All Camcorders Feeds

Sony PMW-EX1

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If Sony is looking for a heavyweight contender in the battle for semi-pro camcorder supremacy then the EX1 might well be it.

Well, it would be if the battle could be won at the weigh-in. You see the first thing we noticed when removing this new cam from the box was its weight. At 2.8kg it is a bit of a back-breaker but further investigation revealed some nifty innovations that go some way to compensate.

Sony's heavyweight camcorder

The EX1 is slightly larger and 400 grams heavier than its forbearer, the Sony Z1 HDV cam. One giant difference between the Z1 and EX1 is that the latter has no tape mechanism. The video is recorded on to Sony’s brand-new solid-state format, the SxS memory card.

The EX1 captures video images via three 1/2-inch CMOS sensors and processes this information into a variety of video formats but they are all HD. If you require standard- definition video then all you have to do is down convert when you play out from the camera to your capture device.

Well designed cam

Our first impressions of the cam were positive. It looks and feels well built and the hefty Fujinon HD lens is a massive improvement on the Z1’s inferior lens.

Sony has retained the excellent lens hood with built-in barn door shutters but the new lens has a manual focus ring with end-stops so you know when you have reached infinity or minimum focus.

Without end-stops focusing has always been a very vague procedure as the focus ring will keep turning indefinitely. The addition of stops helps distinguish pro-kit from consumer camcorders.

The lens also has a proper iris ring which is a fantastic improvement on the Z1. We found setting both exposure and focus was precise, fast and comfortable unlike most other cameras in the semi-pro range.

New lens design

With practise we were able to adjust the focus and iris and maintain constant support under the camera with only one hand. The ability to keep the camera steady while adjusting the lens is crucial for recording wobble free and level footage.

The camera has a 14x optical zoom and the lens is initially quite a bit wider than the Z1 but zooms to the same focal length at the telephoto end. This wider lens is an advantage in many situations such as filming handheld or in confined spaces like car interiors.

The weight of the PMW-EX1 is frequently an issue. Bear in mind that the main support point is the zoom demand grip so your right wrist will need to carry most of the weight.

The new lens design means that your left hand can help and still make adjustments but its near-3kg will soon put a considerable strain on your right wrist and make handheld coverage very uncomfortable.

Easy to control

This would be a disaster if not for Sony’s new innovation of an adjustable zoom demand grip. The angle of the grip can be adjusted by 90 degrees and this feature allowed us to operate the camera at chest height.

We were still using the eyepiece but with the zoom grip set at 45 degrees most of the weight was transferred to the palm of the left hand without sacrificing any zoom control.

This is good as you don’t want to be shooting from hip level and up your subject’s nose which is often what happens during the filming of observational documentaries. It will also stop you from filming via the flip-out LCD screen which is never a good idea as you lose a point of contact with the camera making it less stable.

Therefore it is essential to be able to hold the camera easily at about your subject’s eye level and the adjustable grip allows you to do this.

Fun filming effects

When it comes to actual filming, we found many of the usual features you would expect such as two levels of neutral density (ND) for shooting in bright conditions, three levels of gain, white balance presets and two memory settings, A and B.

Position B can also be assigned as auto-white which is a boon. The shutter speeds range from 1/16th to 1/2000th of a second and the EX1 also has a panic button which gives you full auto.

Some other features available include selectable gamma curves, a Slow and Quick Motion feature, and a histogram function for assessing video levels.

During filming we were able to control the most commonly required functions with a switch rather than via a menu, which really sped up camera operation.

An impressive viewfinder

The EX1 has an excellent eyepiece viewfinder with accurate colours and a noise free, high- resolution picture. Assessing exposure is easy but we found that the camera has such a massive depth of field that, when wide, the image never seems to go out of focus.

For this reason we would advise you to always zoom in to check focus. Surrounding the viewfinder image is loads of additional data including record format, white balance, ƒ number, audio levels, battery life and more.

The viewfinder also has the zebra patterning facility to help you set exposure. Professionals commonly set it to 76 per cent which gives the correct exposure on skin if the zebra pattern was just about to appear.

A camcorder with some excellent features

One viewfinder setting displays the distances between which objects are in focus. This makes up for the inadequate peaking function, designed to increase the highlights in the viewfinder image and thus aid focusing.

It does not work well on this camera, which is a shame because it works really well on the Z1. The 3.5-inch high-res LCD screen which stows very neatly below the VCR (media) controls is big, bright and sharp, excellent for playing back footage.

As well as a built-in stereo mic the EX1 has two XLR audio inputs. These can be set to line or mic level with 48 volts. A clamp is provided to secure a gun mic and the level controls are located at the rear of the camera.

It’s a doddle to adjust the audio levels during filming with very little disturbance to your shots.

Video transfer options

The EX1 has i-LINK and SDI sockets for transfer of media. Those new to solid-state cams will be delighted to find the camera capable of instant recording in total silence.

