JVC Everio GZ-MG20 20 GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder w/25x Optical Zoom
by JVC
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Our Price: $499.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $270.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of JVC Everio GZ-MG20 20 GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder w/25x Optical Zoom
Customer Review: Tiny camcorder... Big HDD... Easy functions... = 5 Stars!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, I bought this for a Christmas present for my wife and she loves it. The first thing you notice is how small it is... I mean it's tiny!
When I first heard about these I checked for reviews on them and the two sites I found reviews on both had mediocre scores. Much of the fuss on thse sites had to do with the video quality of the still images.
I think many felt mislead b/c in the description it says you can select from image sizes of 1152x864. 1024x768, and 640x480. What we've found out is that even though you can select the 1152x864, 1024x768, and 640x480 the digital stills are only 640x480 because the two higher sizes make the images look bad but the 640x480 size looks super.
Honestly, I didn't buy it for it's digital camera capabilities (we love our Fugi e510) although it's super convenient to have this available albeit only at 640x480 b/c you can switch back and forth between stills and video very easily.
I can't comment on the Mac capabilities other than it seems a little harsh to give the unit 2 stars b/c "you" didn't read the packaging correctly.
I really don't know what all the fuss is about where the video quality is concerned. We haven't owned a camcorder since our last vsh-c which we were happy with as well. The videos at the highest setting looks great with very rich and true colors. The camera is eXtremely easy to setup and use from the time you take it out of the box until your first transfer over the very fast USB 2.0 connection.
Another great feature of this very small camera is the internal SD Card slot and the camera's ability to record both stills and video to this excellent removable media. It's very fast, super cheap (compared to others like memory stick and xD cards), and they already come in capacities up to 4gb.
I thought the SD Card would be soley for stills but was hoping the HDD would be removable, so this was a very nice surprise b/c like most PCs now-a-days our computers have the internal memory card readers so you can just pull the SD Card and pop it in your PC for editing, emails, burn to dvd, etc.
As far as dislikes go the only issue I had, which is really nitpicking, is that the buttons on the LCD are a bit small for my liking. I'm a pretty big guy though so this may not even be an issue for many of you.
I'm totally happy with this purchase!
Customer Review: Beware MAC users
Summary: 2 Stars
The company does not let you know that it is not a user friendly camera for MAC...
it does say "optional Capty DVD for making DVD Video software provide seamless integration into the Apple Macintosh computer world"
... empasize the OPTIONALl. You have to buy it for 125$ more.
Customer Review: JVC MG 20 /30 ..PLEASE DON'T BUY IT
Summary: 2 Stars
i bought it yesterday and going to return it today just because of its worst video quality....
yes...! if you can compromise video quality....than you can surely go for buying this....
no user friendly functions...complexity is everywhere..
hdd is not 20 GB...in my case its only 17.5 GB. and yes...very disappointed customer service....
nothing is good in this camcorder except good zoom and storage capacity....
video in night is worst ever......please don't waste your money to buy it....PLEASE
Customer Review: Great camera...moderate image quality
Summary: 3 Stars
I like the idea of not having tapes or discs which limit your capabilities, recording time and efficiency. This saves you 50 to 75 percent in time not having to re-record the video files...just transfer the files directly from the camera.
Something needs to be mentioned about the review that says "There's no Firewire (IEE1394)" - I am sure that guy feels quite silly making that statement seeing how USB2.0 is faster than Firewire. USB2.0 =480mbps / Firewire =400mbps - uh, duh.
As mentioned the camera's video files are named *.MOD, but are the same as *.MPG files and may be renamed so all apps can understand them.
This camera is ultra small and you will enjoy this feature, though the jacks and ports are sometimes hard to see if over the age of 40.
You will need a larger battery if you want any serious power time.
It comes with a nifty remote and the LCD looks marvelous even though the video is being compressed to mpeg-2 standards. Not for the serious high end user, but a great camera for family and everyday type purposes.
I love the idea of the built-in hard drive and tapeless/discless operation!
Customer Review: Much easier to use than DV tape camcorders but...
Summary: 4 Stars
A good camcorder but quality of video image not quite as good as DV tape, even in good light. Low light capabilities also not as good,, even with gain up - the lenses in the better Everio units with the 15x zoom may be better in this regard. Yes, the files are ".MOD" extensions but just need to be changed to "MPG" and should then play in any media player with the MPEG-2 codec installed (if you computer can play DVD movies now, you should already have this codec installed). I play my videos on Windows Media Player. I didn't even install the supplied JVC software - WIN XP recognized the camera and it functions just like a flash drive from there. Very easy. Once you files are changed to ".MPG" extension they should be editable in most, if not all, video programs. I have no problems with Adobe Premiere STD, which is generally considered the industry standard. Battery life is only 1 hour - strongly recommend getting the 2 hours battery as an accessory. A very handy little camera that make it so much easier to work with your videos - no more capturing from DV tape required. And the 4 hour storage beats hauling around extra tapes and wondering what may be on them, can I record over, etc.... Ignore comments about lack of Firewire/IEEE1394, this is irrelevant. I transfer all my video on a Sony laptop using USB2, even though Sony favors Firewire. Bottom line, a very handy little camcorder if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of video quality for much better convenience.