I let the camera sit and record for well over two hours before finally noticing that the battery had died. I’m happy to report that battery life is excellent. You can find two recent videos I’ve done here and here.
Shooting in low-light produced pretty decent footage as well, which is hard to find with less expensive cameras. That shouldn’t be a surprise, though, as the Everio costs about $150 to $200 more. Video quality, too, far surpasses that of most other entry-level camcorders. It’s a nice touch, but don’t buy the camera just for the navigation strip. The left-hand side of the LCD has a cool navigation strip used to jump around the various menus. It’s similar in size to cheaper camcorders (such as the DXG-566V, reviewed here) but packs far better features – the 35x optical zoom being the most welcome addition. The camera’s relatively small size makes it easy to take just about anywhere. It’s priced at around $350, which places it in between lower-end hobbyist camcorders and higher-capacity hard drive camcorders. The JVC Everio GZ-MS100 camcorder records DVD-quality video to SD and SDHC cards and features direct uploading to YouTube.
