JVC, although almost absent so far in the digital camera world, has announced a 3.3 megapixel camera with some very interesting features: They have added 3 extended modes that employ multiple exposures (thus requiring a still subject) to improve resolution, noise, and (or?) dynamic range.

Personally, I find these modes very appealing as I do a lot of still life shots. I'm planning to buy a 3.3 MP camera and generally prefer to buy from the "major players" (Nikon, Olympus, etc.), but none of them have this feature. Nor does JVC seem to be much lacking in other features.

Does IR plan to review JVC? Does anyone have any comments on JVC's extended modes or on the general issue of favoring one manufacturer over another? A related question is who actually makes the CCD arrays used in these cameras? Note that, except for Fuji, all the new 3.3 MP cameras have identical specs for the CCD, which makes me think that they all come from the same place. And I know that for video cameras, JVC is a major supplier of CCDs.

Thanks, Greg Marshall

-- Greg Marshall (gbmarshall@home.com), March 24, 2000

Answers

Hi Greg, my friend bought the new JCV and has tried testing out the newmodes. He had some intial problems getting the USB driver to work, and then he noted that some types of shots do not come out as good when using the special modes as compared to the the automatic mode. The macro pictures look very good, almost as good as the Nikon 990, but not quite. The results just seem inconsistent for now. We have posted a web page reviewing the camera and right now have about 28 sample pictures up in on an idex page. We are going to try and make a more detailed review and page with thumbnails and slideshow soon. The page shows examples of the different modes and the picture gallery has several comparison shots. Hopefully Dave E will do a full test of the camera in the near future. For now I hope our information helps out.

http://www.a-digital-eye.com

-- David Kamanski (kevad@ix.netcom.com), May 28, 2000.