Review: JVC GR-D340 digital camcorder

It wasn’t so long ago that you’d be lucky to get much change from £500 if you went shopping for a digital camcorder, so the fact that JVC GR-D340 costs less than £200 is, alone, something of a miracle.

Let’s make no mistake; the GR-D340 is an extremely basic camcorder. Ignore boasts of an 800x digital zoom; digital zooms are notoriously pointless since they simply enlarge an area of the image, which drastically reduces picture quality. In fact, JVC has fitted the GR-D340 with a fairly healthy optical zoom (32x), but this is about the only feature that makes it stand out.

Everywhere else, things are fairly predictable. There’s a Firewire port, but this is output-only so footage can be transferred from tape to PC but not the other way. There’s also an analogue A/V output and a special cable for connecting the camcorder directly to a TV.

Despite the presence of a Snap Shot button, support for still photography is pretty scant. There’s no memory card slot, no USB connection and the 800,000-pixel CCD delivers low-resolution pictures that are stored awkwardly on tape.

The cassette loading mechanism itself is accessed via the unit’s underside. Bottom-loading camcorders come in for a lot of stick, due to the fact that when used with a tripod they need to be removed from their perch in order to change cassettes. It’s less of an issue here, given the GR-D340’s target audience, but may be worth bearing in mind.

In terms of its video quality, however, the GR-D340 is hard to fault when you consider its price.

The overall picture may be a little soft for some, but in even, exterior light, colours are strong, while indoors there’s little grain under artificial light. The GR-D340 is also very easy to use and would be perfect for digital video newcomers.

Also consider:
Canon DC95
Record your video direct to DVD with this camcorder

Panasonic NV-GS37
A surprisingly comfortable camcorder, but only average indoor performance

Canon DC40
Another DVD camcorder from Canon, but image quality is an issue

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