JVC’s design department has been busy, it seems. Its new flagship Everio X900 is a streamlined, curvy rectangle of a camcorder that claims to have ‘minimal protrusions’ – sticky-out bits to you and us.
It’s not all design and no trousers, though, as its spec list confirms – there’s a Full HD CMOS sensor capable of taking 10.3MP stills and a geek-tastic 2.8in ‘Laser Touch’ LCD.
High-end hitman
These specs and the heart-attack price tag mean it’s going head-to-head with powerful HD models such as Canon’s LEGRIA HF S100 and S10, and Panasonic’s TM300 and SD200.
Just like the S100 and SD200, the Everio X900 records to SD/SDHC cards rather than built-in memory. It has four movie recording modes, the maximum being a UXP setting that’s so data hungry you’ll only get 20 minutes footage on a 4GB card.
While the X900’s matt finish and impressively compact dimensions make it fun to play with, it does take time to get used to its lack of a traditional handgrip. This, at times, makes it awkward to hold and access the buttons and features.
Laser guidance
Once you’ve overcome this initial awkwardness, there’s plenty to get excited about: the LCD is bold and bright, and incorporates ‘Laser Touch’.
This is, slightly underwhelmingly, a vertical touch-sensitive strip down one side of the screen that lets you scroll through the menus; but there is one big advantage – you don’t get any of the smudges and smearing that cloud the touchscreens of competitors like Sony’s HDR-TG3.
The 5x optical zoom is short, as competitors generally offer 10x or greater, but a dynamic zoom provides a boost to 8x.
Slow-mo shooting
Better news arrives in the shape of an optical image stabiliser that employs prism tech to reduce camera shake, plus there’s a fantastic range of high-speed modes. You can shoot at 120fps, 300fps and 600fps – perfect for slow-motion shots.
The 9MP stills are certainly up to standard of most compacts, and an elegant docking station provides a platform to connect to a computer. From here you can use the supplied PC-friendly software that’s designed for YouTube uploading and basic editing.
Hit-and-miss performance
Unfortunately, it’s here the brakes really go on for the X900. Mac users need to download codecs to edit movies, and then it’s time to look at the clips themselves. While it’s fair to say clarity and detail is often exceptional, there are too many ‘buts’ on a cam this pricey.
Complex scenes suffer picture fizz and images tend towards over-exposure. Colours, especially reds, greens and blues, are too hot and punchy, and low-light images suffer from grain.
If that sounds like a disaster, it isn’t – but a camcorder with this big a price tag needs to marry great design and top-class performance. Unfortunately, the X900 only really manages the former.
Source via Stuff TV
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