JVC Everio camcorder GZ-MG645

[pcrepairman]

Hello all

It's upgrade time.

Moving from VHS-C to digital and looking at this model ..........

JVC UK » Product Centre › Camcorder › Everio › GZ-MG645BEK

Looks like it's very new. No real user reviews online that I can find.

We want something reasonably easy to use for home movies we can transfer straight to DVD disk (using our DVD HDD recorder) for watching on the living room telly.

We are not mega-film makers. Just basic snapshooting type stuff. You know .... holidays, birthday parties, kids playing/growing up. That sort of thing.

Not really bothered about High def at this stage or about transferring to PC.

This model seems to have everything we need.


Anyone here got one? Is it any good?

Even if there are no users here does anyone have any advice on this model for us newbies on digital camcorders?

Thanks for any / all comments. All guidance much appreciated.

[A n d r e w]

How much are you looking at spending?

The Everio has a single small (1/6-inch) CCD sensor so indoor footage will be decidedly average. How much have you seen it going for? In my experience I've found the standard definition mpeg-2 Everios to be very run of the mill in terms of image quality. In my opinion you'd be better off with something like Canon's FS200, which still has the small CCD (so won't be any better than the Everio in low light conditions) and records to SDHC cards as it doesn't have a hard drive.

I would strongly suggest finding a store that has a good returns policy, and trying before buying - gives you a chance to compare a few different models.

[pcrepairman]

Thanks Andrew. Will look at your suggestion and bear in mind what you say.

Not sure why you say the Canon FS200 is better if the CCD is identical. What does the FS200 have over the MG645?

As to costs we have seen the MG645 at £335 but maybe able to get it cheaper if we dig deeper. We thought that was about our limit.

We like the idea that the MG645 has all the connections in the "shoe" to connect it easily to virtually all other devices, PC, DVD recorder and so on.

It was the DV connection that drew us to the MG645 in the first place but perhaps we are getting too hung up on the connectability aspects.

Would any camcorder connected to the DVD recorder by composite be good enough or should we be looking for this DV-type connection to give better quality on the resulting DVD disk?


In our online research we have read reviews on Cnet and Which? for the (lower) model MG330 and it's very confusing. Their views are almost poles apart. Cnet says the 330 is fine for us "entry level" folk but Which? says it gives poor sound and picture quality so discourages people from buying it.

We'd like to hear your thoughts on your preference for the FS200 (and, indeed, anything else you may like to add).

Many thanks again for the advice.

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by pcrepairman

Not sure why you say the Canon FS200 is better if the CCD is identical. What does the FS200 have over the MG645?

I'm really only going by what folk who owned the FS100, the predecessor to the FS200, have reported about it, in addition to my experience with an MG575 which had pretty poor imagery for the money. From samples I've seen it looks to me like the Canon has the better picture. Plus to my mind, the absence of a hard drive is a good thing. SDHC cards are relatively inexpensive, and recording to a number of small cards means you don't have all your videographic eggs in the one basket, as you would with a hard drive. No doubt the Everio gives you the option to record to memory cards, too - and in that respect is more flexible than the Canon. However, image quality is, I think, the overriding consideration and while I doubt they're poles apart, from what I can gather the Canon is probably better, despite still having a small sensor.

Originally Posted by pcrepairman

As to costs we have seen the MG645 at £335 but maybe able to get it cheaper if we dig deeper. We thought that was about our limit.

This seems a bit steep for a standard definition camcorder with a small sensor. For similar money you could buy an "entry-level" high def camcorder which, even if it still has a small sensor, is going to give you nicer pictures. Panasonic and Sony both have a high def offering or two around that kind of price: a quick search at Amaz*n will show you what's available.

Originally Posted by pcrepairman

Would any camcorder connected to the DVD recorder by composite be good enough or should we be looking for this DV-type connection to give better quality on the resulting DVD disk?

What inputs does your recorder take? Does it have a firewire connection? If it's composite-only, then it's all going to be much of a muchness, though you're still best to start with the best picture quality you can afford. Most high definition camcorders still offer composite out, but only tape-based high def (HDV) camcorders offer firewire (with few exceptions - JVC have, or at least had, a high definition hard-drive-based camcorder that had firewire out - I think).

Originally Posted by pcrepairman

Which? says it gives poor sound and picture quality so discourages people from buying it.

I'd believe this. It is a lesser model, however, but as I've said, even the higher-end Everios like the 575 ain't crash hot. It's all relative - you might be perfectly happy with it - it just strikes me that you could get more for your money.

[pcrepairman]

Thanks again Andrew.

We did think of getting a High Def camcorder but, as we want to transfer recordings to a DVD, we thought this might give us problems. We hear 3 main things ....

1. that we need special disks to accept hi def data from the camcorder,

2. that the disks in question won't always play on "typical" DVD players such as the one we have and that

3. those special disks don't hold much data which may mean using several disks to receive the transferred recordings.

These were the main issues as to why we thought we would stick with SD for the time being.

However, are we being misinformed? Please feel free to correct where necessary. We are becoming a little muddle headed with all the information in this steep learning curve.


By the way, generally speaking, am I right to assume that a larger "fraction" denoting the CCD indicates a larger sensor therefore a better one? So 2/3-inch would be superior to 1/6-inch, all other things being equal?



At the moment we are issuing a Liteon DVD recorder, HD-A740, with hard disk. It has a IEEE 1394 jack which I believe is "firewire". This is why we were looking for a camcorder with firewire as we thought would be useful.

Thanks again.