JVC Everio GZ-HD6 camcorder: a refreshed model

JVC has been somewhat the forgotten vendor when it comes to camcorders of late, which is a shame. JVC has a lot going for it, and certainly has not been backward in going forward when it comes to innovation and technology.

The Everio range was arguably the first hard disk-based camcorder series on the market and, over the last two years or so, JVC has been quietly tuning its brand, culminating in the latest model, the GZ-HD6. Other manufacturers call their models ‘hybrids’ (Hitachi was the first to coin the term in this context) when they have a hard disk drive (HDD) and DVD drive, but JVC has opted to call this model a hybrid despite the fact it is HDD-based only. And while the norm for hybrids is around a 30GB hard drive, the GZ-H6 has a whopping 120GB drive inside it. Why so much? Because the GZ-H6 is also a full 1080p high-definition camcorder with three 1/5in CCDs giving an effective pixel count of 2,140,000 and needs the room to store the 1,920 x 1,080 info hi-def requires. Earlier Everio models were not ‘true’ hi-def as they only output to 1,440 x 1,080.

There is a little brother of the GZ-HD6, the HD5, that is almost –  and this is important –  identical, with a 60GB HDD. What’s important, especially if you are a serious filmmaker and have a yen for things like Tropfest, club competitions or even to use the GZ-HD6 as a second string camera to a broadcast unit, is that the $2,199 GZ-HD6 also has a headphone jack whereas the HD5 does not. Both sport professional Fujinon lenses, the new xvYCC colour output much touted by Sony and HDMI version 1.3. The HD6 also comes with a lens hood.

I have criticised previous Everio models as while they had all the makings of an excellent camcorder for use well above and beyond the range of the holiday happy-snapper, I found they were quite badly let down in the image stabilisation area. Well it appears the JVC engineers have been beavering away to solve what I and other reviewers found to be almost unacceptable results and have fixed it with, reportedly, a complete makeover of the software and hardware components making up the optical image stabilisation system.

OK, so on the surface we have a technically very good camcorder. But like all camcorders, there are a couple of quirks that could be ironed out in my opinion, but hey. . . one mans’s ceiling and all that. For example, I don't like lateral rocker switches for zoom controls. Pro cameras have used longitudinal zoom rockers forever almost so why change a good thing? There is also no viewfinder, which in a camcorder of this level I find astonishing; on the plus side, though, the LCD screen is probably the best I have ever used outdoors, being totally watchable even in full-on direct sunlight. Very impressive.

Close-up work from the Fujinon lens is also excellent; I was focusing down to less than 1cm without error or distortion, whilst at the other end of the scale, 10x optical zoom is more than adequate. Digital zoom? We won't even bother to go there.

Focal length is from 3.3 – 33.0 and there are three ISO settings of 100, 200 and 400. Low-light usage was not brilliant, but those three CCDs need some decent candle power to get the light hi-def needs and indeed this is common to all hi-def models.

The claimed battery life is one hour 20 minutes per charge, which takes around twice that time. With around 24 hours in long-play mode and 10 hours in fine mode available to you via the 120GB, that’s a lot of charging. Files can be dumped from the camcorder to either a DVD burner or to PC, but my favoured option to minimise double handling would be to go straight to a DVD recorder, assuming little or no editing was required.

So, would I buy the new JVC GZ-HD6? My own preference, as I do a lot of editing, is to keep with tape, as this is still the preferred media when this is required. But, as a second choice, then definitely. As a camcorder at the top end of the consumer range, however, for day-to-day, then the GZ-HD6 in my opinion crosses all the t’s and dots the i’s and would be my current first choice.