Camcorder Review - JVC Everio G Camcorder Review
JVC GZ-MG680 Camcorder Review
The JVC GZ-MG680 is Perfect for Families and Kids - Great for Internet Video and Capturing video clips for posting to YouTube
by Mark Shapiro
October 11, 2009
The JVC GZ-MG680 is an affordable and very compact camcorder that allows you to record video or still images to either a 120 GB hard drive or a micro SD flash card. Even though this JVC Everio camcorder is tiny, about the size of my fist, it captures good looking video and provides a nice set of features including manual optical and digital zoom options, several manual overrides, built in light, and software that makes it easy to transfer your captured videos and images to your computer, burn to a DVD or to transfer to an online video hosting site like YouTube.
 | The JVC GZ-MG680 Everio Digital Camcorder is an excellent choice for family and travel video. Simple to operate, small and compact enough to carry in a pocket or purse, this camcorder can capture up to 28 hours of video and/or 9999 high resolution digital still images. It makes it easy to transfer your captured video and still images to your computer or to a DVD. It also makes it simple to do basic video cutting and then to upload your video clips to your YouTube account. However, this is not a professional camcorder. There is no input jack to enable you to use an external microphone and the use of an internal battery limits how long you can shoot at one session. Also, the use of JVC's mod file format complicates editing. The JVC GZ-MG680 is Perfect for Families and Kids - Great for Internet Video and capturing video clips for posting to YouTube |
The Windows bundled software that makes make it easy to watch videos on your iPod or to an iPhone by exporting videos to the user’s iTunes® library with the new One Touch Export function. The One Touch Upload function also makes it easy to upload to YouTube. Finally, you also get a One Touch DVD Creation function to author and burn DVD copies of your videos. If you are working on an Apple machine, connecting the camcorder to your Mac via USB enables it to appear as an external drive.
Even though the GZ-MG680 is not a HD camcorder and only captures SD quality video, it offers an integrated HD up conversion (1920 x 1080p) capability that takes the camcorders' standard definition video recording and then converts it, allowing a HDMI connection for HD televisions. Using the standard video and audio cables, I watched the video back on a regular definition TV and it looked fine. I did notice some video compression artifacts on a busy backgrounds but nothing that would be overly objectionable. The audio captured with the internal mike sounded clear.
The 120 GB hard drive provides a lot of space. When recording at the camcorders highest resolution, you can capture and store over 28 HOURS of video. That’s a lot of video! If you choose to record at a lower quality level, you can double or triple that. Amazing. The choice of recording to hard drive or flash card provides some extra flexibility for video storage and for those traveling with a camcorder.
In addition to capturing a lot of video, you can capture up to 9999 high resolution still images (832 x 624).
The JVC GZ-680 camcorder is very easy to use, and offers some very cool features for the home video maker and video hobbyist. Power on is simply opening up the camcorder’s flip out view screen. Within seconds, the camera is ready to record. Closing the viewfinder turns the power off.
The battery is built in to the camcorder. This is both good and bad. It makes it hard to lose the battery but at the same time, once the battery is drained you cannot switch it out for a new fully charged battery. As the battery is built in, this means you need to connect the power supply directly to the camcorder to charge up the camcorder battery
The JVC HZ-680 also includes what they call “Laser Touch Operation” on the fold out viewfinder. When setting up and operating the camcorder, including zooming, you can use the “laser touch” feature which means the camcorder senses your fingers and you barely touch the camcorder at all. This could useful when shooting at very extremely zoom ratios and you want to avoid any camcorder vibration. It took me to understand how to use it smoothly but my kids had it figured out within a moment.
Zoom is very nice. Smooth and variable speed. You can adjust it to various zoom rations. Pure optical goes up to 35x. Looks great. “Dynamic” goes up to 40x. You can defiantly see the digitizing taking place between 35x optical and 40x “dynamic”. You can also use expand the digital zoom to 80x and to 800x.
There is not a lot of choice on color. This model comes in black. However, I was very impressed with the new “dual use” strap design. 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.
Problems With Editing
Unfortunately, like all of JVC's Everio camcorders, this camcorder captures video using JVC's proprietary MOD format 720 x 480p resolution with approximately 30fps frame rate and 4800Kbps bit rate. You might experience some issues editing these videos depending on which video editing software you are using. After transferring the files from the camcorder's hard drive to yours, one work around is to simply replace the dot MOD file extension with jpg and/or avi. That might work. Another option is change .mod to .mpg, then use the winavi program to convert to which format you need. You may need to do a goggle search on mod files to get an answer that works for you.
Watch this YouTube video on how to edit JVC mod files
You may also want to check out Mod Converter - ii can convert MOD to all popular video and audio formats: MPG, MPEG, MPEG2, VOB, MP4, M4V, RM, RMVB, WMV, ASF, QT, TS, MKV, AVI, 3GP, FLV, MPV, MOD, TOD, MP3, MP2, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA, M4A, etc. with fastest conversion speed and excellent image/sound quality.
Finally, the newer versions of Adobe Premiere Elements will enable you to import and edit MOD files. As I don't like switching from one software package to another, this is how I would do it. The more times you convert a file format, the more noise and artifacts you will end up with. Plus, we really, really like Adobe Premiere Elements. |
Another option is VideoPad from NCH Software. You can download and try out the software for free. I was able to open and do basic editing of MOD files from
the JVC Everio. Get it hereMore info about the JVC Everio Software
To share your videos, the first step is to connect the camcorder to a PC using the supplied USB cable. Then, the user chooses one of three buttons on the Everio: UPLOAD, EXPORT, or DIRECT DVD. 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.
The new included Everio MediaBrowser software is a Windows application that provides 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.
Another cool feature is Digest Playback, which offers an easy and entertaining way to check the content residing on the JVC GZ-MG680’s hard drive or flash 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.
MORE CAMCORDER REVIEWS
CAMCORDER Buyers Guide How to Buy a Camcorder
Special Deals & Rebates on Camcorders
What Accessories do You Really Need to Buy for Your Camcorder?