JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black)

by JVC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 4.4 x 2.5 inches ; 8.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001OMH1JQ
• Item model number: GZ-HM200BU
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,965 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 7, 2009

Product Description

Color: Black

From the Manufacturer

The JVC Everio GZ-HM200 offers dual SD card recording, with continuous recording from one card to the next, and is one of the smallest and lightest full HD camcorders available.

It also features a 1/4.1-inch, 3.05-megapixel CMOS image sensor and full HD recording--full 1920 x 1080 resolution--to maintain native 1920 x 1080 resolution through playback, enabling output of a 1080p 60fps progressive signal to make the most of high-end HD displays. Using the same GENESSA processing technology used in JVC HD televisions, conversion to 1920 x 1080 at 60fps provides seamless natural video, free of motion judder during fast action activities, jaggy lines on angles and moiré patterns on fine details when zooming. 1920 x 1080 HD discs played back via the camera from the optional JVC CU-VD50 Share Station are also converted to 60fps progressive.

The Everio GZ-HM200 is also equipped with HDMI V.1.3 with x.v.Color. Among the colors that the human eye can see, x.v.Color technology, based on the xvYCC color standard, can display 100 percent compared to about 55 percent with sRGB. So when connected to an x.v.Color compatible HDTV, the pristine world of high definition can be enjoyed to its fullest.

A new Konica Minolta HD lens, developed especially for Everio, provides a high-performance "eye" for the capture of Full HD resolution images, and also delivers a high optical zoom ratio of 20x which is among the highest for HD camcorders.

JVC’s new HD Gigabrid Premium video engine not only applies advanced image processing to optimize image quality, it also contributes to a 30 percent reduction in power consumption compared to previous Everio models, and also enables approximately 2.5-times faster creation of DVD discs for standard definition or AVCHD DVDs from HD Everio.

All HD Everios now feature the new AVCHD UXP mode with an unprecedented bit rate of up to 24Mbps to deliver more detailed, sharper images with less noise. UXP mode is ideal for storing to Blu-ray or an external hard disk drive. All the recording modes for HD Everio models--UXP, XP, SP, and EP--use Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Further contributing to high quality video on all HD Everio models is Face Detection technology, which automatically detects faces within the image being recorded to accurately adjust focus and exposure for sharp, beautiful images.

Everio Features

All 2009 Everios--HD, G series and S series--make sharing and watching videos easier than ever. New for this year is the One Touch Export function that allows Everio videos to be imported into iTunes and loaded into an iPod or iPhone. All 2009 Everios also offer One Touch DVD burning and the One Touch Upload function that JVC introduced to users in 2008 as a new and convenient way to upload videos to YouTube.

To use any of the three functions, simply connect Everio to a PC using the supplied USB cable. Then, the user chooses one of three buttons on the Everio: UPLOAD, EXPORT, or DIRECT DVD (DIRECT DISC for HD Everio models). Pressing the button will launch the appropriate Windows PC application that comes bundled with Everio, and the user simply follows the simple on-screen prompts. With just a few mouse clicks the process of uploading to YouTube, exporting to iTunes, burning to disc or transferring to an external hard disk drive will be completed. For uploading to YouTube, the user can perform an in-camera edit of any length video to fit the 10-minute YouTube limit.

For disc based archiving, there is an alternative to using a PC. JVC offers the CU-VD50 Direct DVD Burner/Player as an option, which allows burning of Everio videos to a DVD disc without having to use a PC. When used with HD Everio, this solution can create AVCHD DVDs that are playable on many Blu-ray players.

The new Everio MediaBrowser software supplied with all Everio models is a Windows application providing an easy-to-search calendar-type graphical interface for indexing and finding video files. Thumbnail images of recorded videos and stills are superimposed on the calendar so it’s easy to see when any scene was recorded. The Everio MediaBrowser also allows easy playback, simple cut editing, and "Decomotion" to spruce up recorded footage with animated graphics for upload to YouTube. It also supports Export to iTunes, Upload to YouTube, burning to disc or transferring to HDD. The Everio MediaBrowser software supplied with HD Everio models supports burning to Blu-ray disc in addition to DVD.

