Labs

The MV930fs slim, upright design fits large hands well. The lens has a sliding cover, so you donft have to fiddle with a lens cap. It has USB and FireWire outputs for transferring video to a PC, but with no FireWire input you canft record edited footage back to tape. An SD card slot lets you store still photos, but with a resolution of only 1,024x768 itfs not really worth it.

The 2.7in widescreen LCD is identical to the displays on pricier models, and a button on the edge increases the brightness for use on sunny days. A small joystick allows you to navigate the straightforward menu system, and novices

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can engage Easy mode to keep things simple.

PERFORMANCE

The MV930fs video quality was the best of the budget models. Outdoor footage was impressive, and objects had crisp edges. There was some noise but less than wefd expect from a camcorder with a 1/6in CCD. In low light there was a lot of noise, with poor detail and colour accuracy. If you often film in low light, youfll need a camcorder with a bigger CCD.

Outdoors the MV930 was the best of the budget camcorders, although under close examination its footage lacks detail and colours are not quite true to life. Its 25x optical zoom is useful for filming distant subjects.

The MV930 records widescreen video with hardly any cropping at the top and bottom of the image. If you engage the Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) as well, though, you lose the top and bottom edges of the picture. The small battery lasted just 55 minutes in our test.

VERDICT

The MV930 is the best budget camcorder here, and a bargain at £208. Itfs a great choice for filming both indoors and outdoors, but if you need to film in challenging lighting conditions you should consider spending more.