Is the JVC GR-D815 Mini DV Camcorder any good?

Question

I was interested in buying the JVC GR-D815 Mini DV Camcorder from The Source tomorrow. It was going for $249.99 Canadian. Is the price worth it?

Answer 1

Better than any hard drive or flash memory camcorder you might find for the same $... Be aware that miniDV tape transfers to your computer for editing over firewire. You will also need a firewire cable to connect the DV port of the camcorder to the firewire port on your computer. If your computer does not have a firewire port, hopefully it has an available expansion slot so you can add one. USB will not work; a USB/firewire converter will not work. Apple Macintosh computers have had a firewire 400 port standard for about 10 years... the only exception is the new MacBook Air.

Firewire400, i.Link. DV and IEEE1394a are all the same thing.

MiniDV stores DV format to the tape. this is the least compressed of all the available consumer video storage methods - hence best quality.

If you are recording loud audio, this camcorder does not have manual audio control - most camcorders do not in this price range. Loud audio will be muddy and not usable because the built-in mic gain circuit cannot keep up.