Digital Trends

After years of pretty stagnant camcorder sales of around 4-5 million per year, it’s expected close to 20 percent more will be purchased in 2007. To this observer the reason is pretty simple—HDTV. People are buying flat-panel televisions by the millions and really enjoy HD programming and higher-quality DVDs on widescreens. Standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio video really doesn’t cut it anymore—especially on a pretty flat panel display. Enter the many high-def camcorders now widely available. Walking into a big box retailer recently I saw over a half-dozen on view along with many less-expensive SD camcorders. This trend will continue as HD camcorder prices continue to drop to more reasonable levels. It really is a HD World, as many Japanese companies have hyped for the last decade. A good example is the new JVC GZ-HD3, a hard disk based HD camcorder that’s the less expensive sibling to the GZ-HD7 released earlier this year. We weren’t too thrilled with that one, given its high price ($1,699 USD list) and so-so video quality. Along comes this new one for $400 USD less. Instantly you might think this is a much better deal but looks can be deceiving. Let’s give it a workout and see if it belongs on your shopping list…