Performance

The JVC GZ-MG330 has a lot in common JVC's other entry-level standard definition camcorders. The sensor is a 1/6-inch CCD with a gross pixel count of 680,000. The effective pixel count is not listed, but it's a fair bet that it's also around 340,000. The lens has a 2.2mm - 77mm focal length and an aperture range of f/1.8 - f/4.0. It records video in the standard definition MPEG-2 format. For all intents and purposes, it is very much the same as what you'll find inside JVC's SD/SDHC card-only camcorder, the GZ-MS100.

Unsurprisingly, the video performance is very similar as well.  With specs like that, these camcorders are fine for uploading quick and dirty video to YouTube, but the low quality becomes evident when you're viewing footage on a big screen TV or making DVDs for your friends. Of course, this is what we've come to expect from inexpensive standard definition camcorders. So, what really matters is how the MG330 stacks up to the competition.

We started testing by shooting our DSC Labs Chroma DuMonde color chart at an even 3000 lux to simulate bright lighting conditions. We then examine the results on a full size monitor and compare this footage to the same testing results from similar camcorders. Under these more or less ideal conditions, the GZ-MG330 looked decent. The first thing you notice is the high color saturation. The greens, in particular, are very saturated. This is a common phenomenon in consumer camcorders these days, as people don't necessarily want accuracy as much as they want their grass to look green and their sky to look blue.

The fine details are, in fact, better than last year's JVC GZ-MG130 and it looks a little better than the standard def hard drive offering from Sony—the DCR-SR85. It doesn't quite match the apparent sharpness of the Canon FS100 or the Samsung SC-MX20. The oversaturation of the MG330 is about the same as what we saw on the standard definition Canon models, while the Sony and Samsung camcorders are more natural and muted. To the eye, we preferred the color of the Sony DCR-SR85, but it was much noisier and full of compression errors.

For clarity of image, the JVC performs admirably. It won't give you the sharpness of the Canon FS100, but there's remarkably little noise. The Samsung SC-MX20 has incredible sharpness, but also had a bit of trouble with compression artifacting (the chunky blocks of discoloration that appear at the edges of shapes).

Out of the lab, the GZ-MG330 performed well in most circumstances. Automatic adjustments weren't always up to the challenge of producing the best results (see Automatic Controls), but the manual controls worked well and made up for the deficiencies. Manual white balance, though not particularly intuitive to use, was critical in obtaining accurate colors in any kind of indoor lighting.

In a variety of bright indoor and outdoor settings, the camcorder produced good video for its price range. The compression artifacting was hard to miss and there was some purple fringing around bright white areas, but overall performance was good. After all, every standard definition camcorder we review looks sloppy compared to the more expensive high definition models that comes through our labs.

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Video Resolution*** (3.66)*

To test video resolution, we shoot a DSC Labs resolution chart at an even, bright light, then play the footage on an external monitor. Resolution is measured in line widths per picture height (lw/ph). The JVC GZ-MG330 produced a maximum horizontal resolution of about 325 lw/ph and a vertical resolution of about 225 lw/ph. This is the same resolution we saw on the JVC GZ-MS100 and is slightly below average for a camcorder in this price range. The Sony DCR-SR85, in particular, proved to have good resolution: 350 lw/ph horizontal and 300 lw/ph vertical.

**

Low Light Performance*** (4.35)*

As with all camcorders that come through our labs, the JVC GZ-MG330 underwent a three-stage barrage of low light testing. For stage one, we shot the DSC Labs Chroma DuMonde chart at an even 60 lux and 15 lux. We compared that footage to the video shot under the same conditions by similar camcorders.

At 60 lux, the GZ-MG330 performed surprisingly well. The camcorder retained a considerable amount of fine detail in areas of both high and low contrast. Colors look strong and accurate overall, despite some slight over saturation in the greens and blues. The GZ-MG330 is another poster child for JVC's much touted noise reduction systems—there is a pattern of graininess, but it's more subtle than what we've come to expect from other standard definition camcorders.

Compared to other camcorders in its class, the JVC GZ-MG330 gives an impressive performance in low light. Its biggest deficiency is in sharpness, where it appears to preserve a bit less detail than most of the competition. The Sony DCR-SR85, Samsung SC-MX20, and Canon FS100 all produce images that look sharper. The MG330, however, has a brighter overall image and bolder colors than any comparable camcorder. There's one downside to this brightness and bold saturation: the colors are sometimes oversaturated and less accurate than the competition. Some colors blend together or don't come out quite right. The Panasonic SDR-H60 is the one camcorder that seems to report the most accurate colors—purple actually appears purple, even at 60 lux.

Where this JVC excels the most is in producing a clear image. Large solid areas appear to have less noise than, for instance, the Sony DCR-SR85 or Panasonic SDR-H60. You also don't see the sort of compression errors that we found at the edges of some details in the Samsung SC-MX20. And you certainly don't have the huge patches of discoloration that plagued the Canon FS100. Part of this clarity may be a result of JVC's noise reduction system, but it's likely that some of the noise is smoothed over by the lack of sharpness.

