JVC GY-HM700 solid-state HD camcorder review

Yes I know that this new JVC GY-HM700 camcorder cost just £5,500 with a standard Canon or Fujinon 1/3rd inch lens, and that many might consider it not a true broadcast camera. However, most of you will be well aware that Sony’s EX1 and EX3 camcorders are making serious inroads into broadcast waters and many professional broadcast cameramen are being forced to work with these new smaller camcorders. The GY-HM700 is JVCs latest offering and it is in the same price range as Sony’s EX3. Both JVC’s GY-HM700 and Sony’s EX3 are solid-state camcorders with interchangeable lenses, but the JVC has one big advantage over the Sony; IT ACTUALLY LOOKS, FEELS AND WORKS LIKE A ‘PROPER’ CAMERA, that is, it is shoulder mounted, it has a proper manual focus lens and all the knobs and switches are exactly where you would expect to find them. Most of you will be used to shooting on camcorders such as Digibeta, HDCAM, Varicam and even 35mm. Those of you who do, and have been unfortunate enough to have been placed in the position that you have had to use a Sony EX1 or EX3, will know and understand just how frustrating these cameras are to operate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing these Sony camcorders, they produce amazing picture quality for the money; but boy is it difficult achieving those pictures in the field. You will find yourself cursing your way through the shoot as you fiddle with those impossible to find miniscule buttons, or worse still, faff around in the menus as you try to find a setting that should be available via a dial or lever on the camera body itself; logically placed of course. Enter the JVC GY-HM700. This little beauty from JVC physically looks just like a professional full-size broadcast camera, albeit a baby one. It takes professional style1/3rd inch lenses and the White Balance presets, Gain presets, Zebra and Skin detail levers, User buttons, Zoom, Focus and Iris controls etc, are all exactly where you would expect to find them. As for the menus, they look slick, professional, and are incredibly easy to navigate, and written in the language that we all understand; and I haven’t even got to the best yet. The GY-HM700 is not only solid-state, but it uses the very affordable SD/HC card media (costing around £12 for a 16GB card), yet it records to the same (higher) 35Mbps variable bit-rate that Sony’s EX series do; JVC have also made an optional bolt-on SxS card recorder (more on this later). The GY-HM700 also takes regular V-loc (Sony type) batteries and a regular V-plate for tripod mount; fixing at both the front and the back for a nicely locked-down and secure fixing. So, now that I’ve whetted your appetite, what kind of image quality does this new JVC produce?

IMAGE QUALITY & USABILITY
Well let me tell you straight off that this new JVC is definitely not up there with professional formats such as HDCAM or Varicam, or even Digibeta, but it doesn’t pretend to be; it only costs £5,500 including a lens. What I’m aiming to do throughout this review is to establish the usability and image quality of this camera, with a little side-by-side comparison with Sony’s EX3, the latter already established in low-budget broadcast productions. I think it is totally fair to compare this new JVC with the Sony EX3, as both use interchangeable lenses and are of similar price, but most importantly, because Sony’s EX3 (and EX1) is the budget boy that everybody is talking about. So, can this new JVC knock the Sony EX3 off its perch?

JVC were kind enough to lend me a brand-new GY-HM700 along with three 1/3rd inch lenses; a Fujinon 16x5.5, a Fujinon 16.5 and a Canon KT20; the latter being the flagship £6,500 model, whereas the two Fujinon’s are around the £1,000 mark.

The GY-HM700 camcorder itself feels pretty robust and much more substantial in build quality than Sony’s somewhat plasticy EX series. The GY-HM700 smacks of a solid die-cast aluminium body with rugged plastic over the top. The metal levers for White balance and Gain feel just as they do on high-end broadcast cameras, the same can be said for the Zebra lever and various other controls such as VF Peaking, VF Brightness, Auto-White trace, User buttons, Monitor, Audio levels etc. As for the various sockets, most of these are professional BNC-type and they too feel just as rugged as those on cameras costing eight times the price. As for the lens, the Zoom ring, Focus ring and Aperture ring, these all feel just like those on professional 2/3rd inch lenses; perhaps slicker and obviously slightly smaller in size. The lens’s Zoom rocker lever, Record start/stop button, Auto/Manual iris switch, Rec preview button, Iris button and Macro and Flange-back levers all feel and function just as they do on professional 2/3rd inch lenses. On the whole, I found this camera to be beautifully crafted, cute and endearing. It’s almost like a high-end full-size professional broadcast camera gave birth to a baby one; I can’t get enough of the superb form-factor of this JVC camcorder.