One of the greatest irritations in life is listening to an old Digibeta slowly winding its self up to record and missing great shots in the three seconds this takes. But before you even consider pressing record which format would you like?

The PAL choices are: HQ 1920 x 1080 HD at 25 progressive or 50 interlaced frames (35Mbps); SP 1440 x 1080 HD, interlaced only (HDV compatible bit rate of 25 mbps); and HQ 1280 x 720 HD at 25 or 50 progressive frames (35Mbps).

In all of the above formats the picture quality is stunning for what is basically a small, semi-pro camcorder. HQ 1280 x 720 at 50 progressive frames per second (50p) looks best. Unlike 25p which flickers during panning shots, 50p is smooth, sharp, full of detail and very realistic.

Simple to store

All of this data is silently deposited on to one of the two memory cards and when one becomes full the camera automatically switches to the other card without a break in the recorded video.

Every time you press record a new clip is created and nearly 600 clips can be recorded on one card. To fill an 8GB card we recorded 25 minutes of HQ 1280 x 720 at 50p (35Mbps). So the 16GB card can hold 50 minutes of HQ video or 70 minutes of SP video.

If you use two 16GB cards it is possible to continuously record 100 minutes of HD material.

Having often shot up to five 32-minute Digibeta tapes a day when filming for TV productions we would guess you would need at least five 16GB memory cards to be on the safe side.

A costly option

This also means you have to transfer the card data to another storage device every night before shooting can begin again. Either that or buy more cards but we have been quoted £566 inc VAT per 16GB card rather than £5 per DV tape.

In other words, when using memory card camcorders we will need to change the way we work (daily data transfer) or Sony needs to reduce the price of cards so we can use them like tapes.

It is also a concerns that stored footage needs to be backed-up before the cards are reused. For the pro user, is their time for all this transferring? With tapes at least you know the footage is safe.

Of course, it’s possible that operators will use the supplied card reader to dump data from one card while shooting on another but this is something Sony needs to address before the future of filmmaking can be SxS based.

Panasonic SDR-S7 Camcorder

James Rivington — 1208880309

Human beings are naturally attracted to anything small and cute. Newborn puppies, Shetland ponies and Kylie Minogue all have their tiny proportions to thank for their general public approval.

The same logic applies to gadgets – and with good reason. You don’t want people questioning how pleased you are to see them when in fact you’re just packing the latest technology.

In the past, however, camcorders haven’t been small and cute. The few which have managed to warrant the label ‘pocket friendly’ have usually lacked image quality and features. That looks set to change with Panasonic’s SDR-S7EB.

Small, compact, awesome

Weighing in at 182g with battery and memory card, it’s not much heavier than a mobile phone. At 41mm thick, it’s not much fatter either. Yet this is a fully functional camcorder, with the kind of quality and features found in models many times the size.

The SDR-S7EB has Flash memory to thank for its tiny proportions. SD and SD HC cards are used for storage, and now that 32GB units have recently hit the market and 16GB ones are around £50, the format isn’t far behind hard disks. The Panasonic shoots ‘standard definition’ video at a resolution of 704 x 576, rather than HD, and uses MPEG-2 compression with three different quality levels.

In XP mode, the data rate is 10Mbits/sec, dropping to 5Mbits/sec in SP mode and 2.5Mbits/sec when shooting LP. Even in XP mode, a 16GB card will store 3 hours 20 minutes of footage.

Fiddly to operate

The SDR-S7EB uses a 1/6in CCD with 800,000 pixels to capture its video. This is the usual size for an entry-level model, and also limits digital photography to a mere 640 x 480 – just good enough for putting up on the Web. But the optical zoom is still a healthy 10x, and a lens cover is built in.

The S7’s dinky size does have a few drawbacks, though. It’s not easy to operate like a regular camcorder, by resting it in the palm of your hand with your thumb on the record button. As there is no wrist strap it feels liable to slip out of your grasp at any moment. Fortunately, Panasonic has placed a second record button on the side, so you can hold it more like a torch. You can then just about operate the zoom with your thumb.

The tiny proportions also mean there isn’t much room for features to lure the more serious camcorder user. The body is too small to accommodate an accessory shoe, for external microphones or video lights. There’s no minijack for a microphone nor for headphones, either. The built-in ports only include a proprietary connector for composite video and stereo audio, plus USB 2 for grabbing video onto a PC or Mac.

PC and Mac compatible

However, Panasonic has still incorporated a decent level of control. Manual focusing requires the use of the little keypad under the LCD, which is also called upon for other configurations.

These include changing the shutter from 1/25^th to 1/8000^th, and the iris from F16 to F1.8. You can also add up to 18dB of video gain. The shutter and iris can be varied independently, too. Panasonic has even included its Pre-Rec feature. This keeps a few seconds of video buffered, which are then added on the beginning of a clip when you begin recording. That way, even if you hit record too late, you still get the shot you wanted.

