The JVC GR-DV800US ($900 street) produced high-quality video and still images in most trials and costs $700 less than the top-performing Sony unit. The JVC model is the best choice here for the budget-conscious shopper.

The camera is long and lean, with a large 3.5-inch LCD panel, although at 123,000 pixels, it's not as sharp as the similarly sized Sony screen, which has 184,000 pixels. The JVC model's LCD appeared grainy and noisy, especially in low light. USB and FireWire connectors are located beneath the LCD panel, so you can't shut the LCD while transferring images to the computer.

We found the zoom controls slightly twitchy, so you'll need practice to get smooth shots. Conveniently, the camera identifies the zoom magnification level in the viewfinder or LCD, so you can keep tabs on the digital zoom level you're at and avoid producing distortion. Uniquely, the camera offers a digital wide-angle mode. This worked well, without noticeable distortion.

We liked the separate switch for automatic and manual operation; with other cameras, you have to dig through many menu layers to ensure automatic mode. That said, there were some anomalous results: We could not use the timer for still images in automatic mode. In addition, once we enabled the timer, it stayed on for still and video images.

The camera's features are competitive. You can use it as a Webcam via its USB connector and record in reduced-quality video format for e-mail transmission. Manual controls are also on a par with other cameras, with manual white balance, focus, exposure, and shutter speed settings.

Although the JVC camera achieved a rating similar to the Canon ZR70MC on our video-quality jury test, that poor showing is not completely representative of the overall image quality we saw in a week of hands-on testing. Color reproduction was generally good in the talking-head video, though the face lacked contrast and was slightly gauzy. When we dropped the lights at the end of the shoot, the image took on a slightly reddish hue but was generally noise-free. In the action sequence we filmed, the JVC camera's footage looked crisper but the colors were not as vivid as the Sony's, and background noise was slightly more pronounced.

The camera produces still images at 1.3 megapixels, interpolated to 1.9 megapixels (1,600-by-1,200) in best-quality mode. Still-image quality was very good considering the lack of a flash, with accurate skin tones and a generally sharp appearance.

If the Sony camera is priced beyond your reach, this JVC entry should stand in nicely.