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Introduction
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01.Product Tour
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02.Colour & Noise Performance
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03.Motion & Sharpness Performance
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04.Low Light Performance
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05.Compression & Media
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06.Manual Controls
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07.Still Features
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08.Handling & Use
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09.Playback & Connectivity
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10.Audio & Other Features
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11.Panasonic HDC-HS20 Comparison
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12.Canon Legria HF20 Comparison
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13.Sanyo VPC-HD2000 Comparison
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14.Conclusion
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15.Photo Gallery
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16.Specs and Ratings
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17.Comments
JVC Everio GZ-HD320
Previous: Part 2
Colour & Noise PerformanceNext: Part 4
Low Light Performance
Motion & Sharpness Performance Summary
• Video can only be recorded at one frame rate: 1080/50i
• Motion is smooth , although there is some visible artefacting
• Video sharpness is not as good as other camcorders in its class
Motion (7.7)
The JVC GZ-HD320 only records at one frame rate: the standard high definition1080/50i. There is no option available to shoot at alternate frame rates, such as the 25 frames per second that some camcorders offer. We found that this single frame rate did a decent, but unspectacular job of capturing motion; there was some artefacting visible in the trailing edges of colours, but there were no major issues here. (More on how we test motion.)
JVC GZ-HD320
Click here for the HD Version
Remember that these videos have been heavily compressed by YouTube, including the HD versions we link to.
Panasonic HDC-HS20
Click here for the HD Version
In addition to the 50i mode, the Panasonic offers a 25 frames per second mode that provides a more film-like look. However, we found that the motion it captures was not as smooth as the HD320, and that there was more evidence of trailing. Look at the trailing edges of the train and the colour segments on the rotating wheel: you can see the edges lagging behind slightly.
Canon Legria HF20
Click here for the HD Version
The Canon Legria HF20 also includes a 25fps mode, and produced superior video to the JVC, with less trailing and overall smoother motion.
Sanyo VPC-HD2000
Click here for the HD Version
The Sanyo is the only consumer camcorder that captures full 1920 by 1080 video at 60 progressive frames per second (the rest capture interlaced frames), which produces noticeably smoother video with better detail. But it's not perfect; we saw significant petrifactions in the video caused by the extra compression it has to do to store the larger progressive video files.
| Video Sharpness Score Comparisons |
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Although the results from the HD320 aren't terrible, they are also not that good: we have seen a trend for camcorders to have improved sharpness over the past few years, but the HD320 isn't following that trend. Other manufacturers are increasing the effective megapixels of their sensors, which usually translates into sharper images (such as the Canon Legria HF20), but the GZ-HD320 hasn't showed any great improvement.
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