Is the JVC GZ-HD7 a good camera/buy?

aingalls

aingalls

I've been researching cameras for days and have come across the JVC GZ-HD7. This camera seems to be the most professional consumer camera I've ever seen. I found it on SonicCameras.com for about $500 (w/o battery btw).

I currently record live events such as Birthday Parties, Weddings, and Music Concerts (in a variety of venue sizes) and use a Sony DVD Handycam. I would love to get a prosumer or professional-level cam, but I just can't justify the cost of higher quality cameras.

Features I'm interested in are mic/audio in, headphone/audio out, manual/auto focus, tapeless recording format and most importantly timecode capabilities.

This camera does have an external mic input, and SonicCameras.com says it has headphone out and timecode capabilities, but I have been unable to confirm this.

Does anyone have any experience with this camera? Can anyone confirm it does indeed have timecode capabilities and real-time audio monitoring via headphones?
 
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I own that camera. I really like it. It has both a mic and headphone jack
and an excellent Fujinon lens withan actual focus ring. It records directly
to a built in 60GB hard drive. The issue here is the MPEG-2 compression
(TOD). It’s not compatable with many NLE’s so you’ll need to convert the
TOD to QuickTime or AVI.

Before you buy from Sonic go to Google and type in the company name.
Read some of the things said about that company. Also use resellerratings.com.
 
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Thanks for the head's up. I won't be buying from SonicCameras.com, but I do still think this is the camera I am going to get. I'm actually going to be getting a pair of them.

However, timecode is something that is very important to me in filming music oriented live events and music videos.

Can anyone confirm or deny this camera has timecode capabilities?
 
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directorik said:
I own that camera. I really like it. It has both a mic and headphone jack
and an excellent Fujinon lens withan actual focus ring. It records directly
to a built in 60GB hard drive. The issue here is the MPEG-2 compression
(TOD). It’s not compatable with many NLE’s so you’ll need to convert the
TOD to QuickTime or AVI.

Before you buy from Sonic go to Google and type in the company name.
Read some of the things said about that company. Also use resellerratings.com.
Click to expand...

how exactly do you go about converting the footage if you wanted to use it in final cut pro? when you connect the camera to your computer does the hard drive come up on the desktop like any other external hard drive would or something like that?

thanks
 
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Yes, the camera shows up as a USB-Drive with a folder with all the different takes saved as .TOD. Last year I shot a short film with this camera and I must say: It's a really good camera!
The editing in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 didn't really pose an issue. I just renamed all the files via batch renaming from .TOD to .m2ts and installed ffdshow tryouts for Windows. The I installed an ac3-decoder/codec und an mpeg2-decoder on my system.
After that I could just drag'n'drop the files right into Premiere without having to reencode them to any other format.
 
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Buy from a reputable dealer, when you see someone selling too cheap, it's too good to be true. This is especially true for camcorders, for some reason.
 
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JVC GZ-HD7 or Canon GL1

I'm considering this camera or the Canon GL1. I keep going back and forth on the High Def question. With more people going HD, should I be worrying about this yet.

I am looking at shooting a few shorts, maybe working up to a feature length. They are priced similarly. Both lightly used (under 10 hours on either one).
 
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In my experience from the desire to make a feature to the
first day of shooting can be several years.

When you shoot the feature you will be better served by
finding a director of photography with their own, higher end
gear. And HD is better for a feature.

But for the next couple of years, while you are shooting your
short films the HD7 or the GL1 will be excellent choices. Even
if you're only making shorts for the next 6 months and your
feature is financed and ready for production in October of this
year either of those cameras will be an excellent investment
in you career.
 
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