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Review: I am on my second JVC GR-D33, having returned the first as faulty. Overview The camera is very good value for money and provides a compact
package giving excellent picture quality. The menu system is easy to use, if a little fiddly if you have bigger fingers. Auto focus works very well and the zoom is rapid and quiet. Manual focus is responsive and the various AE modes, plus backlight compensation and spot meter fixing make for a flexible - if not spectacular - manual camera too. Finally, image stabilisation is effective and the low light shooting is "ok" but is certainly useful enough to allow indoor nighttime shooting without too many problems. Motor Noise I returned the first camera as the noise from the motor whilst recording is so loud as to drown out quiet sounds. It is present even in noisy scenes - kids playing etc. The replacement arrived today and suffers from the same fault, albeit not as pronounced as the first. As the noise is quite high pitched, it cuts through everything and provides a background soundtrack to every scene. Summary Having owned both home and professional camcorders for 15 years, I have never encountered such a blatant design error. What is the point of providing all the tools to give you a great picture, only to have a mechanical hum dominate every scene? One to avoid. | 
Digital Cameras
