Hi guys,

I'm in the process of getting myself a camcorder, mainly for shooting for comp work. Nothing serious, just want some decent quality footage to play around with.

Anyway, I came across this one, a JVC GR-DV500, and it seems to have a lot of good features for a fairly decent pricetag.

Has anyone of you had any experience with this cam? Good/Bad, let's hear 'em.

I've heard that the low-light capabilities of this cam is rather useless, but sortable with a add-on lightsource...

Any suggestions?

Link:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/30107/art/jvc/camcorder-minidv-gr-dv500.html

// Majk.

The early models had some problems, but I read that those were addressed and fixed in upgrades. My only experience was with an early model, and I didn't have any of the difficulties that were discussed a lot in those days. I thought the camera put out a better quality picture than it should for the relatively low price. I did a shoot with it where an XL1 was the second camera. The JVC was much better in low light, obviously, because of its bigger chips. Under high gain it got grainy, probably a bit more than the other half inch chip cameras would under the same conditions. Overall, it's the cheapest 1/2" chip camera you can buy and a pretty good deal for the money.
On the down side, I didn't like the standard viewfiner, and the better one adds over a thousand bucks to the cost. The cheap lens they give you with the camera package is crap, but it is useable until you could get a better one.

To my eye, the footage from the JVC looked more like standard analog video, while the 1/3" chip camera had a smoother look that was more pleasing in skin tones, etc. We got a DSR250 about the same time I rented the JVC, and people around my place liked the look of the 250 better. However, it wasn't a totally fair comparison because the 250 stuff was well-lighted studio work with dolly/jib shots, while the stuff I shot with the JVC was more run and gun.

You might be interested in the 5000 model which is the first fully professional camera to have a flipout LCD screen. I don't believe either of those models will give you a 16:9 option. I sort of assumed JVC would drop the 500 when they came out with the 5000, but apparently they haven't if you're looking at a new one.