. Fast forward to 2009 and the Everio GZ-HD320 is in danger of falling through a crack in the sidewalk.
JVC may be losing the advanced shooter crowd, but it's apparent that they have more faith in beginners and budget shooters. So, we cut the JVC Everio GZ-HD320 a little slack, despite its minimalist architecture. We're no longer in the big leagues, so we can't expect to field a screaming line drive from the Canon Vixia HF S10 or strike out the Sony HDR-XR520V. They're simply too powerful. The Everio GZ-HD320's ratcheting hand strap is a cool design, but the braided nylon lace dug into our hands and felt uncomfortable after 5 minutes of shooting. After a full day, we had a nice imprint along the back of our hand. Furthermore, the strap slack is significantly long and flops around, and we had to tuck it under our hand.
We liked curved gripping crevice along the top of the JVC Everio GZ-HD320, but the zoom toggle was too small and recessed. We found the port covers to be some of the cheapest we've ever encountered. The DC cover never actually fit in its hole and then ripped out with a slight tug. Of course, JVC saved all of the magic for the LCD, which features a light-up touch-sensitive track panel and set of buttons. Useful external controls are almost nonexistent, and everything is menu-geared. The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 is a total consumer machine.
Interface and Menus - Good
While most consumers usually spawn a love/hate relationship with their device's interface, we were indifferent regarding the JVC Everio GZ-HD320's touch-sensitive track panel. It looks cool, which will help this thing sell. But we were annoyed at times with the touch-sensitive buttons that spanned along the bottom of the LCD panel. Sometimes the buttons were not responsive, other times we just wanted to touch the screen rather than cram our fingers into a miniscule plastic divot.
That's what it is; it's a tease. We'd actually rather see a touch screen interface than the Everio GZ-HD320's track panel getup. The track panel itself was even finicky at times and had a tendency to move too fast, glossing over options. We found that the best way to remedy this was to tap the top and bottom of the track panel and move one option at a time.
Although the 2.7-inch LCD screen has a 123,000-pixel display, we were impressed with the picture. The JVC Everio GZ-HD320's menu system is also one of the better systems we've seen in the camcorder world. Each highlighted option is accompanied by rolling text along the bottom that explains that particular option's reason for existing. The graphics are impressive, and the Everio GZ-HD320's interface is definitely a large piece of this camcorder's pie.
Shooting Features - Good
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 had a shallow pool of features, but we stumbled across an impressive set of manual controls. Not only does the Everio GZ-HD320 have White Balance and Exposure control, but we could also set the Shutter Speed down to 1/2-second and manually adjust the Focus Via Focus Assist, which displayed a blue color to highlight properly focused subjects. The Sony HDR-XR520V doesn't even have Shutter Speed control, though it does have the best low light sensitivity of 2009 at the moment. The Everio GZ-HD320 also has a Tele Macro mode, but we experienced a mediocre performance in this mode. Scene modes are fairly limited, which is surprising, given the consumer nature of this camcorder.
The Effects are also minimal, consisting of Sepia, Black and White, Classic Film and Strobe. Classic Film is JVC's version of a simulated 24P frame rate, though watching it on our HD monitor made us want to vomit due to the choppy motion. JVC threw in Face Detection this year, and we had a pretty decent experience with its accuracy while the Sony HDR-XR520V's was inconsistent. Due to the Everio GZ-HD320's poor low light sensitivity, we tried the video light, but our clips were plagued with a bluish hue and at times looked as though they were recorded on the moon. Sound options consisted of a Wind Cut feature and, well just a Wind Cut feature. Without an accessory shoe or a Mic jack, the Everio GZ-HD320 cannot produce sound past the quality of its run of the mill built-in microphone.
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320's best feature happens to be its Media BrowserHD software, a well designed and easy to use vehicle designed to support playback, YouTube uploading and some very basic editing. The YouTube upload feature was cake. All we had to do was connect the Everio GZ-HD320 via a USB cable, follow a few steps including entering our YouTube username and password and voila! Our video was online in no time. Between its laser track panel, tiny size and intuitive playback software, the JVC Everio GZ-HD320 is the ultimate beginner camcorder.
Hardware and Connectivity - Good
The mystique behind the JVC Everio GZ-HD320's equipment under the hood is not the small 1/4.1-inch CMOS chip with 3,050,000-pixel resolution, but rather the camcorder's ability to record 1080i high-definition video and upconvert it to true 1080P via playback on a 1080P monitor. Every other high-end model, such as the Canon Vixia HF S10 and Sony HDR-XR520V, also record natively at 1080i, but lack the upconversion capability. The Panasonic HDC-HS300 has a true 24P mode that offers progressive shooting, but not 60P. We hope to see more camcorders supporting progressive frame rates in the near future, but unfortunately very few editing programs support 1080P. The Everio GZ-HD320 also records video at 24Mbps in the highest quality, the only other AVCHD camcorder to do so aside from the Canon Vixia HF S10 and Vixia HF S100.
