JVC “Capture every stunning detail with this advanced Full HD shoulder supported 1080/60p camcorder. The GY-HM70 is equipped with a high quality 29.5mm wide-angle GT lens that offers smooth 16x dynamic zoom performance. The camera records on two SDHC or SDXC memory cards in the AVCHD Progressive format at 28Mbps. And its unique dual battery system keeps you recording for hours and hours since the batteries may be hot swapped during recording. Never before has this much performance been packed into an affordable, professional shoulder supported camcorder.” Note : USA specifications.
- Full 1920 x 1080 capture and recording at 60P in the AVCHD Progressive format (28Mbps)
- 1/2.3-inch 12 megapixel oversampled CMOS imager
- 29.5mm wide angle autofocus zoom lens with 16x dynamic zoom, 200x digital zoom
(35mm equivalent: 25.5mm — 476mm) - Manual focus, zoom, iris, shutter, white balance control
- Optical image stabilizer
- Stable, professional shoulder form factor
- Records to dual SDHc/SDXC memory cards
- 1080/60P (28 Mbps)
- 1080/60i (24/17/12/5 Mbps)
- 720×480 (6/3 Mbps)
- FALCONBRID™ High Speed Processor
- High speed video recording (for slow motion)
300 fps (720 x 480 resolution) - 3-inch Touch Screen LCD display
- .24-inch LCOS Color Viewfinder
- Focus assist function
- Zebra indication (Over 100%/70-80%/OFF)
- Auto iris/Manual iris adjustment
- AE adjustment
- Backlight compensation
- Touch priority AE/AF
- Face detection/Smile shot
- Tele macro
- Built-in zoom microphone
- 3.5mm Microphone Input
- 12MP digital still capture (JPEG format)
- 2MP still capture during recording
- Unique dual snap-on battery system (1 provided)
- 3.5mm Remote Connector (compatible with HZ-M150VZR remote lens control unit)
- 3.5mm Headphone out connector
Wow.
I did not see this coming. 🙂
A HM800 would have married the 600-serie but this one is a different piece.
A competent con/prosumer shoulder mounted cam with a f/1.2 lens and 1080p60 with HM100/150 heritage or a pro unit with hotswop batteries but no dual XLR and missing XDCAM codec.
JVC don’t do mistakes so I guess this must be aimed towards the edu/wedding and other long hours yet cheap productions therefor the dropped XLRs and licensed codec.
Have they found another sweet spot again perhaps?
Could this be JVC’s answer to the Sony EA50, despite a much cheaper price?
HDW : Sorry how can you compare a large sensor Sony EA50 with a small sensor JVC HM70
Who could understand JVC?
They took out a cam with 12MP 1/2 sensor. What about 3MP? For no moire and other aberations.
Looks like a monstered up version of their recent GC-PX100 “sports cam”. I have mixed feelings about this sort of camera (so close, yet so far). But it works for Sony and Panasonic, who’ve converted consumer cams to plastic monsters and obviously made money from it!
I should have some demo units in the uk soon. Obviously its not in the same league as our 600 series but there is a market for this type of product. I will put it through its paces on the test bench first and will then see if HDW wants a look at amongst others.
Interesting times for us at JVC…….
I think you “pro” guys are sort of missing the “straight to internet” crowd here, as if this is priced right, I can see a lot of online content being shot on this rather than high-end consumer camcorders, least not thanks to the dual, hot-swappable batteries.
I guess this sums up, “no 1080 60p for 600/650”. Hopefully I’m dead wrong. I could see high school and small college videographers jumping on this. From experience, shooting 1080 60p for fast action sports is very nice. And the dslr-video generation is already used to shooting dual-audio and using pluraleyes in post…so no xlr mic inputs is not a deal killer. Strong features, but very plastic-look. Will have to wait to see the low light performance.
50/60p still under investigation for the 600 series….its not a dead duck yet. I will learn more at NAB
UK Press Release
http://jvcpro.co.uk/press/1140/new-shoulder-mounted-events-camera-launched/
UK Street price is likely to be under £1200!
