General Features
Video Features
Digital Still Camera Features
Media Storage Capacity
Software and Computer Information

General Features

Super Hi-Resolution Lens: The newly designed Super Hi-Resolution Lens has a 9-group 11 element structure featuring a high-precision glass aspherical lens, which offers superior resolution. In addition, the 10x optical zoom lens assures high-quality pictures for both moving and still images. The ring around the lens is threaded and can accept 30.5mm diameter filters.

2.1 Megapixel CCD: A total of 2.12 million pixels (effective at 1.23 million for moving pictures and 2 million for still images) are provided by this 1/3.6" CCD chip.

Megabrid Engine: The Megabrid Engine applies separate, optimized processing to moving and still images to reproduce both with excellent quality. Using this technology, video images have a high sensitivity and high signal-to-noise ratio, even in low light. In addition, the high resolution still images are crisp and clear, allowing for beautiful quality prints. RGB based processing assures more rich and realistic color reproduction.

3-D Noise Reduction (3D NR): This frame-based innovation in 3-dimensional noise reduction provides more accurate noise reduction because it is based on twice the amount of visual information than conventional field-based types. Video noise is reduced by 30% in low light for a 2dB improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio. This technology allows you to get a bright picture with less noise, even in low light.

1.8" Color LCD Monitor: The GZ-MC100 features a 1.8" LCD color monitor that flips out from the left side of the unit. You can rotate the monitor 270 degrees (180 degrees forward and 90 degrees backward) to view the subject from virtually any angle.

Compatible Media: The GZ-MC100 is compatible with the following media: Microdrive (removable hard disk), CompactFlash cards, and SD Memory cards. A 4GB Microdrive is supplied with the camera.

Note: For video recording and continuous shooting of still images, you should use a Microdrive, high speed Compact Flash card (at least 40x speed), or SD memory card (at least 10MB/s).

Format: The camcorder records in the following formats:

• Video: MPEG-2-PS with audio in AC3
• Still: JPEG (PictBridge, DPOF compatible)
• Voice: WAV (Linear PCM)

Digital Zoom: The GZ-MC100 has a 200x Super Digital Zoom with Spline Interpolation to smooth out image contours to minimize jagged edges.

Focus: This unit offers both automatic and manual focus. The camcorder's Full Range AF system offers continuous focusing ability from close-up (as close as approximately 2" from the subject) to infinity. When correct focus cannot be obtained automatically, you may focus the camcorder manually using the Play/Pause button on the back panel.

Tele Macro: At the maximum telephoto setting, the lens is usually out of focus when the subject is less than 3.3 feet away from the camcorder. By turning on the Tele Macro setting in the menu, you can shoot a subject as large as possible at a distance of approximately 2 feet.

Backlight Compensation: Typically, backlight compensation is done automatically. In addition to automatic backlight compensation, this unit allows manual backlight compensation adjustment.

Spot Exposure Control: Selection of a spot metering area enables more precise exposure compensation. You can select one of the three metering areas (left, center, or right).

Voice Recording: The camcorder can be used as a voice recorder for audio recordings. During recording, you can choose one of the following sound quality settings: Fine, Standard, or Economy. The recording level may be set to High, Middle, or Low. During playback, you can choose one of the following speeds: Normal, Fastplay (20% faster than normal speed), or Slowplay (20% slower than normal speed).

Battery Pack: The supplied battery pack gives you approximately 65 minutes of continuous recording time. It takes approximately 95 minutes to fully charge the battery pack.

Video Features

Digital Image Stabilization (DIS): To compensate for unstable images caused by camcorder shake, particularly at high magnification, you can turn on the camcorder's Digital Image Stabilization. DIS is also helpful when shooting subjects with vertical or horizontal stripes, dark or dim images, subjects with excessive backlighting, scenes with movement in various directions, or low-contrast backgrounds. The DIS feature should be turned off when recording with the camcorder on a tripod.

Note: DIS does not function during Digital Still Camera operation.

