The Everio HD7 is a hefty camcorder but has a nice solid feel, balancing well in the palm of your hand.
Introduction
High Definition (HD) camcorder buyers face a whirlwind of choices including formats, recording media and price. Which is best--HDV, AVCHD, MPEG-2, MPEG-4? Should I go with tape, flash memory, hard drives or mini DVDs? And should I spend $700 USD--or lots more? Yikes! I haven’t seen this much tumult in camcorder land since the analog 8mm and VHS-C formats were duking it out at the time the original Dukes of Hazzard were on the tube (not reruns). We’re talking mid-‘80s folks. Things were pretty calm on the home video-making front for many years since the introduction of the digital mini DV format in 1995 so it was about time things got shaken up a bit. And nothing shakes things up like a transition from standard definition to HDTV. Take a look at flat panel televisions if you really want to see a cutthroat battle and consumer confusion. As for those competing camcorder formats all you need to care about is choosing the model that fits your needs and budget.
That’s where we come in with our reviews as well as the feedback from our readers. Recently we tested the Canon HV20. It uses the HDV tape-based format and video quality is outstanding. But it does use a cassette, albeit a small one, and rewinding/fast forwarding seems something out of the ‘80s, not 2007. Enter the new three CCD JVC GZ-HD7, a high-def camcorder recording to a 60GB hard disc drive that holds up to five hours of 1920 x 1080i video at 26.6 Mbps (similar to HDV). No other HDD high-def camcorder has this big a drive—at least right now. Sony plans to introduce a 60GB edition in June. However it uses the more compressed AVCHD format at 1440 x 1080 pixels so the HDR-SR7 holds an amazing 22 hours of top-resolution video. Naturally we’ll test this one as soon as we can. The pluses of a hard disk drive (HDD) are many beyond storage but my favorites are self-generated index points and the ability to hop from scene to scene at a press of a key. HDDs have their own issues that we’ll discuss in more detail on the following pages…
by Dave J. on November 8, 2009:
“Run an advertising agency and after consulting with our staff, decided to purchase HD7s for the company. Couldn't be happier! This, however, is not a camera for a novice. Auto mode is alright if your subject is not moving but if filming "on the run" do...” More...