JVC Everio GZ-HM1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Handling & Use Summary
• There aren't a lot of changes in handling on the HM1 (compared to last year's HM400) • Still has the one long menu, controlled by the finicky Laser Touch system • Same basic shape, size, LCD, and battery and the HM400 • One major upgrade is the Active Image Stabilizer, designed to improve shake when the camcorder is recording at 5x zoom or less
	Still Features	(Page 6 of 11)	Playback & Connectivity

Ease of Use

There are no major changes to the interface of the GZ-HM1. Nearly everything has been adopted straight from the HM400's excellent design last year. The menus are less cluttered than other JVC cams, since a number of options have been moved from the menus to the body of the camcorder.

That being said, the usability of the HM1 is only streamlined if you are an experienced camcorder user. Beginners will have a hard time navigating the menus, finding Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes, or making manual focus adjustments with the control dial. There aren't really many tool tips to speak of and the instruction manual on last year's HM400 was completely unhelpful.

If you aren't interested in any of these advanced features, the new HM1 probably isn't a good choice. There is an auto mode, but even that can be tricky to find. Last year's excellent HM200 is much easier to use and about half the price. This still leaves you with the finicky Laser Touch for navigating menus, but it isn't too difficult to get used to the system. If you get a chance to try it out and don't like Laser Touch, you can always opt for something like the Samsung HMX-H106, which had good performance and was very easy to use.

Handling

While we're pretty happy to see that JVC didn't change much in upgrading the HM400 to the HM1, we could certainly have done with a redesign of the right side. There are several contours beneath the hand strap that don't make for a comfortable hand hold.

The HM1 fits well in your hand, but some funky contours on the right side make for a slightly uncomfortable grip compared to the competition.

It also has the same sub-par hand strap that disappointed us on the HM400. The strap is certainly wide and offers plenty of support, but it lacks the soft, comfortable lining that you find on many high-end camcorders from other manufacturers. And there's that same nagging problem with finger placement: depending on the size of your hand, your pinky is likely to rub against the top-mounted microphone.

What we love about the HM1 is the excellent control dial, which you can use for focus or exposure. It's very similar to the dial found on last year's Sony and Canon camcorders, as well as this year's high-end Samsung models. The action on the JVC dial is excellent and it's very easy to swap functions between exposure and focus. There's also the familiar User button that can be set to scene select, backlight compensation, photometry area, white balance, focus assist, high speed recording, shutter mode, and continuous shooting speed.

The adjustment dial is a godsend for people who like manual controls.		These dedicated buttons give you quick access to aperture and shutter speed controls.

One significant improvement in handling this year is the updated Advanced Image Stabilizer. It was designed to pair with the camcorder's optical image stabilization in order to reduce shake caused by walking. This new system is really targeting zoom ratios between full wide angle and 5x. We don't expect to see much change in the stabilization system between 5x and 10x zoom. Fortunately, the HM400 did very well in our stabilization test last year, so not much improvement is required in this area.

Portability

The HM1 is roughly the same shape, size, and weight as last year's HM400. The weight is distributed evenly through the body of the camcorder to make it very easy to hold steady. With 64GB of internal flash memory, you can carry the HM1 around for a while without weighing your bag down too much.

JVC has not yet published full specs for the HM1, but we expect to find the same weight and size dimensions as the HM400 (shown below).

Battery

The GZ-HM1 has the same battery compartment design as last year's HM400 and, in fact, is scheduled to ship with the same BN-VF908U battery. The compartment is open in the back, so you can theoretically purchase larger batteries for a longer battery life. The BN-VF908U that ships with the HM1 should have excellent battery life, as it was one of our better performers last year. (This assumes that the HM1 is as efficient in energy usage as the HM400 was last year.)

We hope to get the same excellent BN-VF908U battery.

LCD & Viewfinder

The HM1 has the same 2.8-inch LCD with a 207,000 pixel resolution that was featured on last year's HM400. The 0.10-inch increase over traditional camcorder LCDs is commendable, but it's also disappointing. Most manufacturers have put much larger LCDs on their flagship models this year. Sony, Canon, and Samsung all have 3.5-inch screens with about five times the resolution of the HM1's LCD.

Sure, JVC's Laser Touch requires less real estate than a touch screen... but we use the LCD for viewing footage, lining up shots, and determining manual focus levels. That makes LCD size a clear cut case of bigger is better.

The 2.8-inch LCD didn't get an upgrade this year.

Once again, JVC has opted to do without an electronic viewfinder. With Canon adding a viewfinder to its HF S21 this year, that leaves JVC as one of the only major manufacturers to not include this feature. Canon, Panasonic, and Sony all have models with viewfinders.

Menus

The HM1 has the same single-menu design as last year's HM400. The menu is accessed via a touch-sensitive button on the LCD panel. The trouble with this particular layout is that the camcorder has a number of submenus within the main menu. This setup is similar to the new Sony interface, which shoves every single option into a single long list. Sony, however, has buttons you can use to skip to certain sections within the list. JVC requires you to scroll through the entire list before you arrive at the bottom submenus.

The main menu in video mode		The manual settings submenu in video mode

The Manual Setting submenu only appears when the camcorder is in Manual mode. This submenu is a bit less cluttered on the GZ-HM1 than on other JVCs because options for focus, shutter speed, aperture, and exposure are not located here. Those options have their own dedicated buttons on the body of the camcorder. It may be confusing that these four features are not located in the Manual settings submenu, but we don't mind it that much. It means that you can switch between two manual controls without having to sift through the menu system.

The main menu in still photo mode		The main menu in video playback mode

Also returning on the GZ-HM41 is the user-assignable button (labeled with a 'U'). This button can be programmed to activate a variety of different controls—and it's up to the user to decide what he/she wants.