Another new feature found on all Everio camcorders is Digest Playback, which offers an easy and entertaining way to check the content residing on Everio’s HDD or SD/SDHC card. The function automatically selects highlight scenes from among the recorded content using JVC’s proprietary algorithm and plays back what looks like a "coming attractions" trailer for a movie. Sixty minutes of footage is condensed into five minutes of highlight scenes.

Other Everio features have been enhanced for 2009. Laser Touch Operation has been updated to allow control of zooming and recording using either the Laser Touch scroll bar or buttons next to the LCD screen, as well as by the standard zoom lever and REC button. And as before, Laser Touch makes it easy to browse through thumbnail images of recorded scenes and access menu selection. Power-linked operation, long offered by JVC, goes a step further this year. Simply opening the LCD monitor automatically opens the built-in lens cover and powers up the camcorder. Closing the LCD also closes the lens cover and shuts down the power. With Quick Restart, recording can start in about one second after the LCD is re-opened.

In addition to performance and convenience, the 2009 Everio line offers plenty of style and shooting comfort. A new design features elegant curves, a silver-framed LCD and a comfortable angled grip with a new dual use strap. The strap can be used in the usual camcorder fashion, supporting the user’s hand when shooting, or it can be extended and used as a wrist strap like the type on most digital still cameras.

Product Description

JVC Everio GZ-HM200 HD Digital Camcorder
Enjoy your weekend outing with the JVC Everio GZ-HM200 HD Digital Camcorder by your side. This sophisticated camcorder shoots in full 1080p high-resolution, perfect for those crystal clear memories yo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Plug and play HD for this Mac user, June 3, 2009

By 

G. M. Arnold "Geoff, that is" (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black) (Electronics)

(What's this?)

It's been a number of years since I had a camcorder. It was a tape unit, and after the initial infatuation with the new toy, I found that I never used it. Recording was a chore (juggling tapes and batteries), uploading was tedious, and the quality wasn't all that good. For quick ad hoc recordings, my various digital still cameras could grab a few seconds of good-enough video. The camcorder disappeared from my life.

A few years later, things have really changed. I received the Everio GZ-HM200, snapped in a couple of 8GB SD cards, charged the battery, and I was ready to go. We took a day trip to Mount Rainier; the weather was perfect, and I took a lot of video of photogenic glaciers and waterfalls.

When I got home, I wanted to upload the video into my computer. The Everio comes with software for Windows PCs, and Mac users are hardly mentioned in the documentation. I had searched the various on-line discussions of Mac video, and there were many cautionary tales about compatibility issues with the Everios. I anticipated problems.

I was wrong. I connected the USB cable to my Mac Mini, started iMovie (part of iLife '09), and opened up the camcorder. The USB menu opened, and I chose the "Upload" option. iMovie detected the camera, asked me a few questions (video quality, destination, whether to check for stabilization issues), and then imported the video clips. It was trivially easy - just the way I like it.

The Everio has a "Snapshot" mode to take still images, and I had tried it out. This meant that while I was working with iMovie, iPhoto also started up and offered to import the photos I'd taken. My verdict: it's OK for casual 1x use, but no substitute for a real digital camera. The problem is that the Everio's autostabilization mode only works for video, not for still images. This meant that a couple of 20x zoomed images, while impressively magnified, were hopelessly blurred. I'll stick with my Panasonic DMC-TZ4 for the still shots.

The JVC Everio is a tremendous little camera: compact, easy, light, and producing excellent HD video. (Yes, my Mac Mini feels a little underpowered for working with this.) The dual slot SD card design is excellent; the camera will automatically switch from one card to the next during recording, and you can swap cards on the fly. In XP mode (17 Mbps VBR 1920x1080) 16GB is good for 2 hours of recording, which feels about right. (You can crank it up to 24 Mbps, which will give you 1 hr. 20 min., or drop down to 5Mbps, at which point you can run for over 7 hours!) No more media juggling.....

