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  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Features

  • Performance

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion & Sharpness

  • Low Light Sensitivity & Noise

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Features
  • Performance
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion & Sharpness
  • Low Light Sensitivity & Noise

Introduction

Design & Usability

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The LCD has a glasses-free 3D mode, but it isn’t pretty, and the camcorder isn’t the most comfortable to hold either.

The GZ-HM960 is smaller and lighter than most high-end camcorders from other manufacturers. It also has less features, however, as it lacks a lens ring or adjustment dial, has no accessory shoe, and is missing audio connectivity ports. Still, the HM960 does have a large LCD (3.5-inches), a wide-angle lens, and a decent set of manual controls to choose from.

The touchscreen is not a solution for making quick adjustments on the fly.

What bothers us about the HM960’s design are the following: its uncomfortable hand strap, the slow response time for the touchscreen LCD, and its aforementioned lack of a tool or dial for setting manual controls with precision. The touchscreen is not a solution for making quick adjustments on the fly, and the fact that the response from the screen is often sluggish makes things even worse. Yes, we love its large size, but we’d gladly sacrifice 1/2 an inch of screen for more speed and processing power. Also, the screen's glasses-free 3D view mode is terrible, and it's not something we recommend using. Maybe it's a cool gimmick to glance at once or twice, but it is not a feature that makes a lasting impression.

The GZ-HM960 is best used in auto mode, as the camcorder’s manual controls can be a challenge to work with thanks to its slow processor and unresponsive LCD. In contrast, the auto controls worked better than expected, with focus and exposure adjustments adapting quickly to new scenes and lighting conditions. The auto white balance feature wasn't always perfect, but the camcorder usually calibrated properly within 10 – 15 seconds of recording under a new lighting setup.

{{photo_gallery "Front Photo", "Left Photo", "Left Open Photo", "Back Photo", "Right Photo", "Top Photo", "Bottom Photo", "Lens Photo", "Lens Photo 2", "3D Lens Photo", "Media Photo", "Easy Mode Photo", "Manual Controls Photo", "Zoom Photo", "Zoom Photo 2", "Ease of Use Photo", "Battery Photo", "LCD Photo 1", "LCD Photo 2", "EVF Photo 1", "EVF Photo 2", "Mic Photo", "Mic Photo 2", "Ports Photo 1", "Ports Photo 2", "Ports Photo 3", "Ports Photo 4", "Ports Photo 5", "Ports Photo 6", "Handling Photo 1", "Handling Photo 2", "Handling Photo 3", "Handling Photo 4", "Box Photo"}}

Features

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The 3D conversion feature isn't that special, but the HM960 does have a few other noteworthy functions.

When you first hear about it, the ability to convert 2D video to 3D with the JVC GZ-HM960 sounds kinda cool. When you really get into the feature, however, you’ll see that it’s more of a disappointment than anything else. All the camcorder does when you press the large, blue “3D” button is produce a fake 3D effect. The ending result isn’t nearly as pronounced, nor as crisp as what you’d get from a camcorder that actually records 3D, and the real kicker is that most 3D televisions already have some kind of 3D conversion feature built-in.

An Auto Record function starts recording whenever the HM960 detects a subject moving within the frame.

Let's forget about the silly 3D conversion feature for a moment. The GZ-HM960 has a bunch of other interesting features worth talking about, including one of the better slow motion modes found on a consumer camcorder. The slow motion setting shoots at 300fps, which creates video that is five times slower than regular footage captured by the camcorder. There's no time limitation for how long you can record, and, while the image quality isn't very good, it's passable. The camcorder also has an extensive time lapse record mode, a built-in video light, and an Auto Record function that starts recording whenever the HM960 detects a subject moving within the frame.

Performance

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Videos handled motion well and captured a ton of detail, but noise and color accuracy were problems.

JVC hasn't made a great all-around camcorder in a while, but it continues to infuse its high-end models with excellent sharpness and motion capabilities. The GZ-HM960 captured video in bright light that looked fantastic, with tons of detail and very smooth motion. The camcorder has no alternate frame rate options (other than the low-res slow motion setting), but its regular 1080i HD record mode looked great in our tests. Still, this is one of the stark contrasts between the HM960 and other flagship camcorders, most of which offer 24p, 30p, or 60p frame rates in addition to the ordinary 60i option.

Regular 1080i HD record mode looked great.

The camcorder's performance weaknesses come in the form of imperfect color accuracy (in both bright and low light), as well as some issues with noise in low light. We're not sure why the HM960 struggled so much in our color accuracy tests, as previous JVC models ruled this test with flying colors. At least the HM960 continued to deliver vivid tones—even in low light—meaning those colors may not be all that accurate, but at least they're still strong and deep.

Conclusion

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Overpriced for what it offers and overmatched by the competition.

With the GZ-HM960, JVC put too much effort into marketing the camcorder's 3D conversion feature. If you have a 3D TV with a conversion feature, then this function on the camcorder is essentially useless. We wish JVC had talked this feature up as a minor asset, rather than plastering the side of the camcorder with a giant 3D logo. It's clear the 3D conversion option is part of the reason the HM960 is priced so high, as its performance and capabilities aren't worthy of a $1000 camcorder.