Recording Modes: When shooting video, you can choose from the following recording modes:

• Ultra Fine:
  • Video: 720 x 480 pixels, 8.5 Mbps (CBR)
  • Audio: 48 kHz, 384 kbps
• Fine:
  • Video: 720 x 480 pixels, 5.5 Mbps (CBR)
  • Audio: 48 kHz, 384 kbps
• Normal:
  • Video: 720 x 480 pixels, 4.2 Mbps (VBR)
  • Audio: 48 kHz, 256 kbps
• Economy:
  • Video: 352 x 240 pixels, 1.5 Mbps (VBR)
  • Audio: 48 kHz, 128 kbps

Wide Mode: In this mode, the zoom range is extended beyond the maximum optical zoom wide angle range. This mode's wide angle setting is equivalent to using a 0.8X wide conversion lens. Zooming is possible from 0.8x to 10x. This mode is suitable for shooting in a small room.

Wind Cut: This feature helps to cut down on noise created by the wind on the microphone. It can be turned on or off through the menu.

Gain Up: When shooting dark scenes, you can activate the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to brighten the image. The overall appearance may be grainy, but the overall image is bright.

Manual Recording Functions: You can use manual recording functions easily by selecting the following items in the MSET menu:

• Manual Exposure (AE): allows you to adjust the exposure from -6 to +6, or set it to Auto
• Manual Focus (AF): allows you to manually adjust the focus using the Play/Pause button
• White Balance: To obtain accurate color reproduction under various types of lighting, the camcorder features automatic, preset, and manual white balance adjustment. There are three presets: Fine (outdoors on a sunny day), Cloud (outdoors on a cloudy day), and Halogen (indoors with a video light or similar type of lighting). Manual white balance adjustment can be done through the menu.
• Shutter Speed: allows you to choose one of the following shutter speeds: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, or 1/4000
• Program AE: allows you to choose one of the following Program AE modes:
  • Sports: fast shutter speed allows fast-moving subject to be captured one frame at a time vividly. The shutter speed is set at 1/250 to 1/4000 second automatically.
  • Snow: compensates for subjects that may appear too dark when shooting in extremely bright surroundings such as in the snow
  • Spotlight: compensates for subjects that may appear too bright when shooting under extremely strong direct lighting such as spot lights
  • Twilight: makes evening scenes look more natural
• Effects: You can add special effects to your recording images:
  • Sepia: the image has a brownish tint like old photos
  • Monotone: the image becomes black and white like old movies
  • Classic Film: the image has an old movie atmosphere by the effect of skipping frames
  • Strobe: the image looks like a series of consecutive snapshots

Index Display: You can view multiple files stored in a recording medium at a time. This browsing capability makes it easy to locate a particular file you want.

Playback Zoom: You can magnify the playback image up to 5x.

Wipe/Fader Effect: You can view videos with various effects of scene transition:

• Wipe:
  • Corner: wipe in on a black screen from the upper right to the lower left corner, or wipe out from lower left to upper right, leaving a black screen
  • Window: the scene starts in the center of a black screen and wipes in toward the corners, or comes in from the corners, gradually wiping out to the center
  • Slide: wipe in from right to left, or wipe out from left to right
  • Door: wipe in as the two halves of a black screen open to the left and right, revealing the scene, or wipe out and the black screen reappears from left and right to cover the scene
  • Scroll: the scene wipes in from the bottom to the top of a black screen, or wipes out from top to bottom, leaving a black screen
  • Shutter: wipe in from the center of a black screen toward the top and bottom, or wipe out from the top and bottom toward the center leaving a black screen
• Fader:
  • White: fade in or out with a white screen
  • Black: fade in or out with a black screen
  • Black and White: fade in to a color screen from a black and white screen, or fade out from color to black and white

Playback Effects: You can add the following special effects during playback: Sepia, Monotone, Classic Film, or Strobe.

Playlists: You can create a playlist by collecting previously recorded video files. By playing back the playlist, you can view your original video clips. The playlist can then be modified or deleted. If desired, you can dub a playlist to an external device.

Dubbing to a VCR: Using the supplied AV cable, the camcorder can be used to playback video to be recorded onto a VCR.

Digital Still Camera Features

Image Size/Quality: When recording still pictures, you can choose from the following image sizes: 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, or 640 x 480. For each image size, you can set the image quality to Fine or Standard.

Self-Timer: By setting the self-timer, a still image is recorded 2 or 10 seconds after pressing the Recording button.

