GREAT PRICE, GREAT SOUND, USED IT TO DEATH, LOVE IT!!!
Written: Jul 15 '04
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Pros: Cheap
Lightweigt
tiny
sound quality excellent
picture quality very good
huge feature set for price
Cons: treat it with tenderness
don't expect pro feel or picture
b/w viewfinder
no remote
The Bottom Line: Buy it price, love the SOUND and picture quality, be gentle with tape drive, read manual, lots of features!
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| krisgay's Full Review: JVC Cybercam GR-D30 Mini DV Digital Camcorder |
I don't know about anyone else's experience with this camera, but I paid $299 for it through some shopping channel. I bought it because it was rated well for sound and was very small.
I have used and abused this thing to no end and it works great. I am careful, however, to give the camera enough time to eject or retract the tape when I need to do that. It specifically says in the manual that you MUST give the camera time to complete these functions or you will basically damage the unit. Those reviews that gripe about this were fairly recent purchases. I bet they didn't read the manual!!! Also, I would suggest spending $20-40 on a mini DV tape rewinder to save wear and tear on the heads. Worth it in the long run and I should probably invest in one of these myself. Up to this point, I have not used one but I know I should.
I have put probably 30 full length videotapes through this camera since January of 2004 (five months). I am a music teacher and I videotape my students' performances as well as my home videos with this camera. Sometimes I shoot five minutes at a time, sometimes a full hour. I never have had an ounce of trouble from this camera...
The sound pick up is incredible!!! Low light performance is not good with "night mode" and as one reviewer said, go to manual exposure and brighten it up a few notches that way instead. If it's truly night out and not just dusk, forget it. But hey, this thing was $299- what more can you expect? Picture quality is good and a huge improvement over $229-269 VHS-C cams. I have also dumped the digital video to our PC to make DVD's with Ulead's video software version 8 (which I highly recommend due to stupidly easy interface- www.ulead.com and it's only $99).
Love it, love it, love it. But read the manual and be patient when loading/unloading tapes so you don't damage the mechanism inside the camera. Listen until you hear it stop "whirring" then you're good to go.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
Recommended for: Budget Buyers - Best Values to Fit the Budget
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Epinions.com ID:
krisgay
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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