Ever wanted to record your friends and family, including yourself, but found that you’ve been stuck behind the lense on camera duty?  You’re filming magical moments, recorded for posterity, and you’re reduced to the role of disembodied narrator.

JVC Everio GZ-HM550

Alas, this problem is no more with JVC’s latest offering, the Everio GZ-HM550 camcorder, released last Friday.  The HD camcorder’s built-in Bluetooth module allows you to control the camera on certain smartphones.  You can record, zoom, and play, all via your Bluetooth phone.  You can even monitor what you are recording, both sound and visual, all using Bluetooth.  This is done by installing an application onto your phone, allowing you to do all the above, and a little bit more.

And this ability to interact with your Bluetooth phone is just the cherry on top of what is a well spec’d HD camcorder.  While it may not have the portability of JVC’s PICSIO GC-FM1 series, the GZ-HM550 has all the features (and a few extra) that any budding filmmaker would want:

• The camcorder has a 10.6 megapixel CMOS sensor which supposedly offers better image quality for low-light recordings.  You can record video in 1080p and create 9 megapixel stills.

• It has 32GB of internal flash memory, allowing you to record plenty of footage at 1080p without having to worry about running out of space.  And a SD/SDHC card slot is there anyway, providing the opportunity to upgrade should you ever want more memory.

• The lense allows up to 16x optical zoom.

• If you like to travel, you can geotag your videos and stills with GPS by syncing the camera up to a mobile. Then, using the clumsily-named “Everio MediaBrowser” on your computer, you can see on Google Earth where your various recordings and photos were made.

• You can also do time-lapse recording (the sort of recording that allows you to watch a plant grow in minutes).

You can grab the Everio GZ-HM550 for $799.95.  Given it’s features and what else is on the market, it’s a pretty reasonable price.