JVC GRDV3000U MiniDV Digital Cybercam with 3.5" LCD, 16 MB SD Memory Card & High Res Color Viewfinder

by JVC

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: This item can only be shipped to the 48 contiguous states. We regret it cannot be shipped to APO/FPO, Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico.
• ASIN: B0000669B9
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,871 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 30, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The JVC GR-DV3000U is a top-flight digital camcorder, and is one of the first with the ability to capture 2-megapixel still images. Plus, it's chock-full of enough features to satisfy just about any amateur videographer, including a 10x optical zoom, 3.5-inch LCD, and manual focus ring.

Lens
JVC put a 10x optical zoom into the GR-DV3000U, which is a good compromise of image quality and zoom power, and should be more than adequate for just about any situation. The digital zoom pumps up the total magnification to 300x, but we recommend using as low a level of digital zoom as you need, as a zoom erodes image quality, particularly at high levels.

Digital Stills
We were pleasantly surprised by the digital still capabilities of the GR-DV3000U. Many camcorders these days come with some digital still mode, some with a 1-megapixel resolution. The DV3000 surpasses all of them with the capability of recording 1,600 x 1,200 stills, which is 2-megapixel resolution. Admittedly, the stills are interpolated up--the camcorder is equipped with a 1.33-megapixel CCD--but that doesn't take much of the luster from the achievement.

Inputs and Outputs
The DV3000U also features a fair number of inputs and outputs, meant to satisfy most consumers. You get the standard IEEE 1394 port, plus S-video analog inputs and outputs for converting all your old footage to digital, or dubbing your footage to cassette.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice camcorder, December 6, 2002

By 

"rogersreview" (HANOVER PARK, IL. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC GRDV3000U MiniDV Digital Cybercam with 3.5" LCD, 16 MB SD Memory Card & High Res Color Viewfinder (Electronics)

I purchased this camera not to long ago so I'm still new to it. Video is pretty good and adjusts to light well. Optical zoom (10x) is nice, but digital does degrade video as with all cameras. I'm happy with still pictures and found out I had set resolution to the third highest level. I will be even happier to see the ones I take on highest level. I bought a few extra memory cards so I can continue taking pictures. 16mb that comes with camera is nice to begin with, but some space is taken up with special effects (sounds). As with most cameras, I'll be checking into extra battery. S-video in and out can be a nice feature seeing I'll be putting home video onto dvd or cvd. Viewer screen is nice size for reviewing and showing pictures or video. Loaded with features that I haven't had a chance to use yet, and you can put camera into total manual and manual focus for videoing far away with other things moving in front where autofocus would be trying to compensate. Onscreen controls are easy to use. DV port to sony laptop took some time to get to work, but heard of alot of people having problems with this with other cameras and computers. Happy so far.

5.0 out of 5 stars Still A Great SD Camcorder, July 17, 2011

By 

Charles - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC GRDV3000U MiniDV Digital Cybercam with 3.5" LCD, 16 MB SD Memory Card & High Res Color Viewfinder (Electronics)

I finally went HD last year, but my old JVC workhorse is hard to let go of, and I still have it. It's a great wedding cam with its 1-lux low light rating. I pretty much never had to use gain for anything ever. I have shots of the moon and stars with no gain that are breathtaking. No, it doesn't have optical image stabilization, but by the time this cam came out, electronic stabilization had gotten just as good. The only flaw this cam has (and every cam seems to have at least a couple of things it could do better) is that the auto-focus could be a bit quicker in a run & gun situation. I have gotten some vignetting on really sharp edges such as guitar strings, but that's fairly common with SD interlaced cams. Overall the images this things shoots are incredible. It also mimics film quite well in digital wide mode. It's a very sturdy model too. I've never dropped mine, but I get the feeling it would take quite a fall to break this thing. It doesn't have XLR inputs, but when this cam came out, those were only found on cams costing $3,000 and up. The internal stereo mic is quite good though, especially outdoors. That's one of the reasons I've kept the cam so long. I've used it to record nature sounds for my sound collection for several years. It does a better job than any of my other mics, and I've been doing sound engineering work since the 80s. At the prices these cams go for on the used market, a guy could do a whole lot worse than a JVC GR DV-3000.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars cruise ships, December 21, 2008

By 

Hun "Jozsef" (Jax. NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC GRDV3000U MiniDV Digital Cybercam with 3.5" LCD, 16 MB SD Memory Card & High Res Color Viewfinder (Electronics)

Camera will not work for extended time when going from air conditioned area to high humidity (as on ships deck in the Carib.) Tape gets stuck quite a bit and gets frustrating also! (I assume same reason) Great filming otherwise.