Continuous Shooting: When Continuous Shooting is turned on and the Recording button is held down, the camcorder stores one still image after the other. The interval between each still image is approximately 0.3 seconds.

Manual Recording Functions: You can use manual recording functions easily by selecting the following items in the MSET menu:

• Manual Exposure (AE): allows you to adjust the exposure from -2.0 to +2.0 (EV)
• Manual Focus (AF): allows you to manually adjust the focus using the Play/Pause button
• White Balance: To obtain accurate color reproduction under various types of lighting, the camcorder features automatic, preset, and manual white balance adjustment. There are three presets: Fine (outdoors on a sunny day), Cloud (outdoors on a cloudy day), and Halogen (indoors with a video light or similar type of lighting). Manual white balance adjustment can be done through the menu.
• Shutter Speed: allows you to choose one of the following shutter speeds: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, or 1/500
• Program AE: allows you to choose one of the following Program AE modes:
  • Sports: fast shutter speed allows fast-moving subject to be captured one frame at a time vividly. The shutter speed is set at 1/250 to 1/4000 second automatically.
  • Snow: compensates for subjects that may appear too dark when shooting in extremely bright surroundings such as in the snow
  • Spotlight: compensates for subjects that may appear too bright when shooting under extremely strong direct lighting such as spot lights
  • Twilight: makes evening scenes look more natural
• Effects: You can add special effects to your recording images:
  • Sepia: the image has a brownish tint like old photos
  • Monotone: the image becomes black and white like old movies

Flash Modes: You can choose from the following flash modes:

• Auto: the flash fires automatically when the surroundings are dark
• Auto Red-eye: the flash fires automatically but reduces the red-eye phenomenon of the subject's eyes
• On: the flash fires regardless of the shooting condition
• Slow Synchro: the flash fires regardless of the shooting condition. The shutter speed becomes slower in this mode, so the background can be also brightened.

Index Display: You can view multiple files stored in a recording medium at a time. This browsing capability makes it easy to locate a particular file you want.

Playback Zoom: You can magnify the playback image up to 5x.

Image Rotation: You can rotate a still image clockwise or counterclockwise.

Playback Effects: You can add the following special effects during playback: Sepia and Monotone.

Copying/Moving Still Image Files: You can copy or move still image files between recording media in CF and SD slots using the on-screen display.

PictBridge Printing Capability: Using the supplied USB cable, you can connect this camcorder directly to a PictBridge compliant printer. PictBridge is a standard that allows you to connect a PictBridge compliant camcorder directly to a PictBridge compliant printer and make prints, regardless of brand.

DPOF Print Setting: This camcorder is compatible with DPOF (Digital Print Order Format). You can choose which images to print and the number of prints. This feature is useful when printing with a DPOF-compatible printer, or bringing the Microdrive or memory card to a photo lab for printing.

Media Storage Capacity

Approximate video recording time (minutes):

*Supplied with camcorder.

Approximate number of storable images:

*Supplied with camcorder.

Approximate voice recording time (minutes):

*Supplied with camcorder.

Software and Computer Information

Included Software: The camcorder includes a CD-ROM with the following programs:

Digital Photo Navigator System Requirements:

• Operating System (pre-installed):
  • Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows XP Home Edition
  • Windows XP Professional
• CPU: Intel MMX Pentium, at least 200 MHz
• RAM: at least 64 MB
• Free Hard Disk Space: at least 40 MB for installation, at least 500 MB recommended
• Connector: USB port
• Display: must be capable of displaying 800 x 600 dots with 16-bit color
• Miscellaneous: Internet Explorer 5.5 or later

CyberLink DVD Solution System Requirements:

• Operating System (pre-installed):
  • Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows XP Home Edition
  • Windows XP Professional
• CPU: Intel Pentium III, at least 700 MHz (Intel Pentium 4, at least 2 GHz recommended)
• RAM: at least 128 MB (256 MB recommended)
• Free Hard Disk Space: at least 350 MB for installation. For creating DVD video, at least 10 GB recommended. For creating VCD, at least 1 GB recommended.
• Connector: USB port
• Display: must be capable of displaying 1024 x 600 dots
• Miscellaneous: Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, DirectX 9.0 or later
• Supported Media:
  • DVD Video: DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW
  • DVD-VR: DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM
  • Video CD: CD-R/-RW