The JVC GZ-MG555
camcorder
A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swa ...
(in North America), also known as the
JVC GZ-MG575 (in Asia and Europe), was produced by
JVC
JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood corporation. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for ...
in 2007. It records standard definition
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic video coding format, coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of Lossy compression, lossy video compression and ...
video onto either a built-in
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
or on a
secure digital memory card in
MOD
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
format.
Video can be recorded in four quality settings: Ultra Fine (720 x 480, 8.5Mbit/s), Fine (720 x 480, 5.5Mbit/s), Normal (720 x 480, 4.2Mbit/s), and Economy (352 x 240, 1.5Mbit/s). The built-in hard drive has a capacity of 30GB (40GB for GZ-MG575) and can hold up to 7 hours of video when recorded at the highest quality setting.
When recording to a memory card, the recording time depends only on the capacity of the card. The GZ-MG555 uses full-size
SDHC
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanD ...
memory cards. One 4GB card can fit roughly 1 hour of video at the highest quality setting. There are no limitations for using any of the recording formats when recording to a memory card.
In 2007 this camcorder had the largest imaging sensor for a consumer camcorder, 1/2.5". Other distinguishing features of this camcorder include:
* External microphone jack
*
Accessory shoe
* Built-in
neutral-density filter
In photography and optics, a neutral-density filter, or ND filter, is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths, or colors, of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. It can be a colorless (clear) or ...
* FireWire port
* Threaded lens barrel for attachments
* Black body color
Lacking from the camcorder is an
optical viewfinder
In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and, in many cases, to focus the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main ...
, headphone output,
focus ring, and full manual mode.
Specification
* Sensor: 1/2.5-inch 5.37 Megapixel CCD
* Lens speed: f/3.5
* Filter Diameter: 46 mm
* Optical Zoom: 10x
* Image Stabiliser: digital
* Viewfinder: No
* LCD Screen: 2.8"
* Headphone Out: No
* Microphone In: Yes
* Recording media: built-in 30GB (GZ-MG555) or 40GB (GZ-MG575) HDD, SDHC memory card (card is not included)
* Weight: 750 g
References
External links
Product Information and Reviews
First impressions by CamcorderInfoHands-on review by AVCHDUser{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123212958/http://avchduser.com/articles/JVC_Everio_review.jsp , date=2010-01-23
Review by Videomaker
Practical Solutions
Working with JVC Everio MOD files
Sample videos
Outdoors, daytime, handheld
GZ-MG555