Control Your Camcorder from Your Phone with JVC’s Everio HD GZ-HM550

Built-in Bluetooth technology gives JVC's GZ-HM550 a number of interesting perks, including the ability to control it wirelessly via smartphone.

Oh, how oblivious you must have been to hobble through life without Bluetooth on your camcorder. Never controlling it remotely, wirelessly monitoring audio, or geotagging videos. Finally seeing the light? JVC has the camcorder for you.

On Friday, JVC unwrapped the Bluetooth-enabled GZ-HM550. As we hinted at above, the venerable wireless standard will give the camcorder a number of potentially superfluous – or useful – features. Perhaps most promising, users will be able to control the camera remotely with a smartphone, rather than buying a dedicated remote (which typically relies on inferior line-of-sight IR technology, as well). It will also work with Bluetooth headsets to either monitor sound or record it, effectively turning your vanilla-variety Bluetooth earpiece into improvised wireless lapel mic. Finally, connecting a Bluetooth GPS device will allow the camera to log coordinates to geotag your videos.

Aside from its whiz-bang wireless features, the GZ-HM550 shoots full 1080p video from a 10.62-megapixell CMOS sensor, offers 16x optical zoom, an LED light and flash for stills, 32GB of internal memory, plus an SD slot for additional storage. It can also handle time lapse photography, and comes with an auto record feature to start rolling when a person enters the view.

The GZ-HM550 will start selling immediately for $799.95.