JVC GRDVL120U MiniDV Digital CyberCam Video Camera with 2.5" LCD & B/W Viewfinder
JVC GRDVL120U MiniDV Digital CyberCam Video Camera with 2.5" LCD & B/W Viewfinder
Manufacturer: JVC
Product Type: Photography
Editorial Review:
Product Description
The GR-DVL120 boasts a 680,000-pixel CCD super high-band processor for 520 lines of horizontal resolution. The maximum user friendliness is achieved with Night Alive (for low-light recording), high-resolution 2.5" Amorphous Silicon LCD color monitor, 700X super digital zoom with spline interpolation, picture stabilizer and long-time recording capability.
Amazon.com Review
Although larger than most MiniDV cameras, the JVC GR-DVL120U still feels lightweight and fits snugly into the palm of one hand. It also doesn't offer some of the high-end features of other MiniDV cameras, but for the inexpensive price of $400, it's still a great value.
The GR-DVL120U includes a 16x optical zoom and 700x digital zoom, letting you get quite close to your subjects. The 2.5-inch flip-out LCD renders images in crisp colors, although the optical viewfinder displays in black and white.
Video quality proved to be bright and colorful, with some decent digital effects available, including wipes and fades. While the GR-DVL120U doesn't include a memory-card slot for storing still pictures like some other cameras in its class, it does take snapshots, housing them on the same DV tape as video.
JVC's NightAlive feature allows for filming in low-light situations, although we have seen better results with the low-light capabilities of other cameras and camcorders.
Recharging the camera requires plugging the AC cord directly into the camera itself--depending on your viewpoint, not having a separate battery charger might be either a positive or a negative. Regardless, the battery recharges quickly, and the charge lasts a little longer than an hour--sufficient for most users.
You'll want a FireWire-capable PC to transfer video to your computer, and you'll have to pick up a FireWire cable. You can also send video directly to your TV or VCR via RCA or S-video from the 120U.
While the GR-DVL120U may not have all the features of JVC's higher-end models, this MiniDV cam does deliver excellent video quality in a very affordable package. The GR-DVL120U would please almost any beginning digital video enthusiast. --J. Curtis
Pros:
Cons:
Lens
Breaking the mold that most other digital camcorders fall in, the GR-DVL120U has a very bright f1.8 lens, which should help with a dilemma common to many digital camcorders: poor low-light performance. While not useful at the highest levels, the optical zoom is augmented by a 700x digital zoom, which can supply that little bit extra you might need in some circumstances. Paired with the zoom is a digital image stabilizer, which will help eliminate much of the shakiness associated with high zoom levels.
Shooting Functions
While many entry-level camcorders skimp on the features, the GR-DVL120U actually provides some useful functions. The manual focus, exposure, and white-balance modes allow you to tailor the image to suit your needs and give you more control over essential camera functions. In addition, JVC added in a number of digital wipes and fades, as well as a black fader.
Output Options
If you want to play your footage on television, the 120U provides two connection methods: S-video and standard RCA-style AV connectors. S-video provides the better video resolution, but you'll still need to use the AV cable for audio, as S-video doesn't carry an audio signal. If your object is to edit your movies on a computer, the camera also comes equipped with an IEEE 1394 compliant port for shuttling video back and forth. It's a four-pin connector, and most computers with IEEE 1394 ports have six-pin connectors, so make sure you pick up the correct cable (JVC doesn't provide one).
Average customer rating: 4.5
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Apple Powerbook Notebook (400-MHz PowerPC G4, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive)
Manufacturer: Apple Computer Product Group: Personal Computer Binding: Personal Computers ASIN: B00005IA5C |
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Product Description
Take a high-performance PowerPC G4 processor, add a wide-screen display, and enclose it all in a lightweight titanium case. Apple has just created the PowerBook G4 - and redefined portable computing. If you need the utmost power for creative design, education, or business, the PowerBook G4 is ready to provide it wherever you go. Making a notebook computer the slimmest and lightest in its category shouldn't have to mean making compromises in performance and functionality. What makes a supercomputer "super" is its ability to execute at least one billion floating-point operations per second. It's a staggering measure of speed known as a "gigaflop". In addition, the PowerPC G4 can perform four (in some cases eight) 32-bit floating-point calculations in a single cycle - two to four times faster than traditional processors. The PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine works with the PowerPC architecture to accelerate the data-intensive processing required by next-generation video, voice and graphics applications.Among the G4 key features is a vector permute function capable of rearranging data in the registers - a priceless benefit when converting data from one format to another (often necessary with voice, video and graphics applications, which typically need to save data in a number of different formats). These vector-processing acceleration advantages give the G4 microprocessor a significant edge when it comes to fast visualization of large data sets and intensive math for real-time simulations, making the PowerPC G4 perfect for everything from digital video, graphics and 3D games to astronomy, the biosciences and predictive modeling.Amazon.com
While this PowerBook model can't compare to its fully tricked-out big brother (the 500 MHz, 256 MB, 20 GB version), it's nonetheless an impressive product. Take a look at the 15.2-inch, wide-aspect-ratio screen in a sleek titanium case and it's hard not to drool with envy. Whether your goal is to author multimedia or just to have the ultimate road-warrior toy, the PowerBook could be the notebook for you. This model offers a 400 MHz PowerPC G4 processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a DVD-ROM drive. Its 10 GB hard disk drive is not huge by current standards, but offers ample space for most storage needs. A modem and networking are standard, as are signature Mac extras such as FireWire ports. The system comes with both the classic Mac OS 9 and the slick new Mac OS X installed.Customer Reviews:
I'm in love.......2003-06-25
But, I will elaborate..... :-) This is the best laptop I've ever owned. It is my fourth Macintosh is just under three years. My first was a clamshell iBook. I then owned a PowerBook G3 and an eMac G4 but decided that I wanted portability in my G4. I bought this PowerBook G4 667 and never looked back. This was the most intelligent purchase I've ever made in the computer world.
