JVC GY-HD100U Camcorder

A 3-Chip, Progressive-Scan Camera for Film-Look Video and More

By Will Holloway

March 1, 2006    Source: Studio Monthly

If you’re going to use video but want a film look, the GY-HD100U may very well be the most affordable and best-suited piece of equipment for that task available today. JVC introduced this camera at last year’s NAB in Las Vegas. At the time, the company promised features and pricing that would make it a hit. When JVC started delivering units early last fall, the numbers soon proved that the company did, in fact, have a real winner on its hands.

The Skinny

The HD100U is a 3-chip, progressive-scan camera that shoots both HD (720/30p and 480/60p) as well as conventional DV (60i). It has a switchable aspect ratio CCD block (native 16:9) that can also shoot in 24 fps, with the bonus of a built-in 2:3:3:2 pull-down for outputting 60i video from the output connectors. The unit has component and IEEE-1394 outputs built right in for playback and confidence checking, and can also output HD-SDI with an optional module.

The camera has a "Motion Smoothing" setting available from a menu that makes 24 and 30p recordings smoother for video playback, and it works fairly well. The recorder section accepts common compact DV cassettes that work for both DV and the HDV recordings, providing up to 63-minute recording times. The cool feature, however, which I was unable to review at the time I had the camera, is that the unit will also record directly to hard disk with the optional DR-HD100 drive module, which is specifically manufactured for this camcorder by Focus Enhancements.

The HDV recordings, which the IEEE-1394 terminal will output directly to the disk drive or whatever else it is connected to, are in the MPEG-2 Main Profile @ HL-14. The terminal will also output the lower quality DV 4:1:1 signal.

The HD100U is the only camera in its class that currently is offering an actual servo-zoom lens. Both Canon and JVC offer interchangeable lens options, but the flexibility from JVC, in my opinion, is superior. The Fujinon 16x zoom lens is standard equipment and unlike the Canon lens that comes with the Canon XL2 camcorder, it has an actual servo motor for extremely smooth zoom starts and stops, as well as variable speed. (Read more about Canon’s new lens options in our Canon XL H1 review in the April issue.) The lens has an actual iris ring, the primary feature missing on the XL2 system. I did notice that the new XL H1 camcorder still has an iris rocker switch on the camera body. But there’s also a wide-angle HD lens available for the JVC camera, which has turned out to be wildly popular, despite the fact that it costs almost twice as much as the camera itself. JVC was conservative when it first started making the lens and underestimated its needs when it ordered the glass from Fujinon. The company is now filling backorders! Fujinon also has a wide-angle adapter for the stock lens that retails for around $600.

Other nice features available with the HD100U are the large 3.5-inch flippable, reversible, color LCD display, and the battery mount options available for Anton Bauer-type batteries, which will let you keep your camera rolling for five or more hours. The AB battery dynamically balances the camcorder, making it very comfortable for shoulder mount shooting as well.

Shooting with the HD100U

When I started shooting with the HD100U, I failed to use my whole brain. Right after I received the camera, I was still immersed in writing my feature on tripods (www.studiomonthly.com/5997.html), so I wasn’t really focusing on the details of operating the JVC camcorder. Then it started to rain here in the Seattle area, and continued to do so for about 26 days. So I didn’t get much time outdoors to play, which is where I do most of my shooting. But then I got lucky. I got a job in Montana, on short notice, so I decided to take the camera along on the shoot. Trouble is, I hadn’t had the time by then to experiment with the camera’s progressive scan, so I didn’t know how well that footage and HD would look for the project. So, rather than take a chance, I shot the whole enchilada in standard definition. That footage looks great. When I started to really test the camera after I got back from Montana and saw how great 720p images looked, I cursed myself for not doing the right thing in big sky country.

What’s important here is that I failed to think about compression when I was on the shoot. For almost anything you intend to do, if you can shoot in HDV, you should. Most everything I shoot will ultimately end up on DVDs. That means that the final product is delivered in 4:2:0 MPEG-2. (Satellite TV also uses this compression generally.) Well, HDV uses the same compression, so if you keep it native through the edit process until conversion to SD for distribution, no image, or, more importantly, chromatic resolution is lost. DV, on the other hand, uses 4:1:1 compression and there is reduced chroma sampling (mostly in luminance) to create the compressed recording. When it’s converted to MPEG-2, that little "1" at the end becomes an "0," so your already compressed image has even more data thrown away. MPEG-2 on a DVD has the native chrominance resolution of 360 x 240. HDV, kept in its native format then converted to SD for DVD distribution, will also have a 360 x 240 chrominance resolution. DV, which has a 180 x 480 chrominance resolution, when converted to MPEG-2 will lose half of that resolution again and become only 180 x 240. That’s way less video being delivered to your viewer. So if I had shot my Montana material in HDV, which would have cost me nothing more since it’s recorded on the same tape stock, I would be delivering my clients a better product in the end. "DOH!"

