JVC Everio GZ-MG330 review – identical to other GZ-MG3xx models
Thumbs Up:
Compact design; attractive price; able to hold hours of video
Thumbs Down:
A lot of compression artifacts are visible in the video. The GZ-MG330 does not have eye-level viewfinder, headphone jack, and external microphone input.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 has 1/6” CCD Optical sensor and 30GB hard-drive. The maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum is 1/2 second. The camcorder features Electronic image stabilization, micro-SD card slot, 800x digital zoom, and digital photo shooting mode.
The GZ-MG330 supports MPEG2 digital and NTSC analog video formats; while the supported image format is JPEG. The still image storage resolution option is JPEG 640×480. The camcorder comes with an infrared remote control.
The zoom lens has 2.2-77mm focal length with F/1.8-4 aperture that features 35x optical zoom. The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 has inbuilt lens shield, stereo microphone and 30.5mm lens filter. The additional features are Dolby Digital AC-3 (2-channel) recording, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, Inbuilt speaker, Direct print, and DPOF support.
The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 has 2.7-inch rotating LCD color display of 112,000 pixels format. The connector set includes 1×USB, 1×Composite video/audio (input/output), and 1×DC power input. The humidity operating range is 35-80%. The maximum storage temperature is 122°F and minimum is -4°F.
The minimum operating temperature is 104°F and minimum is 32°F. Accessories supplied inside the package are power adapter, battery, USB cable, an A/V cable, drivers & software disc, shoulder strap, remote control, and user manual.
Razzle Dazzle:
The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 is 2.7 inches long, 4.5 inches wide and 2.2 inches thick and weighs 12.7 ounces without battery. It looks like its siblings of the MG3xx series.
Inside Dope:
The hard-disk based standard-def camcorders are the better choices for long recording time and more storage space. The Everio GZ-MG3xx models come in various choices. It includes the JVC Everio GZ-M330 with 30GB hard-drive in red, blue or silver colors; and the MG360 with 60GB drive in black color. The JVC also provides the same versions with Share Station dock in two other models: the MG335 and the MG365. We had reviewed all these versions previously. Now let us have a look at the JVC Everio GZ-M330. It costs $375.50 and offers similar video quality like other MG3xx models. However, it lacks eye-level viewfinder, headphone and microphone input jacks. The compression artifacts are also visible in the recorded video. On the bright side, the MG-330 provides compact design and able to hold long length video recording. If you need a hard-disk standard-definition camcorder, the Everio GZ-MG3xx series remains better choice.
The JVC has included the Laser Touch control bare that is a blue-light LED touch-strip. It located on the left side of 2.7 inches LCD display. You can use this strip for menu navigation. There five recessed small buttons beneath the LCD display. We like that most frequently need items are located on the top of menus such as video quality, gain control, aspect ratio, scene exposure modes, and backlight compensation. By going just one level deep, you can also access the manual settings such as metering options, exposure compensation, shutter speed, manual focus, and white-balance.
The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 uses 1/6-inch CCD sensor of 680,000 pixels resolution and 35x zoom lens. This feature set is good as per its price tag, but there is no eye-level optical viewfinder. The MG330 records MPEG2 video in four quality modes with different varying rates. It includes Ultra Fine at 8.5Mbps, Fine at 5.5 Mbps, Normal at 4.2 Mbps, and Economy of 352×240 at 1.5Mbps. On decreasing the bit rate, the quality will degrade but recording time will increase. The camcorder can record 74 hours of video in Economy mode and 7 hours in Ultra Fine.
The video clips can be stored on micro-SD card and you can also plays them back on TV via included composite video and stereo RCA cable. You can transfer the video clips to computer through bundled CyberLink software. However, it is not compatible with the Macintosh computers.
The LCD display looks washed out in direct low light and it is a bit difficult to observe it in low lighting. The JVC Everio GZ-MG330 does not include any input for connecting external microphone to improve the recorded audio quality. Also, there is no headphone jack for hearing what’s playing back at the camcorder unit.
While testing, it was a bit difficult to main the consistent smooth zoom. The auto-focus worked well in bright lighting and we could focus closely up to 1 inch to the object. However, the Everio GZ-MG330 was slow to lock the focus low light, especially in low contrast areas. The digital image stabilization was less effective than the optical one.
The overall color reproduction was good with relative accuracy in both bright color objects and subtle tones. There were a lot of compression artifacts in the video, unlike tapeless standard-def camcorders. These were more noticeable while comparing the moving objects with still backgrounds. We liked that the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 can record the moving objects at highest quality better than its competitors. However, the still background had low resolution and appeared blocky. The artifacts were clearly noticeable while viewing at full screen on a large TV screen. The VGA resolution pictures are good for Web usage and small prints.
Nitty Gritty:
The JVC Everio GZ-MG3xx series camcorders are useful for casual users. They are cheaper than the Panasonic SDR-H60, the H40, the Sony DCR-SR45 and the SR65. If you need an entry level camcorder, the JVC Everio GZ-MG330 remains a good choice. However, it lacks optical viewfinder, inputs for headphone and external microphone.
