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HD Camcorders<br />
With pictures up to 4X sharper than their standard-definition cousins,<br />
HD cameras make your home movies Sundance-worthy. Costly? Sure.<br />
But that video of you on the half-pipe? Priceless. —H.K.<br />
JVC GZ-HD7<br />
$1,700 • camcorder.jvc.com<br />
The HD7’s big jet-black body looks serious because, well, it is. It stores<br />
a whopping five hours of hi-def to its 60-GB hard drive (and up to seven<br />
hours at lower quality). Unfortunately, its oversaturated colors look<br />
a little cartoonish, its autofocus lags, and its image stabilization left<br />
plenty of jitter in zoomed-in handheld shots. Low-light performance was<br />
unimpressive, producing a dim picture with an annoying tangerine cast.<br />
WIRED Big, easy-twisting focus ring is great for perfectionists.<br />
Connector for external mic. Also records to SD cards.<br />
TIRED Expensive given its picture problems. Built-in lens cover must<br />
be toggled manually. No headphone jack.<br />
Panasonic HDC-SD1<br />
$1,000 • panasonic.com<br />
The sleek SD1 is the <strong>sm</strong>allest HD camcorder we tested, because it<br />
records to superslim SD cards. And yet it’s awkward to hold, requiring<br />
a death grip to keep steady; at least its optical image stabilization<br />
reduced the shake from most handheld shots. Ergonomics aside,<br />
it picked up lots of fine detail with its three CCDs, even in low<br />
light, and rendered balanced colors.<br />
WIRED Über-zoomy 12X lens. Built-in 5.1-surround-sound mic, plus a<br />
jack for external add-ons. Near-instant autofocus. Cheap for an HD cam.<br />
TIRED Just 40 minutes of hi-def video on a 4-GB card. No headphone<br />
jack. AVCHD format doesn’t work with many editing apps (yet).<br />
Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2<br />
$700 • sanyodigital.com<br />
The HD2 claims to be an HD camcorder, but we’re dubious. It records<br />
to an SD or SDHC memory card using 720p resolution, and static shots<br />
show some of HD’s crispness, but even slow pans and tilts made things<br />
so fuzzy you might mistake its picture for standard definition—if that.<br />
And while the HD2 has image stabilization, it seemed stiff and produced<br />
a robotic-looking sense of movement in many handheld shots.<br />
WIRED Pocket-size body. 7.1-megapixel stills match some digital<br />
cameras’. Convenient buttons for switching modes easily.<br />
TIRED Picture lacks crisp, sharp look of HD. Dim, noisy low-light shots.<br />
Annoying to have to use included dock for recharging.<br />
Sony HDR-UX5<br />
$900 • sonystyle.com<br />
The UX5’s picture has the crispness you expect from HD, along with<br />
bright, realistic colors. Unfortunately, there’s an irritating hitch: You can’t<br />
put your HD disc in a regular DVD player. Instead, you need a Blu-ray<br />
player that supports AVCHD, or else you have to attach the cam to your<br />
TV. We loved the UX5’s video—we just wish it were easier to view.<br />
WIRED Smooth slo-mo video effects. Touchscreen LCD makes<br />
menu-surfing easy. Super NightShot mode captures detail in darkness.<br />
Snaps 4-megapixel stills while recording.<br />
TIRED DVDs hold just 60 minutes of video. LCD attracts fingerprints.<br />
AVCHD video format not widely supported.<br />
Videocams
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