JVC Company of America announced the launch of a hard drive camcorder that combines a 3-CCD imaging device for high quality video with the long recording time made possible by an internal 30GB hard disk drive. The new JVC Everio G Series GZ-MG505, like all Everio G Series camcorders, can record up to seven hours of DVD movie-quality video or more than 10 hours at DVD camcorder-quality. In Eco mode, over 37 hours worth of video can be shot without any need to eject or reload recording media.

The GZ-MG505 sits at the top of the Everio G Series line because of its superior image quality, made possible by a 3-CCD imaging device that uses pixel-shift technology to deliver 5-megapixel quality. In addition to native full resolution 16:9 (1173 x 660 x3 effective pixels) and 4:3 DVD movie video, this image sensor enables shooting of high-resolution JPEG photos of up to 2560 x 1920 pixels.

The GZ-MG505 weighs-in at barely more than a pound (510 grams) including the battery and lens cap. Its classic camcorder-style design is topped off by a 2.7" widescreen 16:9 LCD that accurately displays native 16:9 videos while they are being shot, as well as during playback. A microphone input and accessory shoe provide flexibility to capture sound and attach lighting. And with multiple interfaces, high speed 12x USB 2.0 data transfer, and supplied software (Macintosh and Windows), it?s easy to view and share all those wonderful memories.

The Everio GZ-MG505 creates sharp images by dedicating a 1.33 (1.23 effective) megapixel CCD to each color ? red, green and blue. JVC's prism optics and filterless 3-CCD pixel shift technology quadruple the pixel count to record 5 megapixel-class stills. Simply put, the pixel shift technique, used also in JVC professional cameras, captures double the 1,228,800 pixel information in both the horizontal and vertical directions, creating a real full color image pixel count multiplied by four for stills.

JVC's Megabrid Imaging Engine separately processes video and still signals, providing optimal processing for each. Megabrid technology assures high sensitivity and a high signal-to-noise ratio for moving pictures, and clear, high resolution progressive still images.

Also present is JVC's 3D NR (3-Dimension Noise Reduction). Conventional 3D noise reduction offers limited accuracy since to compensate for noise it compares field A and field B that make up a frame with different sets of odd and even scanning lines. JVC's 3D NR technology compares field A to field A, and field B to field B across two frames so that the scanning lines are identical and noise can be reduced more accurately. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio is improved by 2 dB and noise reduced by about 30 percent. Flicker is eliminated and color reproduction is improved, enhancing overall picture quality.

The Everio GZ-MG505 also features a 10x optical zoom (8x for stills) JVC lens, with one of the widest 16:9 angles available for video - 35mm equivalent to 41.2mm (43mm for 4:3 stills). To achieve high-resolution images, the zoom lens is a seven group, 10 element system developed originally by JVC. Chromatic aberration is decreased by using low dispersion glass lens materials. A combination of high-density and miniaturization was achieved with three aspheric elements. In addition, highly accurate 3CCD registration and multi-angle glass fixation technology developed by Fujinon for broadcast cameras are also used.

The Everio G Series GZ-MG505 also offers seven hours storage at 9 Mbps (MPEG-2), which is close to the maximum bit rate for DVD movie quality recording, or 10.5 hours at 6 Mbps, comparable to DVD camcorder recordings. Either way, the high quality MPEG-2 recordings are in the same format used in DVD so there will be no quality loss when burning them to DVD, and no time- and quality-wasting conversion. Two more modes are available for even more recording time, offering sufficient quality for normal TV-connected viewing or for uploading to the Internet.

A challenge in designing and building a hard disk camcorder is protecting the disk from shocks and vibrations. One way this is done in the Everio G camcorders is through a unique floating suspension system that effectively dampens vibrations through advanced polymer shock absorbers. Another security measure familiar to notebook PC users is its gravity force sensor system that automatically senses sudden acceleration such as in a free fall situation, and turns off the power to defend the hard disk so that a head crash can be avoided even when the unit is dropped.

For use with Windows, the GZ-MG505 comes with CyberLink's PowerProducer 3 NE for authoring DVDs, PowerDirector Express NE for editing, and PowerDVD 5 NE for playback. For Macintosh users, JVC provides PIXELA's Capty MPEG Edit EX for simple editing and file conversion to popular editing formats, and Mono DVD for DVD authoring. An available option is Capty DVD/VCD 2 for enhanced function DVD authoring.

For quick downloading to a PC, simply connect the camera via its USB 2.0 interface. The accelerated transfer speed for this year's Everio G Series, including the GZ-MG505, is 12-times real-time speed, so a top-quality Ultra mode 60-minute (4GB) video clip can be transferred in about five minutes.

The JVC Everio GZ-MG505 will be available in July and will sell for approximately $1,300.00.