First impressions...
Written: Sep 30 '04
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Pros: Beautiful picture. Easy to use. Still pictures are of usable quality. 16:9 mode.
Cons: Very poor manual.
The Bottom Line: I can only recommend this product standalone without comparing to other camcorders. I love it!
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| murkles's Full Review: Panasonic PV-GS400 Mini DV Digital Camcorder |
There is a significant review of this camcorder at camcorderinfo.com. My buying decision was between this camcorder and the Sony HC1000. I eventually chose this camcorder because of the glowing review on camcorderinfo, and ruled out the Sony because of the lack of dedicated controls.
I have been very impressed with the picture quality of this camcorder. Being new to miniDV I can't comment relatively between this model and other models. However, the picture is sharp, well defined and very lifelike. Colours are vibrant but not oversaturated. The 3.5" LCD monitor is extremely good. Build quality is totally up to scratch.
The manual modes are comprehensive but not easy to fathom because of the very poor manual. Accessories are comprehensive, although the PC software supplied is very basic. No mac software, but then you have software supplied with the operating system, don't you? It will also work with Windows Movie Maker quite happily.
The still camera operates either whilst taking video or as a separate function. When taking video pictures are captured at 1 Megapixel, when in dedicated stills mode at 4 Megapixel max. The picture quality does not rival a dedicated 4 Megapixel stills camera, but pictures are sharp with artifacts only apparent at higher magnifications. Prints upto A4 are passable, although A5 is a better size.
Note that this camcorder does not come with a secure digital card. I don't view this as a major omission, because if it did it would probably be a totally unusable capacity such as 16 MB. You need at least 128 MB for a normal film capacity of 36 exposures. Obviously space taken up is less at lower resolutions or higher compression but I have never see the point of scrimping on memory and storing less than optimal pictures.
16:9 mode is excellent and looks fab on a widescreen TV. The LCD monitor displays a vertically stretched image rather than letterboxing it which is a bit disappointing but it doesn't actually bother me.
Very happy with the product. If you live in the UK I would recommend http://www.letsgodigital.co.uk who I bought my camcorder off. They provide really excellent service including a 30 day replacement policy (which I ended up using because the cameras firewire port was U/S).
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1049 GBP
Recommended for: Professional Videographers - Broadcast Quality Videos
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Epinions.com ID:
murkles
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Member: Mark Wickens
Location: Loughborough, UK
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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