JVC Shrinks HD Camcorder July 21, 2007

READ MORE Digital cameras , Gadgets , HD , HDMI , HDTV , Home Entertainment

Want some high-def home video to show on your HDTV? Then you’ll probably want to check out the latest Everio hard disk-based camcorder from the JVC.

The new GZ-HD3 is the little brother of the GZ-HD7. Not only are the specs smaller but it also manages to be just three-quarters of the size of its older sibling, which wasn’t that big to begin with.

Unlike the HD7, this is not a Full HD camera, offering instead 1440 x 1080 video at 30fps. The generous 60GB hard disk drive – no more crappy tapes - will cope with seven hours of high-def video and there’s an additional SD Card slot to boost that storage even more. There’s a HDMI and Video Out connection along with support for USB for FireWire too.

There are three CCD image sensors to handle the primary colours, which should help boost overall video colour quality and also low-light performance. It’s due out in the US first in September for around £650.

If you want to see what the competition is doing, check out Sony's Handycam HDR-CX6EK and Sanyo's Xacti HD2.-Martin Lynch

camcorder HD video JVC