Genius G-Shot HD520 Digital Video Camera
The Genius G-Shot HD520 video camera is a high definition camcorder with a great set of features that works very well for the price of only $150.
Ease of Use, Performance: 21/25
Look & Feel: 18/25
Features 24/25
How much I enjoy 23/25
Total: 86/100
The Genius G-Shot HD520 is a great high definition video camera that works as a camcorder or 11 mega pixel digital camera and a web camera. The HD520 is a full sized 11MP camera for regular digital pictures that records using either the 32 MB built in memory or the SD card slot for up to 8 GB with an additional SD card.
The image sensor on the HD520 is a 5 MP CMOS and using interpolation you can up the image resolution that you save at to 11 mega pixels. The camera also takes video using AVI H.264 format for high definition video that uses an MPEG-4 decoder for reformatting the video which not all computer programs use.
Other outstanding features of the HD520 include the use of the camera as a web camera simply by plugging the camera into your computer using the included USB cable. The HD520 has a 2.5 inch screen that works well and rotates 270 degrees and uses auto flip to keep the image upright depending on the rotation.
The camera also has a flash and motion detection that works well for an on the fly security camera or to have fun with pets but not really good for a decent security camera. The camera works much as a less expensive quick shot digital camera but takes good video as well as decent still digital shots.
The Genius G-Shot HD520 is a great all around digital video camera for the price but really does not stand out in any one feature or mode. The camera has a voice recorder and video player mode as well as a book reader mode that plays much like a PDF document reader but using TXT or text format.
You can view the images and video using the HDMI cable out and view on a HDTV or use the RCA AV cable and watch on a less than high definition television. You can also use the USB card to view your video from a computer and copy or use the included Arcsoft Media Impression program to edit and view the video and images.
One nice feature with the audio video or earphone plugin connection when you plug either cord into the connection the camera goes to a screen to choose which option you want to use. Once on the screen you simply choose AV Mode, AV Out or earphone depending on what device and mode you want to use for an automatic sensing for the AV connection.
The Genius G-Shot HD520 also works well as an MP3 player and is very easy to use for this feature and it really does sound very good an a regular MP3 player. The book reader function does work but without a larger screen or a better menu system the e-book reader is not that great or very useful.
Many of the features of the HD520 are decent and others are more of an afterthought much like those on some of the digital cameras that I would compare the HD520 with. This camera/camcorder compares very much like those point and shoot digital cameras that you can purchase but has the best feature of pretty good high definition video as well as still digital pictures.
The HD520 is a really good video camcorder with some good high definition video that looks good for the price but does not really compare to more expensive cameras. This is much the tradeoff between price and functionality for a good priced camera that works well as a camcorder.
I tried some video and was pleasantly surprised at the quality for this price range of camera and also tried it out on digital images as well and was also happy with the quality. The digital images are pretty good quality and good enough to use for pictures for my articles in a pinch.
I tried using the G-Shot HD520 as a replacement for my good digital DSLR as my wife had the good camera over the weekend and I did want to take some pictures of a product. The image quality is pretty good for my product shots and better than my previous digital camera that was a 7.1 megapixel digital from Canon.
The 11 MP upgrade using a 5 MP sensor and the onboard computer chip allows some pretty good still pictures that are much better than the 5 MP sensor alone can give you. I had no problems with the quality of the 11 MP still from the HD520 and using the camera features for family portraits and fun holiday pictures would be great.
This is a product shot of a computer case using the G-Shot HD520 still image feature:
The camcorder feature is also very good and for the price is great with pretty clear but slightly grainy video in moderate lighting. The HD520 does much better video quality than my other Panasonic video camcorder that I have had for a few years that uses those small cassette cartridges.
This is the one big plus to the HD520, all digital down to the storage of using either the onboard memory or an SD card that can be up to 8 megabytes. The current crop of SD cards are up to 8 megabytes so that is why they are saying the max is 8 but with future SD cards possibly going higher you may be able to use higher storage capacity cards.
For now 8MB will allow you to store a lot of video on the small cards and you can get plenty of home movies like holidays, parties and barbeques on one. The video has three different quality settings; 320x240 or Web, TV at 640x480 and HD at 1280x720 that is selectable in the menu.
You can also set all kinds of other settings like electronic image stabilization, on screen information and still image quality. The flash for still images has a button on the side to select between Auto, fill in, fill off and sync for a good selection for flash.
The camera does pretty good with the default settings and you can spend a few weeks playing with the additional quality and other settings to get the most from the video camera. Some of the features like the E-Book reader you may not bother with but other features like MP3 player you will be able to use and enjoy right off the bat as it does work well.
The digital camera and the digital video camera features are the best two features and the high definition video camera is the main feature by far and make this a great purchase for a camcorder and point and shoot digital camera. The Genius G-Shot HD520 Digital Video Camera is a great video camera and well worth the price of about $150 dollars from the internet.
I highly recommend the Genius G-Shot HD520 as a simple point and shoot digital video camera with plenty of good qualities and afew nice features like good quality still images and a good MP3 player.