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Camcorder Reviews
Review: JVC Everio GZ-MS100 SD Camcorder
JVC’s baby SD camcorder is aimed at those seeking to share their movies on YouTube rather than DVD. It’s easy to use but its output is lacking - so what does that say about the expectations of your average YouTuber?
Today’s new generation of camcorder users appear not to want traditional camcorders at all - they’re looking for simple, pocket-sized devices that facilitate easy solid-state shooting and immediate uploading to media-sharing web portals like YouTube.
It’s a dilemma; on the one hand the major brands are pumping many millions of Yen into the continued development of super-quality High Definition camcorders that use the fabulous AVCHD format, whilst at the same time an increasing number of camcorder users are eschewing the sort of quality that AVCHD brings in return for lightweight, easy-to-use standard definition products that make sharing on social and media networking sites very easy. Never mind the quality - consider the speed and convenience factors.
JVC’s intriguing little Everio GZ-MS100 is a camcorder designed to sit somewhere between a proper camcorder (whatever that is these days) and a mobile phone on which you might shoot short video sequences of wedding cakes collapsing or people falling off cliffs.
As no-nonsense camcorders go it’s small, very easy to handle and use and - more importantly - it makes uploading a clip, or group of clips, to your YouTube account an absolute doddle. So what’s the problem?
First impressions
It’s very easy to gain a first impression of the MS100. Weighing just 270 grammes, it’s small, light and very comfortable for somebody with a small hand to hold and use when its Li-ion battery is in place. Thanks to its intuitive design it’s also very easy for a complete beginner to switch on and start using immediately. A quick look around the body will indicate a sparcity of buttons and connections because the camera is aimed at the kind of user who really doesn’t want the hassle. At the rear, to the right of the right-mounting rechargeable battery, is the red Record button. Above it, on the top rear of the body, is a Zoom control (which doubles as a Volume control on playback) and a Snapshot button with which to take still pictures. At the front, immediately in front of the LCD screen hinge, is a manual lens cap switch which should be closed when the product is not in use.
Open the 2.7” Colour LCD screen and you’ll meet an array of buttons in the recess; a separate power switch exists here, in addition to a mode select button for Play or Record. Another switch enables switching between Movies and Stills mode in addition to an Auto / Manual switch which governs users’ ability to take manual control over many of the camcorder’s functions.
The other button is a simple Upload button which, when connecting the camcorder to a Windows XP or Vista computer, makes it easy to upload movie clips to YouTube. Apart from the LCD frameside buttons - of which one is an intriguing laser touch operation control, that’s it. What could be easier?
Features
The GZ-MS100 uses a 1/6” , 800,000-pixel CCD to generate its widescreen standard definition images and compresses the sequences to MPEG-2 video (the same format as used by standard DVD) before writing them to a user-supplied SD or SDHC (high capacity) flash memory card. We tested the camera with a Panasonic 2GB SDHC Class 4 card. The supplied JVC BN-VF808 recharegable battery provides 2 hours 5 minutes of operation for each charge, and in our experience a charge cycle is very quick - little over an hour from near-empty.
There’s a reasonably good set of manual control functions, but for most users the Auto mode will be sufficient. Zooming is well catered for, too; a 35x optical zoom ratio is offered which is pretty good actually. The zoom control operates very quickly when you need to zoom in hurriedly, but it does also facilitate a slower, smoother zoom when you need it. We were able to est the zoom up to a maximum of 70x digital zoom (in which the camcorder digitally processes the magnification of the basic image to varying degrees of success).
The GZ-MS100 is equipped with a Konica Minolta lens which provides a 35x optical zoom ratio. The camcorder’s imaging processing benefits from JVC’s proprietary Gigabrid Engine which in turn incorporates six digital noise reduction systems designed to improve S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio by about 30 percent (3dB) over previous comparable models. Its MPEG-2 encoder is designed to reduce block noise and so-called mosquito noise too. A full set of Program AE functions makes it easy to shoot in a variety of lighting conditions - Night, Twilight, Portrait, Sports, Snow and Spotlight, all of which are accessible through the camcorder’s menu system. Backlight control enables users to compensate for hard lighting (such as bright, harsh light behind people in churches rendering them as silhouettes) by properly exposing the foreground subject at the expense of over-exposure behind.
