Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I spent hours on-line trying to select a camcorder from an overwhelming multitude. The important considerations for me were: - PC connectivity - Price - At least decent video and audio quality - Battery life, size and everything else This JVC is a success in all these parameters. - I had no trouble at all connecting to a wintel PC. I have a cheap no-name lash-up desktop box, a $15 firewire card, a generic $5 firewire cable, and XP. I am relieved to report it all worked first time, because connectivity problems are apparently common with all camera brands (including JVC). - This is one of the cheaper miniDV machines, so the price was right. - Video quality, for an uncritical amateur like me, is plenty good enough. And there is apparently wide-spread opinion that JVCs are better than average in low-light conditions. - Audio quality, again good enough. There is definitely some motor noise breakthrough with the built-in mike that interferes with quiet pastoral scenes. - Battery life with the supplied battery is approx 1 hour. Since JVC batteries are upwards of $80, I will be buying cheap generic knock-offs in the $30 range. - The supplied USB cable is for downloading pictures from the snapshot and webcam mode. It is worthless for transferring video. Snapshots are inferior to my aged Canon Elph. If a buddy could have told me here was a camera that worked OK with my computer, and was otherwise decent and affordable, I could have saved hours of research. EDIT 1: Still 4 stars, but I would have exchanged some of that 25x tele for some more wide-angle. Also, the zoom mechanism is a bit abrupt, it is difficult to get a smooth zooming action.