But the SDR-S7EB doesn’t offer any of the clever new features like face recognition or shooting guides which are now appearing on the latest premium models from Panasonic and Sony.

A tempting prospect

All of this would be incidental if the SDR-S7 couldn’t deliver decent image quality, and with its 1/6in CCD, it was never going to give professional models a run for their money. But it is perfectly adequate for the intended market. In plenty of sunlight, colours are good and the image is sharp enough. Indoor shooting is also perfectly decent with sufficient lighting, although the image gets rather grainy in darker conditions.

It all sounds very promising, and you might expect such miniaturised appeal to come at a premium. But the SDR-S7EB is already available from some retailers for little more than £200. So if you’ve found camcorders too bulky in the past, the Panasonic offers similar image quality and features, yet it will fit in your pocket even more snugly than Kylie Minogue.

JVC GZ-HD3

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A rather large camcorder, the JVC GZ-HD3 is built like a brick.

Though no less pretty to look at than its rivals, it offers the sort of robustness and build quality that ensures that it'll appeal more to the serious videomaker for whom precise control, stability and high-quality images are of a premium.

It might not offer the more professional lens rings that more discerning users demand, but the joystick that is utilised for manual operation is sensibly positioned on the surround of the LCD screen, making it easy to use and about as accurate a way of making adjustments as we've seen.

A hybrid HD camcorder

This is a hybrid offering that can record either to a removable SD card or to the 60GB hard drive.

There are three recording modes offering a maximum shooting time of 7hrs (at a reduced quality) or 4hrs 56mins at the highest resolution of 1440 x 1080 (at a constant bitrate).

This isn't a Full HD resolution, but viewed on a 42in LCD screen, pictures don't appear to suffer as a result.

Manual controls include the usual focus and white balance, aperture and shutter speed for setting exposure, as well as options for adjusting brightness and sharpness.

To help ensure pictures are properly calibrated there's also a colour bars mode and exposure can be checked using the zebra patterning. There's an input for a separate microphone and an in-camera mode for altering the sound levels to your liking.

Superior performance

The HD3 underlines its superiority almost immediately. It does everything that its rivals can with the minimum of fuss, but proves perhaps most impressive in the areas where most cams suffer.

Performance in challenging light conditions provides certainly the best example of this. Shooting under artificial lights where images usually suffer an unnatural yellow glow, colours are resolved as the eye sees them, the focus is free from hunting and there is nothing in the way of grain evident.

Low light conditions suffer a slight drop off in these qualities, but pictures are still miles ahead of many other HD cams.

Unsurprisingly, though, it's good natural daylight that allows the HD3 to realise its true potential and underline why HD is set to become the norm.

An eye for detail

Colours are immaculately recreated, motion is free from blur and the auto systems perform with precision and alacrity. But it's the level of detail that really impresses us.

Whether it is insects crawling in the grass, the imperfections on a subject's face or the flecks of dirt in a carpet, nothing comes close to matching the Konica Minolta lens' eye for detail.

The HD3 is quite clearly head and shoulders above many of the competition for both first-timers and more discerning videomakers. It might not be as portable or lightweight, but the stunning pictures that it captures make it just too good to ignore.

Panasonic HDC-HS9

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The Panasonic HDC-HS9 is a hybrid HD camcorder capable of storing recordings either to a removable SD card (meaning they are limited to the size of the card), or to its 60GB built-in hard drive.

Footage can be shot in one of four modes with the best capturing up to 7hrs 40mins of 1920 x 1080 resolution material (on the 60GB hard drive) while the worst provides the extended recording time of a whopping 23hrs but at a lower 1440 x 1080 resolution.

A compact but heavy camcorder

Although quite compact, it is perhaps too large to fit into a pocket. But it's still snug enough to nestle comfortably in the palm with the main controls easily accessible for even those with smaller hands.

And although it is a weighty piece of kit, it doesn't feel too heavy in the hand. Instead it gives you the feeling that you are in firm control.

Buttons are limited to all but the very essential and the main features are hidden away within the pages of the onscreen menu. This is clearly designed with the various shooting modes and functions split into logical folders making it easy to find a specific one.

Awkward controls

Navigation and manual adjustments are made using a small joystick that is both small and difficult to control precisely.

However, it's the location of this joystick that really beggars belief as it is positioned behind the LCD screen, making it near enough impossible to use without annoyingly blocking the screen with your hand.

This blunder aside, the HS9 has plenty going for it. Features include all of the usual manual controls (focus and white balance), plus one or two not so common ones (shutter speed, aperture, gain and iris).

For newcomers, there's the option of displaying guidelines to help frame shots, plus a range of onscreen advice (including everything from suggested Program AE modes to panning speed) to help improve shooting.

