I put serious consideration into buying the JVC GZ-HD7 but the thing that turned me away was the fact it was discovered that the image stabilization does not work. Also the fact that JVC has acknowledged the problem with it's image stabilization and is doing nothing to resolve the issue with that camera. I really wanted to get that camcorder because the picture is beautiful but the overall consensus is that if you don't own a steadicam or similar setup - you'll need to carry a tripod with you whenever you plan on using it.

The other thing to consider is that JVC uses it's proprietary .TOD file format with this camcorder. It's basically an MPEG2 format. Up until recently, it's proven to be pretty cumbersome to convert it into a format that can be used with the more popular software editing suites. Ulead Video Studio 11.5 Plus recently had an update that allows it to edit the .TOD file format.