JVC GR-DVL505U Digital Camcorder

by JVC

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TG56
• Item model number: GRDVL505U
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,265 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best value for your money, September 15, 2000

By 

Wayne - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC GR-DVL505U Digital Camcorder (Electronics)

Recently purchased this after a month of research on it and other camcorders. The good things about this camcorder are this: 1) Unlike other camcorders that bombard you with numerous buttons placed about for you to awkardly control, JVC has devised a centralized control system, where that 90 % of what you do with the camera is done by the On/off/PLay Switch, Menu button and the Zoom, which is nicely put in a localized area that your right hand can operate with no problems. 2) The image and sound quality is exceptional. VHS,VHS-C, hi-8, cant compare to the quality of this DV Cam. 3) At 1.2lbs.( give or take a oz.), this camera is very light and easy to handle. Sony D8's are all about twice as heavy as this cam, good excercise tho. 4) Good bit of editing tools, such as Fade effects, video effects, etc. could use a tad bit more tho in this area, but suspect, its a good arrangement of editing features for the avg. consumer. Lots of manual configurations you can set too also. 5) Zoom is good, after about 20 X(10 X opitical + 10 X digital) image suffers dramatically. But very nice below this, may suggest buying a telephoto converter that will increase your optical zoom by 2 X if you are serious bout your photography. By the way, can zoom in and out on things while playing back tapes or looking at pics 6) Digital camera side of this camera is good, takes very good pics outside, inside, better be sure you got plenty of light or it will come out a bit grainy..Suggest using Photo Software to edit pics. But I'd say the digital camera part of this beats out any digital camera in the $200-300 range, and if it had a flash.. man, what it could do indoors. Definitely a great web cam. One drawback to this camera is the included battery which only lasts about 35 min. if you use LCD screen and zoom a lot. So plan on buying an additional battery. On the plus side, it only takes 1.5 hours to charge the battery. And you can get 50-55 minutes if you only use the viewfinder, but, you will soon find out how hard it is to use the viewfinder as opposed to the LCD. If you got any questions about this cam, feel free to email me. And I can also help you save big money on this product to, if your interested. Take care

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good value, some drawbacks, December 6, 2000

By 

Mike Neff (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JVC GR-DVL505U Digital Camcorder (Electronics)

I like the size and manueverability of this camera. I agree with the other reviews on the battery life, but you can get extended life batteries (somewhat costly). I recommend at least one extra battery. The video and sound are excellent, but I have not figured out the best way to brighten the picture for various lighting conditions - indoors the colors seem washed out. The drawbacks to this camera: The REC/Pause button does not stick out far enough from the camera, and often requires some gymnastics to pause without moving the camera, resulting in a jerky end to the recording session. Also, to attach/detach to a viewing mechanism such as a VCR or TV requires a lot of plugging/unplugging, particularly if you use the AC adapter (recommended to preserve battery life). You must remove the battery from the camera, and attach the adapter to a spot under the battery, then attach the S-video cable. For some reason, you cannot charge the battery while the AC adapter cord is plugged in (the charger and adapter are one and the same), so after you are done viewing, you must unplug everything including the cable from the adapter to charge the battery. I hope JVC will do something about this to allow charging with the battery left in the camera, and while using the AC adaptor.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Software will not work under Windows 2000 Pro, January 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: JVC GR-DVL505U Digital Camcorder (Electronics)

Camera seemed to be pretty good, but the included software will NOT run under Windows 2000. So if you think you are going to get your images on to your pc, think again. Otherwise I would have rated 4 or 5 stars.

The following is from an email JVC sent to me:

"Dear valued customer,

This is in response to the e-mail you sent to our Technical Support team here at JVC Canada Inc.

At this time there are no drivers available to make these software programs compatible with Windows NT or Windows 2000.

Thank you for choosing JVC products.

Sincerely, JVC Canada Inc, Technical Support Team"