 

It's also worth mentioning that JVC uses an automatic gain control feature (AGC) that can actually be turned on and off. You don't have any control over the gain level, but you can choose whether or not to allow the camcorder to increase the gain automatically. Most camcorders have the same kind of internal processing (improving low light performance by boosting gain), but they don't allow you to turn this feature on and off.

Since most camcorders boost gain in low light and since the factory default is to keep AGC turned on, we shot all of our low light testing with AGC turned on. We recommend you do the same. AGC increases noise slightly, but the JVC has a fairly clear image regardless. Without AGC, the image is just too dark to be useful.

The JVC GZ-MG330 also offers shutter speed control, but when we dropped the shutter down to 1/30th, the colors were even more grossly saturated and the slightest movement resulted in significant blurring.

None but the highest-end camcorders produce particularly good video at 15 lux. The JVC GZ-MG330 is no exception. The image is dark, has lost a lot of fine detail, and is oversaturated in some areas and undersaturated in others.

Compared to the competition, however, the MG330 is a standout. Thanks to the AGC, the image is actually quite bright—brighter than the comparable models from Sony, Canon, Panasonic, and Samsung. But it's also relatively noise-free. There's surprising clarity for an inexpensive, standard definition camcorder recording at just 15 lux. The Sony and Canon still look sharper, but sharpness won't do you much good if you can't see your subject.

With the AGC turned off at 15 lux, the image is almost black.

For stage two of our low light testing, we shoot an X-Rite Color Checker chart at an even 60 lux, then export frame grabs to Imatest imaging software. The Imatest analysis determines color accuracy, noise, and saturation. The color error was a disappointing 15.7—no doubt a product of the camcorder's tendency to oversaturate certain hues in the low light. While this result isn't as good as the JVC GZ-MS100's impressive 8.08, it is about average for camcorders in its class. (The Canon FS100's 13.2 is better, but not by much.)

The noise is a fairly low 1.11%, confirming what we saw with the naked eye: the MG330 produces a clearer image than camcorders from other manufacturers. Models from all four competitors performed with about 1.5% noise or higher. The JVC also has a much higher saturation than the competition; most standard definition camcorders produce approximately 60% saturation, but the JVC GZ-MG330 had 99.08% saturation. It's probably the result of that overactive auto gain and this accounts for some of the trouble with color accuracy, but most people will appreciate the final product.

The final stage of low light testing measures sensitivity. We shoot the DSC Labs Chroma DuMonde chart at a slow, steadily decreasing light while watching the camcorder's output on a waveform monitor. The GZ-MG330 was able to produce 50 IRE at a minimum light level of 13 lux. The Canon FS100 and the Samsung SC-MX20 had about the same sensitivity, while the Sony DCR-SR85 and the Panasonic SDR-H60 had significantly worse results.

Overall, JVC seems to be leading the competition in low light performance this year—as far as traditional standard definition consumer camcorders are concerned. Both the JVC GZ-MS100 and the JVC GZ-MG330 produced bright, colorful video in low light conditions. The nearest competitor was probably the Canon FS100 and its sister models, which proved to have good results overall, but were plagued by loud blocks of noise discoloration. It's also worth noting that one of the best low light performers this year was actually the Pure Digital Flip Mino, an ultra-compact YouTube camcorder that had surprisingly bright and colorful low light performance. The overall video quality of the Mino can't match the MG330, but if you're looking for an inexpensive camcorder for chronicling your nightlife, the Flip might be a better choice.

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Stabilization*** (3.55)*

The GZ-MG330 is equipped with Digital Image Stabilization (DIS)—the same type of system employed by JVC on the GZ-MS100. DIS stabilizes footage by creating a digital buffer around the frame while recording. This stabilization method is less expensive to implement than Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), but it sacrifices resolution along the surrounding borders of the image. DIS is not as effective as OIS, which physically isolates the lens element from the body of the camcorder.

We tested the GZ-MG330's DIS system using our custom-built shake emulator. Speed One simulates typical handheld shake, while Speed Two is more akin to a bumpy car ride. The MG330 displayed a low 60% shake reduction at Speed One and virtually no shake reduction at Speed Two. These are very different results from the GZ-MS100—perhaps because the added bulk of the hard drive on the MG330 reduced overall shake with or without DIS turned on. Even so, the DIS does have some effect; vertical movement was considerably reduced and even at Speed Two the image looked clearer, if not more stable.

By comparison, the Sony DCR-SR85 had impressive stabilization results—Sony seems like the go-to brand if you're particularly worried about shaky hands or bumpy car rides.

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Wide Angle*** (11.2)*

We tested the GZ-MG330's maximum wide angle measurement using a vertical laser at both left and right angles. As always, the zoom was pulled back to the widest setting and DIS was disabled. Interpreting the footage on an external monitor,we found the MG330's maximum wide angle measurement to be 56 degrees. This is higher than most of the competition, which usually measure out to about 48 degrees.

