JVC GZ-HD 3 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: JVC's Everio GZ-MC100 (web ID: 67022) brought the hard disk camcorder to the masses back in 2005. But the company has been a bit late to the party with high definition. Sony was already on its second generation when JVC released its first foray, the ...

Verdict: A great value camcorder that's capable of some decent results.

Pros: External mic jack, 'professional' design, image quality should impress most users

Cons: Minor performance issues, a bit bulky

Verdict: The GZ-HD3 is a solid HDD camcorder that will satisfy in most of the areas that count. Despite a few design issues, it offers a respectable performance for the asking price.

Review summary: JVC's latest hard disk based HD camcorder looks like it could be a real bargain.

Verdict: Although the HD3 has the same electronic basis as the HD7, it is clearly a lesser model in terms of manual features and video quality. It lacks the flagship Full HD mode, too. But it's also quite a bit cheaper. It undercuts our favourite hard disk HD ...

Review summary: The JVC Everio GZ-HD3 is a scaled-down version of the Everio GZ-HD7 released a few months ago. It includes the same triple-CCD design and many of the same features, although it includes a Konica Minolta with a 10x optical zoom range and digital image ...

Pros: Good-looking design ; high-quality audio ; low noise, low-light video

Cons: Low-resolution video ; needs built-in ND filter ; no viewfinder

Verdict: As a scaled-down version of JVC's GZ-HD7, the Everio GZ-HD3 ditches some of the fancier features, but its price is still higher than we'd like for this camcorder

Review summary: In bright shooting environments, such as the outdoors or a well-lit room, the GZ-HD3 performs adequately. Its three 1/5-inch, 570,000-pixel CCDs churn out an image that is relatively saturated, yet sharper than most hard drive camcorders. One of the ...

Verdict: The GZ-HD3 starts to show its flaws in lower lighting conditions, which constitutes most indoor shooting. Without manual adjustments, the GZ-HD3's image is quite noisy. The dominant camcorder in the consumer HD market, the Canon HV20 is the king of ...