The more discerning operator, meanwhile, will be pleased to note the inclusion of zebra patterning and colour bars.

Great picture performance

While we weren't too happy with forking out £30 for a mini HDMI cable - unfortunately there wasn't one bundled with the camcorder - the HC9 offers an otherwise exemplary performance.

Colours are realistically displayed, fine details often reveal more than the naked eye can see and movement is resolved without blur or ghosting. The only minor frailty concerns the image stabiliser, which though optical can be rather unforgiving.

If you can get around the challenging location of the joystick on the Panasonic HDC-HS9, you'll be delighted by what this solid performer is capable of.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD700

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Now that the high-definition format war is finally coming to an end, with Blu-ray appearing to have beaten HD DVD into submission, high-def movies are far more likely to grow in popularity.

Whether or not they will enjoy the same astonishing rise that DVD did some ten years ago remains to be seen, but however quick the take-up one thing is becoming clear - HD is here to stay.

High-definition's foothold is good news for those who have already invested in a high-def cam. The good news for the rest of us is that HD videomaking looks likely to become the norm in the coming years.

Though the majority of our reviews are of cams designed for the more discerning videomaker, the £350 Xacti VPC-HD700 is aimed at those looking for a pocket-sized solution. And although it will have many purists turning their noses up at the lack of manual controls and viewfinder, the HD700 reveals itself as a satisfyingly flexible tool.

Design and layout

Though we're loath to use the word, the HD700 is one of those camcorders that screams 'fun'. It boasts jazzy colours, is portable, and aimed more at youngsters and women than your average cam. There's nothing wrong with that, and there's no doubting the advantage of having a cam that can slip easily into your a pocket or a handbag.

The chassis dimensions have more in common with an electric razor than most camcorders and it is held much in the same way. The only handstrap to speak of comes in the form of a piece of string that goes around the wrist to lower the risk of dropping it.

With simple operation in mind, controls are kept to the essentials - buttons for selecting record/playback, record and stillshot, a zoom control and a joystick - and will prove to be frustratingly challenging for anyone with digits bigger than a teenager's.

This isn't a concern for functions that don't require precision (like recording) but it can prove annoying when trying to make smooth, controlled zooms. There is certainly room for a slider twice the size of the challenging one provided.

Fiddly controls

The joystick is miniscule, but is used more for finding features and controlling playback than shooting and isn't as awkward to use as it first appears.

Fiddly though the controls are, operation is intuitive. Onscreen menus are cleanly designed, features are logically ordered and, provided you turn off the American voice that tells you what feature you've just selected, you should be filming in a matter of minutes.

As is common with pocket-sized cams, the connections are positioned mainly on additional housing that the cam docks into for charging. Outputs include composite and component video connections, USB for PCs and HDMI for playback on HD-Ready TVs.

Features

The HD700 captures its HD footage to SD card - the amount you shoot is limited by the capacity of the card you use. Disappointingly, there isn't one bundled, so this is something you will have to invest in. We'd recommend you select a minimum 2GB capacity, as footage takes up a sizeable chunk of capacity.

There is a choice of two high-definition and three standard-definition shooting modes. At the top of the tree sits HD-SHQ, which has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels (not Full HD), at 30fps.

You can expect to store just over 28 minutes of footage on a 2GB card. At the other end of the scale, is the Web-SHQ option. With its 320 x 240 pixel resolution; it's best suited for websites and allows just under four hours and 20 minutes of recording.

As is the norm, there is the choice of Simple or Normal shooting modes: the former allowing the user to point and shoot, while the latter affords more control over the cam's faculties. The options on offer are extensive and are almost certainly more in-depth than the average Xacti user is going to require.

In the case of focus, there are Total Range and Macro presets, alongside a manual override. There are four white balance options (Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent and Incandescent) and a One Push manual mode.

While exposure offers seven AE modes (Sports, Portrait, Landscape, Night View Portrait, Snow & Beach, Fireworks and Lamp), there is also a manual option and choices of where in the picture frame the adjustments are made. It's also possible to manually control both shutter speed and aperture.

There is a noise reduction mode (for both stills and moving footage), a brightness level adjuster and a feature that counteracts the effects of the wind on the mic. Stills can be saved at resolutions ranging from 3680 x 2760 pixels to 640 x 480 pixels, and there's a host of features ranging from continuous shooting to extracting stills from a movie.

Performance

As the HD700 doesn't really have any peers in its price range, it's difficult to assess how good this budget high-def camcorder actually is. The nearest camcorder you'll find in this bracket is of the mini DV variety, but the HD700 doesn't compare that favourably.

Accentuating the positives, as you'd hope from an HD cam, images are stunningly sharp. The lens may be small, but it's capable of incredible detail. Whether it's capturing creases in the spine of a book, the veins on a leaf or the fine sprinkling of dust that seems to sit on everything in the Digital Video office, the Xacti is unnervingly precise.

