JVC Everio GZ-MC100

While there's no accessory shoe or microphone input, a headphone jack is provided at the front and tripod mount on the bottom. A proprietary connector offers composite and SVideo plus RCA stereo audio output. There's a USB 2 port for hooking the MC100 up to a PC, where it's simply recognised as a removable storage device by Windows XP.

CyberLink's DVD Solution software is included, which consists of PowerDirector Express for capture and editing, PowerProducer for authoring DVDs and VideoCDs and PowerDVD for watching the results. Video is stored on the JVC with a curious MOD extension, which PowerDirector Express could import directly but wasn't recognised as a video format by Windows. However, we found that by simply copying the files to the hard disk and renaming them with an MPEG extension instead of MOD we were able to edit them in a variety of other apps, including Canopus EDIUS 2.5, Let's Edit 2, Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6, plus Adobe Premiere Elements 1 and Pro 1.5.

Although its indoor colour performance was a little disappointing, the JVC Everio GZ-MC100 is still an attractive device. Weighing in at only 315g, it's at least 100g lighter than the smallest MiniDV camcorders. It's capable of sharp video detail, and with one hour of recording available even at the top setting, it's the first solid-state camcorder that isn't just a gadget. If you're after ultimate portability, the Everio has a lot in its favour. Just note that you pay for the privilege.

Author: James Morris