Capture your precious moments with JVC

Over the Christmas holidays, I had a great opportunity to test out a fabulous video camera from JVC. It has been quite a while since I have used an actual video camera. All of my videos have been taken with compact digital camera that I take a lot of my miscellaneous candid shots around the house, but the power and handiness of the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 really impressed me. Its’ size was great! I was able to charge very quickly, slip it in the diaper bag and use it while we were out with no problems at all. There is not a memory card, yet it has a nice 30GB internal memory. Several years back, I had a bulky video camera that I had to purchase a special card and weird cable just to hook up the video camera to the computer. Not with JVC Everio. All I did was .. plug.. and play! Literally. Very easy for mom’s (or anyone) on the go.

Here are some specs on the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 30 GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom:

Technical Details

• Pack efficiently with one of the world’s smallest and lightest hard disk camcorders
• Equipped with a high-performance Konica Minolta lens
• Enlarge images up to 800x with this full quality 35x optical zoom
• Internal high-capacity HDD allows up to 37.5 hours of recording time
• View remaining battery power by percent and remaining recording time in minutes with the data battery

Everio has been redesigned to offer more satisfaction in a smaller, lighter body. It’s one of the world’s smallest and lightest hard disk camcorders, so you can shoot actively without fatigue, and travel with lots of space left over when you pack your bags.

The elegant and slim HDD/micro SD Hybrid camcorder comes with a Konica Minolta Lens, 35x optical zoom, easy to navigate Laser Touch Operation and 30GB HDD for up to 37.5 hours of recording.

JVC Everio GZ-MG330 Highlights

Super slim, lightweight design Everio has been redesigned to offer more satisfaction in a smaller, lighter body. It’s one of the world’s smallest and lightest hard disk camcorders, so you can shoot actively without fatigue, and travel with lots of space left over when you pack your bags.

Konica Minolta lens All Everio models have been equipped with a high-performance lens developed by camera specialist, Konica Minolta. It captures clear and bright images.

Gigabred Engine Six digital noise reduction systems improve the S/N ratio by about 30 percent (3dB) over previous models, while the integrated MPEG-2 encoder helps reduce block noise and mosquito noise. It’s assurance that all of those Gigabytes of video and photos you shoot will offer the best picture quality available for each recording mode.

Up to 37.5 hours recording Internal high-capacity HDD allows extremely long recording times. With the 30GB model, you can store up to 37.5 hours of video. You can choose the picture quality from four modes, from high-quality video equivalent to DVD Movie to small-sized clip ideal for uploading to the Web.

35x optical zoom Everio is equipped with an industry-leading 35x optical zoom for incredible magnification with full optical quality. Digital zoom takes you up to 800x.

HDD/microSD hybrid design In addition to a built-in hard disk drive, Everio also has a slot for microSD Card so you can store videos and stills on this commonly available memory card (not supplied). Now copy video and stills from the built-in HDD to the microSD card. Sharing is even easier.

Auto LCD backlight control Automatically adjusts brightness of the LCD backlight for comfortable viewing whether indoors or outdoors.

Auto power on/off With Everio, you don’t have to use the power switch each time you operate because the power is linked to the LCD’s opening and closing. Just open the LCD and the camera turns on. Close the LCD to turn the power off and avoid wasting battery power. Operation has never been easier!

Quick restart In combination with Auto Power ON, you’re ready to shoot in about 1 second when the LCD is re-opened. Never miss a crucial moment.

Auto Illumi. Light Turns on automatically so you can shoot brilliant images even in low light situations.

Laser touch operation The scroll bar and buttons are touch-sensitive so you just glide your finger up or down the bar to choose menu items while its cool blue light follows your movements. You don’t touch the LCD screen itself, so it won’t get dirty or smudged. No fingerprints.

Image stabilizer Built-in digital image stabilizer effectively compensates for “camera-shake”, enabling stable image shooting.

Built-in lens cover Slide it shut to protect the lens when the camera’s not in use. It’s integrated, so there’s no risk of losing it like a separate lens cap.

Data battery Allows you to check the remaining battery power by percent and remaining recording time in minutes. Optional larger capacity batteries are available for purchase. Please note: This product includes patented and other proprietary technology and will operate only with JVC Data Battery.

Remote control Provided remote control to operate Everio from a distance for playback, DVD burning, etc., just like a DVD deck.

HDD protection and stability To safeguard the hard disk drive from shocks and vibrations, the Everio has a Floating Suspension System that effectively dampens vibrations through polymer shock absorbers. Also incorporated is a Gravity Sensor System that automatically senses sudden acceleration such as in a free fall situation, and turns off the power to defend the hard disk so that a head crash can be avoided even when the unit is dropped.

DV output The DV out terminal (Firewire, i.LINK, IEEE1394) on the Everio Dock enables easy dubbing to an external DVD/HDD recorder, and also allows digital-to-digital dubbing of Everio footage to a computer for advanced non-linear editing using third party software.

Simple A/V connection Just hook-up to a TV using the provided AV cable and enjoy Everio’s DVD-quality picture on a large-screen TV. Or connect directly to a VCR or DVD recorder for easy copying of Everio movie clips to a VHS tape or DVD disc.

Easy sorting with event icons To make it easier to manage and search for the video clip you want to see, you can assign the appropriate category icon to it while you shoot or afterwards. It also helps when you just want to watch footage based on a certain theme, like Vacation, Birthday, Sports, etc., or when you want to burn just those scenes to a DVD.

One-touch DVD burning With an optional Share Station DVD burner or with your PC, you can burn a full-sized DVD-Video disc at the touch of a button. Just press the Direct DVD button, and the DVD burning process starts automatically. It’s smart so you can even use it to automatically transfer only newly-recorded data to the burner, just the scenes you manually select, or pre-select using the Playlist.

Playlist function Playlist function lets you easily select the scenes you want in the order you want. Convenient for playback or for archiving to DVD.

Pre-installed picture titles When viewing or burning a DVD, you can insert a Picture Title pre-installed in the camera. With a wide selection of professionally designed title images, you can easily transform your footage into a professional looking video–without a PC!

One-touch data backup to PC Data archiving has never been easier. Just press the DIRECT BACK UP button, and data that has not yet been backed up can be transferred to a PC automatically.

Creative, convenient software included

• PowerCinema NE: Makes it easy and simple to browse scenes in the camera, and enables the Direct DVD/Direct Backup function.
• PowerProducer 3 NE: Offers easy authoring of video clips in any order you choose to DVD, even right from a USB-connected camera, so you can share your original DVDs with anybody who owns a DVD player.
• PowerDirector 5 NE Express: Offers feature-rich, non-linear editing so you can flex your creative muscle with titles, effects, and even mix stills with videos. Also converts to a variety of file formats including DV-AVI, Windows-AVI, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, Windows Media Video and RealVideo.
• Digital Photo Navigator: For organizing still images, easy image re-sizing, Web file (HTML) creation and slideshows, as well as movie file (.AVI) creation.

From a mom’s point of view:

• This is a very handy size video camera. It was very easy to travel with.
• The clarity of the videos are nice and clear.
• The use of the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 was very easy to handle!
• Pulling videos off of the JVC Everio was simple! No extra software needed. No extra cables or special cards to buy and install on your computer.

Here is a video from Christmas Eve to show you what the video looks like. Tucker was testing out his new toy.

The downfall of the JVC Everio GZ-MG330:

• There really isn’t anything about the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 that I do not like. The price is just under $400.00. If you want nice quality, you should expect to pay just a bit more than you would for a regular digital camera. All in all, this video camera blew my socks off!

Check out JVC for more amazing products!