 

Format

Compression* (4.0)*

The JVC GZ-MG330 records standard definition video in the MPEG-2 format—the same format you'll find on a whole lot of DVD, hard disk drive, or flash memory camcorders today. The chart below (see Media) will show you recording times; it's clear that MPEG-2 isn't a very efficient compression. A lot of storage space is taken up for only a little recording time.

The main competitor in the standard definition market is MiniDV (the format used for tape-based camcorders of the same name). In terms of image quality, MPEG-2 typically shows more compression artifacts than MiniDV. Compression artifacting most often comes in the form of blocky bits of color that appear in areas where you'd expect to see a uniform or smooth pallet. The JVC isn't the worst offender in compression artifacting, but it does show its fair share. (See Video Performance.)

There are four different bitrates on the JVC GZ-MG330, each one corresponding to a different quality setting. The highest setting, Ultra Fine, records at 8.5 Mbps. Below that is Fine (5.5 Mbps) and Normal (4.2 Mbps). All three of these settings output 720 x 480 images. The fourth setting, Economy, records 352 x 240 at 1.5 Mbps—a very poor quality setting, indeed. We recommend you record in the highest quality whenever possible, then reduce the size and quality with editing software. You never know when hindsight will yearn for the highest quality recording.

**Media*** (6.0)*

The JVC GZ-MG330 records video to the 30GB internal hard drive or removable microSD/SDHC memory cards. Most camcorders employ the standard SD/SDHC card size, but you'll find that microSD is also easy to find online or in your friendly neighborhood megamart. (You can also support local businesses by purchasing memory at the camera shop down the street.) 30GB is a good size hard drive, so we doubt you'll need to spill over onto the memory card due to space constraints. But you can copy files onto the memory card for backing up and/or transferring files and it can be a convenient way to hand off some pictures or videos to a friend. In the end, we recommend you do your backing up directly onto your computer. If you're going on a long vacation and don't want to lug around a computer, bring those microSD cards to save copies of your footage as you go.

Just remember that hard drives aren't as shock-resistant as solid state memory (like memory cards or internal flash memory), so get a nice cushy camera bag and don't let your kids drop it down the stairs like a slinky. What you gain in storage size you sacrifice in slightly increased fragility.

The chart below gives you approximate recording times based on capacity:

 

Editing* (5.0)*

The JVC GZ-MG330 ships with several different software programs, all compatible only with the Windows operating system. Using this software makes it relatively easy to pull files off your camcorder and make simple edits on a PC. If you are a Mac owner, the process can be more complicated. iMovie will sometimes work without trouble, but we're usually reduced to using a plug-in with QuickTime in order to work with the files. (This plug-in was inexpensive, but not free!) The trouble with the MPEG-2 footage on the MG330 is the same trouble you'll have with many camcorders: footage is output as separate audio and video files. You won't be able to plug in your camcorder and treat it like a hard drive, pulling the data off willy-nilly.

Simple point-and-shoot, standard definition camcorders are aimed at a market that wants a hassle-free experience. Quite frankly, the experience is anything but hassle-free. If the editing process is the one thing keeping you from experimenting with video, you might be better off starting out with an ultra-compact camcorder like the Pure Digital Flip Mino. The video quality isn't as good, but the experience of making simple edits and uploading to YouTube couldn't be easier. In the meantime, we certainly aren't shedding tears over the slow death of standard definition MPEG-2 video. For all we complain about high definition AVCHD fields, the video quality is markedly better and compatibility with those files is getting better every day.

If you do manage to pull the files off your camcorder, the editing software included is fairly basic. If you've successfully transferred the files, you can certainly use Apple iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or whatever came with your computer. If you decide to use the software shipped by JVC, you'll find a fairly thorough set of offerings—some of the best provided by any camcorder manufacturer. There's also Digital Photo Navigator Ver.1.5 for viewing your still photos, and PowerCinema NE, an interesting and fairly robust media player. CyberLink DVD Solution or PowerProducer will let you burn your footage to a DVD—PowerProducer has some decent templates for creating menus at the front our your DVD.

 

 

 

The meat of the JVC software, however, is PowerDirector 5 NE Express, an easy-to-use and varied editing program.

In the camcorder, there's the ability to file your clips into Event folders, make Playlists, and add decorative title screens to a clip, event, or playlist. These title screens are as ridiculous as they sound, but if you want to put hearts and flowers on your Valentine's Day video, this will serve in a pinch.

Auto / Manual Controls

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** Picture & Manual Control**
Automatic Control (4.0)

Standard definition camcorders are quickly being relegated to point-and-shoot status, as more experienced and more serious videographers are choosing to spend the extra money to buy high definition. With its 30GB internal hard drive, the JVC GZ-MG330 isn't exactly the cheapest JVC has to offer, but it's a fair bet that MG330 owners will be relying quite a bit on the camcorder's automatic settings. When the whole point is ease of use, it's crucial that a camcorder perform well without user interface.