Auto Power On/Off is a very useful feature; open the LCD and the camcorder powers up right away. If Quick Restart mode is engaged this takes place in less than a second.
The most notable feature of the MS100 is its one-touch uploading to YouTube on the internet. The provided Cyberlink software should be installed on a Windows XP or Vista PC in order that it can manage the process of transfering clips from the SD card in the camcorder to the computer via the supplied USB cable and onwards to the user’s YouTube account. The camcorder’s Upload button (see image above) will automatically launch the PC application and oversee the uploading of the clip (whose size will be limited to YouTube’s own 10 minute limit) to the required account following log in.
Another feature that takes advantage of the MS100’s USB 2.0
connectivity is the Easy DVD Burning facility. Recorded video
clips can be transferred to a PC’s DVD drive via USB 2.0 or
directly using the supplied Cyberlink software.
Alternatively, connect the camera directly to a JVC CU-VD3
Everio Share Station to create DVD copies of your clips
(individually or as playlists you’ve created) direct from the
SD/SDHC card in the camera. This uses USB Host Control, and
is now a common feature of equivalent products from Canon,
Sony and Panasonic, and it’s a very useful way of making
quick DVD copies without requiring a computer - especially
when you’re away from base.
Connectivity
This is quite an easy section to write. The MS100 has a USB 2.0 socket for undertaking all the stuff described above in addition to transferring digital stills images from the SD card to the outside world. The camera’s card will show up as a USB Mass Storage Device or, more simply, as a separate drive image on an Apple Mac’s deskop. There’s also an AV output connector to which the supplied composite vide and stereo audio cable can be connected in order to view the output on a regular TV or copy to a video recorder. And that’s pretty much it.
We should add that, as usual, manufacturers bundle a softare CD or two that’s designed to work with Windows XP or Vista despite that an increasing number of people are defecting to Apple every day. The Upload button works with PCs only and nothing happens in this respect if the MS100 is connected to a Mac. However, those insufferable Maccies seem always to have the last laugh because iMovie tends to make things happen regardless - and it has a number of very good YouTube presets!
Performance
There’s not a huge amount to say about the MS100’s recording and playback performance. Given that it’s aimed at YouTube users rather than super-critical serious camcorder users, it’s fair to say that the image quality really isn’t up to the quality you’d expect from a serious camcorder (whatever that is). Controllability is OK - the zoom is nice and nippy, and manual control can be achieved over stuff like focus, exposure and white balance if you really can be bothered, but if you’re playing out to even an average size TV display you’ll see that its video really isn’t much to write home about. For all the promises by JVC about its Gigabrid Engine reducing noise and elimating mosquito noise in the pictures, the images are very noisy (even in good light!) and there’s a helluva lot of mosquito noise. In darker rooms the pictures aren’t worth the effort, to be honest.
Conclusion
The Everio GZ-MS100 is intended for a particular market and should therefore always be considered in that context. JVC tells us that it’s designed for the kind of user who wants to shoot from the hip (so to speak) and grab fun, impromptu, video clips of the sort that young people want to shoot. It’s not designed for the serious user and it is designed to look good on YouTube rather than on a large LCD or Plasma TV display. So, with that in mind, it’s actually a nice little camcorder that fits nicely in a pocket or small bag.
When placed into its Quick Restart mode it’s ready to record in no more than the blink of an eyelid (that’s very good) but the quality of the clips it records really doesn’t measure up to the expectations of anybody who really can tell a good image from one that’s really not very good at all. In fact, users in this target group would be better off looking at the Panasonic SDR-S7 pocket-sized SD Camcorder instead - it’s even smaller, even easier to use and produces pictures which are better - even when shown on YouTube (given that it, too, is aimed at this market).
So where does that leave us? It’s a nice little camcorder and will make lots of people happy for a while - but how long will it be before they realise that better quality can be achieved for not much more outlay? Or is it that your average YouTuber will put up with any old rubbish in return for convenience and immediacy?
Reviewed by: Megan Rogers, July 2008. Editing by Colin Barrett. All images courtesy JVC UK Limited.