Review: JVC GY-LS300 4KCAM Handheld S35mm Camcorder, Part 1: Lens Support, Functionality, and Usability

Audio

One advantage of basing the LS300 on a consumer camcorder is that it comes with two decent microphones built into the base body of the camcorder. So you don’t need the handle to record stereo sound. Even better is that the add-on handle power and audio are integrated into a recessed hot-shoe so there’s no cable to get in the way. Best of all, you can choose to use the internal mic, or the XLR jack, independently, on either channel. So you don't need the XLR shotgun mic if you don't want it.

The level adjustment knobs, like the vertical switches, are a bit tiny for my taste, but workable (Figure 13, below). The numbers are quite small on the little dials.

Figure 13. Audio inputs and adjustment knobs on the LS300. Click the image to see it at full size.

But the onscreen audio meter, thankfully, is decently large, and color coded with yellow at -20 dB (whatever you set your "reference" level to be) and red at 0. Moreover, pop into the Status area and go to the audio page and you get an even bigger meter, plus a graphical display of how you have your audio routing and settings in the camera (Figure 14, below).

Figure 14. The LS300’s on-screen audio settings. Click the image to see it at full size.

What I would have liked to see is a feature available in JVC’s 700/800 series: the convenient ability to choose what audio you are monitoring. If you have a lav on channel 1, and are using the camera mic on channel 2 just as a backup, you really want to hear only channel 1 in both ears while monitoring. So being able to quickly toggle between left, right, and stereo would be a worthwhile addition to the features available to assign to a user button. It’s in the menu, but far from convenient to adjust while shooting.

In the audio settings menu, you can deep-dive and adjust wind cut (L or R, internal or external mics), limiters with adjustable attack and decay times, internal mic “stereo enhancer,” test tone, alarm level, and more. It’s quite comprehensive.

Headphone volume is a set of small up/down buttons on the tail of the camcorder. These buttons also serve to adjust shutter and auto-exposure shift. So when you click to adjust shutter, the up/down buttons temporarily adjust the shutter speed, and then revert to headphone volume. This can be a bit annoying if you want to have shutter speed at your fingertips while shooting.

Monitoring

As DSLRs have evolved, they have enabled simultaneous video out to the LCD screen and an external output. But you cannot use both the viewfinder and the LCD screen. The LS300 not only lets you use both the LCD screen and the viewfinder; it also features both HDMI out and SDI out. The HDMI is capable of 4K out. SDI is HD only. But this means you can have a nice 7" screen for the camera operator and send a second feed to a DIT tent, or multicamera video mixer.

You can pick the kind of downconverting you want both for the second internal record capability/ internal streaming, and the AV output. I did not test if the AV output, which may provide a fifth way of simultaneously monitoring the output of the camcorder.

Streaming

In addition to the camcorder's Variable Scan Mapping capability, JVC has also really led the way with internal streaming capability from various models of their camcorders. While there are external boxes which will facilitate streaming from whatever HDMI or SDI input you want to feed them, there’s something to be said for having it built into the camcorder: No extra hardware to power or keep track of.

In part 2 of this series, I’ll go more in depth about the image quality when resizing the sensor area, and grading the footage. Does 150 Mbps make for dramatically cleaner 4K video than the GH4’s 100 or 80 Mbps? I’ll also test the ND filters for color cast, and go more in detail about the internal streaming functionality that JVC bakes into its camcorders.