In practice, we found the GZ-MG330 to be only moderately proficient. The autofocus is good, though you'll need to be careful not to use the powerful 35x zoom on objects that are too close—no camcorder can keep that in focus.

The auto exposure is adequate for most shooting situations. JVC is kind enough to provide us with more control over how the camcorder chooses its automatic exposure: you may select either Whole Screen or Spot metering. As the name implies, the Whole Screen option looks at the entire shot and automatically corrects for exposure as best it can. Spot metering creates a small red target in the center of the screen; whatever appears in the center of the target becomes the point of metering. You can move that target horizontally left or right, but this quickly makes the tool feel more like a manual control and less like an aid for automatic exposure adjustment. (If you're going to go to the trouble of tweaking your metering point, why not just set the brightness manually?)

The real trouble with the automatic settings is the automatic white balance, which is highly inadequate. It looks fine when you're shooting in most outdoor conditions, but indoor shooting is inconsistent and problematic. Our lab testing, which is done in Tungsten lighting, is horrible (see Video Performance). Anything in fluorescent lighting is completely off. None of the white balance presets are very good either.

In addition to the normal automatic settings, you can choose from a list of Program AE modes—usually called 'Scene Modes' on most camcorders. These will serve as a slight guide to how the camcorder is making its automatic adjustments. Options include Night, Twilight, Portrait, Sports, Snow, and Spotlight. (See screen shot above.)

Overall Manual Control (4.25)

The JVC GZ-MG330 is a decent choice for budget-minded consumers that still want some level of control over image quality. There are plenty of options and the camcorder responds well to the adjustments that you make. Our biggest complaint is with the new Laser Touch operation. It's a good system for navigating the menus, but less than desirable for making fine manual adjustments.

It seems as though JVC has made some improvements to the interface—or we've grown more accustomed to it. Using the slider and the OK button feels more intuitive and all of the options are easily accessible. (These days, we're always grateful when a camcorder keeps everything in a single menu.) However, the touch slider on the left still doesn't offer enough fine control to make small adjustments. Sometimes it's easy to overshoot or undershoot the setting you want. And focus doesn't feel as variable as it should.

JVC might be onto something with the system, but we're still waiting for the Laser Touch to be improved so that it matches the responsiveness and versatility of an iPod scroll wheel. In practice, it's probably just as good as Sony touch screens, which can offer the same problems. And we still think it would be a good idea for JVC to allow you to tap the slider in order to confirm a selection. (This would make the slider work more like a laptop's touchpad, which you can use for scrolling and clicking.) Thankfully, the Laser Touch system is kind to people with all sizes of fingers and fingernails. It's easier to use just one slider and a few big buttons than to hone in on a tiny little button on those Sony touch screens. Neither system is as easy to use as a good joystick.

As far as manual controls go, the GZ-MG330 has a decent number of offerings, but implementation of the laser touch is finicky and sometimes frustrating. Since the automatic controls aren't the best we've seen, it would be worth getting to know the manual exposure (called 'brightness'), shutter speed, and white balance controls. Manual focus suffers the most from the integration of the Laser Touch; we recommend you just leave that one alone. All told, JVC offers a competitive selection of controls—comparable with Canon and Panasonic, better than Sony and Samsung.

Zoom (6.0)

The JVC GZ-MG330 has a thin, loose zoom toggle in the customary location up top. The toggle lies below most index fingers and it feels cheap, but works well enough. With a powerful 35x zoom, we imagine this little toggle will be getting plenty of action. Despite the distinct, loose jiggle, the toggle is fairly responsive. The zoom is variable with finger pressure, so you can get a nice slow crawl, especially at the lower zoom ratios. When zooming, a scale appears on the top portion of the screen, along with the actual numerical value of the zoom power. This is useful if you need to recreate a shot later.

Zoom Power Ratio (35.0)

The JVC GZ-MG330 has an optical zoom of 35x, which is among the most powerful of the year. That's about average these days, as far as standard definition camcorders are concerned. The standard definition line from Canon, including the Canon FS11, goes up to 37x with the 'Advanced Zoom' that brings it up to 48x. The Panasonic SDR-H60 is an astounding 50x optical zoom. The Samsung SC-MX20 is about the same, with 34x, while the Sony DCR-SR85 has only a 25x optical zoom.

The GZ-MG330 also offers a digital zoom, of course. You can set a cap of 35x optical zoom only, or include up to 70x or up to 800x digital zoom. We always recommend you stick to optical, as digital zoom has a negative effect on image quality.

Focus (3.0)

A manual focus option is offered, but it's not easy to use. This is the one manual control that suffers the most from the imprecision of the Laser Touch system. The manual focus option is accessed via Manual Settings in the main menu. When activated, two small icons appear on the LCD: a man and a mountain. To shift the focus, use the Laser Touch slider up and down. The problem is that it doesn't feel like you have access to a precise range of focus options. Instead, you feel as though you're selecting from one of about 40 steps in an incremental scale. Focus is usually the sort of thing you want to fine-tune. What happens when the focus you want lies between steps 13 and 14? We recommend you just let auto focus do its job.