The auto exposure copes well shooting inside in natural lighting conditions during the day and is at its best outside. Add to that an impressive ability to reproduce colours authentically and to capture motion without blurring, and it looks like we're off to a fine start. Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends and the bad begins.

Focusing issues

The biggest problem facing the HD700 is sluggish auto focus. Just panning the cam slowly from left to right seems to throw the focus into chaos, and it takes a good half a second for it to regain its bearings.

Considering that most users will be relying on this system and avoiding the fiddly manual override at all costs, this is far from ideal. The image stabiliser does little to help and has to be one of the most ineffectual we've seen. When displayed on a 42in LCD screen, footage of a slow walk through the woods is a dizzying and, at times, nauseating experience.

Great if you're looking to recreate the terror of Cloverfield or Blair Witch, but a real turn off for everyday documentation.

In darker or artificial light conditions, such as a pub or restaurant, these problems worsen - as we'd expect. However, we've rarely seen a camcorder suffer quite as much as the HD700 does. As you'll see from the stills on the page, images are almost indistinguishable and the levels of grain and noise are more than you'll find on even the cheapest analogue camcorders (remember them?).

The final gripe concerns the built-in mic. Although it has a fairly impressive range, it seems to pick up a whirr whenever the zoom is used and, perhaps worse still, also captures a lot of handling noise. While this can be limited by making an effort not to be too clumsy, the controls don't make this easy.

Conclusion

At around £350, the HD700 is comfortably one of the cheapest HD cams on the market and it's overflowing with features for the price.

The problem is that it's not an especially accomplished camcorder, behaving more like a souped-up mobile phone, and it's doubtful that those using it will really need the functions it offers anyway.

Footage may be sharp, but with a desperately sluggish auto system and practically non-existent image stabiliser, the cam is only any good if moved incredibly slowly, if at all.

JVC GZ-MG330

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New year, new Everios.

With some revolutionary HD tech at the lofty heights of the Everio range JVC has turned its attention to tweaking the Everyman cams, with new models announced at the world's largest consumer tech show in Vegas.

The first to hit the UK's shores is the budget MG330, part of a range that extends up to the Full HD GD7 model.

The essence of the Everio remains - a 30GB HDD using MPEG2 compression - however, there are some outstanding cosmetic tweaks and a new lens system to serve up unrivalled video.

Design and layout

The most striking aspect of this latest range of Everio cams is the new slender chassis. Trimming down significantly from previous incarnations the MG330 is a pocket-sized powerhouse barely bigger than an average palm. It's lightweight too; just 360g (including battery) to be exact, and when combined with the tiny dimensions makes for a highly portable video solution.

Open the LCD and there are more surprises. The new operating system is unlike anything seen on a camcorder to date, and finally we have an interface that challenges the usability and cool factor of the Sony LCD touchscreen menu.

Laser Touch Operation combined with a menu and a selection button lets you gracefully slide through the menu options and operate the manual functions by tapping the demarcated areas of the LCD. The MG330 is also pretty stylish to boot, with a smart brush metal finish and a polished ebony finish on the inside of the LCD.

Features

The talking point here is the new lens system. Allied to a 1/6in, 800,000 pixel CCD, JVC has adopted Konica Minolta lens technology to give your videos and stills - saved to either HDD or Micro SD - a bit more zing. This lens offers a 32x optical zoom that is enough push for any kind of close-up without overstretching capability.

The MG330 is the entry-level model, so the hard disk is the smallest in the range. That said, 30GB isn't exactly small, and shooting in the best quality you can still enjoy up to seven hours of home movies.

The remainder of the features list is impressive for a cam of this price, but provides few surprises. Variable shutter speeds, manual focus and white balance are all on board if you want more control over your movies, but there is an Auto mode to take the pressure of perfect pictures from the camera operator.

Performance

The Everio range has had a great deal of success but previously it had earned quite a few favours thanks to fantastic ease of use and massive storage capacity and not always on best-quality video, essentially redefining how family camcorders were used but not always pushing boundaries in terms of performance.

Now, however, the MG330 offers the complete package. Providing the very best in ease of use and price, the video performance is also first rate. Even in the darkened corners colours hold together well and there is little evidence of grain.

Well-defined images combine with quick-response auto functions and a powerful zoom that is only prone to shake at the fullest extension.

Stills have also stepped things up a gear, with images that are perfectly fine for emailing and sharing online. Printing reveals some faults with colour but it's good enough to make you consider ditching two compacts in favour of this slimline cam.

Conclusion

Everio has really hit the pace with a striking entry-level model that offers hours of smart-looking footage in a smart-looking body.

Home editors will still want to consider mini DV as even though there are plenty of ways to convert MOD files it is still not as simple as transferring DV footage to your PC or Mac edit suite. Even so, everyday users won't look back. The MG330 is a great buy.

