Does anyone buy JVC?

F

firehawk

Veteran
Obviously someone does, but on this forum I rarely see anyone discuss JVC. Their cameras seem to have a good share of features for the price. Back in the analog editing days I almost bought a JVC "the inventor of the VCR" S-VHS deck that seemingly had a plethora of features compared to Sony and Panasonic, but I ended up buying a Panasonic unit instead. I later bought a lesser S-VHS JVC unit because I needed several decks but was never all that impressed with it. Surprisingly all my Sony decks and JVC decks still work fine but the best Panasonic unit with DynAmorphous metal heads doesn't.

I've looked at a number of their 4K cameras and wonder if they are good.
I don't plan on buying any since I'm invested significantly in others and hope to not buy anymore cameras for a few years but still curious, and the forum is rather slow so...
 
The LS300 cracks my list as one of my top 20 favorite cameras. (The only JVC on the list.)

You know, they really mishandled that camera so badly. It had interesting technology at the time with the MFT mount and a S35 sensor and being able to use the zoom rocker with prime lenses and different sensor modes, but the camera didn't ship with J-Log (IIRC) and the 4K/60p (externally) came way too late. Also, and coincidentally related to your question from last night, the built-in flip out LCD was one of the worst I've ever looked at/used.

But the rest of the camera; the body, the included shotgun microphone, the switches, the settings, lots of good stuff, especially the extra features they loaded into it over several FW updates a year or two after it started shipping.

I always wondered how the HC500U is (fixed camcorder), but never tried it.
 
I own a JVC camcorder and I marvel at how well it's designed. Unfortunately the company itself looks like its a fringe player without a bright future in the business.
 
The LS300 was tempting, but I never bought one. I was between recommending a JVC HC500 and Panasonic CX350 for the communications department at work, but their budget is expended, and they're down a person, so I don't think anything will happen for a year.
 
Poor JVC, the Rodney Dangerfield of camera manufacturers--they don't get no respect! If one is to look at the long timeline, they have been an innovator and first to the market with a number of technologies, VHS being probably the most impactful. When 3 chip 1/3" cameras were the rage (and inspiring sites like this), JVC broke the first HD model with interchangeable lenses, the HD100. The form factor was pretty great, it was small but actually sat on the shoulder instead of in front of it and had a good feature set. But it was quickly eclipsed by offerings from Sony, Panasonic and Canon (none of which sat on the shoulder)! But being first doesn't mean being best--that camera had an issue with sensor stitching. In 2005 I enlisted Barry Green and Nate Weaver and we shot some tests with the HD100 coupled with a Mini35 which ended up being re-posted a lot, my first taste of having something go viral. I went to NAB that year and kept seeing those images being used in various product demos around the show, which was kinda fun as they featured my girlfriend at the time. Sadly, the original post, clips and photos are now lost as the forum they were posted on is gone, but look what's buried in the history on this very site: https://www.dvxuser.com/forum/other.../jvc-cameras/hd100/28782-hd100-mini35-footage
 
They also had the HMQ10, the world's first 4K camcorder? (something with stitching the 4 quadrants, I believe)
 
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