Exposure & Aperture (5.5)

The GZ-MG330 does not offer direct control over the aperture, which might limit its appeal to advanced users. Canon offers Aperture Priority modes on most of its camcorders, and Panasonic offers fully independent aperture and shutter speed. Sony and Samsung are in the same boat as JVC—they offer no aperture control.

What JVC does offer is a tool called 'Brightness,' which is just another name for exposure compensation. As with all manual controls, the Brightness option is located under Manual Settings in the main menu. When activated, a scale appears on the left side of the LCD. The scale has a range of +6 to -6. Using the Laser Touch strip, going up makes it brighter and going down makes it darker. Changes you make are relative to what the automatic exposure has already selected; -3 in one scene will not be the same as -3 in another. Gratefully, using the Laser Touch slider to select one of 13 exposure increments is easier than using it to select one of 40 focus levels.

Shutter Speed (6.3)

The GZ-MG330 offers shutter speed control, located under Manual Settings, along with the other manual controls. The range is quite good: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, and 1/4000. Panasonic and Canon offer a slightly narrower range on most of their standard definition models. Samsung offers a 1/10000 shutter speed, but nothing slower than 1/15—even when you switch into the camcorder's C.Nite mode. Sony does not generally offer manual shutter speed on its consumer camcorders. Like the Brightness control, the Laser Touch operation works decently here.

White Balance (4.75)

The GZ-MG330 offers a Manual (evaluative) white balance setting, as well as presets for Fine, Cloud, and Halogen. This really isn't a lot of presets, especially if you shoot indoors often. There are no settings for incandescent or fluorescent, which are the most common indoor lighting conditions—most household light bulbs are incandescent and most offices are fluorescent. Making a manual white balance is a bit unwieldy. You have to work your way through the menus, then select 'MWB' by holding the OK button for a couple seconds. This is the only time you'll be called upon to hold town any of the camcorder's laser touch controls. On most camcorders, the white balance icon will blink until it's set. On the MG330, the 'MWB' text blinks instead. It's oddly unintuitive, considering how often you'll want to use the feature: the auto white balance just isn't very good.

 

Gain (1.0)

There is no manual gain on the JVC GZ-MG330, nor on any JVC consumer camcorder. Panasonic is the only manufacturer to offer manual gain in this price range. Most camcorders automatically adjust gain in order to accommodate low-light scenarios. However, JVC is unique in offering the ability to turn the auto gain control (AGC) on and off. The factory default is to leave the control, and we strongly recommend leaving it that way. Below is our standard DSC Labs Chroma DuMonde chart at 15 lux. On the left is the image with AGC turned on; on the right, AGC is turned off.

Other Manual Controls (2.0)
Backlight compensation - *This feature compensates for a subject that is too strongly backlit by boosting the overall compensation. It can prove useful in some circumstances, but if you have the option, just tell your subject to kindly take a step to the left.

Tele Macro - *Tele Macro is meant to help with focusing on small objects. We saw no particular benefit from this function.

*Photometry Area *- The automatic exposure feature includes a tools that makes auto exposure feel a bit like a manual control. You may select either Whole Screen or Spot metering, to narrow in on one particular part of the shot to serve as an anchor for exposure. The small red target in the center of the screen can be adjusted horizontally left or right to one of three positions. Unfortunately, the system doesn't serve as a full-fledged metering system—we loved the super informative metering system on the high definition Panasonic HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100.

 

Still Features

Still Features* (4.75)*

The JVC GZ-MG330 is not a powerhouse device for still photography. There is only one image size—640 x 480 (VGA)—which is only suitable for the web. Images can be captured in Fine or Standard quality, but that's a bit of a moot point when you're dealing with VGA stills; the quality setting won't really be noticeable.

All the manual controls available in video mode are also ready for use in still photography. That includes white balance, shutter speed, and exposure (called brightness). There are also a couple options relevant only to still mode. The function menu has a self timer that can be set to 2 or 10 seconds. And you can choose either Single or Continuous mode, depending on whether you want to capture a single photo or one image every 0.5 seconds until the capture button is released.

As is the case in video mode, the GZ-MG330 also allows you to set the Photometry Area to either Whole Screen or Spot metering. Whole Screen adjusts the exposure according to the entire image, while Spot allows you to select a portion of the screen. You can use the touch buttons along the bottom of the LCD screen to move the square around the frame of the image in order to set the desired area of adjustment. When set to auto focus, the MG330 works like most dedicated still cameras: press the Photo Capture button halfway and the subject will automatically be brought into focus.