The attention to detail on this camera is phenomenal. Little details such as the Gain lever having a square end while the White Balance preset lever next to it has a rounded end, make them easy to ‘feel’ your way around.

As I’ve already mentioned this JVC camcorder records to solid-state SD/HC cards. These little cards are available in capacities up to 32GB. I buy 16GB Transcend cards for just £10 each, on which I can fit 90 minutes of full HD 1920x1080 footage. Recording to these cheap SD/HC cards have a huge financial benefit compared to the solid-state offerings from Sony and Panasonic; SxS and P2. I haven’t even got to the best bit yet, this JVC camcorder records to the native QuickTime .mov file format at 35Mbps. This is great news if you edit in Final Cut Pro, as you can simply drag your files straight into your clip bin with no transcoding.

The GY-HM 700 still uses a 720 block just like the older ProHD HDV series such as the GY-HD101, but this time it uses ‘Spatial Offset’ to bring it up to full HD resolution. This helps somewhat and works ok, but it is never going to be as good as native 1920x1080. It is more half-way between SD and HD in terms of real resolved resolution. But, there’s more to life than resolution guys. I took the liberty of filming my Chroma-du-monde resolution charts and the JVC happily resolves approximately 800 lines; compared to the 940 or so lines that I could get out of Sony’s EX3 shooting the same chart. I guess what the big question is, will you notice this 140-line difference between these two camcorders in real world shooting?

Overall I was very happy with the quality and ‘look’ of the footage I got from the JVC. After some tweaking around in the menus adjusting black levels and colour gammas etc and setting the outdoor white-balance to 4300K as apposed to the default 5600K standard. For some reason only known to JVC, the default 5600K outdoor setting appears to have a horrible green spike in the colour spectrum; I mean ‘vomit green’ like that of fluorescent lighting. By reducing the setting to 4300K gives the picture a somewhat warmer and more neutral look, and it loses the ‘green’ tint. This default factory setting definitely needs fixing by JVC in the future firmware update. I shot everything in progressive 25P HQ mode. Overall I found the footage to look pleasing with decent colour, good detail, with some ‘filmic’ qualities. Compared to the Sony EX3 there are noticeable differences. The EX3’s images have more detail, richer colours, with virtually no colour fringing. The JVC (or at least the lenses on it) suffer from Green fringing; especially the Canon KT20 when zoomed in; it’s hideous. The cheaper Fujinon lenses didn’t suffer quite as much. In low light shooting situations, the Sony EX3 also beats the JVC, but this is to be expected as the Sony uses CMOS sensors, whilst the JVC uses CCD chips. CCD is not as good in low light as CMOS and the blacks in low light can be a bit noisy. However, CMOS chips suffer from the rolling shutter (jelly) effect and flash photography makes CMOS chips suffer too. Pro’s and Cons to both.

The JVC GY-HM700 is far superior in image quality to camcorders like the Sony Z1, Panasonic HMC151, Canon XLH1, and even JVC’s own ProHD tape-based HDV camcorders. But it is not quite as good as Sony’s EX range due to its 1/3rd CCD 720 block with special offset. But the JVC is a superb camera, and even though its image quality is not quite there with the Sony EX series, it simply wipes the floor with the latter in terms of build quality and usability. I have had extensive experience with Sony’s EX series, and I have to admit, although they produce nice images, they are an absolute nightmare to use and if you don’t treat them tentatively with kid gloves they will break; viewfinders, mic holders etc all have a tendency to break if not treated carefully. These are issues that you simply won’t have with the JVC. Also the JVC’s form factor is more like that of the larger Digibeta style camera; it is a breeze/privilege to work with. Personally, I would rather take the slight hit in image quality, and use the beautifully built and ergonomically friendly JVC any day.

The button positioning on the JVC is sublime; especially the nice shutter select button. All are buttons and controls are primarily external and logically laid out, as opposed to the horrible menu-driven systems found on your usual handycams. The LCD is much larger and higher definition than before, though still hard to see in sunlight.

