Review: JVC Everio GZ-HD7 HD Camcorder


On its release early in 2007, JVC claimed the HD7 to be the world's first Full HD 1920 x 1080i camcorder with three 1/5" progressive CCDs, 60GB HDD, Optical Image Stabilisation and Fujinon Pro Lens. It looks good, but does it live up to its promises?


JVC's Everio GZ-HD7 Full-HD camcorder
SimplyDV was present when the wraps were taken off the GZ-HD7 for the first time at its Europe launch in Athens early in 2007, and on first impressions it certainly looked good. Here was a camcorder that, according to JVC, offered a world first in giving us full 1920 x 1080i HD recording and playback on a consumer/prosumer camcorder. Not only that, but three 1/5th inch CCDs (utilising JVC's own brand of pixel shift technology), a Fujinon broadcast quality lens and optical image stabilisation were guaranteed to put the competition well and truly into the shade, we were assured. Well, now that the dust has settled and we've had a good chance to play with it, do we have a camcorder that lives up to the hype?

First impressions


JVC's existing range of Everio HDD (hard disk drive) based camcorders represents a conscious push by the company away from tape in providing movie recording and playback using internal HDDs rather than tape (as used with HDV) or even DVD disks. With DVD an avowed non-starter at JVC and even tape-based DV formats now on the way out, the company is convinced that HDD recording is where it's at, so it was no surprise to come face to face with this new high definition member of the now-established Everio family over in Greece.

The main difference between the HD7 and its standard-definition sibling, the GZ-MG575, is that it's bigger, chunkier and heavier - but all for the better. It actually looks and feels like a proper professional-quality video-making tool; the Fujinon lens - with its manual control and superb optical qualities - is a welcome addition as are well-designed ergonomics appropriate for both hand-held and tripod-based shooting.

The range of accessible manual controls is extensive, as are such pro-quality essentials as a colour bar generator and zebra exposure pattern generator, too. Moreover, the HD7's 60GB embedded hard disk drive provides over 5 hours worth of full-spec high definition video at a resolution of 1920 x 1080i pixels, writing at speeds up to 30Mbps. As JVC will tell you, the picture that's generated at the camera head is maintained right through to the recording process - lens, CCD, MPEG2 Transport Stream and output via HDMI or USB 2.0 - with no signal conversion to degrade the full native high definition resolution.

Side view of the JVC Everio GZ-HD7

Features


The HD Everio uses three 1/5-inch CCDs – one each for the red, green and blue image channels - which gives the camera a better chance of gathering the whole range of visual detail and leading to a more realistic reproduction. This is further aided by the incorporation of similar Fujinon professional lens technology to that found on professional video and television camera systems.

The lens is intended to provide what JVC describes as "superior optical performance" and nearly the same brightness (F1.8-1.9) throughout its f=3.3mm-33mm zoom range thanks to three aspherical lens elements, one made of indexed glass. The lens surface is coated with a new Electronic Beam Coating (EBC) designed to reduce degradation caused by light reflecting off the lens surfaces, leading to greater light transmission and reduced flaring and ghosting.

At its launch, JVC claimed to have developed the industry's first high-quality full HD 3-CCD camcorder system for use in a consumer camcorder. The three 1/5-inch 16:9 progressive scan CCDs are designed for HD recording and use in a diagonally offset pixel configuration to generate the high resolution image for recording in full HD.

Designed for HD use, each of the three 1/5-inch 16:9 progressive scan CCDs has large pixels measuring 3.28 microns x 3.28 microns, roughly twice the size of pixels in JVC 2-megapixel camcorders, for greater modulation transfer function (MTF) and sensitivity values. The CCD aspect ratio was tailored to16:9 for full HD recording in a hard drive camcorder for the first time at JVC. The compact camera unit produces high-resolution images that are recorded in full HD 1920 x1080i resolution.

Each CCD is set in a diagonally offset pixel configuration required for the use of the Pixel Shift technique in which the Red and Blue imaging CCDs are shifted a half-pixel both horizontally and vertically relative to the Green imaging CCD. Because the pixel-shift system uses progressive scan CCDs, signals are processed first as 1920 x 1080p progressive signals, then converted to 1920 x 1080i interlace signals for recording. The total number of pixels per CCD is 1016 x 558 (approximately 570,000 pixels), with the number of effective pixels per CCD being 976 x 548 (approximately 530,000 pixels).

Increased movie recording times are achieved by varying the bit rate used in addition to downsizing the image from 1920 to 1440 pixels in the horizontal plane (actually not such a big deal since 1440 is still the standard with most other HD cams - even in the professional domain). The maximum recording time to be achieved with the 60GB HDD is 7 hours when using either the "SD" or "1440 CBR" modes; the former uses an average Variable Bit Rate (VBR) of 19Mbps, whilst the latter employs a Constant Bit Rate (CBR) of 27 Mbps - both at 1440 x 1080i resolution.

The Everio features OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) designed to assist with hand-held shooting, and a highly preferable to the lesser option of EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation) which would be less acceptable given the higher resolution and detail evident in the output.

Storage


The GZ-HD7 incorporates a 60GB (gigabyte) internal Hard Disk Drive allowing up to 5 hours storage of high definition video at the maximum resolution. In addition, there are two additional recording modes giving increased running times with higher compression. Also available for the use of digital stills images is a SDHC Class 2 high-capacity SD memory card slot, which is to be found directly underneath the lens at the front (see image, below). The camera offers two recording and playback modes - one as "movie" to HDD and the other as "camera" to the SDHC card.

