Customer Reviews
Fantastic prosumer HD camera 
2008-01-29
This mighty-mite shoots near broadcast quality while weighing only two pounds. The lightweight cam is a blessing over lugging a larger Sony or Canon for a full day. Besides, Sony is very proprietary and difficult to intergrate with anything else. JVC was not very high on my list until I began to use the HD7 in August 07. We have four HD7's in service. JVC's HD7 camera shoots great video on steadicam, tripod or boom mount. On-camera audio is poor as you would expect (as all cameras need external mics). Just add the Audio Technica ATR lavalier mic or any good quality shotgun mic and you'll have a clear and strong audio track.
The features on this camera are exceptionally good for a sub $3000 camcorder. Manual whitebalance, F/stop and appeture settings are very easy to use. Just a little practice with the menus/function buttons will have you up and running with all the pro settings. JVC's menu layout is easy to follow after your initial practice.
Shooters advice: Don't forget at least one extra battery and charger. The 60G hard disk holds quite a bit of video, even at Full-HD settings (FHD). Your battery will run out before the disk is full. Besides, you should be recording on battery power anyway to avoid electrical hum (all cameras running on wall power have hum noise pollution issues).
Overall the camera is easy to use after a walk-though with your user manual. Take an hour to practice all the settings. Picture quality is outstanding in this price range. It looks great on a 1920x1080 big screen. The manual says you can edit your shots using JVC's free software (included). However we are using Adobe CS3 creative suite plus Final Cut Pro. Our video work is being sold commercially in distribution on DVD. All our clients are asking who we used to make the videos. Quite a compliment, they think it's better than we could have made ourselves.
Amazed 2008-01-18
I opened up the box and scanned thru the manual right quick to see how to put in the battery and start it charging as I went back and continued more detailed review of the controls. I didn't spend more than 15 minutes doing that. Later, the battery was charged and I picked it up and started recording the family guests in our house. After a short recording, I went into hook it up to the tv with just a s-video connection and voila - I was amazed at how clear and intense the picture was. I ordered an hdmi to hdmi cable and was really amazed with that picture. My wife picked it up and had not read anything about it and just asked me how to use it and in just minutes she was video recording our cats all over the place with some beautiful clear recordings. Neither of us have used video recorders in years. We have an old camcorder with the mini-vcr tape that you take out and put into an adapter, but we got tired of using it. The JVC is way better and easier to use than those things. That's all we've done with it and there's much more to play with on it. We are just amazed.
Not exactly what i expected 
2008-01-18
Pros:
HD 60gb
Size
Resolution and quality just for outdoor events
Cons:
poor picture quality
VOD file extension - hard to use Adobe PRemiere Pro 2.0 for editing
No nightshot
No lights support
Poor quality for pictures and video indoors ( forget to buy it if you don't have enough light to record a indoor event.
no charger included in the package !!!!!
I.link cable is not compatible to Cyberlink software.
Comments 
2008-01-11
Most of the time you read some negative feed about products and I believe they usually comes from people that don't know noting about what they are buying and just buy the product just to have it. Thats not good for others that are looking to buy something. So is good to have professional people who knows what they are looking for and given us poseitve feed about the product. So please, if your not an expierence person don't leave any negative comments on product you don't know how to work it.
Thank you
Good quality, can not backup in Vista Home Premium 
2008-01-07
I am extremely frustrated with this camera. Its backup feature is not working in Vista Home Premium. It seems the camera software is not recognizing the firewire connection ( 4pin to 4pin) to the laptop. What good does it make if I can not save the videos !!!!
Major Trouble Copying Files to Vista XPS Computer 2008-05-24
Despite many hours or work and attempts to get assistance from JVC I have not been able to get this Camcorder to copy files to my well-resourced, high-speed vista computer. The JVC customer support system doesn't help either. Right now they're directing customers to send emails and I just sent another one this morning. It says the average turnaround time is five days.
This is a very expensive product and it should be supported and shoud work with systems without much effort.
Earlier as I worked periodically on this problem, they had a phone number to call and I was able to get through to someone, but that seems to have disappeared.