The viewfinder is a totally redesigned affair compared to JVC’s previous ProHD camcorders, where it had a tendency to crack on the corner if knocked. This new viewfinder is a lot tougher. However, if you are use to larger viewfinders on full-size broadcast cameras you won’t like this one as it is smaller in comparison. But focusing is still incredibly easy via the viewfinder due to JVC’s very neat focus-assist button, which turns the viewfinder and LCD black-and-white, and a blue (or red, selectable in menus) outline appears on high contrast areas when they are bang in focus; this works really well. Whilst on the viewfinder, this one is totally removable; great when travelling as there will be less chance of breakage and it allows the camera to fit into a smaller case; we all know what airport baggage handlers can be like.

There is a variable Frame-rate function, but in large step increments. But there is no ‘Time-Lapse’ feature on this camera, which is a shame; this is a feature I’d really miss if I were using this camera all the time.

Unlike the Canon XLH1, which is something of a ‘half-shoulder-mount’ design. The JVC GY-HM700 is a ‘proper’ shoulder-mount design, although not full size, it sits on your shoulder in the correct way just like a full-size camera would. Although the JVC is light, it has a reassuring weight to it and it balances perfectly on the shoulder, the ergonomics are superb. The JVC also takes professional V-lock batteries; just like full-size professional Sony shoulder-mount camcorders.

The GY-HM700 has two professional balanced XLR audio microphone inputs, HD/SDI, Remote and Component BNC sockets as well as FireWire and USB outputs. The DC input is a professional 4-pin affair; thank god. There are two headphone sockets on the back, one for the built in/removable earpiece and a spare just above it. There is a professional D-tap max 50W output on the back of the camera for use with on-camera lights etc as well as bracket adaptor for wireless mic receivers and the like. There are two SD/HC card slots so you can have two 32GB cards in there for over 360 minutes of continuous HD recording at max HQ quality setting. There is also an audio RCA output.

On the other side of the camera you’ll find the Focus assist button, VF peaking, VF bright, audio monitor volume, User 1, 2 and 3 buttons, all of which are assignable in the menus. ND filter switch for ¼ and 1/16, Gain L, M and H, White balance Preset and A/B, Audio record level for right and left channels, display mode for LCD, which switches to the largest ‘time-code’ readout you have ever seen. On the front under the lens there is a white-balance button and a Zebra on/off select, which doubles as a Skin area detect or Spot meter; nice.

The camera mounts to a tripod by way of a professional Sony style V-plate, which locks the camera at both the front and the back for a solid fixing to the tripod.

I totally love this camera, especially the ‘form factor’, sure the image quality is not quite there with Sony’s EX series, but as I’ve already mentioned the build quality and form factor of this JVC camera is simply light years ahead of the EX1/EX3 camcorders. I like the secure feeling I get from the JVC, trust me on this one, I’ve manhandled this camera and given the viewfinder, microphone holder, and various other parts of the body some moderate bashing with the palm of my hand in an attempt to crack or break something, but the camera withstood my moderate punishment; and I’m glad it did otherwise I would have had to have blamed the couriers.

The GY-HM700 costs just £4,250 plus vat for the body only so don’t expect a full-on broadcast picture. If you want broadcast spend £30,000 plus, or hire something. This JVC has a market - corporate, weddings, SIVs, event work, and to be perfectly honest, certain types of broadcast work for certain Sky channels or news, factual. But not big-budget blue-chip stuff.

On a final note (JVC, if you are reading), I’d like to see JVC bring out a GY-HM700 version 2 model that uses the same CMOS 1/3rd native 1920 chips that Panasonic use in their 301 camcorder. If JVC did this and ditched the somewhat Jurassic period low-res CCD ones that they currently use with all their pixels-shifting, lack of resolution and noisy images in low-light, they would have a winner; a real winner. This camera is ‘good’, but with decent chips it could be ‘amazing’. For me personally, I’d rather use a camera like this JVC that is well-built and works like a proper camera and take a small hit in image quality, as opposed to working with a non-form-factor nightmare that produces slightly better images. Horses for courses.

The lens options for this 1/3rd inch JVC are:
Canon KT14 will become the standard lens and I expect it to be good.
Canon KT20x5B KRS £4,900 inc vat. Available now.
Fujinon TH17x5BRM £1,725 inc vat. Available now.
Fujinon TH13x3.5BRM £6,660 inc vat. Available now.
Fujinon HTs18x4.2BRM £8,300 inc vat. Available now.
Fujinon HTs18x4.2BERM with built-in 2x extender £10,100 inc vat. Available now.

For more details on the JVC GY-HM700 visit: http://www.jvcpro.co.uk

©2009 Nigel Cooper