Refine search for Camcorders

  Leave a comment      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

The HD6 has one more HD7-beating trick up its sleeve, too - Deep Colour, aka x.v.Color. This is a wider colour space than regularly used and is beginning to appear on TVs and projectors, which you will need to see the benefits anyway. For example, JVC's DLA-HD100 projector will accept a Deep Colour signal from the HD6, so you can see it in all its glory.

JVC hasn't made the HD6 a mere point-and-shoot device, which is handy as its autofocus, exposure and white balance are a little sluggish compared to Canon and Sony's. Using the 'F' function button you can access the manual settings, which are reasonably extensive. The shutter can be varied from ½ to 1/4000th, and aperture from F1.9 to F8. Both of these are priority modes, so using one sets the other back to auto. There's also a Brightness control, which is essentially an exposure setting, and sharpness control can be found under Custom Setting.

The joystick also gives you direct access to the Program AE modes, which include Portrait, Sports, Snow, Spotlight, and Twilight - hardly extensive, but the usual suspects. A single flick of the joystick will toggle Night mode, too, which essentially drops the shutter speed down until enough light is picked up, but at the expense of very blurry motion.

With its Full HD recording, the GZ-HD6EK is capable of great video performance. But the market is moving very fast at the moment. Canon's HF10 has set a new benchmark for quality, finally showing that AVCHD can give HDV a run for its money. The HD7 still had the edge over previous AVCHD camcorders, but the HD6 is up against stiffer opposition.

In bright sunlight, colours are very bright and saturated, but still faithful. However, the image isn't quite as sharp-looking as Canon's HF10. Generally, the JVC produces a slightly softer image than Panasonic's HDC-SD9, too, although with less grain. In lower light, the HD6 actually produces a less grainy image than any of its JVC Everio predecessors, but it's also a darker one.

Add your comment