Apple designed a truly wonderful products. It is speedy, beautiful, and functional. I could not ask for more in a notebook computer. Thanks, Apple! I'm now a dedicated and loyal user.
The PowerBook G4 is an amazing machine.......2003-02-23
The Best Thing Since the Internet........2002-12-07
I'm not even going to get into how cool this thing looks, you can see in the picture that this an extremely handsome piece of hardware ... I'll delve right into the reason why you'd should buy this thing. Lets face it, these things cost an awful lot of money and it would be quite foolish to buy this thing on its good looks alone.
As a lot of you know, Apple has completely redone the operating system that they ship with this thing (OS X). To cut to the point, its a flavor of the BSD operating system with a Mac GUI called Aqua running on top of it.
What does that mean you ask?
Its running on a flavor of the UNIX operating system which will rarely crash, if ever. So if you're into tinkering around with GNU/Linux or the like, you'll love this thing. If you always hear about all the cool things that computer hacker types can do with computers but have no idea in where to start with these things you'll love this thing too. Apple has a GUI called that runs on top of it that has all the cool stuff that can take hours setting up yourself as simple as (literally) clicking on a button that says start.
For instance, if you have a connection to the internet (dialup, cable modem, dsl, etc.) you can set this laptop up to be a full fledged Unix server that can host your web pages and that you can telnet into in a matter of seconds (go into System Preferences and click start). So you won't have to spend hours trying to set this up if its not your thing. If it is your thing, you can still get into the guts of the computer and do it at the command prompt as you would in Linux.
The one thing that I was very weary about in buying this thing was can you find software for this thing and will the stuff I use on Windows work on this. To quickly answer it, yes Microsoft Office, Photoshop files, mp3s, etc. all work perfectly fine once you transfer them over. If your into that sort of thing, there's just as many Peer to Peer sharing programs for Apple as there are for Windows, the Mac ones might even be better.
As for the downsides of this thing ... there are a few but none that should stop anyone from thinking of checking out the Powerbook from not buying it.
The battery life is not as good as advertised - if you plan on using this for extended amounts of time before recharging it (over three hours) you should strongly consider getting the extra battery. Also rumor has it that since its so thin that the dust and grease from your fingers that get on the keys can damage the LCD when its closed (that hasn't happened to me but I believe it ... putting a piece of paper between the keyboard on LCD when you store it solves this problem).
Software wise my only complaint is dialup connections are painfully slow. A 52K connection seems like it may as well be a 14.4 connection. If you have any type of a high speed internet access this will not effect you one bit.
That's my take on this machine. I think its the greatest thing in computing since the Internet explosion and I just wanted to put in my two cents on it.
Dan
PowerBook Rocks.......2002-07-05
When I bought this computer, I splurged. I brought the RAM to 512 MB, I bought an iPod (5GB) and an airport station, plus Office X. Yes, it cost me a small fortune, but it's still worth it. I love this computer.
This computer is FAST (even at 667 MHz)!! It never seems to slow down. I can play a DVD in a window and be working on email or in Excel or on a website and it keeps up. OS X is incredibly stable and has only crashed once in 7 months. Oh yeah, it's also great looking. I sit at Starbucks with it and constantly get people asking me about it.
Why only 4 stars? Battery life doesn't seem to be that great, even after turning the brightness down on the screen. However, Apple has recently tweaked the DVD player and I can play a three hour DVD with no problems. For cross-country trips, I bought an extra battery. Also, the keyboard presses up against the screen when it's closed and has made some marks on the LCD display.
If you can afford it, I HIGHLY recommend an iPod.
Take this, Bill gates!.......2002-04-27
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