There are tons of additional features in this camera, and sometime I may try them out. But for the basic job of plug-and-play HD video, this is hard to beat.

Recomended.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tiny, easy to use and neat features, May 31, 2009

By 

~Z~ Amazon Verified Shopper (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black) (Electronics)

(What's this?)

Length:: 0:49 Mins

If I was able to give it a half of a star I would rate it as 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Let me start by saying I am not a techie kind of person, so I am writing this review as the average user. The JVC Everio GZ-HM200 is so small it fits in the palm of your hand. I currently own the Sony DCR-DVD305 1MP DVD Handycam Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom so I am use to tapping the LCD screen to select my options. This unit offers laser touch operation for easy menu selection and playback by using a touch sensor bar that runs vertically on the side of the LCD screen. I caught myself trying to still tap the LCD screen but after a little while of playing with it I broke myself from the habit. The dual SD memory cards is terrific idea. No more mini dvds to carry around. Recording automatically continues over the two SD cards so no need to be swapping the cards. You can even set to have your video recordings to go to one card and still images on another. I decided to use 8GB and a 4GB SD cards which will give me a total of approximately one and half hours of recording in XP (Avg. 17Mbps) mode. Powering up the camcorder could not be any easier - just open the LCD screen. The LCD screen is crystal clear and playback on the camera for review and deleting is controlled by a touch of one button. The LCD screen also rotates 360 degree. The camcorder takes BEAUTIFUL still images. Vivid colors and what impressed me the most is the perfect focusing of the images. The face detection is a great feature that can recognize up too 16 faces that adjusts the focus and exposure for sharper images. The zoom power is incredible and focuses automatically. Battery life is approximately 1.5 hours of continuous use. Check out the customer images to see how wonderful the images came out. Using the zoom in video recording was not so great. The stability of the video was shaky, but I was also on a rocking boat so it might work better on a tripod.

Now to the not so great functions. The Everio MediaBrowser software is so-so. The easy to search calendar is really neat but playback of videos is choppy and just terrible. I decided to use another program, Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus. With this program the video was not choppy and it was easier to preview and edit. For the next test I connected the camcorder via a IOGear Series 2000 Mini-HDMI to HDMI Cable, which is not supplied, to my HDTV and playback was perfect. Since I have a DVD recorder, I also dubbed the video to my DVD recorder and the video was clear and perfect with no jumping or skipping. JVC does offer a AVCHD recorder, JVC CU-VD50 Share Station DVD Burner for Everio Camcorders to burn and play your AVCHD discs but it is quite costly but it might make things easier.

I have inserted a video clip so you can see for yourself how the video comes out.
These are the steps I had to take to do it since you can only upload avi, flv, mov, mpg and wmv files on Amazon. The JVC Enverio saves in mts format.

1. Connect camcorder to PC
2. Choose export to Library
3. Open Enverio MediaBrowser and drag video file to export to iTunes.
4. Start Export, once complete open iTunes (50 second video took 13 minutes).
5. Now you can view it in your iTunes, but iTunes plays mp4 format so next step is to format the video to a savable/playable wmv format to upload on Amazon. Unless you have a program that changes mp4 to another format, this option is was quite useless for me unless I am viewing the videos on my iPod.

Now I attempted to change the format with my own program and this is all I had to do.
1. I opened my video editor program Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus [OLD VERSION]
2. Clicked on one button to convert video to wmv file format. It saved the file automatically (it took only 5 minutes to convert) and I was done and ready to upload on Amazon. So as you can see, using another video editor program makes things much easier and takes less time.

However, uploading to youtube is quite simple. You just need to set the camcorder to upload in the USB setting, open your youtube account and upload the video file directly from the drive your camcorder is connected from on your PC. Since youtube allows pretty much every kind of video format available, uploading the mts file was painless.