JVC GZ-HD7 Overall Very Good 2008-05-01
I purchased this camcorder in May of 2007. I took a two week road trip and found the anti-stabilization to be very lacking. To over come this, I purchased a Velbon fluid head tripod, a Manfrotto 560B Monopod, and the GlideCaM 2000 Pro. Now the images I shoot are very pleasing to the eye.
One of the primary reasons I purchased this camcorder was it had external audio inputs at microphone level. I have also purchased a Sennheiser shotgun microphone as well as the Sennheiser wireless camera set. I also purchased a "V" adapter that mounts on the shoe of the camcorder to accommodate the Sennheiser wireless receiver and shotgun microphone. I now have professional clarity audio on my recordings.
The Everio software that comes with camcorder is a must use in my experience to convert camera footage from on board hard drive to be able to edit MPEG2 1080i footage with my Sony Vegas 7.0 nonlinear editing software.
I have three Dell P4 desktops that are not able to play high def footage as the files are too large for these computer to play them without choking. I recently purchased an inexpensive HP dual core AMD 64 running Vista computer and it seems to do the job for me out performing the three other computers I have.
I am amazed at the quality this little camcorder delivers. The automatics seem to work pretty well. It seems to work very well in low light as well as bright outside light. The auto-focus seems to do very well also. I have not used the manual features as of this posting.
I have recently joined the www.Vimeo.com high def contributers. I have one video test recording I made on Saturday April 26, 2007 posted at http://vimeo.com/947085 and I will upload another video I shot this week while on vacation. Yesterday I took the JVC GZ HD 7 camcorder to Descanso Gardens with the fluid head tripod, monopod and professional audio for a test run. I produced a movie file in Power Director (Software that came with the camcorder) and am now editing in Sony Vegas 7.0. I am impressed how well this camcorder performs for what I am wanting to do. I hope also to include another video of the footage I shot yesterday at the http://vimeo.com site.
Final thoughts: I would buy this camcorder again. If you want professional results, be prepared to invest in additional equipment if you want very good results. 1080i video requires a computer with sufficient horsepower to process large files. High def 1080i video is about four times more information per frame than standard def NTSC video. The really great item about this camcorder is I do not have too buy video tape or worry about a tape clogging in the field.
Do look for my videos I have posted at http://vimeo.com Enter my name Lisa Kassner in the search engine to see the product I have made with this camcorder.
Kindest and sincerest warm regards,
Lisa J.Kassner
Los Angeles CA
For the price this is the best you can get! 2008-03-29
We have been delighted with the results we have had with this HD camera!
If you have the patience and are willing to follow the guidelines in the operations manual you will also be just as happy!
We use a vast array of software and video plugs to produce HD duel layer dvd's that look just as good as anything hollywood can put out! And thats also the trick to producing the type of quality that the video cam can produce! Learn how to use your video and sound edit or prduction software!
We have great results using Pinnacle Studio 11 to Avid Xpress Pro as well as Avid Liquid 7.0, plus all of the Adobe video software. We have also found very good results with Sony Vegas Pro 8 and DVD architect pro 4.5. All for High Definition video files.
We have 4 of these Everio's. All mounted on professional high quality video tripods with fluid heads. We also use high quality stereo wireless mics on our tallents or on a sound boom to produce outstanding sound reproduction of up to 300 feet away. So this is a nice option as well.
The only draw back we have found is that they the (GZHD7) do not have XLR mic inputs! But if you know what your doing your sound quality should be acceptable for the average consumer.
If you use long runs out at 20 feet with a shotgun mic you will notice some hum and buzz with the 3.5 mini input mic. The mic shoe mount on this cam will accept any shotgun mic as another option.
We would suggest the RODE VideoMic 2 - Shotgun mic 2nd Gen Model with Pad.
They sell for $149.00 and produce sound quality in the $500.00 range!
With the Rode mic you won't be let down!! And these units are now affordable for just about anyones tight budget!!
HAVE FUN!!! :)
AXION Studios Inc.
Exelent But be aware (gift comment) 2008-03-09
My first impulse when I saw it and read about the features was to buy it, then a friend showed me the bad reviews and i ended buying a different one (Panasonic HDD)... this last one is great but i am an enthusiast and I'm used to have more control over my Cam (exposhure, sensitivity, backlight, sound recording rate, etc... that JVC everio GZ-HD7U has) so.. i ended bying it (Everio HDD)...
