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GR-DVL520U

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JVC GR-DVL520U


 
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Rating
Reviewed by: 

txgirl

( Casual)

Review Date
December 24, 2005

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

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Review 1 of 8

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:

I got this camera for graduation from college...it has been incredible! I use it mostly for pictures. The memory card is VERY convienient. The quality is great too! I would reccommend it to anyone!

Strengths:

Memory Card, built-in flash/light, small, lightweight, sturdy, GREAT!!

Weaknesses:

none yet!



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Rating
Reviewed by: 

sdsmith

( Intermediate)

Review Date
July 13, 2004

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

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Review 2 of 8

Price Paid:  $100.00 from Local Pawn Shop

Summary:

Given what I bought the camera for I'm pleased. I've been working with it a bit and find that it fits my hand well. A fact that appears to be lost on the "ever smaller" focus is that many of us have much larger hands and fingers...than the buttons and even bodies of the newer cameras. For personal, fun and vacation use this camera is fine. When I need better zoom or sound I use a better camera but if you don't need it, why pay for it? There are only so many ways to watch the darling children on holidays and no one really wants to see that drivel outside of you and, on occassion, them. Buy only what you need and this is a decent buy for that.

Strengths:

Gets the job done. Not too small. Accessories are widely available.

Weaknesses:

Doesn't appear to be constructed as well as I'd like for applications such as backpacking. I'd be very concerned about dropping it or allowing children to use it given how delicate the view screen feels.

Similar Products Used:

Canon Optura, Sony, Sharp

Customer Service:

Hey, I bought it used. The JVC web site did provide me with all the software and manuals. That's all I needed.



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Rating
Reviewed by: Michael Jones
 (Casual)

Review Date
January 1, 2004

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

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Review 3 of 8

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Costco

Summary:

Overall this is a satisfactory camera. It has all the right ports for connecting to the computer. The sound quality is not tha great but I have yet to see good sound quality on a small camcorder.

Strengths:

sturdy. Mini DV

Weaknesses:

Small Screen Size, 700x digital zoom is worthless. More than a 20-30 digital zoom is pointless. Sound quality is somewhat poor



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Rating
Reviewed by: shsinha
 (Intermediate)

Review Date
August 1, 2003

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
5 votes

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Review 4 of 8

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:

I had terrible experience with it. After the warranty is over, this stopped working (no power up). Took it a JVC dealer repair shop (George Meyer, Santa Monica). He tried to rip me by asking me to pay $275 for labor and $22.00 for parts. I did not repair it from that guy. Finally, I bought the repair manual ($16) and opened the stuff myself. A microfuse on the main board was gone, which I replaced it myself and costed me 59 cents for a new microfuse. Though there is competetion in getting the thing smaller, there is no need to put a fuse soldered on the main board which most people can't even identify/access. If it fails often, let the consumer access it from outside (using a glass molded fuse). I assume that companies do it intentially to help the dealers rip you as soon as it breaks or you will end up buying a new item.

Strengths:

This is a good camcorder for consumer. Built-in light is useful. small shape, recording quality is good.

Weaknesses:

The still picture has two mode 640x480 and 1024x768 but the second one is just done using interpolation, sucks :( . Bad fuse design (read above), flimsy LCD display, digital zoom is pretty bad (10x is optical and useful) and picture comes out digitized (no-smoothening).

Customer Service:

Can't trust any JVC dealer repair shop. One tried to rip me for repair.



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Rating
Reviewed by: Shana Ervin
 (Casual)

Review Date
July 22, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
5 votes

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Review 5 of 8

Price Paid:  $500.00 from BuyDig.com

Summary:

After having this camera for a year. I now get an error message, "E01 UNIT IN SAFEGUARD MODE REMOVE AND REATTACH BATTERY". I removed and reattached battery and I still get this error message. I searched online and found that there are others that have gotten the message; had to pay $100 or so to fix and a few months later the problem happens again. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!

Strengths:

Works for about 11 months with no problem.

Weaknesses:

E01 REMOVE AND REATTACH BATTERY error msg happens right after warranty and cost over $100 to fix. I think JVC knows about this as a product default but continues to manufacture and take advantage of the consumer. RIDICULOUS!!



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