As most of our readers already know, JVC’s 2010 high-end camcorder GZ-HM1 has been awarded the Best Expert Camcorder prize in the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA)’s prestigious TIPA Awards 2010. JVC is receiving TIPA for the first time in 3 years. Last time, GZ-HD7 was awarded in the same category in 2007.
So today, Mr. Shuji Tsuchiya, chief engineer of development of GZ-HM1, commented the joy in receiving the award.
Q1. Please tell us the first impression when you heard about receiving TIPA.
We were very pleased and honored to receive one of the most prestigious awards of Electronics in Europe. As an engineer, TIPA gives us confidence which valued our commitment to basic video features.
Recently the camcorder market is facing tough time for the bad economic situation world wide, but taking this occasion we would like to appeal the quality and the usability of JVC’s camcorders. Also, we will make continuous effort to develop products to fulfill customers’ needs.
Q2. Which part of the development did you suffer the most?
Honestly speaking, the picture quality in low light and the new image stabilization system were the most difficult parts of the development.
GZ-HM1 was designed to be the successor of GZ-HM400 which was JVC’s high-end model for 2009. GZ-HM400 gained favorable remarks from the market in high resolution and high performance. We much concentrated to enhance GZ-HM1′s performance in low light and anti-shake.
The big improvement of the pictures in low light situation is provided mostly by the new back-illuminated 1/2.3" 10.62M pixel CMOS sensor. But at the same time, generally the brighter the picture becomes, the noisier it gets. And then trying to minimize the noise, applying too much noise reduction affects the sharpness/resolution of the video. So it was quite hard to reach our ideal balance of brightness and resolution.
On the other hand, the improvement of anti-shake performance was also a key factor for GZ-HM1. In addition to JVC’s unique O.I.S. system using two active prisms in front of the lens, the new Advanced Image Stabilizer system was developed to reinforce stability in the wide-angle.
For the development of both functions, we examined not only in the studio but real situations that our customers might confront. Near JVC’s Headquarters, there’s Yokohama Port and China Town so we made some field trips to check out. It was quite difficult to find out the right balance, keeping the best signal-to-noise ratio and tuning for both features however those examinations helped us to achieve GZ-HM1 as the "Best Expert Camcorder".
Q3. As an engineer, which feature do you recommend to the users to enjoy their video life more.
From my point of view, High-speed recording for ultra-slow motion playback and Time-Lapse recording are the two unique features. You can get interesting videos without any extra software or some difficult techniques. Generally, people might think these video shooting modes are for special occasions, like shooting the burst of water balloons for High-speed recording or monitoring the sky and clouds with Time-Lapse Rec etc. But I recommend you to try shooting scenes in your daily life, like monitoring your whole day with Time-Lapse Rec.; you can realize how much you move at home, or shoot a video over your friends’ shoulder with High-speed recording function; you might be able to capture unique faces which you haven’t seen before.
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