Canon MVX460

tech.co.uk staff — 1204120268

In the frenzy to develop camcorders that are even smaller, more compact and cheaper than ever before, manufacturers sometimes lose sight of the kind of features that consumers love.

Fortunately Canon is helping to redress the balance with the introduction of the MVX460 - a camcorder that succeeds with a selection of old-fashioned but essential functions.

The MVX460 boasts a wide range of manual features, a solid set of digital photography tools and comes with the usual suite of edit software, but for us the real treats come with its analogue inputs, its two-way FireWire ports, a 20x optical zoom and an external mic socket.

These might not be the features a salesman would choose to sell you sub-£400 model but in our opinion that's a great step on the way to producing an award-winning camcorder.

Design and layout

The MVX460 is blessed with small dimensions and is featherlite (it's amazingly only 370g), so easily falls into the compact cam territory. It's designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and would easily fit into a jacket pocket.

The tiny dimensions mean that it's slightly more difficult to hold steady than larger models and we found it essential to have the electronic image stabiliser engaged for most shooting

Comfortable to hold over extended periods and with most of the major controls falling to hand easily, the MVX460 our first impressions are very positive. Further investigation throws up a few design issues, though. The camcorder appears not to have very many external controls, with the whole left flank and lens barrel seemingly unburdened with buttons.

This myth is dispelled by a far too hectic back plane, which has a large number of controls. Among them is the record button with options to select camera or playback and a small lever, which can be moved between tape and memory card recording.

Also, at the back is a joystick - that we found difficult to use on account of it being too small! - which is for selecting menu items, and a switch for Easy and Progressive shooting modes.

Features

The MVX460 has the usual share of fades, digital effects and image tools, but what we really love are its analogue inputs. AV inputs allow you to hook up a VCR or analogue cam and dub your old footage onto digital tape.

You can also use them to record TV programmes to digital tape - and then once you send the images to a computer and you can play around, creatively, with anything from TV!

The MVX460 even features an analogue-to digital converter, meaning it acts as a bridge between analogue devices and a PC. You can send in an analogue signal and it will pass out a digital one - direct to a computer if you like.

The cam stores digital stills at 1,152 x 864 and 640 x 480 resolutions onto SD or MMC card, and can also record video clips to the same media at 320 x 240 and 160 x 120. Using SD you can record for as long as you've capacity, though if you choose to shoot on MMC it's only 30 second or 10 second clips.

Performance

The overall clarity and definition provided by the MVX460 far exceeds what we'd expect for a sub-£400 mini DV camcorder. Test footage was solid, accurately colour balanced and full of detail.

The outdoor performance was the most impressive, rich and vivid at all times. Indoors there is autofocus hunting when in less than ideal light, but overall the performance is consistently good.

The camcorder's audio performance is also consistent with a model in this budget/midrange category. We recorded several pieces of narration, which were clear and well-balanced on playback. Test audio was also recorded with music being played back via a Denon test system. Music lacks depth in the bass range but the overall tone is clean and pleasant.

Conclusion

An excellent addition to the ranks of mini DV camcorders. The MVX460 blends great visuals with solid manual features and a fantastic and creative set of connections. An absolute must test for any video enthusiast.

Canon HG10

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This cam captures full HD footage to a 40GB hard drive and can store up to 5hr 30min of footage at maximum resolution. At £800, it's certainly more expensive, but then it offers so much more, as we'll find out...

The HG10 seems to manage the conjuring act of offering everything that the HR10 did that was good and improving upon everything that was bad. So the sensible positioning of buttons, intuitive onscreen menu and fine build quality all remain, while the fixed viewfinder has been ditched. Instead, the viewfinder can now be pulled out from the body of the cam. At 0.27in, it is smaller than we'd like and it would have been nice to change the angle, too.

Also different is the zoom, which takes the shape of a rocker button, instead of a slider. It may take some getting used to if you're more comfortable with a slider, but we found it to be vastly superior and liked that the zoom speed can be adjusted. Best of all, operationally, is the onscreen menu and the ease with which manual adjustments are made.

Traditionally, a small joystick does this job with limited success. For those with fingers larger than a child's, this fiddly method of operation is hit and miss at best and certainly doesn't provide the sort of precision that the serious videomaker demands.

Easy operation

While a circular joypad remains, it is the inclusion of a wheel surrounding it that makes operation so much easier. The joystick is still used for navigation, while the wheel can be turned to make adjustments to focus, exposure, white balance etc. While it's certainly not as good as a dedicated focus ring, it's certainly the best alternative we've seen yet.

The HG10 has four HD recording modes offering between 5hr 30min and 15hr of footage depending on the quality, while the battery allows 110min shooting time using the screen or 115min with the viewfinder. Manual shooting options cover focus, exposure and white balance, while aperture and shutter speed can also be adjusted.

