Camcorders have come a long way in the past few years, but most still record video to a form of tape – usually MiniDV cassettes.

This has its advantages, as tapes are relatively cheap, but they can be fiddly. JVC’s GZ-HD10 does things a little differently, storing footage on a built-in 40GB hard disk.

The GZ-HD10 sits comfortably in the hand, and is ready to record just a few seconds after its screen is flipped out. The lens is protected by a manually operated sliding cover and has a 10x zoom.

Shooting everyday home movies is as simple as pointing the camera and pushing the main record button, with menus accessed using a small joystick and two buttons on the side of the flip-out screen, but it’s also possible to access a manual focus mode that’s made easier to use by vivid colour highlighting of sharply focused areas.

The camera records video in the modern AVCHD standard, and offers three levels of quality. The best will allow you to fit five hours of footage on the disk, while the lowest will allow for 16 hours before having to move or delete any.

Shooting at the highest quality we were able to produce some impressive videos in a variety of lighting conditions, and there’s even a small built-in light on the front that can, at a pinch, be used to illuminate gloomy scenes. An adapter on the top of the camera makes it possible to add a better light or a microphone.

With a two-megapixel sensor the GZ-HD10 can’t capture photos to rival those of a dedicated still camera, but they’ll serve for everyday snapshots. Photos can be recorded either to the hard disk or a memory card. It can output directly to a television in high definition, and has both component video and HDMI outputs. It connects to a PC using USB, and some simple video-editing software is included.

At almost £600 this isn’t a cheap camera, but it is an impressively simple way to record high-definition movies. If you have a computer capable of editing and storing the results, it’s an impressive way to start shooting in high definition.