Good things
-I like the idea and flexibility of this 'new media recording system' HDD (LOVE IT).
NOTE: for those concerned about HDD versus tapes, tapes get old and after afew years can't read it or recover (i'm not saying it is bad, i love my Sony D8 that in some manner is still superior to these HDD cams generation)
NOTE: need place where to save your shooting, get a Terabyte!
-The quality of the image is superb, magnificent, excelent... better than any... o yes, i do video editing on 5 different formats... and this is it! (Good for everio)
-Good manipulation and control features, much, much better than the majority of other brands... but be aware it means more responsability on your hands, so learn more, study more about cam video possibilities, manipulation and controls... sorry but i like it this way...
-Compare to others, JVC everio has Very good sensitivity to low light situations if you know how to use the MANUAL controls for diafragm, exposhure, sensitivity settings... you'll get better results if you learn MANUAL mode than leave it all to AUTO mode... can't be lazy!
-Much better hardware features and conectivity than others in this range (USB, fire wire, AV, S-video, componet, HDMI and microphone)
NOTE: fire wire (ilink or 1364)not compatible with many video capture & editing software... yes i got in contact with JVC support and could not give me a straight solving answer... nore the software support that comes with it!
Any way you'll end up using more your USB, AV, S-video and HDMI than the other two connections.
-JVC everio has a shoe to connect accesories (others don't)
-Sound recording quality its good, better than others...
Be aware
-Steady cam? well it's not bad or so umbelivably terreble as many say... the trick is to USE YOUR TRIPOD... or lean to a fence, wall, column, etc, try not to walk arround to much when video shooting, if you use only your hands with this cam you need to start thinking like a pro cameramen, hold it very still, if you could use both hands, better...
NOTE: i understand that the technology on this cam is very good for getting amazing good quality film that the steady cam system fall behind... not that is not good...
(for example: other cams SEEMs to have better steady cam, but it is a trick, because they are handling a much LOWER RESOLUTION - lower quality image... you see?) so be more carefull holding your JVC everio while filming... have this in mind and will be ok.
Not so good things (sorry i have to say)
-For those that would like to edit your video from JVC everio, brother & sister, this format ".TOD" is a pain in the A, can't have a codec to handle it... I finally got in touch with JVC (yes again) who could not give me an answer, they send me to the software that comes with it who made me buy an actualisation for Windows Vista but did't work, then said i needed a new software, that a bought but didn't work either... (i solved the problem using a pro editing software... and works terrific, wou! love it)
For those who use Fire wire (ilink or 1394)
-Fire wire incompatibility to many software aplications and interface.. only one way connectivity - OUT (what happened to IN?)
Very Bad!
-what happened to 'AV in' connection? (amazing my old VHS and cheap web cam has 'AV in', i can connect a TV, VHS, directly to it but JVC did leave this feature out, incredible!) - (so the other brands, say what?!)
Conclusion:
-if you need a Camcorder you just want to take out of the box and go... i wouldn't recomend this JVC everio... get a simpler one... on this JVC everio you need a little bit of more knowledge than the average person to really get the 'meat' out of this JVC Camcorder... so maybe this could be a reason to very bad reviews from customers for this pruduct... but at the end the quality with JVC everio is superior than the ones in the market at this point (9 march 08) when i say market i mean what you regularly see on the majority of stores when you walk in and what actually is there to buy... not professional spetialized stores.
The technology for camcorders generation at this moment is still growing, and on these HDD camcorders of different brands, it still has to get better... it is not good enough for me at this moment (i'm not a pro as i said before)... needs to get better spetially on the area of connectivity and software that comes with it that should support this media ...
Hope this help.
what a piece of junk 2008-02-20
The camera saves files in .tod format instead of .mpg which is unrecognizable to most every video editing software forcing you to pay to download conversion software and codecs. I spent several frustrating hours trying to just get my computer to recognize the camera and still couldn't import the files to imovie, final cut, or on windows vegas 6. Apparently a lot of people are having problems with this camera just google it and read all the posts on help forums. What a waste of money!
