The JVC GZ-MC100

I suppose it was inevitable: with the soaring success of the iPod™ and similar hard-drive based digital music players, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way to record video onto a portable hard drive.

As it turns out, that someone was JVC, and the innovation is their new Everio line of camcorders. Curious about these ingenious little devices, I borrowed the GZ-MC100 and took it for a test drive.

The big idea
JVC designed the GZ-MC100 around a sophisticated type of media: the IBM Microdrive®. This media card holds a tiny hard drive within its CompactFlash®-compatible case. The 'MC100's included 4GB card can hold up to an hour of MPEG2 video — the same format used on DVDs — at the camcorder's highest quality setting. Alternatively, the card can also store several thousand (that's right, several thousand) photos at the camcorder's highest resolution setting, 1600 x 1200.

In a nutshell, you get to record lots of high-resolution video using an amazingly small camcorder. Plus, you can add more memory if you like, by buying additional Microdrive media. (The 'MC100 also takes CompactFlash and Secure Digital® cards, so you can opt to use those, too.)

One compact camcorder
There's no doubt about it: when you hold this gadget in your hand, its small size is impressive. Weighing in at 11 ounces with battery and Microdrive (8.6 ounces without either), the 'MC100 is also exceptionally lightweight.

This cam's silver styling and glossy black trim give it a high-tech, elegantly simple look that I like. And since the black parts are plastic, while the metal parts are a matte silver, fingerprints aren't really a problem. Another plus: JVC has endowed the GZ-MC100 with controls that seem well-thought-out. For such a tiny camcorder, the buttons and switches are spaced far enough apart that I had no trouble using them — no aiming for one button and pressing two by mistake!

Video quality
Sure, it's supposed to film in DVD quality — but how does the GZ-MC100's video quality really stack up? To find out, I filmed two scenes using the camcorder's automatic settings.

When I watched an indoor scene that I had filmed at the camcorder's highest quality setting, I noticed some noise in the picture. This was to be expected, however, since the camcorder had to slow down the shutter speed to compensate for the low light, blurring the picture a bit in the process.

Video footage of my three-month-old son — shot in a challenging low-light setting — included a small amount of noise.

I decided it wasn't quite fair to judge the 'MC100 based on these tough shooting conditions alone; that's when I set out to shoot some video in bright sunlight.

The outdoor footage came out noticeably clearer — the colors were bright and fairly crisp. I did see some artifacts which could be attributed to the camcorder's lens. I also saw some "stair-step" artifacts on subjects with diagonal lines, such as tree branches. Since you can also find this type of artifact on DVD video (which uses the same type of compression as the 'MC100), this wasn't surprising.

Outdoor footage filmed in late afternoon sunlight came out less noisy than the indoor footage.

Overall, however, I was pleased with the picture quality in both settings. It was great — much better than video I've recorded using other ultra-compact digital media camcorders. I found the video comparable to footage I filmed earlier this year with a Sony DVD camcorder (see my review of the DCR-DVD101). This makes sense, since both camcorders record using the same video format (MPEG2) and purport to deliver DVD-quality video.

The GZ-MC100's stereo microphone recorded sound well, too. This cam, like the 'DVD101, records stereo audio in the Dolby® Digital AC3 standard. Mainly I captured voices, which came out clear and crisp.