JVC Everio S GZ-MS100 Camcorder

Pros... I can begain this review by saying WOW. I've recived this camera as a gift in the beginning of October of 08 and it has not let me down. I took this camera thru hell. It been dropped 2 time with in half an hour. Once from 3 feet high and another from the top of my Chevy aveo while driving down the street and its still working. I highly recommend you getting a camera that saves your video on a SD card because there are no moving parts and for a clumsy and easily forgetting where i placed my stuff this camera came in handy. Con... There's no night vision by there a small light that you can have come on automatically but it only great for close up shots. Another is the format it records at is .MOD. Now you can change the file to .AVI but you'll have to do some research on how you get it to work with Premiere pro or other video editing software. Closing I love this camera

I bought this camera today, used it for several hours and I really liked it. When I scrolled back through my still shots and watched the video, I thought it looked great in the LCD screen. However, when I brought it back home and uploaded everything to my computer, I was very disappointed with the quality. It only takes one size still photo: 640 x 480 and the images are suitable for the web, but that's about it. The video quality is likewise suitable for the web, and this camera is really geared towards the YouTube generation. I think this is a good camera for a beginner, but I've been using digital cameras for nearly 15 years and I'm just not satisfied with the quality. Also, as a previous reviewer mentioned, the videos are in .mod format, and unrecognizable by most of the programs on my computer. I'm not a big YouTube user, but I did attempt to upload a video clip to my Facebook profile and was unable to because they didn't recognize the format.

One caveat of note for the JVC Everio GZ-MS100 (and this may very well apply to other JVC models) the video files the camera produces are .mod files. These files are not read by XP Windows Movie Maker (JVC says VISTA has no problem with them, not confirmed by me) Also the software included is not for video editing and probably useless to anyone half way computer savvy. End result: without buying more software (maybe $70) you can't string together video clips, edit, etc. using what comes with the camera and XP. I'm using trial version of Cyberlink Director Pro but that will cost at least $70 if I want to purchase.

I ordered the GZ-MS100 to upgrade from an older VHS-C Panasonic cam-corder. Obviously, the JVC is head and shoulders above the older Panasonic. I did not need HD at this time, so I focused on hard drive vs. SDHC cameras. I opted for the SDHC due to no moving parts, quieter operation, and ease of file transfer and transportability. Also, the cost of SDHC cards are very low. The camera works as advertised. The unique menu interface (the slider bar to the left of the screen) was easy to master. I like the user interface since it is clean and avoids the many buttons, switches, and selectors that would have been the alternative. I also like the way I can switch between Auto and Manual mode with the push of one button, and the camers saves the last Manual set up mode I programmed into it. I use the MS100 for general video tasks, and for some dark and low light video using IR lights - a Sima SL-20IR and a Sony HVL-IRM. The camera records in total darkness using either or both of the... Read more

I bought this based on the reviews from amazon and also watching this product on HSN TV. This was the best deal I got from amazon for $180.00. I am using 8GB HC SD card on this and it runs about for nearly 2 hrs on the fine mode, which has an excellent video quality. The great thing being the SD card which makes downloading a whole lot easier. Although the recordings are in .mod files, you can still watch them on windows media player. I just drag all the files in my 'now playing' list so they run in one go and not clip by clip. I love this cam as it is very handy and practical. Zoom is good enough and the quality rocks while the touch screen feature is smooth.