JVC brings $1,000 HD Everio GZ-HM400 camcorder to America

JVC introduced its HD Everio GZ-HM400 in Japan way back in late July, but at long last, the time has come for the Yanks in attendance to grab one as their own. Shipping now (as in, right now) here on US soil, the Full HD camcorder packs a 10.3 megapixel sensor, 32GB of internal storage, an SD / SDHC expansion slot and the ability to capture stills at 9 megapixels. Over on the video side, users will have access to a trio of slow-motion recording modes (600fps, 300fps and 120fps), though we can't express in mere words how disheartened we are to hear that this thing utilizes the thoroughly worthless AVCHD format. If you aren't bothered in the least by that, you can pick yours up now for a nickel shy of a grand.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 11:00AM]

JVC may make decent car radios and TVs, but their camcorders leave a lot to be desired. Maybe I just didn't know what to expect with a hard drive based camcorder, but the Minolta lens got completely fuzzy when trying to zoom about 10x with the optical lens. If you don't have a bunch of color and are up close tow hat you're recording you lose a lot of detail.

I ended up switching to a Sony DCRTRV950 and the difference is night and day. It's now a pain in the butt to get video into my computer to edit, but the quality different is worth it.

On a side note, 32GB will only get you may 2 - 3 hours in "HD" which is kinda of defeatest if you plan on using this to actually shoot something worthy of spending $1,000 on it.

Maybe if the got away from CMOS censors and used CCD lenses it might change things up a bit.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 7:26PM]

AVCHD is the same format what most new blu-ray use. If you happy with MPEG2 then that is SD(DVD) for you.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 11:30AM]

"Thoroughly worthless AVCHD format" ... are you kidding? AVCHD is the defacto standard for hi-def camcorders. What format were you expecting? HDV with MPEG2?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 1:07PM]

Darren is catching the "Drawbaugh" desease: bitching about things he just doesn't like or understand.

AVCHD is like any codec: if it's too compressed, it looks like crap. But used at it's highest settings, it produces very decent pictures. Remember we're talking about a $1K consumer camcorder.

What do you expect ? The RedRAW codec ?

[Biggiesized Posted Sep 14th 2009 1:30PM]

Yep, we all have to wait for Fixed Scarlet 2/3"...

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 11:51AM]

Just looking to trade in my Sony HDV for an SD/HDD based solution - what's the problem with AVCHD?? Seems like they are all AVCHD!! If its that bad, what are the options?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 12:31PM]

Ya, I have to stand up for AVCHD. Its a fat codec for sure, requiring a powerful machine for smooth playback. But at the same time, I can record HD for close to 2.5 hours on a 16gig SD card. I think that makes it worth it. No more, "Hold on, gotta swap tapes!". You can see some examples of this "worthless codec" here:
http://www.vimeo.com/brewcaster/videos

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 3:55PM]

I work with AVCHD footage professionally and I'm really quite impressed with the quality. After I updated my machine to a Core i7, and updated my software to Sony Vegas 9, I can work with the footage just like it was regular MPEG-2 footage. It's as smooth and responsive as I could wish for. The secret to getting great results is knowing how to process it (codecs, settings, bitrates, etc) and that's something few people understand.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 1:50PM]

Been using AVCHD for the past year without problem, edit footage using Corel Videostudio, no problems. Playback using streaming via a PS3 no hassle at all. Picture quality to us is just Excellent. I honestly can't see what the problem is with AVCHD. Please clarify ?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 18th 2009 4:13PM]

AVCHD isn't perfect, but I find it to be a lot less irritating than DV tapes.

Better formats exist, but only if you're willing to spend prosumer prices for a camera.