JVC GZ-MG465

The basics

Standard definition hard drive camcorder with 60GB of storage and SD slot, fronted by a 32x optical zoom and with a 2.7-inch widescreen monitor to frame with. There’s a megapixel sensor inside. It measures 54x68 x113mm and weights 360g.

The good

First up, kids, don’t touch lasers! Powerful beams of light can slice off fingertips before you can say ‘focused coherent radiation’. Secondly, don’t worry about the MG-465’s Laser Touch interface: it’s not really a laser and if you don’t touch it, you won’t be able to whizz through menus, changing white balance, focus and exposure settings. Despite its man-bag-friendly 360g weight, this Everio has a healthy 1MP CCD sensor and a long (fairly sharp) 32x zoom lens. The battery is good for a couple of hour’s shooting, too. Video is well exposed and colourful, although no match for HD.

The bad

Focusing is slow and the video stabilisation isn’t particularly impressive, especially at longer focal lengths. Keep an eye on the MG-465’s price, too. You don’t want to be paying too much for a standard definition model these days, and prices are falling fast.

The bottom line

If you’ve got a prejudice against HD camcorders this SD model is about as good as you’ll find. Video and sound quality are perfectly acceptable. In fact, it’s the Kylie Minogue of camcorders: small, sexy and slightly out of date.