I am selling a real piece of digital camera history here, and IT IS FULLY FUNCTIONAL!  Up for sale is my personal JVC GRHD1, a fully functional COLLECTIBLE 16X9 HD camera that was the first professional grade HD camera that was made available to the consumer market.  Its original cost with all accessories was $3400. It is a SERIOUS camera.  I remember at the time that JVC was advertising that noted filmmaker Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) was using a GRHD1 to block all the shots on his 2005 remake of King Kong.  

 All the original specifications are at the bottom of this listing, but first, here are some of my personal observations of this groundbreaking camera.

 It will record, on mini DV tape, High Def 16X9 in MPEG-2 format, and for the first time, would produce 1080i video at 30 FPS.  You can play it back as 1280 X 720 or 1080i. You could also choose Standard Def at 480, in 16X9 aspect, or 480 at 4:3 aspect.   With the push of a button it would stop video recording and take still photos at 4:3 aspect ratio with resolution in 640X480, or 848X480, or 1280X960.  The still photos are captured on an SD card.

The professional grade F1.8 lenses, which are 10X optical, in my estimation is certainly one of the best features of the camera.   It can really reach out and pull in quality images.  The current point-and-shoot cameras with their 1080 P resolution and (maybe) 4X optical zoom, and fuzzy digital zoom algorithms really have nothing on this quality camera. 

It was so far ahead of its time that there was no existing software that could capture the M2T High Definition transport stream produced when the camera is set to film in the HD mode, so the camera came with its own “HD Capture Utility” and a DVD authoring program called “MPEG Edit Studio Pro 1.0 LE”, which I am including in the package, although the usefulness of both programs stopped with Windows XP.  This is not a problem since modern photo editing software include capture programs for HD cameras and the M2T format.  I use Pinnacle and have also been successful with Arcsoft and Hauppauge, and they are easier to use than the original software that came with the camera.  The preferred hookup for capturing the HD stream is to use firewire, and the cables are included.   It also says you could capture with USB but I’ve never tried it.  

 The nifty 3.5 inch fold out LCD can be rotated into any direction.  I have attached a monopod to the camera, extend it high above my head to get over the crowd to film my grandkids, and angle the LCD down to my eyes to where I could see what I was capturing – a really neat feature.

It also has a viewfinder which can be used in place of the LCD, and you can select what kind of resolution you want on either display device. Both displays are color.

 I really appreciate the fact that this camera has a CCD capture rather than the cheaper CMOS devices that now populate most digital cameras.  I am convinced that the CCD images are sharper.

 The only complaint I have on the camera is the standard circular on-off switches that were common to all the camcorders in the early 2000’s.  The switch is hard to actuate, so I usually just leave the switch on, because you can shut off the camera by either closing the LCD display or closing down the viewfinder, then when you’re ready to shoot again, you just open the LCD or the viewfinder, and the camera pops back on. 

I am including everything that originally came with the camera and is shown in the photographs.  At the time there was no case for the Camera (all they offered was a bag), so I fashioned a foam-filled hard case from a VHS camera case. I am also including the original manuals.  You will receive two batteries, one very good one, barely used, and an older backup battery with less up time.

 SPECIFICATIONS: