The camcorder is able to store hours of video. It offers compact design and attractive price.

Thumbs Down:

Visible compression artifacts and does not include audio jacks for external headphone/mic input, and eye-level viewfinder.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 is a standard definition camcorder that has 1/6” CCD optical sensor. It has 60GB internal hard drive and micro-SD card slot for external storage. The camcorder features Electronic Image Stabilization, Digital photo shooting mode, wide-screen capture and 800x digital zoom. Its shooting programs include Twilight mode, Portrait mode, Sports mode, Night mode, Spotlight and Snow.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has three types of white-balance: Automatic, Presets, and Custom. White balance presets include Halogen, Cloudy and Fine. Exposure modes are Automatic and Program, whereas the Exposure Metering are Matrix and Spot.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has MPEG2 digital video format, NTSC analog video format and JPEG still image format. The image storage resolution option is JPEG 640×480. The camcorder has 2.7 inches LCD display that works as rotating viewfinder of 112,000 pixels resolution. It also has infrared remote control and inbuilt stereo microphone.

Zoom lens is manufactured by Konica Minolta and has focal length of 2.2-77mm with F/1.8-4 aperture that offers 35x optical zoom. JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has inbuilt lens shield and TTL contrast detection auto-focus. The zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is both Automatic and Manual.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has self timer delay function of 2 seconds and 10 seconds. The additional features are Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording, Digital noise reduction, Backlight compensation, USB2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, inbuilt speaker, Auto-power save, Low-lux/night mode, inbuilt light, Auto power save and DPOF support.

The connector set of JVC Everio GZ-MG365 includes 1×Docking station, 1×DC power input, 1×IEEE 1394 Firewire/i.LINK, 1×S-video Input/Output, 1×composite video/audio input/output, and 1×USB. The camcorder has JVC BN-VF808U lithium ion battery.

Software included inside the disc are JVC digital Photo Navigator, CyberLink PowerProducer, CyberLink PowerDirector, CyberLink PowerCinema, drivers and utilities. Accessories supplied inside the package are USB cable, A/V cable, shoulder strap, drivers & software disc, and docking station.

Razzle Dazzle:

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 is 2.7 inches tall, 4.5 inches wide and 2.2 inches thick and weighs 12 ounces battery. The camcorder is relatively compact and small enough to provide comfortable grip.

Inside Dope:

JVC Everio G series camcorders are hard-disk based standard-definition product. This G series is attracting the consumers due to its compact size and costs from $350 to $450. New Everio GZ-MG3xx camcorders are coming in different specifications but with similar size, picture quality, performance and features. The GZ-MG300 with 30GB drivers comes in red, blue and silver colors; whereas the GZ-MG360 with 60GB comes in black color. The siblings of MG330 and MG360 offer Share Station dock of FireWire and S-video. We had already reviewed JVC Everio GZ-MG360, now we will discuss about its sibling – JVC Everio GZ-MG365 that offers same 60GB inbuilt drive, quite similar performance and features.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has 2.7 inches LCD display. Unlike other competitors, JVC has included touch-sensitive vertical strip – Laser Touch bar with blue LED light at the screen bezel. You can use this vertical bar to navigate through menu and other shooting options. The five recessed and small buttons are located beneath the display. Moreover, the frequently used settings are located on the top level of menus. These settings include backlight compensation, scene exposure modes, aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), gain control for shooting in low light, and video quality. Manual Settings menu shows options for metering, shutter speed, white balance, manual focus, and exposure compensation.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 has a CCD (charge-coupled device) optical sensor and 35x zoom lens, but do not have a viewfinder. We like that the camcorder can record videos in four bit rates with different quality: Economy 352×240 pixels at 1.5Mbps, Normal at 4.2Mbps, Fine at 5.5Mbps and Ultra Fine at 8.5Mbps. The recording time will increase as you degrade the quality. The MG365 and MG360 with 60GB drives can store 74 hours in Economy mode and 14 hours in Ultra Fine mode. On the other hand, the 30GB can record 7 hours in Ultra Fine and 37-hour in Economy. In addition, you can record videos at micro-SD card. JVC is supplying CyberLink software for transferring image and video files to the computer. You can also connect the camcorder to the Windows or Mac computer for drag and drop the files.

We are disappointed that LCD looks washed out in direct sunlight. It makes difficult to take outdoor shots in the morning, especially when no viewfinder is present. JVC Everio GZ-MG365 also does not have audio jack for external headphone and microphone for recording in noisy environments.

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 offers powerful range with its 35x zoom lens. While testing, we found it a bit difficult to maintain smooth and consistent zoom. The auto-focus mechanism had worked in good light and performs close focus up to one inch.  However, it was difficult to maintain focus in low light. Digital image stabilization is not as effective as optical one.

The color reproduction is nice and accurately displays bright objects and subtle tones. Compression artifacts are still visible in the video, especially for moving subjects to their relative still background. The moving objects exhibits good quality, but their respective background look low resolution and blocky. These compression artifacts are less visible on small size TV, but clearly noticeable at 42 inches or large television. The still photographs of VGA resolution are only good for small size to be used on email and Internet.

Nitty Gritty:

JVC Everio GZ-MG365 is a basic entry-level standard-definition camcorder for casual users. If you need a basic camcorder with FireWire and S-video ports, then you can go for the MG365. However, we will recommend you to check Sony DCR-SR45 and SR65 as well that offers comparative features in low price range.

Capable to hold several hours of video; compact design and good price.

Thumbs Down:

Visible compressed video artifacts; no headphone jack, mic input and eye-level viewfinder.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

JVC Everio GZ-MG360 camcorder has 1/6” CCD optical sensor. It features 800x digital zoom, Electronic Image Stabilizer and digital photo shooting mode. The maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum is 1/2 second. It has 60GB inbuilt hard drive and micro-SD card slot.

2.7-inch LCD display of JVC Everio GZ-MG360 has a resolution of 112,000 pixels. It also works as rotating viewfinder. The additional features are Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, inbuilt speaker, Direct Print, DPOF support and inbuilt lighting.

The still image format of JVC Everio GZ-MG360 is JPEG and image storage resolution is 640×480. Analog video format is NTSC and digital video format is MPEG2.

Zoom lens is manufactured by Konica Minolta and has focal length of 2.2-77 mm with an aperture of F/1.8-4. It provides 35x optical zoom. Zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is automatic and manual. JVC Everio GZ-MG360 has 30.5mm filter and inbuilt lens shield and inbuilt stereo microphone.

JVC Everio GZ-MG360 has three connectors: 1×DC power input, 1×composite video/audio input/output and 1×USB. It has one JVC BN-VF808U lithium ion rechargeable battery. Accessories supplied inside the package are software and driver disc, audio/video cable, USB cable, power adapter, battery, shoulder strap and infrared remote control.

Razzle Dazzle:

Like complete MG300 series, JVC Everio GZ-MG360 is 2.2 inches tall, 4.5 inches wide and 2.2 inches deep and it weighs around 12.7 ounces with battery. The enclosure color is onyx black.

Inside Dope:

The hard-disk based standard definition camcorders are alluring when they fall in low price range. Same is true for JVC Everio G series, which costs from $350 to $450. Now, the company has launched JVC Everio GZ-MG360 that offers 60GB hard drive, and the MG330 with 30GB hard drive. The MG330 comes in red, blue and silver colors, whereas the MG360 comes only in black color. Both of the models offer onboard Share Station dock to provide FireWire and S-video ports.

JVC Everio GZ-MG360 has 2.7-inch LCD display. The GZ-MG360 has vertical touch-sensitive blue-light LED strip located at the left side of LCD screen. It allows navigating through menu options. You will find all the required options such as backlight compensation, scene exposure modes, aspect ratio, gain control and video quality located at the top level. Other manual options include metering options, shutter speed, white balance, manual focus and exposure compensation.

JVC Everio GZ-MG360 has 1/6 inch optical sensor of 680,000 pixels and 35x optical zoom. On the dark side, there is no viewfinder included in the camcorder. The MG360 can record MPEG2 video in four different qualities including Economy (352×240 pixels at 1.5Mbps), Normal at 4.2Mbps, Fine at 5.5Mbps and Ultra Fine at 8.5Mbps. The recording time will increase, but quality degrades on decreasing the bit rate. For the MG360, the recording time will be 14 hours in Ultra Fine mode and 74 hours in Economy mode. It will be 7 hours and 37 hours respectively for 30GB models. We disappointed that the included CyberLink software is only compatible to Windows. However, you can simply drag and drop your videos and photographs files to your Mac machine.

We also missed eye-level viewfinder in JVC Everio GZ-MG360. However, it is common for the camcorders in its size. The LCD looks washed out in bright light and it is difficult to view in low light. We would prefer to have alternative backup viewfinder. The camcorder also does not have external headphone and microphone jacks.

The optical zoom seems to be smooth. The auto focus works well in bright light and even focus closely for 1 inch distant object. However, it took a long time for focus in low light and low contrast light. The Digital Image Stabilization is also less effective than optical one.

The color reproduces good and accurately for displaying bright colored subjects and subtle tones. There are visible compressed artifacts in the videos like various standard-def camcorders. They will be more noticeable while comparing the moving objects to background. On the bright side, the moving objects will be recorded very well at high quality settings. However, the backgrounds will appear to have low resolution and blocky. These artifacts were noticeable on wider LCD and less on small screen. The photographs of VGA resolution are enough good for online sharing and email.

Nitty Gritty:

JVC Everio GZ-MG360, MG360, MG335 and MG330 are useful and budget priced camcorders for new users. These models are cheaper than Sony DCR-SR65 and SR45, and Panasonic SDR-H60 and H40. If you need more space and capacity to record long hour videos, then you can buy JVC Everio GZ-MG360.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 delivers good photo quality and solid standard-def video quality. It has a small and comfortable design. The GZ-MG730 comes with a docking station and a remote control.

Thumbs Down:

The menu navigation is tricky with polarized interface. There is no slot for external mic and headphone. The camcorder is over-priced.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 is 7.38-megapixels camera that has CCD optical sensor of 1/2.5” size. The camcorder has built-in 30GB hard disk drive. The enclosure color is Onyx black and the GZ-MG730 has 300x digital zoom. The maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum is 1/2 second. The Everio camcorder has Electronic Image Stabilizer and digital photo mode for shooting. The shooting programs are Twilight mode, Portrait Mode, Sports Mode, Spotlight and Snow.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has 2.7-inch rotating LCD display based on TFT active matrix. This display works as viewfinder of 1,12,000 pixels resolution. The camcorder has three steps auto exposure bracketing. The exposure modes are Automatic, Shutter-priority and Program. The white balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. Its presets include Halogen, Cloudy and Fine. The camcorder has inbuilt flash with Auto flash mode.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has zoom lens of focal length 6.3mm-66mm with an aperture of F/3.5. The lens provides 10x optical zoom and the zoom adjustment is motorized drive. The auto focus is TTL contrast detection and focus adjustment modes are manual and automatic. The lens has a filter size of 43mm. The GZ-MG730 has widescreen video capture and inbuilt stereo microphone with feature of wind noise reduction. The self-timer delay is available with the timings of 2 seconds and 10 seconds.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 captures images in JPEG format and stores videos in MPEG2 format. The image-storage resolution options are JPEG 640×480, JPEG 1280×720, JPEG 1600×1200, JPEG 1920×1080, JPEG 2592×1456, JPEG 2592×1944, JPEG 3072×1728 and JPEG 3072×2304.

The special effects of JVC Everio GZ-MG730 are Black & White, Classic Film, Storbe and Sepia. The digital scene transition options includes Shutter wipe, Window wipe, Black & White, White fader, Scroll wipe, Corner wipe, Black fader, Slide wipe and Door wipe.

