Information Engineer

The JVC Everio GZ-MS120 has a dual pair of SD/SDHC card slots and offers continuous recording: when one storage medium fills up, recording automatically switches to the other. When recording with the dual-slot GZ-MS120 in the highest quality mode (Ultra), recording capacity ranges from 3.7 hours using a pair of 8GB cards to 15 hours using two 32GB cards. In the lowest quality mode (Eco), recording time ranges from 20 hours to 80 hours.
Everio MS120 camcorders make sharing and watching videos easier than ever. New for this year is the One Touch Export function that allows Everio videos to be imported into iTunes and loaded into an iPod or iPhone. All 2009 Everios also offer One Touch DVD burning and the One Touch Upload function that JVC introduced to users in 2008 as a new and convenient way to upload videos to YouTube.
To use any of the three functions, simply connect Everio to a PC using the supplied USB cable. Then, choose one of three buttons on the Everio: UPLOAD, EXPORT, or DIRECT DVD. Pressing the button will launch the appropriate Windows PC application that comes bundled with Everio, and you follow the simple on-screen prompts. With just a few mouse clicks the process of uploading to YouTube, exporting to iTunes, burning to disc or transferring to an external hard disk drive will be completed. For uploading to YouTube, the user can perform an in-camera edit of any length video to fit the 10-minute YouTube limit.

The new Everio MediaBrowser software supplied with all Everio models is a Windows application providing an easy-to-search calendar-type graphical interface for indexing and finding video files. Thumbnail images of recorded videos and stills are superimposed on the calendar so it’s easy to see when any scene was recorded. The Everio MediaBrowser also allows easy playback, simple cut editing, and “Decomotion” to spruce up recorded footage with animated graphics for upload to YouTube. It also supports Export to iTunes, Upload to YouTube, burning to disc or transferring to HDD.
Another new feature found on all Everio camcorders is Digest Playback, which offers an easy and entertaining way to check the content residing on Everio’s HDD or SD/SDHC card. The function automatically selects highlight scenes from among the recorded content using JVC’s proprietary algorithm and plays back what looks like a “coming attractions” trailer for a movie. Sixty minutes of footage is condensed into five minutes of highlight scenes.

Technical Details :
* Dual SD card slot for dual memory continuous recording.
* 40x Dynamic Zoom with Konica Minolta lens.
* Laser-touch operation with sub-trigger and zoom.
* One-touch upload to YouTube.
* Capture video to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included).

PROS :
- Low cost.
- Solid state.
- Great color and low light performance.
- Can see the screen in sunlight.
- 16X9 windscreen native.
- Auto lens cap.
- Auto on and off.
- Instant on – Once you open the screen, you can start taking video within a second or two.
- Low power consumption.
- Each video is saved and managed like a file on the camera.

Cons :
- Difficult to hold – the hand strap is very thin and does not have much support.
- No optical image stabilization.
- MOD format.
- Low light performance.
- No hot shoe.
- No viewfinder.