JVC Everio X GX-X900 EK high-definition camcorder

JVC’s Everio X is one of the smallest 1080p camcorders we’ve ever seen. It eschews a hard disk in favour of an SDHC card slot, which accepts cards up to 32GB.

The Everio captures 1080p HD video using a 10.3-megapixel Cmos sensor – slightly more sensitive than a digital SLR such as Canon’s EOS 1000D – which displayed fine details such as skin blemishes in the higher resolutions.

The facial recognition feature identifies 16 targets and there is also a focus mode, which outlines subjects in red against a monochrome background on the screen.

JVC’s new image stabilisation technology, which mitigates camera shake mechanically at the lens rather than the processing stage, formed consistent capture results without a tripod.

The Everio shoots still images at nine megapixels without any interpolation and can even take five-megapixel images while recording in 1080p. The 5x optical, 8x dynamic and 200x digital zoom, modes all produce decent images too. Macro mode is another useful addition, operating superbly at around 5cm and colour reproduction was accurate.

Another feature is high-speed recording at 500 frames per second (fps), albeit at 640x72 pixels. Using the 100fps setting increases image size to 480x270. Furthermore, the continuous shooting mode, operating at nine megapixels, can take six shots at 15fps – five times the speed of a Nikon D80 SLR camera.

Navigating the Everio X’s functions is easy using the responsive backlit touch-slider and separate menu buttons surrounding the screen.

Everio Mediabrowser, the bundled Windows-only software for the Everio range, allows simple edits and one-touch upload to iTunes and Youtube (Mac users can use iMovie 08).