The additional features of JVC Everio GZ-MG730 are Dolby Digital AC-3 (2 channel) recording, Digital noise reduction, Digital image rotation, Backlight compensation, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge Support, Histogram display, inbuilt lens shield, Date/Time Stamp, Auto power save, Direct print and DPOF support. The GZ-MG730 also has an infrared remote control.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has five interfaces: 1× IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.LINK), 1×Docking station, 1×DC power input , 1×Composite video/audio output, and 1×USB. It also has an expansion slot for microSD card.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has JVC BN-VF808 lithium ion 1460mAH battery. The accessories supplied with the GZ-MG730 includes camcorder shoulder strap, docking station, remote control, drivers & software discs, battery, USB cable, A/V cable and power adapter. The software set supplied with the camcorder includes JVC Digital Photo Navigator, Cyberlink PowerProducer, Cyberlink PowerDirector, Cyberlink PowerCinema and drivers & utilities.

Razzle Dazzle:

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 is 4.7 inches deep, 2.8 inches wide and 2.7 inches tall and weighs around 12.8 ounces with battery. Its size is a bit larger than JVC Everio GZ-MS100 (microSD card) camcorder.

Inside Dope:

Unlike other camcorder manufacturers, JVC has a standard to include high-resolution image sensor in its product range. The new JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has 7-megapixels sensor instead of normal 680,000 pixels or 1-megapixel sensor. JVC had manufactured GZ-MG730 with a goal to provide a single-body device for both still camera and camcorder. The new JVC suffers with some issues like its competitor – Sony Handycam DCR-SR85 and Canon HG10. The Everio GZ-MG730 has both 30GB inbuilt hard drive and microSD card slot. However, it does not have a slot for headphone or external microphone.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has 2.7-inch flip-type LCD display and well-placed controls. A dial surrounding the record button sits on the back, which is thumb-reachable. You can use this dial to change various modes for both still capture and video recording such as Aperture Priority, Shutter, Manual (Program AE), Auto and six scene options. The battery is also located on the back and takes up a lot of space. A switch button sits above the battery that can change shooting mode from still capture to video. However, you cannot capture still photographs while shooting video. Snapshot button and zoom rocker are located on the top.

You can flip-open the display to access a panel of buttons that includes button to turn-on inbuilt neutral density filter, button to jump from record to playback, Direct Back Up, Direct DVD and power button. The neutral density filter decreases the light transmission for slow shutter speed in bright light. You can set the camcorder to power on with opening of LCD display. It might be difficult for new users to access these buttons, but there will be no problem after some practice.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has a touch-sensitive strip containing Laser Touch controls located down at LCD’s left side. This strip is quick responsive and works like directional pad or joystick. This strip has five directions to select the options for adjusting shutter speed, exposure and focus. It highlights blue color when in use.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 captures still images in JPEG format and records video in MPEG2 format. The Ultra Fine Video setting works at 8.54Mbps and provides recording time of 7 hours. There are three more options to record the videos. One of them is Eco at 1.5Mbps for 37 hours 30 minutes recording time. Obviously, you will go for the Ultra Fine Video setting for better results. The GZ-MG730 captures still images at 7-megapixels.

The video quality of JVC Everio GZ-MG730 is good for its class. We recorded some small videos and captured few still photos using it. The colors were fine with passable white balance in daylight. The auto white-balance was warm in indoor shoots and the Everio GZ-MG730 did not apply fluorescent or incandescent presets like other camcorders of this range. In low light, the camcorder was slow to focus but delivered better quality than we expected. We recommend you to set manual white-balance for good results.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 does not have optical image stabilization. Therefore, extending the lens up to 10x zoom without a tripod mount will result in shaky video or photos. The zoom rocker is very touch-sensitive, so you need some practice to handle it. The Everio GZ-MG730 comes with a docking station and remote control that makes easy to watch recorded video on the computer or TV.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 is only good in well-light conditions. The photos have few artifacts, looks little sharpened and colors are off. However, the exposures are good with high-resolution. In indoor and cloudy sky environment, the quality degrades with an increase in loosing detail and noise.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has an inbuilt 1460mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 2.5 hours of recording. We recorded a 2 hours continuous video with the camcorder.

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 has a cost of high-quality HD camcorders like Canon HG10. The Everio model does not perform well as per its high price range, but its quality is better than standard definition camcorders such as Sony Handycam DCR-SR85.

Nitty Gritty:

JVC Everio GZ-MG730 produces good photos and passable standard-definition video in bright light. However, it is expensive and will make a hole in your pocket.