There's a choice of eight Program AE modes and options for softening outlines and emphasising or toning down contrast and colour saturation. Perhaps the best feature is the Cine mode, which when combined with the 25fps frame rate mode captures footage that looks as good as anything from the local cinema.

The HG10 appears to offer everything that the more demanding videomaker wants. Handling is faultless, the chassis is well balanced for handheld shooting and the control for manual adjustments is a revelation. Pictures are similarly impressive with no visible flaws.

Shooting in natural light, colours are impeccably resolved and realistic, while the sharpness and precision of the lens underlines why HD will soon replace mini DV. An entry on a calendar across the room that isn't visible to the naked eye was captured with unnerving accuracy, while sharp lines and complex patterns are perfectly replicated.

In the dark

When shooting in darker conditions, picture quality drops and the grain appears, but this is more to do with the camcorder's low light limitations than HD's shortcomings and is a common weakness on consumer models.

Also impressive is the built-in microphone, which appears to have a larger pick-up range than many rivals so that a separate microphone will only be required by the more professional videomaker. On the downside, the odd clunk on the chassis is recorded if you're clumsy with the controls.

Sadly, Canon does not supply the cable to connect it to an HD-ready TV. Furthermore, the HG10 does not use a regular HDMI cable. Instead, it uses a mini HDMI cable that will set you back £30. We had to visit six shops on Tottenham Court Road to find one.

As good as the HG10's pictures, sound and features are, the extra hassle of hunting down a pricey cable is unforgivable. For that reason alone, we are marking down an otherwise very impressive performer. If you can get the cable for free, it's a worthwhile buy, if not it may be better to walk on by.

Panasonic NV-GS80

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We were hoping for a big finale to the kit of 2007, but we didn’t expect one quite so, well, large. In the age of miniaturisation, there’s just no getting around the fact that the Panasonic NV-GS80 is rotund. The question is, who’s going to want something as large and outdated as this mini DV cam first appears?

Before we pass hasty sentence, we ought to consider Panasonic’s traditional strengths and weaknesses. Last year, the manufacturer continued its long-running support for DVD camcorders while also launching several new HD models that recorded AVCHD footage to disk or SD card.

You can’t argue that Panasonic doesn’t try to keep up with the trends in the camcorder market, and many of last year’s models were undeniably impressive. But, there was always someone slightly flashier than Panasonic in the DVD, HDV and AVCHD arena swanning off with the trophies.

Paradoxically, the GS80 could be just the right product for Panasonic to end 2007’s product range. Buyers of mini DV models, aren’t particularly looking for flashiness. Nor, for that matter, are potential GS80 purchasers looking for technical innovation.

Mini DV is the format for those who want a proven track record, ease of use, reasonable performance, straightforward export and editing, and a good price. Actually, looking at it like that, it makes you wonder why we spend so much time predicting the death of mini DV.

Solid, understated performance has long been Panasonic’s strongpoint when it comes to camcorders. Sure, it makes cool record players for people who insist on referring to record players as decks, but in the camcorder field the company has always side-stepped cool and produced simple, effective cams.

For a long time it’s been impossible to get excited about a Panasonic camcorder, but it’s also been almost impossible not to find them at the top of your list of recommendations when someone asks you what brand to buy.

Design and layout

At first glance, a profile view of the NV-GS80 disguises its throwback dimensions. It looks long, squat and sleek like a flash-based camera. But, add a third dimension to your view and you realise that in fact it’s quite a big camcorder, with most of it’s size being expressed as width. There is, of course, a limit to how small you can make a tape transport mechanism, and mini DV camcorders will always run foul of their own moving parts.

Having said that, it sits securely in the hand. Its short stature makes it easy to grasp, and its heavier-than-usual 450g makes it feel reassuringly solid, without being too heavy to be a burden to use.

The whole cam feels durable, and its few controls are neatly spaced and intuitively arranged. You’ll never need to look for a button – whichever one you need always seems to be under the fingertip you’d expect. It’s a clever arrangement and easy to manage when you’re designing a camcorder that has only eight controls and four sockets on it.

Strangely, the DV and USB sockets are beneath the battery clips, meaning the battery has to be removed for video and stills to be exported. This is fine when you’re at home and can power the cam using its DC input, but it’s likely to be frustrating for holidaymakers, laptop users and anyone wanting to export footage whilst far from a three-pin plug.

Features

As you’d expect of an extremely low-budget camcorder using an ageing format, the NV-GS80 isn’t bursting at the seams with features. The ones it does have, however, are pretty good. For starters, it has an optical image stabiliser – still the best way of smoothing handheld shots and something we have never seen at anywhere near this price before.

There’s also a 32x optical zoom, providing the user with a lot of range for composing shots without the ghastly pixilation caused by a digital zoom.