Unless the fact that the HM960 can convert content to 3D really intrigues you for some reason, we recommend spending your money elsewhere.

In the HM960's defense, the camcorder did do a great job with bright light video, particularly when it came to motion in sharpness. The camcorder's awful user interface, especially when setting manual controls, were our biggest frustration with the model, and there was also too much noise in its low light videos. Overall, the HM960 is not a better camcorder from the similarly-priced competition from Canon, Panasonic, or Sony. Since $1000 is a lot to spend on a camcorder, you should be looking for an all-around great product at that price. Unless the fact that the HM960 can convert content to 3D really intrigues you for some reason, we recommend spending your money elsewhere.

Science Introduction

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Behind its frustrating user interface and gimmicky 3D conversion features, the GZ-HM960 is actually a rather decent camcorder at doing its job—recording HD video. Video shot under bright even light looked great. Subjects moved smoothly, images were crisp, and the camcorder captured a ton of detail. Even in low light the HM960 wasn't too bad, although its videos did have more noise than we'd like. Colors weren't terribly accurate for the HM960 either, but its images were very vivid in both bright and low light. Let's put it this way: if JVC could take the guts of this camcorder and put it in a better body with a stronger user interface, the HM960 would be a winner. But as is, the camcorder is simply a good performer with a lot of serious control issues.

Color Accuracy

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The GZ-HM960 didn't live up to its JVC pedigree when it came to color accuracy.

In our testing, the color error on the GZ-HM960 measured at 5.78. This is a disappointing score for a high-end model like the HM960, and even more upsetting is the fact that JVC camcorders used to pass this test with flying colors. This year, JVC models have not done so well, as the GS-TD1 put up numbers that were just slightly better than what we saw from the HM960. On a positive note, the HM960 did capture deep, vibrant colors with a 91.23% saturation level in this test.

The camcorder doesn’t have any color presets or modes, so the colors you see in auto mode are what you can expect to get most of the time. Other high-end models, particularly those from Panasonic and Canon, offer picture modes and manual adjustment options that let you tweak things like saturation. The Sony HDR-CX700V, for example, has a color temperature adjustment control in order to give you some flexibility on the color tones captured by the camcorder.

Much like we saw in bright light, the GZ-HM960 struggled with color accuracy in our low light test. The camcorder registered a disappointing color error of 6.12 with the lights set to 60 lux. In comparison, the JVC GS-TD1 had a better color score by more than a point and a half (same goes with the Panasonic HDC-TM900). Also like we saw in our bright light test, the HM960 redeemed itself slightly by offering strong, vivid colors in low light. The saturation level on its low light image was measured at cool 90%, which is higher than the levels we saw from the competition.

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Motion & Sharpness

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The HM960 excelled in both of these tests.

In regular record mode the GZ-HM960 was able to capture very smooth motion with limited amounts of artifacting. The only problem we saw was some slight color bleeding and blur in our motion test, but otherwise the camcorder did an excellent job in capturing and reproducing subjects in motion. The HM960 does not have a 24p, 30p, or 60p record mode—all HD video is recorded at 1080/60i. The camcorder will upconvert to 1080/60p if the content is played on an HDTV via an HDMI connection, but the video is still recorded at 60i. The lack of these alternate frame rate options is the only reason the HM960 didn’t score as well as the Panasonic HDC-TM900 and Sony HDR-CX700V in this test (both of which have 24p and 60p record modes).

Testing under its highest-quality record mode, the GZ-HM960 showed impeccably sharp video. The camera measured a horizontal sharpness of 1000 LW/PH and a vertical sharpness of 600 LW/PH. These numbers are up there with the best consumer HD camcorders we’ve seen, although the Panasonic HDC-TM900 had better numbers overall (950 LW/PH horizontal, 900 LW/PH vertical). Why did the GZ-HM960 do so well in this test? For starters, the camcorder’s big 1/2.3-inch CMOS chip has something to do with the good score. Also, the camcorder outputs video at 1080p (it still actually records at 60i), and this progressive video output tends to produce a slightly sharper image when viewed on a 1080p HDTV (which is what most televisions these days can handle).

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Low Light Sensitivity & Noise

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The camcorder struggled with noise in low light, but it didn't need that much light to record a usable image.

Because its lens records at such a large wide angle, we had to test the JVC GZ-HM960’s low light sensitivity both with and without using optical zoom. We do this for most consumer camcorders these days, as wide angle lenses are becoming more and more common. When we zoomed in to frame our test chart with the HM960, the aperture closed up quite a bit and the camcorder required 17 lux of light to produce a usable video image. Taking full advantage of the HM960’s f/1.2 lens (by using no zoom), and the camcorder was able to produce the same light levels with just 6 lux of light—a rather impressive score.

Noise was a big problem for the GZ-HM960 when shooting in low light. The camcorder averaged a whopping 2.37% noise in this test, which is more than double the amount of noise we like to see in this test.

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Meet the tester

Jeremy Stamas

Jeremy Stamas

Managing Editor, Video

@nematode9

Jeremy is the video expert of our imaging team and Reviewed.com's head of video production. Originally from Pennsylvania and upstate NY, he graduated from Bard college with a degree in film and electronic media. He has been living and working in New England since 2005.

See all of Jeremy Stamas's reviews

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