Labs

The GZ-MG57EK is the smallest and lightest camera in the group, so it's ideal if you need to carry your camcorder regularly. Nonetheless, it's comfortable to use, even if you have large hands, and with most of the controls under the LCD it's pleasingly simple to operate. Sadly, the small body means there's no viewfinder.

JVC has fitted a 30GB hard disk inside, which gives seven hours of storage if you record video at the highest possible quality. The device stores video files on its hard disk with an unusual .MOD file extension, but you can open them in Windows Media Player.

Despite the camcorder's

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small size, JVC has squeezed in an S-video output as well as the usual A/V and USB ports. A widescreen display opens out from the body, and a small joystick placed conveniently beside it lets you navigate the simple menu system or pick clips from the hard disk for playback.

PERFORMANCE

Footage recorded on the GZ-MG57EK wasn't as impressive as we'd expect from a 1/5in CCD. Noise wasn't excessive, but colours looked washed out in various lighting conditions. Even on the highest settings you can see the effect of the MPEG2 video compression used to save the footage. This is particularly noticeable in low light conditions, when shooting moving objects or when panning the camera.

The 16:9 widescreen mode produces nice wide-angle shots, so you can capture more of a scene. The battery lasts a respectable hour and 17 minutes, and you can fit a larger one if required. You can take still photos and store them to the hard disk or SD card, but the resolution is limited to only 1,280x960 pixels.

VERDICT

This is a convenient little camcorder that can store a lot of video, but you can get far better video quality from a cheaper MiniDV camera.