The camera the HM70 most reminds me of is Sony’s XR-MC2000/HD1000U series of low-end shoulder mount camcorders, and Panasonic’s HMC70/80 series.
There’s no question that a camcorder like this is going to find a home with educational, wedding, event videography shooters and those whose main content delivery conduit are streaming video sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
Well said Steve
Though it may be hard for seasoned pros to swallow, with the right conditions, footage shot AVCHD 2.0 and then trancoded to an intermediate such as 10-bit 4:4:2 Cineform/ProRes makes for a compelling argument that this camera can be used for deliverables other than just mainly Youtube and Vimeo. The levels of quality, color grading,and keying by me strikes a wonderful balance between cost, ease of acquisition, and manipulations such as slo-motion. Speaking of the latter…while 720 120p would have many standing in line, 480 300p is a step in the right direction. Hats off to the JVC exec that signed off on it’s inclusion.
I am still confused about sensor size. What does 1/2.3 mean in mm’s.Is this larger that a 1/2 sensor?
HDW : I show the sensor size on the blog itself 1/2.3 is not even 1/2″ its smaller, I really get annoyed with this figure,
as its a deliberate ploy to making people think its 1/2″.
1/2.3″ = 11.044mm x 6.16mm
It no deliberate plot to mislead anyone.
Its not in our interest to do that.
The fact of the matter is there is loads of sensors available – many sizes to choose from. As a vendor we review what sensor we think will work best for price / performance.
I normally describe a 1/2.3 as bigger than a 1/3” but slightly less than 1/2”
Many sensors come from the photo world and these sizes are common place.
The problem I have with this camera is the 3.5mm mic jack, which means I can’t use my wireless XLR’s with it.The Panasonic AC7 is around $500 cheaper, with similar features. It also has the 3.5mm though. JVC, even your small form factor HM150 has XLR inputs! Why not this cam? Still, all in all, not a bad buy at around$1600US.
I have this camcorder. Picture quality is really sharp. Sharper or equal my sony HXR-NX5. Even the low light is equal = very good
Build quality is plastic feeling. I will test furher when I have more time.
Camera is Good Quality. But Some Problem With Griping and His Over Weight. Weight Is Less one Kg to operating easy to long time
i have bought this camera before 4 months.there is a problem. some time the picture is shanking in the recording can u rectify this problem
the jvc gy-hm70u does it have audio controls?
@benjiamin wow.. almost a year leter and I’m going to answer that : no, it’s all AGC , even the external microphone goes straight to AGC. What I did was getting a beachtek going out on both the camera and a zoom recorder. After that the XLR mics did their job but there wasn’t such a big difference from the zoom track and the camera’s track. The audio from the camera even if under AGC was pretty good, stable, not much of ups and downs due to the AGC that I was used to with other cameras. So no more zoom and I bought a splitter (hosa to go on the mic input-plug on power by the way- bringing two mono channels out. one for the beachtek and one for a sony CS3 lavalier to put on the camera somewhere). the result was one shotgun or handheld microphone and a backup track from the CS3. It worked fine. The video out of this camera was pretty good. It’s a simple camera that stays on your shoulder and we all know what that means (no frankenrigs and extra weights.) But steady shots and no fatigue. then it gives a great 1080 60P , nothing to say about it. It’s a keeper. The shoulder mount is not padded, so it needs to be treated with some thin foam (I did and makes a huge difference). Back to the audio: the mic input gives plug-on power (I believe 3V or so). Enough to power a phantom shotgun straight to the input with an adapter (modified -XLR pin 1 and 3 togheter, pin 2 to both the stereo tips of the 3.5mm). A regular dynamic will work fine without the beachtek using the same cable. the plug-on power seems to don’t bother the XLr dynamic mmics, like a sennheiser e835 and SM58 that I had for interviews. Of course with the beachtek the signal is clean, but it’s one more thing to carry and if it’s not absolutely necessary I’d rather use the cable.
bottom line now I do miss that camera and I may go back and buy another one.