The photo menu can be accessed by pressing the Menu button on the LCD Panel. Scroll through your options with the Laser Touch slider and make your choice with the OK button. In photo mode, the menu consists of the following options:

 

In order to review images, press the Play/Rec button located in the LCD cavity. A scrolling menu of icons appears containing a thumbnail of each captured still. While in Photo Playback mode, the menu contains the following options: Delete, Protect/Cancel, Effect, DPOF, Basic Settings.**
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Still Performance* (3.68)*

The still performance of the JVC GZ-MG330 was tested by shooting an X-Rite Color Checker chart at an even, bright light, then running the stills through Imatest imaging software to determine color, noise, and saturation. The lowest color error produced was a 16.3, which is not good compared to competing camcorders. The noise and saturation scores were both very good—just 0.56% noise and 107.1% saturation—but this is offset by the fact that you can only capture 640 x 480 stills. Even the best VGA digital images won't equal even mediocre stills at a higher resolution.

The fact is, most camcorders don't come close to the performance offered by a cheap point and shoot digital camera. The JVC GZ-MG330 isn't even one of the good camcorders when it comes to still photography.

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Still Resolution*** (2.44)*

Still resolution is tested by shooting an Applied Image ISO 12233 resolution chart at an even, bright light, then running the stills through Imatest imaging software. At best, the JVC GZ-MG330 was able to produce a horizontal resolution of 428 line widths per picture height (lw/ph), with an oversharpening of 8 percent. The vertical resolution measures 384 lw/ph, with a 14.5 percent oversharpening. This is about average for a camcorder of this pixel count.

 

Handling and Use

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****Ease of Use*** (5.0)*

For a camcorder that's cheap, highly portable, and simply designed, the GZ-MG330 is fairly accessible to beginners, but could be more intuitive. The biggest hang-up is in using the new Laser Touch controls. While it's usually easy to figure out what's required, the laser touch is sometimes finicky. You might find yourself overshooting menu items with regularity. When it comes to integrating these controls into the manual adjustments, some work better than others. Focus, in particular, is not well implemented. (See Picture & Manual Control.)

Once you're accustomed to the Laser Touch system, however, it's relatively easy to get around. All options are stacked inside a single menu... and it's usually obvious what goes where. The Manual Settings controls things like exposure and white balance, while the Basic Settings are for changing language and time/date. Items in the latter menu are haphazardly organized and there will be one or two things you really have to hunt to find.

If you're interested in ease of use, you probably won't spend much time navigating menus. The real feature is the Auto mode, which is perfectly functional on the MG330. Pressing the Auto/Manual button inside the LCD cavity will hide all manual settings and allow the camcorder to make manual adjustments automatically.

Of course, one of the most time-consuming and frustrating processes in owning a camcorder is usually transferring and editing footage. Hard drives and memory cards don't require any annoying DVD finalizing or real-time tape rendering, but the files still aren't a breeze. The separate audio and video files are a hassle when you just want to click and drag files from one place to another, and the MPEG-2 format can be flaky on Macs. Fortunately, the software that ships with the camcorder works will on PCs and that will usually get the job done just fine. (See Editing.)

 

Handling* (3.75)*

In hand, the GZ-MG330 has its positives and its negatives. The biggest strength is how the camcorder fits in your hand. One might expect that the camcorder's diminutive size makes it difficult to handle, but the architecture is comfortable and streamlined. The right side is slightly curved and offers the slight bulk of the hard drive as a place to rest your palm and fingers. The Record Start/Stop button falls directly beneath the thumb and the zoom toggle is under your right index finger. The hand strap, despite its cheap construction, is oddly comfortable. You would have no problem carrying the MG330 around all day.

The Laser Touch system is a love-it or leave-it interface. The buttons feel nice under your fingers, but there's no tactile response to let you know when you've activated something. Keeping the system sounds turned on actually helps quite a lot. Whether you have sound to aid you or not, the touch controls could be more responsive. This is fine when you're first getting acquainted with the menus, but when you really want to fly from one option to the next, it's a bit of a chore waiting for the sluggish system to respond to the controls.

When you're simply trying to navigate menus, the Laser Touch is more than adequate. You'll sometimes overshoot the options you want, but the system becomes easier to use. Once you're accustomed to using it, the Laser Touch is... dare we say, fun to use. It's the manual adjustments that are more frustrating. Focus is imprecise and essentially not worth using, while the others are more manageable. If you're trying to change exposure, white balance, or shutter speed while recording, you'll get quickly annoyed when you find yourself accidentally picking the wrong increment.

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Menu* (4.5)*

This year, JVC took a departure from a three-part menu system and funneled it down to one large menu that contains everything. In the past, we've had to sift through three separate menus (Function, Administrative, and Program AE) that sometimes left us wondering where to look for some options. On the MG330, everything is thrown into a single menu. We sometimes still have trouble finding one or two options, but at least we only have to back out into the main menu—instead of exiting out and bringing up an entirely new menu.

It's nice to see manufacturers attempt to design a more accessible menu system. Unfortunately, JVC doesn't succeed quite as well as some others, such as Samsung. It's odd that there are some features located in the uppermost level of the menu and some features buried within submenus. The more options you have, the more reason for organizing them sensibly. And in this model from JVC, it's an A for intention, C for execution.

