JVC Everio GZ-HD3

Dull HD and Poor Battery Life Make it a Bad Combo

JVC has been cranking out tapeless camcorders for almost three decades now (well, in dog years at least) and that experience shows in the long list of refinements the company built into this 3-chip HD delight. An in cam pie-chart shows recording time left, both graphically and numerically. The battery meter displays the remaining juice, even when the cam is switched off. A focus assist feature outlines edges of in-focus images for macro aid in manual shooting. But don't be bedazzled by the Full HD label: this cam only shoots at 1440 x 1080i, not the 1920 x1080i you might expect.

WIRED Disgustingly good variable speed zoom focuses fast to shoot action like Michael Bay. Front-side light switches on in the dark for hot lights-out action. 5 hours video recording at max resolution. Loaded with outputs: HDMI, USB 2, i.Link (FireWire), and component video outs.

TIRED Dull HD video; we've seen pears that were crisper. We'd prefer one CMOS to three CCDs. Semi-proprietary MOD file-format a pain to use with many common video-editing apps. Just over one hour of battery life? We're gonna need at least twice that to bootleg I Am Legend.

• Digital Zoom: 200x
• Optical Zoom: 10x

• Style: High def, Tapeless
• Manufacturer: JVC
• Price: $1,300
Release Date: September 2007