Progressive-Scan Shooting

The HDV recordings of the 100U are shot in progressive scan, so, this may not have suited my Montana shots (which were mostly of railroad and fast-moving train subjects). Frank Kergil, of Belleview, Washington’s Media Tools, generously provided me with HD monitors to review my recordings. He says, "If you’re used to shooting in film, users will love a progressive scan camera. But if video is your regular medium, then you may be out of sorts using one." All I can say is, in my case, he’s absolutely right. When I was younger, I did a fair bit of film shooting, so I’m not lost in the medium, and progressive-scan video is definitely a medium unto the video world. I am, however, much more comfortable in the 60i world. I know what kind of shots I can pull off in 60i and when I tried some of those types of shots in 30p with the GY-HD100U, I got below-par results.

For instance, I was shooting a sailing regatta in an inland sea near my home. Both wide shots and telephoto tracking shots of the sailboats were amazing. The crews working on the boats were clearly visible at their tasks on the decks of the racing vessels, and the background bluffs, miles across the sound, were detailed, yet nicely blurred in the moving shots. What stunk were the "locked-off" telephoto shots where the sailboats clipped across the screen, in a jittery, frame-by-frame fashion. I also found that locked-off shots of fast-moving objects like cars or trucks or trains passing by, which I also shot along the shore, were not well captured. But when I shot some great footage of an Aikido martial arts demonstration, the fast-paced action shots seemed to be enhanced by the 30p and, to some degree, the 24p shots I recorded.

How It Handles

I’m used to larger broadcast-style camcorders and dockables, and I found the HD100U to be an easy camera to use. The switches are thoughtfully placed. Many necessary functions are on the switches or can be assigned to one of several, user-definable ones. That’s a great thing in a world of cameras with menu-driven electronics. Buttons and switches are so much more useful to a professional shooter on fast-paced, demanding job like newsgathering.

I also thought the unit performed well in very extreme conditions, considering I did a lot of recording in 0 to 10-degree (Fahrenheit) weather and snow in Montana. (For more about shooting with the HD100U in extreme heat and moisture, see www.studiomonthly.com/5887.html.) Recordings were perfect, although the batteries sure didn’t last. The Anton Bauer kit, which would have extended the battery life considerably, wasn’t installed on my test camera.

The lens works very well when you consider that it comes with the camcorder. It’s a little narrow in the wide angle but has a decent reach in telephoto. I found that, under certain conditions, it was a little soft around the edges of the frame. I’d also like to point out that this camera has a noticeable F-stop "sweet spot." You might think it would be sharpest at the usual higher f-stops, but it’s got the sharpest focus around F4 through F5.6. I found that I needed to use the Neutral Density filters (installed on a handy switch) when shooting in daylight to keep the F-stop closer to the sweet spot.

One final feature that is indeed pretty cool and worth bragging about is the "Focus Assist" button on the top of the camera handle. This handy tool changes the image in the viewfinder or LCD screen to black and white, and highlights edges in the image with either a blue, red or green outline. When the outline appears, the edges are in focus on your subject. This worked great, and is a nice piece of built-in insurance, since shooting in HD makes any poorly focused shots really stand out.

For the money— around six grand in its basic configuration— the JVC GY-HD100U is, in my mind, the true bargain in the current camera market. Its only real shortcomings are a slight tendency for vertical smear on extremely bright lights in the frame (but only when lighting is low, like dawn or dusk), and its less than rugged camera casing. I had to do a lot of shooting with a mismatched rain-slicker because I was worried about the weather and dirt or dust. A padded case that left controls accessible— I’m picturing a custom-made, protective camera case or glove, like those made by PortaBrace or Kata— would be a perfect addition to a full field kit. The only other issue I was aware of was an engineering setting that was slightly off in my test unit, causing the screen to have a sort of split-screen look, where the left half of the screen was barely discolored from the right. According to JVC, this apparently is a known issue with some of the early models and can be tweaked out of existence by an engineer. I only saw it on opaque, bright backgrounds like shooting the sky or clouds. Apparently, it’s no longer an issue.

In a nutshell, if you’re shooting film-style work, or like progressive-scan cameras, you would be spending your money wisely on this camera. There are a lot of accessories available for the HD100U and I’ve been told that many more will be shown this year at NAB, including some more lens options. I’d say that’s pretty sweet!