This is exacerbated by JVC's new laser touch panel, which can be difficult to operate at times. The controls are a bit sluggish, so you're not always entirely sure if you've correctly activated something. And they're a bit jumpy too, so you might find yourself rifling past a menu item from time to time. Once you grow accustomed to it, the system isn't bad for navigating menus and it's actually kind of fun to use. Unfortunately, it never works great for fine-tuning manual image adjustments.

To access the menu, press the Menu button. You can scroll through options using the laser touch panel and select an option by pressing the OK button. Three unmarked buttons along the bottom of the LCD are context sensitive—their function changes depending on the options displayed on the screen. The menu contains the following options:

 

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Portability*** (8.25)*

The GZ-MG330 is surely a camcorder that excels in the portability department. Measuring just 54 x 68 x 113mm (2.13 x 2.68 x 4.45 inches), and weighing just 315 grams (0.69 pounds), the MG330 is incredibly small and light—especially for a HDD camcorder. It can easily fit inside a small purse or large pocket. With 30GB of built-in memory in that hard drive, you probably don't even need to carry around memory cards. Sure, you might want to have your AV or USB cables handy, but it's better than relying on a dock, as some of the competition does.

A single potential downside is that a hard drive is slightly more prone to failure than solid state memory (i.e. internal flash or memory cards). So, if you're taking the MG330 on a long vacation, you'll want to bring either a laptop or lots of memory cards as a way of backing up your footage.

LCD and Viewfinder* (3.0)*

You'll find no viewfinder on the JVC GZ-MG330, which is pretty much status quo for small, standard definition camcorders these days. That means you'll have to rely entirely on the low-resolution, 2.7-inch color LCD screen. The screen flips out 90 degrees from the body of the camcorder and rotates up to 270 degrees. The size, resolution, and architecture of the screen is the same as what you'll find on most of the MG330's competitors.

What you won't find on the competition is JVC's new Laser Touch control system, with a touch-sensitive slider and touch-sensitive buttons. There will likely be both adherents and detractors to this new system, but you can see what we think in the Handling section, above.

There are a couple of options for adjusting the brightness of the monitor, but we recommend leaving most of these alone... they will often give an inaccurate representation of what you're shooting. But if you're having trouble with glare, you can select Monitor Bright in the Settings submenu. A vertical scale appears along the left side of the LCD screen, controlled by the laser touch panel. You can shift up to brighten the LCD screen and down to darken it. You can also set Monitor Backlight to Auto, Standard, or Brighter.

Battery Life* (12.8)*

We tested the efficiency of the GZ-MG330's BN-VF808U rechargeable battery pack by recording continuously in Manual mode with DIS disabled and the LCD screen flipped out. The monitor was set to the default brightness and video was recorded at the Fine quality setting to the internal hard drive.

All told, the GZ-MG330 lasted an impressive 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes). This is an excellent performance for a small battery pack running a hard disc drive camcorder. JVC offers two battery upgrades, which would nearly triple the camcorder's battery life.

 

Audio / Playback / Connectivity

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Audio*** (3.0)*

About the only audio setting you'll find on the JVC GZ-MG330 is Wind Cut, which we all know is like wearing a hard hat in a tornado for all the good it does.

You'll find no accessory shoe, no Mic or Headphone inputs, and no level control—just an internal microphone. This isn't exactly a videographer's dream, but it's also to be expected in a camcorder of this price range. Only the Panasonic SDR-H60 and the Samsung SC-MX20 offer the same dearth of audio options. The Sony DCR-SR85 has a hot accessory shoe up top and a Zoom Mic features. The standard def series from Canon, including the Canon FS11, at least has a microphone input.
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Playback* (4.75)*

The MG330 has a nice quick playback feature that allows you to review a clip just after you've finished recording it. In this age of digital point and shoot cameras, this is a great feature to have—most people have an almost automatic response to cluster around a camera after a great memory has been recorded.

For the more fully featured playback, you can press the Play/Rec button inside the LCD cavity to enter Playback mode. The screen that appears will be filled with individual thumbnails representing each video clip. To review still images, you'll have to switch to Photo mode, then enter the playback interface. Once you're in video playback, there are three buttons located at the bottom of the LCD: Search by Date, Search Event Files, and Delete. Thank goodness you can just delete a clip from within the thumbnail interface. We're tired of having to delete during playback or enter the menu in order to access the delete 'option.' JVC is saving us a lot of headaches here.

You can scroll through thumbnails using the laser touch panel and select them by pressing the OK button. Once a video clip is selected, it begins playing within the entirety of the LCD screen. The three nondescript buttons at the bottom of the LCD panel now change functions to control playback: Play/Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, Slow Rewind, and Slow Fast Forward. On the left, the Laser Touch slider can now be tapped like individual buttons, each area on the slider representing a different function: Next Clip, Previous Clip, and Stop. In Photo playback mode, the laser touch panel buttons rotate the image 90 degrees.

