JVC GZ-MC100 Flash Memory Digital Camcorder with 4GB Microdrive & SD/CF Slot £270.24

bring1t

** NO NEED TO BUY AN ADDITIONAL MICRODRIVE, NO NEED TO TAKE YOUR LAPTOP ON HOLIDAY **

I bought one of these last week and had it delivered in less than 24hrs (thanks ebuyer!), anyway I was in the same situation that I wanted the best quality but also want more than an hours recording.

The answer is a 2.5" external hard drive (laptop size) that has the ability to transfer files to it from any media without the need for a computer!!

1. Go to ebay, search for digi-mate (15 pounds). This is the external casing
2. Grab an old laptop drive you have lying around, or purchase one from ebay
3. Plug your camera into it using USB, press the button, and all files are transferred. The external casing uses batteries to power the drive.

So if you have a 50gb hard drive (bout 70-80 quid) you have bout 10hours worth of storage!!!!! Solves all problems!!

Please Note: I have not yet picked my digi-mate up from my local post office (stupid opening hours) so although this solution is my advice, IT IS UNTESTED.

truffle

wow - some sort of response explosion thanks guys

sadly the price has been bumped up to £300 now :mad:

is it still a bargain?

slojo

It's weird actually - just before I posted a couple of days ago that they had gone down to £270ish (inc free offer) they had also gone up briefly to £300, so the price seems to be fluctuating at the moment. I'd keep an eye on the price and the stock levels as my guess is they will go down again.

Sid_Harper

rm-lewis wrote:

** NO NEED TO BUY AN ADDITIONAL MICRODRIVE, NO NEED TO TAKE YOUR LAPTOP ON HOLIDAY **

Great idea - wondered if there was such a device. However still a few flaws:

1. cost
2. have to take out the drive to copy off and wait until copying done
3. another thing with batteries to worry about spares for!
4. fragility
5. would rather lose a tape with one hour than lose a whole drive for whatever reason (failure/loss/theft...) :eek:

MARMIE_2

Just got one of these, has anyone tried useing a standard SD card as it says in the manual to use a high speed card?

slojo

Found another review of the twin brother of this machine, the GZ-MC200 (I think the internals are pretty much identical between the two) - http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/01/13/jvc_everio_gz/

Rob123

Well, my persistence paid off, Dixons in Brent Cross (North London) still had one left today & like the others I bagged it for £199.

Dixons central Customer services reckoned this particular branch had two, but when I called they actually only had one (they sold the other yesterday ....perfect!) & as I feigned disappoinment, the salesman said "You can have it for £199.87" so I asked him to reserve it & he did.

That's a bizarre price to pick, so it must be coming up on their central system to price the demo model at this level.

I've just picked it up & it's mint (all the accessories including the battery & Microdrive were still sealed in their bags)...I'm chuffed to bits. Apparently they've have 4 or 5 phone calls about this one today so that suggest there are an awful lot of people reading/acting upon the info in this newsgroup!!!

Many thanks to those on here that mentioned this Dixons wheeze (especially FF99 who has been very supportive in his PMs).

Now then, to give a little back........

Currys (part of the Dixons group) in New Cross gate (South London) have exactly the same state of affairs (well they did this morning at least). Two showing on the system, but when I rang a somewhat terse Irish saleslady said there was only the demo & she could only only knock £20 off as "it's been on the top shelf & therefore barely touched". Therefore if anyone lives nearby I'd say get down there sharpish & avoid here & try your luck with another salesperson! Even at £229.99 it represent a stonking buy.

Also there's one left on display at Dixons Frien Barnet but they reckoned they couldn't find the box (when I phoned at least)...worth a pop going there in person maybe?

Good luck & thanks to MSE once again...this place is saving me a fortune on stuff I don't really need!!!

bring1t

Sid_Harper wrote:

Great idea - wondered if there was such a device. However still a few flaws:
1. cost
2. have to take out the drive to copy off and wait until copying done
3. another thing with batteries to worry about spares for!
4. fragility
5. would rather lose a tape with one hour than lose a whole drive for whatever reason (failure/loss/theft...) :eek:

Agree with some....
1. Yeah it costs a bit, but the new micro drives that would only give you one hour go for about 100 pounds. so this is loads cheaper on price per hour

2. You dont need to take the drive out, you plug the camera straight into the external casing, when you are next at a pc you plug the external casing into the PC and it recognises it as another drive.

3. Agree

4. Partly agree, but all electronics need to be handled with care!!

5. Partly agree (but there are no tapes?!?), would rather have the option of recording loads of hours and then run teh very small risk of losing it, than being restriced to one hour for the whole holiday!!

FF99

In another thread there is mention of a refurb Philips 20Gb MP2 player at around £80. Presumably that would also do the trick as portable storage and would store around 5 hours. I am not sure whether the speed of the transfer would be of an acceptable level. Any thoughts ?