By J. Wroten (Greensboro, NC USA)

I’ve had this camera about 4 months now, replacing a Canon mini-DV about 3 years old. It was definitely worth the upgrade, especially since I now have an HDTV to watch the results.When I first got the camera, I was disappointed by the native TOD format that the camera uses. I used the JVC PowerCinema/PowerDirector software for conversion to MPG. That worked, but the software, as is true in most OEM software, wasn’t any fun to use. But now, I have two methods to convert TOD files to MPG files and both are easy to use, so I have uninstalled the JVC Power* software from my (Win Vista) computer.

I found a recent patch to Ulead 11 Plus video editing software which allows the UL11+ to read TOD files natively. So after copying files from the camera to my computer’s hard disk over the USB port, I just open the TOD files, edit away, and then export the final result to an MPG file or DVD. Ulead 11+ is easy to use and very stable software and does everything I need to generate my “home movies”. I have also used ffmpeg on the command line to convert from .TOD to .MPG and that is also very satisfactory on both the Win Vista computer as well as my Fedora 6 Linux box. The command is : ffmpeg -i myclip.TOD -acodec copy -vcodec copy myclip.mpg. ffmpeg is freely available on the internet.

I have also found the OIS unsatisfactory, as stated in many reviews. Maybe in the next version… In the meantime, this emphasizes the importance of a good tripod. But even without OIS or a tripod, I get more than satisfactory results. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUKRpVMAqfs - taken without tripod or OIS, yet using a moderate amount of telephoto.

But the greatest pleasure of this camera is the hard disk media. How great to not have to wind/rewind the tape to find your place before starting to shoot. Imagine, just power it up and shoot! With 5+ hours of space in hi-def mode, I can go for days until I have to upload the files.

By D. J. Epright (San Antonio, Texas, USA)

I bought this camera while deployed to Iraq as the heat and the dust killed a lesser camera. The compact-with-heft size is perfect, as is the 60GB huge sealed-against-dust hard disk drive. I’ve been able to generate images of non-repeatable events from day one in full auto mode and the images just get better and better as I master the range of manual controls.This camera should never have been marketed as a high-end consumer point-and-shoot camera as a lot of consumers don’t seem to have the patience to actually read the manual and learn how to use the machine; the HD7 seems to be the very definition of a prosumer camera despite it’s compact size.

A lot of the user forums are waking up to the professional use of this camera as a B-Camera for harsh environment and dangerous work. I couldn’t agree more. I work with professional shooters and they love, love, love the HD7 machine; three have sworn to acquire one for themselves to augment their work-supplied cameras.

Three CCDs, High Definition, White Balance, Aperture and Shutter controls — all excellent, and the colors are . . . BEAUTIFUL. Image stabilization works as designed — and the naysayers know better — any professional knows to use a tripod for good video — only more necessary for quality high definition video. It dismays me to read know-nothing reviews from brand-centric partisans.

External microphone jack works well and is now augmented in my system with a wireless mic and with the accessory shotgun mic from JVC. Anyone with a lick of sense understands that a simple cable adapter takes the left-right-video AV jack to a left-right headphone jack for audio monitoring.

I am hard pressed to find anything to dislike about this camera — especially when I get raves for the beautiful video it produces.

I’m disappointed that the know-nothing reviews have given this machine a beating, but I am elated that the beating has moderated the price. I think I might buy a second. What’s the old phrase for an unexpected bargain? Hidden Gem comes to mind . . .

Problems I encountered with this item:

Mastering all the functions offered by the camera.

Waiting for the user community to catch up with the features and workflow for the camera.

Supplied Cyberlink software is deficient . . . freeware MPEG StreamClip for format conversion and AVID Pinnacle Studio 11 or AVID Liquid much better choice.

Previous equivalent item owned:

I have never owned a camera even roughly equivalent to this machine. Approaches the utility of a company-supplied Sony PD-170 at a much lower price, and yet outdoes the -170 with high definition and with the sealed hard disk drive.

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