JVC Everio GZ-HM400

The GZ-HM400 is the best camcorder we've reviewed this year from JVC, but it isn't nearly as good as the Panasonic HDC-HS300 for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, the HS300 had much better low light performance in our testing. It managed to keep colours accurate, noise levels down, and maintain a low light sensitivity that is worthy of a high-end HD camcorder. The main problem with the GZ-HM400 is the fact that it had such difficulty when the lights got dim. It required over three times the amount of light as the HDC-HS300 to capture a usable video image.

Low light performance aside, these two camcorders are actually very similar. They both have 32GB of internal flash memory, both include a variety of manual controls, and both feature a traditional design. The Panasonic, however, is far more comfortable to hold and use, offers a lens ring instead of an adjustment dial, and has an electronic viewfinder as well as a 2.7-inch LCD. One perk of the GZ-HM400 was its excellent bright light performance scores—particularly in motion and sharpness—that were slightly higher than what the Panasonic HS300 had to offer. The JVC also has more still features and better still sharpness capabilities than the HDC-HS300. The Panasonic includes a 25p recording mode, while the JVC has no alternate frame rates for Full HD recording (it does have three low-quality slow-motion modes, however).

Mainly due to its increased ability in handling low light situations, as well as its more comfortable design, the HDC-HS300 is a superior product to the JVC GZ-HM400 in almost every category. Since it is a hands-down better camcorder than the GZ-HM400, we feel it is well worth the extra cash.

	Comparison Specs
	JVC GZ-HM400	Panasonic HDC-HS300
Price	£679.99	£1039
Primary Recording Media	32GB internal flash memory	32GB internal flash memory
Secondary Recording Media	SD/SDHC memory card	SD/SDHC memory card
Image Sensor	1/2.33-inch CMOS	Three 1/4.1-inch CMOS
Effective Pixel Count	Unknown (video) 9 megapixel (stills)	2.07 (x3) megapixels (video) 2.65 (x3) megapixels (stills)
Mic Input	3.5mm	3.5mm
LCD	2.8-inch with 207,000 pixels	2.7-inch with 230,400 pixels
Viewfinder	None	Yes
Weight	485g with battery	482g with battery
Dimensions	67 x 72 x 141mm	72 x 70 x 141mm
HD	Yes	Yes
Frame Rates	Full HD: 50i Low Quality: 120fps, 300fps, 600fps	50i, 25p
Compression	AVCHD	AVCHD
Maximum Bitrate	24Mbps	17Mbps
Optical Zoom	10x	12x
Stabilisation	Optical Image Stabilisation	Optical Image Stabilisation

Bright Light Colour Comparisons
JVC GZ-HM400	Panasonic HDC-HS300

Video Sharpness Score Comparisons