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 has a Konica Minolta lens with a minute 30.5mm filter diameter. However, the Everio GZ-HD320's lens supports a 20x optical zoom ratio, which is most likely why JVC stuffed a smaller imager inside its chassis. This is a big zoom for a higher-end HD camcorder, so if you're looking for the ultimate in magnification, the Everio GZ-HD320 might be the one. Unfortunately, it utilizes Digital Image Stabilization, which we found was less effective than Optical Image Stabilization. Given the camcorder's size, the Everio GZ-HD320 houses an impressive 120GB internal HDD in addition to a Micro SD card slot.
Of course connectivity is limited on the JVC Everio GZ-HD320 due to its puny size and consumer-targeted audience. We still get Mini HDMI and Component terminals, but they're tossed in the LCD cavity and devoid of covers. The USB, AV and DC jacks are strewn about the camcorder's body, but there are no signs of Mic or Headphone terminals. There's also no accessory shoe, so the built-in mic and video light were our only options.
Image Quality - Good
In bright light, we were very impressed with the JVC Everio GZ-HD320's performance. Detail was surprisingly fine-tuned in most cases and motion was the best we've seen all year, allowing us to freeze an image without any blur during playback through HDMI. But that's because of the Everio GZ-HD320's 1080P frame rate. Motion only looked good through HDMI, so we'll have to wait for an editing program with native 1080P support.
In all other shooting conditions, the Everio GZ-HD320 produced sub par to poor images, especially in low light. Even some indoor lighting will incite a riot of uncontrollable noise. The Everio GZ-HD320's small imager just couldn't handle lower lux levels, and the Auto Focus didn't even work because of the heavy downpour of noise. Color was pretty flat as well, and we came to the conclusion that the Everio GZ-HD320 will only make shooters happy in broad daylight or other areas with lots of light.
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 can only capture still images up to 1920 x 1080 (2-megapixels) and the quality was mediocre at best, so we saved you the trouble of wading through noisy pictures. All sample images are recompressed JPEGs plucked straight from the Everio GZ-HD320's MediaBrowserHD software, but our analysis was based on HDMI playback via a full HD monitor in order to assess maximum quality at 1080P.
Scene Test – Hunter's Former Stomping Ground
Contrast Test – Hudson Street
Contrast Test – Hudson Street at Full Exposure
We couldn't believe how fluid motion was when viewing the White Horse clip, and the overall exposure looked great. The sky refrained from swallowing the building tops and detail looked sharp. We could have used a little more color though, and that was one of the JVC Everio GZ-HD320's weak spots. The Everio GZ-HD320's Brightness control allowed us to properly expose the last image without sacrificing a fully blown-out sky. We were impressed with the Everio GZ-HD320's ability to handle high contrasts and edges.
Line Test – Spiky Thing
Sharpness Test - Graffitimobile
Color Test – Sleeves of Egg
Detail Test – Cat Lamp
Sharpness was certainly not a problem for the JVC Everio GZ-HD320, as we can see in the spiky structure and within the lettering of the graffiti. Even on our full screen HD monitor the Everio GZ-HD320's image retained a great deal of detail, as evidenced in the cat lamp image, which displays the best detail we were able to attain throughout the entire shoot. However, the White Balance looks a little warm, which is something we struggled with in certain indoor shooting environments. Lastly, the Everio GZ-HD320's rendering of color is rather grim, and we could have used a major boost within the Easter eggs. JVC does not offer any specific color filters on the Everio GZ-HD320 other than x.v. Color, and you'd need a very expensive monitor in order to see the effects.
Indoor Lighting Test – Fuel Health Food II
Motion Test - Fan
Face Detection Test – McCain Grimace
We're beginning to traverse the dreaded bridge to low light, and these images are harbingers of what's to come. In most indoor lighting conditions, we were forced to weather a veritable hailstorm of noise. The first clip was not that serious, and we just experienced a fine mist of noise spread evenly throughout the frame. However, when we attempted a motion test with the fan, noise eroded its blades and the surrounding vicinity. Motion was still top notch, and we were able to freeze the fan without any blur effects during HDMI playback. However, we sunk even further into the pit of noise while viewing the clip of our digital imaging editor's best John McCain grimace. Face Detection worked adequately, framing the frightening image throughout the entire duration of the clip, but noise was rampant.
Night Test – Groove Tattoo
Low Light Test – Under the Fruit Stand
The ship officially sank when we took the JVC Everio GZ-HD320 for a midnight stroll. There was nothing the little sensor could do in order to stave off the encroaching army of noise. We tried a lower shutter speed, but motion was far too jerky and puke-inducing. We activated the Automatic Gain Control, but to no avail. The Everio GZ-HD320's last words were muttered in the final clip, which looked like a battle between evil, darkness and a drain pipe. The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 cannot handle low light, and that's a fact.
Price and availability
The JVC Everio GZ-HD320 will ship in early April for $800.
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