So as you can see, the Enverio MediaBrowser is somewhat useless and you are better off using another video editing program to convert and save your files to a format you can use easily.

Overall this camcorder is pretty neat, easy to use for video recording and still images. The small size of it makes it so convenient to carry and take with you anywhere. I purchased the JVC CB-V77U Soft Digital Camcorder Case (Black Blue) that was a perfect size to carry the camcorder and AC adapter. Just invest in a more user-friendly video editing conversion program.

Here are some additional links for items to consider:

More battery power-
1.5 hours - JVC BN-VF808US 730-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders
3 hours - JVC BN-VF815US 1460-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders
4.5 hours - JVC BN-VF823U 2190-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders

Battery charger car adapter-
JVC BN-VF808, BN-VF815, BN-VF823 - Replacement Battery Charger (Incl. Car and European Plug Adapters)

Battery charger kit-
JVC AA-VF8US Battery Charger for BN-VF8 Batteries

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Consumer Grade HD Camcorder - Recommended, June 3, 2009

By 

C. F. Hill "CFH" (Blue Ridge Summit, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: JVC Everio GZ-HM200 Dual SD High-Def Camcorder (Black) (Electronics)

(What's this?)

The JVC Everio GZ-HM200 is a very compact and feature rich HD Camcorder that performs well in most shooting conditions. I was very surprised by the small size and impressed with the range of options squeezed into the camera. This is a consumer grade camcorder, lacking some features that would appeal to the prosumer population. Here are my observations:

Pros -
* Great Video Image Quality - Especially in UXP and XP Modes (except in low light - see "Cons", below)
* Good Still Image Quality - Surprising good JPG pictures can be taken even while shooting video, but sometimes a little jittery
* Accurate Face Recognition - Helps keep people in focus (it was funny to see it recognize faces in paintings at a museum)
* Good Remote Control - Includes Remote Control, a very handy feature
* Very Small Size - The small size makes it easy to bring along as it can realistically be slipped into a pocket.
* Built in Light - Very bright light can be set to "auto" and can save some shoots that would otherwise be lost or unusable due to poor lighting
* Dual SDHC Card Support - The ability to save video to SDHC cards is great, coming from miniDV tapes this is a huge advantage since the footage doesn't have to be re-captured into the computer
* Quick Startup - The camera is ready to record almost instantly after opening the LCD display
* Good User Interface - The "Laser Touch" interface is simply cool and, more importantly, easy to use
* Easy Upload to YouTube - The "One Touch" upload works very well

Cons -
* Weak Image Stabilization - The digital Image Stabilization does make some difference, but the lack of mass of this small camera makes it harder to keep steady (especially at higher zoom levels)
* Poor Low Light Quality - Video and stills shot in low light are very noisy, the built in light helps to some degree
* Slow Auto Focus - Auto Focus can be sluggish when zooming
* Lack of Accessory Shoe - Can not use standard video accessories like external light or microphone
* Lack of Microphone Input Jack - No external microphone jack
* Weak Software - The included software for video and still images is ok for clip management, but not useful for any real editing or project use
* Lack of HDMI Cable - This was a huge surprise and disappointment. The camera has a mini HDMI port, but does not include a HDMI cable for connecting to HD equipment (does include composite video and audio cables)

I also picked up the following accessories (see my reviews) -
* 16gb SDHC Cards - Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
* Protective Lens Filter - Tiffen 30.5MM UV Protector Filter
* Longer Life Battery - JVC BN-VF815US 1460-mAh Rechargeable Data Battery for JVC MiniDV and Everio Camcorders
* HDMI Cable - Mediabridge - 5ft Mini-HDMI to HDMI - Version 1.3b Category 2 - 1080p - Blu-Ray

Overall, the pros outweigh the cons with this excellent camcorder and the small size makes it really convenient to take anywhere.

Recommended!

CFH

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