The Video Playback menu can be accessed by pressing the Menu button and contains the following options: Delete, Protect/Cancel, Playback Playlist, Playback MPG File, Edited Copy, Change Event Reg., Edit Playlist, Effect, Wipe/Fader, and Basic Settings. You can also press the Title button within the LCD cavity in order to add a number of decorative title screens to each clip or event.

 

Connectivity* (4.0)*

The GZ-MG330 is minimalistic in its port use—and could be more robust in its design. There are four ports total, three of which are housed in flimsy rubberized enclosures. The USB terminal is located in front, underneath the lens, while the DC input is situated in back, above the battery. The AV jack is located on the right side, underneath the hand strap, and the microSD/SDHC card slot is located on the bottom. The microSD slot is the only one of the ports with a moderately sturdy cover. The little hatch door will probably do better than the thin tethers on the other ports. And kudos to JVC for resisting the temptation of implementing proprietary ports, like the AV ports on Sony and Canon camcorders.

 

 

Other Features

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What’s in the Box?**

The GZ-MG330 ships with the following items:

-AC Adapter (AP-V18U)

-Battery Pack (BN-VF808U)

-Audio/Video Cable

-USB Cable

-Shoulder strap

-CD-ROM

-Remote control unit (w/ lithium battery)

If you want to use the microSD/SDHC memory card slot, you'll need to provide your own. And it never hurts to get a camera bag for protection and a higher capacity backup battery.

 

 

Other Features* (4.0)*

*LED video light - *GZ-MG330's LED video light will cast a pale bluish light to help you in extremely dark scenarios. Unfortunately, it's not going to do much in truly dark environments. You also have to use the menu to turn the light on and off; it would have been nice to have an external video light button.

*Direct DVD and Direct Back Up - *If you have installed the included JVC software, these buttons will access that software when the camcorder is plugged into your PC. The result is, essentially, one-touch DVD creation and one-touch back up. Of course, if you use Direct DVD, you won't be able to edit your footage before it's burned to a DVD. These buttons don't do anything if you're connected to a Mac.

Info - JVC offers a nice capacity and battery meter, accessed by pressing the Info button in the LCD cavity. When initially pressed, a screen containing a pie graph appears, accompanied by a list of the remaining recordable times per each recording quality level. Pressing the Info button again cues a screen containing a vertical battery life meter and remaining digital minute display.

*Effects *- Located in the Manual Setting menu, JVC offers a handful of digital image effects, just in case you don't have time to apply them in post-editing. The Effects consist of Sepia, Monotone, Classic Film, and Strobe.

Title - During playback, there is a button that will allow you to assign a decorative title placard to each playlist. Many software editing programs allow you to do something similar, often with the same gaudy results.

 

Conclusion & Comparisons

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Conclusion**

The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 is an excellent standard definition camcorder for this price range. It edges out the Sony DCR-SR85 and the Panasonic SDR-H60 in terms of video performance. It also has slightly better performance than the Canon FS100, especially in low light.

The MG330 is also a decent choice for beginners. It has a single integrated menu and a very user-friendly Easy mode. It's true that more and more first-time consumers are turning to ultra-compact camcorders like the Pure Digital Flip Mino, but those camcorders don't offer anything in the way of manual controls. On the MG330, manual adjustments are fairly easy to find, easy to make, and effective in practice. The only full-featured camcorder we've found that is more intuitive is the Samsung SC-MX20, and while the performance is decent on the Samsung, it's not as good as the MG330.

On top of all that, the GZ-MG330 is incredibly compact and comes in three different colors. The 30GB hard drive should suffice for even long vacations and there's the added versatility of the microSD/SDHC card slot. The Laser Touch operation, JVC's new touch-sensitive controls, can be fun to use, even if it's not the best interface for making manual picture adjustments.

All told, the JVC GZ-MG330 isn't the hands-down easiest camcorder to use, and it can't compete with more expensive performers, but it's a great value for your dollar and certainly the best standard definition camcorder we've reviewed this year.

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Comparisons

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Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters

Not a bad choice for the point-and-shoot crowd. The MG330 is fairly easy to use, adequate for editing and file transfer, and fun to navigate. The only downside is that the automatic controls could be better.

Budget Consumers

The price tage is certainly steeper than the Samsung SC-MX20, the JVC GZ-MS100, or other card-only camcorders. But the value for your dollar is good. You get a 30GB internal hard drive with the MG330.

Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid

The ability to capture only 640 x 480 VGA still photos means that the MG330 isn't at the top of the list for still/video hybrid seekers this year.

Gadget Freaks

The Laser Touch system is pretty cool, though sluggish and finicky at times.

Manual Control Freaks

This is not the camcorder for you. There is a decent amount of options available, but the Laser Touch isn't a great tool for using these options. There are more precise and more versatile camcorders out there.

Pros / Serious Hobbyists

Standard definition camcorders don't generally appeal to pros these days. And without an accessory shoe, microphone/headphone inputs, or decent control interface for manual adjustments... this isn't a camcorder serious videographers are likely to purchase any time soon.

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