The OIS and optical zoom are part of an imaging system that includes an ƒ1.8 lens, with a 37mm filter diameter, feeding a sub-megapixel 1/6in CCD. Granted, megapixel CCDs are found on everything from mobile phones to webcams these days, but its absence here isn’t a problem at this price.

The GS80 can shoot in 4:3 or 16:9 and has a 2.7in LCD screen for accurate framing of 16:9 images. It offers manual control of focus, exposure and white balance (albeit via menus rather than dedicated, calibrated controls).

There are various recording tweaks that can be used in dodgy shooting situations, such as backlight correction and soft skin mode. There’s also a wind noise reduction function that will drop your audio recording into mono but will save you from pops on blustery days.

More gimmicky features, such as fades and Colour Night modes, are also included, but the NV-GGS80 avoids tat in favour of a solid feature list that’s impressive at this price.

Performance

Ordinarily, budget camcorders do really well until its time to talk results. So it’s curious and satisfying to see the NV-GS80 buck this trend and impress in the performance stakes. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s much better than you’d expect for under £200.

Picture quality is not without grain or the orange tinge associated with artificial light. There are times when natural light is cold and blue, but the GS80 doesn’t succumb to these problems to an overly detrimental extent; the problems are noticeable if you’re looking for them but may well escape the casual viewer.

Positively, the camcorder picks up a surprising amount of fine detail, and its auto modes respond with impressive speed whenever the cam is subjected to drastic changes in lighting or composition.

The audio quality is also better than we expected. There is very little bass and a lot of treble, so soundtracks do start to sound a little thin and somewhat tinny, but the general pickup and reproduction is loud and clear. Sounds are easily distinguished from each other and no mechanical noise is evident, even when working the chassis buttons or the zoom.

On top of its picture and audio performance, the NV-GS80 is easy to use. Despite its lack of physical controls, it is easy to access the camcorder’s features and functions usinga simple joystick and menu system.

Conclusion

It really is a pleasant surprise to come across an inexpensive mini DV camcorder that doesn’t feel like a cheaply produced afterthought to an over-hyped and underdeveloped tapeless range.

The NV-GS80 is far from perfect – but it is not meant to be. It’s not primarily aimed at moviemakers who want a staggering array of manual controls, exposure latitudes, built-in filter and a giant pixel count. Nor is it intended for the ‘shoot-on-the-move and upload to YouTube’ crowd who want no-frills miniaturisation, or even at the gadget crowd who don’t care what it does as long as it does it using a new codec.

The NV-GS80 is aimed squarely at the often-neglected basic purchaser – someone who wants simplicity, familiarity and convenience combined with good pictures and a reasonable asking price.

For holidaymakers, new parents or grandparents, and those recording video family trees or school sports days, this is the sort of camcorder that performs a basic job well. There’s little room left on the market for mini DV, but the GS80is a casebook study in why the format has been so popular for so long.

Canon HG10

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Some objects engender in us a distinctly unhealthy bout of technolechery, and the HG10’s satisfyingly chunky little body has us reaching for a bucket of iced water. Not only is it a true widescreen high-definition camcorder but it also packs a 40GB hard disk – good for around five and a half hours of top-quality footage. We have iMovie ’08 to thank for the opportunity to review this camera, as it introduced support for the AVCHD format the HG10 favours.

Connect the camera over USB (no drivers required) and, annoyingly, attach the power cable, and iMovie shows you all the clips that are stored on the camera. It can pull them all in automatically, or you can select those clips that you want and import only them. This non-linear approach, similar to the way we’ve dealt with digital stills for years, is a revelation after the strictures of tape-based devices.

Detailed picture

The footage is very good indeed, and shows so much detail compared to standard definition footage – especially when set to 25fps progressive scan rather than the default 50 frames interlaced – that you could just about get away with printing stills from the video at A4. The processor does a sterling job of adapting to lighting and focus targets when set to full auto, and while there’s some fringing on areas of high contrast, it’s within acceptable limits.

Those looking to tinker with the settings manually may get frustrated. Manual focus is controlled through the finicky dial/D-pad to the left of the pull-out viewfinder in conjunction with the keys below the screen, and the whole menu system takes a hell of a lot of getting used to.

Ergonomically, despite being light and comfortable to hold, the HG10 is a mixed bag, with the main mode switch requiring a painful crabbing back of the index finger to operate; the viewfinder is also a bit small. Audio performance can be a little lacklustre too, and while photos (up to 3 megapixels in photo mode, and up to 1,920x1,080 when shot as you’re recording video) are up to Canon’s usual standard, it’s annoying that you have to record stills to a miniSD card, not the hard disk.

Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, few people have the displays to play back full HD in all its glory. And yes, you’re going to have to invest in some serious storage to archive this footage rather than simply filing cheap tapes. But still, this is a lovely camera that’s easy to use – at least in automatic mode – and produces cracking footage that’s a doddle to edit in iMovie ’08.