With 30 GB of storage and 15x optical zoom, the JVC Everio GZ-MG50 camcorder certainly has technical prowess going for it; Jørgen Sundgot investigates whether it's enough.
Review summary of the JVC Everio GZ-MG50:
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 Despite taking a back seat to the image quality of its older sibling, the Everio GZ-MG50 fights back with mind-boggling storage capacity and a 15x optical zoom lens. Unfortunately, poor control placement hampers an otherwise excellent interface, which, in conjunction with average image quality, renders this camcorder a choice for point-and-shoot users in need of excessive storage and simplicity. Beware, though; the price tag is high as is, and acquiring enough batteries to keep up with the camcorder’s capacity will sting your wallet. Release: September 2005. Price: $850.
Pros: Vast storage; compact form factor; 15x optical zoom; intuitive user interface
Cons: Average image quality; poor controls; battery life no match for storage capacity
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Full JVC Everio GZ-MG50 Review:
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Are you tired of having to constantly change tapes, memory cards and batteries on your camcorder? Well, join the club - but what if you could cut the hassle in half? Obviously, someone at JVC had this brilliant idea and started out with the
Everio GZ-MC500E - but with only 4 GB of storage, it barely matched its own one-hour battery life for recording high quality video. Enter the Everio GZ-MG50, which boasts a whopping 30 GB of storage and a 15x zoom lens to boot.
Not exactly sleek
Although it's an ultra-compact camcorder at 109 x 70 x 67 mm and 380 g, the GZ-MG50 looks a tad chunkier than the GZ-MC500E - although in the name of fairness, the latter had a decidedly unusual form factor. More traditional in appearances, the GZ-MG50 offers good ergonomics although the near-complete lack of thumb controls is disappointing; the majority of controls are concealed behind the flip-out viewfinder, where pressing them easily causes the camcorder to shift.
At the core of the GZ-MG50, however, lies a 15x optical zoom lens which feeds light to a 1/4.5-inch 1.33 Megapixel CCD. This setup offers an aperture of F1.2-F2.8, focal range from 3 to 45 mm and ISO sensitivity ranging from 100 through 200 and 400, as well as shutter speeds from 1/2 to 1/500 seconds for still imaging and 1/2 to 1/4000 seconds for video recording.
Manually adjustable within a ±6EV range in video mode and ±2EV in still image mode, the GZ-MG50 offers spot exposure adjustment and auto, preset or manual white balance modes, although bracketing modes for either are amiss. Lastly, the camcorder also incorporates a highly sensitive stereo microphone, a loudspeaker and a front-mounted LED light, also this with manual and automatic modes, as well as a tripod mount on the bottom of the device.
Delicious drive
Not only equipped with a capacious 30 GB hard drive, the GZ-MG50 also integrates an SD/MMC card slot to let users further boost storage - although we suspect a better use might be moving content on and off the device as such storage cards would nonetheless be dwarfed by onboard storage. Regardless, however, the USB 2.0 connectivity of the device would certainly be the best method for transferring recorded media.
Further on the note of connectivity, the GZ-MG50 also offers Composite and S-video out in PAL format, as well as a dedicated power input - the former and latter of which also happen to be neatly tucked away behind separate plastic panels. Additionally, PictBridge and DPOF support are on the slate for direct-to-printer output.
An infrared remote control is also bundled with the camera, letting users control slideshows and playback from the couch; a nice touch.
Two steps forward and one to the side
Following a start-up time of 8 seconds, which is 1/3rd faster than the GZ-MC500E, users will find themselves greeted by a clear and legible user interface with a host of advanced options. The 2.5-inch, 270-degree swivel display is comfortably large and crisp at 130K pixels, offering a detailed configuration overview without obstructing the user's view, and although we're disappointed to find the manual focus ring of the GZ-MC500E replaced by navipad controls, the sensitive, multi-speed zoom lever fortunately remains along with the electronic image stabilizer. Use of the latter beyond the 5x zoom range doesn't come recommended, however.
Capable of shooting stills at up to 1152 x 864 pixels in JPEG format only, it is evident that the Everio GZ-MG50 cannot in any way replace a dedicated still camera. Despite its well-rounded set of capabilities, smooth-flowing interface and good overall picture quality, the camera is simply too restricted by its low resolution to be used under any other circumstance than an emergency.
As for video, the camcorder delivers good quality, but cannot match the output of the GZ-MC500E. Recording in MPEG2 format, four settings are available, the highest of which records at 720 x 576 pixels and a bit rate of 8.5 Mbps for a whopping 7.5 hours - battery life aside, that is. Slight purple fringing issues have us somewhat irked, whilst we the use of CBR as opposed to VBR for the two highest quality settings leaves something to be desired; also, noise levels are slightly higher than the GZ-MC500E, which is likely due to the use of a single CCD as opposed to three separate CCDs.
This is also likely the cause of the GZ-MG50's poorer performance under low light conditions, but fortunately the camcorder retains the excellent audio quality of its older sibling - whether recorded as a video soundtrack or as standalone voice memos. At its highest setting, audio is recorded in 16-bit dual channel Dolby Digital format at 48 kHz and a bit rate of 1.536 Kbps, and a special wind cut feature contributes to reducing wind noise - but only to a certain extent.
With concern to battery life, the somewhat oddly placed, back-mounted battery of the GZ-MG50 ekes out an hour of recording time; true to JVC's claims, yet woefully short given the capacity of the camcorder.
Rip, mix and burn
Also included with the Everio GZ-MG50 is a comprehensive imaging suite from reputable CyberLink, including PowerDVD 5, PowerDirector Express and PowerProducer 2 Gold. When put together, the applications allow for easily producing and playing back DVDs containing both images and video, with fairly advanced editing capabilities.
Availability
The JVC Everio GZ-MG50 is at the time of press available throughout Europe and North America, selling in the €1,050 EUR range. 40, 30 and 20 GB versions of the camcorder are also available.
Price and availability
The JVC Everio GZ-MG50 will start selling for $850 to $1050 () in September 2005.
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