JVC's Everio GZ-HD7 with optional microphone
Movie clips and digital still mages can be stored on either the SDHC card or to the HDD, with file navigation facilitated by a new-improved menu system accessed via controls on the frame of the ample 2.8" widescreen LCD. Files can be downloaded to either a Windows/Vista PC and to an Apple Mac (running MacOSX 10.4 "Tiger" minimum) via USB 2.0 using the supplied cable. A CD containing the appropriate drivers for the relevant computer system to be used are included with the product, in addition to some other useful capture / editing / sharing software in both cases.

Connectivity


The HD Everio GZ-HD7 is equipped with USB 2.0 for file saving to an external device such as a computer or standalone storage device, HDMI for digital viewing on large screen displays, and i.LINK to stream high definition video in 1440CBR mode or standard definition video as DV. Also provided is a Component digital cable set for connection to devices (such as TVs) that don't possess HDMI connections, a multiway analogue AV cable output, and an external microphone input socket (see image above with optional zoom-effect mic connected). Mysteriously, there's no headphone output socket despite the camera having very good manual audio input controls - the socket below the mic input socket is the AV output jack socket. Why no headphone socket?

Full HD archiving to DVD without the need for a computer


The JVC Everio CU-VD40 Share Station
The HD Everio can be connected to the optional HD Everio Share Station, the JVC
CU-VD40, via the supplied USB 2.0 cable. The Share Station allows users to create HD data discs in order to archive HD video clip files and write to both DVD-R and DVD-RW discs. It also allows for the creation of digital stills in a JPEG format.

Dual-layer DVD-R is also supported, which means that the combination of the HD Everio and the CU-VD40 can provide a PC-less solution to the problem of the finding the means of high-capacity archiving of HD content.

HD and still image files can be played back in full quality via the CU-VD40’s HDMI output without the use of a computer or the camcorder, meaning that it can act as a convenient HD Blu-ray player.

The following editing/archiving solutions are supplied with the GZ-HD7:
The supplied software disc includes a plug-in that works with Apple iMovie and Final Cut Pro software for Macintosh computers. Note that the latter has been successfully tested by the reviewer.

Performance


What's nice about the HD7 is that, on picking it up for the first time, it feels like a real camcorder that means business. It's chunky, great to handle and has large buttons! What's more, it has a comprehensive range of controls that are easy to get to - meaning that the user can undertake a wide range of functions - such as adjusting exposure, moderating the audio level (using on-screen metering) or pulling focus using the large focus-ring. The ring itself is great for making quick adjustments, but it's a bit more difficult to perform a delicate pull-focus due to its lack of end-stops. The focus assist facility is useful in checking focus, as is the Zebra pattern generator for keeping an eye on peak-white areas of the image where there's a risk of over-exposure. The camcorder sits on a tripod very well, with the choice of visual monitoring being either 2.8" LCD screen or 0.57" colour viewfinder - the latter pulls out horizontally and provides a picture that's really too small to facilitate critical adjustments in a hurry. Frame-side operating controls on the LCD screen make general record and playback operations nice and easy, however, both for shooting movie clips and stills.

Shooting indoors in mixed, variable, lighting conditions is pretty good. Even in an averagely-illuminated living room with lots of colourful kids' toys, etc., the scene is reproduced very faithfully; colour is rich and vibrant, contrast ratio is very good and detail is generally excellent. But it's when you take the unit outside in good light that the GZ-HD7 excels - images at full HD resolution are superb. Get in close on some colourful summer flowers in the garden and the result on a decent-sized HD screen via HDMI are stunning. Sound clarity and stereo separation is very good too (although, as to be expected, the mic suffers from mild wind bumping), but we preferred to use the optional external stereo zoom mic with the cam as pictured further up the page.

One word of caution: if you're thinking of buying this camcorder you'll need to be aware that, when shooting in fully auto mode outdoors in bright sunlight, the cam does have a tendancy to over-cook the brightness to the point where whites can bleach out slightly. It's almost essential to shoot as much as possible in manual mode; in doing so, we found that we had to pull the exposure back by one stop in almost all cases to avoid this problem. Having done so, the pictures were superb.

The other point to be aware of is that the HD7 doesn't have an independent headphone output socket. It has an AV multiway socket (for sending analogue sound and vision to a standard TV or recorder, in addition to an S-Video output socket) but this socket doesn't combine the means to switch to a headphone output. We searched high and low in the menu system to no avail, and nothing we tried actually enabled to hear any output via headphones. Perhaps JVC can advise.

Conclusion


It's a lovely camcorder whose output will impress all but the most finicky of users. If you're investing in a new HD display whilst also considering a camcorder purchase, it's logical to assume that you'll want an HD camcorder with full HDMI output to do the TV justice. The HD7 will set you back more than some other HD camcorders coming to market, and it is perhaps more suited to the more serious user looking to spend more time and effort making movies. The fact that it's the first in its class to offer the full 1920 x 1080i resolution (shame it doesn't offer 1080p or even 720p, though!) makes it an especially attractive option for the image conscious user. However, the lack of headphone output is bewildering. All told, it's still a fabulous device and highly recommended.

Reviewed by: CB. March 2007.

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