JVC GR-X5US MiniDV Digital Camcorder (1.33MP, 10x Opt, 300x Dig, 2.5

Reviewed by: soonsun

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Great looking video; very compact and pretty light, many good features

Weaknesses: Focus Lag, poor battery life time

Overall Evaluation: The video quality is excellent, with great color accuracy and plenty of detail.The sharpness and brightness are not as strong as some other DVs, such as Panasonic PV-GS500, but it looks very comfortable. With the Automatic Gain Control (AGC), the low-light performance is impressive. This camcorder is pretty light, only about 1 pound. It is comfortable to hold, and the main control buttons are easy to reach without moving your hand, which is good for steady video capture. But you will need two hands for anything more than basic operation. The manual control on the GR-X5 is good. But you will need to learn how to use them. The automatic focus is not good, and has a very difficult time finding the picture when zoomed in on a subject. There is about 1 second delay. It does not have a viewfinder. That means that you wouldn't turn off the LCD to conserve the battery. The battery ran out in 45 minutes--not even enough to fill one MiniDV tape. And the high-capacity batteries are not cheap. The lens is made by JVC itself, not from any lens specialist.