Cheap JVC GRD230 MiniDV Digital Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom (Electronics) Price

The features of the compact, versatile GRD230 are accessible right out of the box. The record button is right under your thumb, and the digital still shutter button is exactly where your index finger comes to rest on top of the unit. Playback and mode functions are likewise clearly marked and easy to reach under the flip-out LCD screen. The camcorder's well-thought-out design manifests itself in a dozen other thoughtful details as well. One of our favorites is that closing the LCD screen turns the power off, and opening it turns it on, which facilitates quick-draw shooting and means you'll be unlikely to run down the battery accidentally.

Turn the camcorder on and off simply by closing and opening the LCD screen.

Which is all well and good, but how's the image fidelity? Decent to excellent. Daylight, of course, provides the most vibrant colors and the sharpest contours. But we found that even indoors, under the kind of fluorescent lighting you might find at, say, the offices of a Seattle-based online retailer, the video quality is surprisingly good. One thing the GRD230 does extremely well--and this is not a feature JVC calls out--is take sharp close-ups. We could see clear detail from as close as 5 centimeters away. Image stabilization is among the best we have ever seen: zoom in on a detail across the room, and the picture is as steady as if the camera had been mounted on a tripod.

One of the big draws of the GRD230 is the SD memory card slot that lets you take digital stills (the unit includes an 8 MB card, but you will almost certainly want to get a higher-capacity card as soon as possible). All the power of the 10x zoom lens is also available in still mode (forget about the advertised 500x "digital" zoom, whi ch is nothing but a cropping mechanism), and there is almost no shutter lag. Plus, the GRD230 does close-ups as well in still image mode as it does in video mode.

Freakishly good close-ups. (Actual still picture taken with the GRD230 -- See full-sized image.)

The twin white LED auto-lights are a nice touch, even if their power is not overwhelming. The LEDs come on automatically whenever light is low (you can override this manually) but drain battery power at about a tenth the rate of conventional lights. Power management in general is something the GRD230 does very well indeed. An entire day of intermittent shooting on one charge proved to be no problem.

We do have a few complaints. Automatic mode is not as automatic as it might be; we had to manually adjust the brightness on a few occasions. Transmission to a PC via the USB cord required the installation of drivers from the included CD-ROM. (Isn't the U in "USB" supposed to stand for "universal"? Why do some cameras require a special driver and other s don't?) Also, the shape of the camera body, with its round hump, rather suspiciously makes the GRD230 look like a DVD camcorder. JVC isn't trying to fool anyone, are they? No matter: DVD or no DVD, you would be hard pressed to find anything at this price even approaching the quality and features of this tidy little unit. --David Stoesz

Pros

• Compact, intuitive design
• Decent image quality
• SD card slot for digital stills
• Excellent image stabilization

Cons

• Shaped deceptively like a DVD camcorder
• LED lights have a very limited range
• USB connection requires installation of cumbersome software

CATEGORY:	Electronics
MANUFACTURER:	JVC
FEATURES:	Ultra-compact MiniDV camcorder and still camera with 1.33-megapixel CCD, 10x optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 500x) and image stabilizer, Crystal View rotating 2.5-inch High Resolution LCD, to reduce glare and reflections from the LCD screen, Illumi-Light: Built-in Auto light using twin LED lights for 1/10th the power consumption, BN-V408U 800 mAh Lithium-ion, high-capacity, rechargeable battery pack; camera has built-in battery charger
TYPE:	Camcorder (Camcorders)
MEDIA:	Electronics
ACCESSORIES:
UPC:	046838010774