JVC's G-series camcorders are an excellent value. The GZMG57 is no exception. I bought this for my wife and she is thrilled. She likes the point-and-click simplicity, the millions of features, the simple video browsing (playback) mode, and the quality of the video.

Some professional reviewers rate the JVC lens technology lower than the Sony, because in theory the Sony's lens is superior. In practice, there is no difference. The Sony's touch-screen menus are a big hassle, too.

To us, this model is the perfect mix of features and cost. It takes wonderful INDOOR pictures (as well as outdoor) thanks to a f1.2 lens, has a built-in light (unlike the GZMG7x models), shoots wide-screen (16:9), stores 7 hours of highest quality video, has an SDRAM card (and easy controls to transfer to / from the hard drive), and a 15x zoom.

It also works with our Mac and PC (on the Mac, I recommend that you just use the built-in iDVD software instead of the JVC software).

The Sony SC100 has a much larger hard drive, but that's about it. That's not enough to justify a $250 price differential, IMHO.

After reading all the "professional" reviews, i decided to try the MG57 anyway and i am completely pleased. It may not be a top of the line, pro video / coffee maker but it is a very competent video camera.

The manual is actually useful although you dont need it. The menus are easy to use and on "auto" the camera takes very good video or stills.

I chose this over the MG77 because it has a video light (vs. a flash) and I dont expect to take serious still pics with it (although the stills are quite good).

The controls and menus are really well thought out (big change from most gadgets like my cell phone ;-)

the size and weight are very good and the unit is always ready to use, just open the lcd and 3 seconds later you are recording!

Mac SW is supplied for trimming the clips and combining them into one file for burning or opening in iMovie, this sw is simple but easy to use and does exactly what is needed.

This is a very competent little camera and i expect to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

P.S. Most of my video's are taken indoors and for best results i do manually set the white balance (very easy). The low light video is quite acceptable to me (as good as my sony DC20 but without the tape bother).

This is a great camcorder. It is very small, compact, easy to run, and even looks nice. It actually fits in most average size digital camera cases. I've not had it all that long, but so far I am pleased with it. Let me just list the pros and cons; hopefully it is helpful.

Pros:
*30G Hard Disk Drive is massive.
*Recharges in less than 2 hours.
*Can be used while pluged in to the AC adapter/charger.
*Relatively easy to use--self explanatory manual and on-screen display.
*Digital pics are better than I expected.
*Plugs right into TV/VCR/DVD for playback/burning/recording.
*Indoor average light situation was acceptable for me; everything shows up fine (though in lower than average light, the video gets a bit grainy).
*The remote is great--you can put the camera on a stand and use the remote to record and zoom (and use for playback/TV mode).

Cons:
*Battery is only good for about 60 minutes.
*Software is not very good; it bogs down my computer and is not easy to use (Edit 1 October 2007: The software is horrible and almost worthless)
*Light on camera is only good close up (though this was expected).
*Record button is a split-second slow when shutting recording off.
*The view screen cannot bend backwards more than 90 degrees; it only twists up and down.

In summary, I am happy with the camera and think it was worth the money. I may at some point have to purchase or find better software to edit these movies. They do, by the way, play on the newest Windows Media player (version 11?). I also plan on getting another battery for a back-up.

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