A little over a week ago we decided it was time to get a new camcorder (our old 1st generation MiniDV was finally giving up the ghost), so after quite a bit of research, I decided to be a mushroom eater again (i.e. on the bleeding edge) and try out one of the new Hard Disk-based camcorders. JVC is the only major manufacturer that has brought a line of HDD camcorders to market, so I researched their Everio line, and finally settled on the MG-50.

The specs were nice: 30GB HDD (7.5 hours of recording at the highest bitrate, 8.5mbps, 384kbps audio), a F1.2 lens for bright images, built in light, 1.33 megapixel CCD, etc. The only difference between the ’50 and it’s big brother the MG-70 was a 2.1 megapixel CCD and a flash on the ’70. However, the ’70 was also slightly larger (width), and had a F1.8 lens. As luck would have it, Circuit City only carried the ’70 in stock, so I ended up ordering the ’50 on-line, and it arrived a couple days later.

And now, about a week after having it, I returned it to my local Circuit City. Here’s the review I posted on their website:

Hard drive based camcorders are on the way, and I have no doubt that in 12-18 months they’ll be prevalent and very functional. But this one is not yet ready for prime time.

While the convenience of being able to pick up and shoot without worrying about tape, and the ability to throw away bad shots and reclaim the space on the run are both great features, the other shortcomings of this product caused me to return it and stick with MiniDV.

Unfortunately, the software included with the camera for editing on your computer is not at all integrated with the camera itself. You must mount the camera as a hard drive on your computer and manually locate and copy the clips off of it to your computer’s hard disk. The files are named in a very arcane way, several folders deep, and is not at all intuitive. And after copying, if you delete the file via your computer’s interface, the camera will gripe that things are corrupted and you must rebuild. Very clunky. The editing software needs to recognize the camera and assist the user in retrieving and managing the clips. Also, if you want to edit the clips in another editing package (say iMovie or Final Cut Pro on the Mac), you have to transcode the MPEG-2 files into DV stream, again a very clunky process that is also very slow. By the time you copy all the movie files off of the camera and transcode them so you can actually edit them, it’s taken as long as importing them from tape would with a standard MiniDV camera. I understand the necessity to record on the camera in MPEG-2, but the retrieval and transcoding process should be automatic.

On top of these shortcomings, the image quality was the reason I returned the camera. It was truly disappointing. I specifically purchased the MG50 over the MG70 because it included the F1.2 lens, which is touted on JVC’s website as being better performing in low light situations, but even in standard bright house lighting, the images were unacceptably dim. I’d hate to see how the more expensive MG70 would perform! On top of that, the image was very, very grainy, and I was utilizing the highest bitrate setting. I disabled the hi gain setting and the image cleared up slightly, but was still poor, along the quality level of VHS, not even DV, much less DVD quality as JVC purports.

The size and weight of the camera are very nice, but the industrial design needs a little work. The T/W slider is awkwardly placed, and the record button had so little give when you press it that you can physically tell if you’ve pressed it or not. The built-in light did absolutely nothing to increase brightness or contrast of the captured image, and seemed little than an feature thrown in so that marketing could add a bullet point to the sales literature.

I wanted to like this little camera, I really did. But after a week, I just couldn’t justify the high-end price over a 3-chip MiniDV camera for 60% the price.

Although it took talking to the manger, I was able to get them to waive the 15% restocking fee for opening the thing.

I definitely think that HDD-based camcorders will be the thing in the next couple of years, but it’ll take a little time for the vendors to get the kinks ironed out. The integration with the software delivered was non-existant. The image quality was completely unacceptable in a camera of this price range. The battery life was dismal–I didn’t even mention that in my review, but 50-60 minutes and no external charger? Come on. While JVC makes a 3 hour battery, it almost doubles the weight of the camera not to mention it sticks out an inch and a half from the back and costs over $130. Plus, JVC has made their batteries “smart”, which means you can’t buy off-brand, at least not without voiding your warranty.

I selected a Panasonic 3CCD MiniDV camcorder (PV-GS150) in it’s place (at about 60% the cost). While I really wanted to go tapeless, the whole DVD-R camcorder thing is bogus, and there’s not much else out there. I really didn’t want to go prosumer or pro, as I just wanted a small camcorder to tote around DisneyWorld. We’ll see how this one works out.