Panasonic PV-DV402 Digital Camcorder With 1280x960 Digital Still Capability And A 3.5" LCD
Written: Apr 08 '02
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Pros: Picture quality, price, features, large 3.5" LCD, USB, MMC, remote finally included
Cons: 10x optical zoom
The Bottom Line: At less than $750, the Panasonic PV-DV402 is a very good value with its large 3.5” LCD, 1280x960 digital still capability...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Panasonic PV-DV402 Mini DV Camcorder |
The Panasonic PV-DV402 is a MiniDV digital camcorder. At less than $750 it features a large 3.5” LCD, PhotoShot still camera mode with up to 1280x960 resolution, MPEG streaming, SD memory card. It also features USB interface and a microphone that zooms with the camcorder.
MiniDV
As majority of other digital camcorders, the DV402 uses the industry standard MiniDV tapes. They are smaller in size than 8mm/Hi8/Digital8 or VHS-C. The 60-minute MiniDV tape holds 60 minutes in SP mode or 90 minutes in LP mode. There are two modes for sound: 12-bit and 16-bit PCM stereo with two sets of stereo audio tracks (4 channels total), which allows you to add a second track of music, when using a 12-bit mode (at the expense of dynamic range). You can perform audio dubbing, if you used SP mode during recording.
Picture And Sound
The DV402’s picture quality is excellent in both LP and SP modes (it uses 680,000-pixel CCD), and the even the digital zoom does not make it worse, when not used to the extreme. The quality is virtually the same in both SP and LP modes due to the digital technology used to store the information. You would have to spend significantly more money (and get a 3-CCD camcorder) to see any noticeable improvement in picture quality.
LCD
The cam’s LCD is 3.5” in size, which exceeds the 2.5” size of LCD in lower-level camcorders, both from Panasonic and competition. The power consumption is a little higher with 3.5” LCD, but you have an option to turn the LCD off and use a viewfinder (at least sometimes) to conserve battery power.
Zoom
This model has 10x optical and 700x digital zoom that allows you to use several zoom speeds. The slow speeds allow you create professional-looking videos. The DV402 has a CCD with 680,000 pixels, which is an improvement comparing to both earlier Panasonic models and current low-priced Sony offerings. Although the 10x optical zoom is not on in the upper range for digital camcorders, it is still quite sufficient and the high-resolution CCD makes the picture look good when using digital zoom.
Dual Digital Electronic Image Stabilization (D-EIS)
The DV402 has digital electronic image stabilization in both record and playback modes to remove excessive shake while shooting as well as from previously recorded material.
Picture Effects And Transitions
The camcorder has digital effects, which can be applied during both recording and playback. The "digital mirror" creates a mirror like symmetrical image, while "strobe" digitally freezes a series of images. "Mosaic" turns the image into a mosaic pattern, and "slim" expands the image vertically...
You can playing back your recording in color, B&W or sepia (giving your movies “old” look). There are several fader/transition modes you can use (I prefer edit my footage on the computer and add transitions later).
MagicVu IR Filter (0 Lux)
The MagicVu IR Filter lets you record video in near-total darkness with good detail level. Images can be recorded in B&W, blue or green. By turning on the IR filter, the camcorder uses a built-in infrared light to record images in dark settings at up to about 9 feet away in either B&W, blue, or green.
PhotoShot™
You can also use this camcorder as a digital still camera and store the digital pictures either on tape or on the supplied 8 MB MultiMediaCard. The Progressive PhotoShot mode helps eliminate fussiness and makes pictures more sharp.
The supplied USB cable can be used to transfer your still images to the PC for printing, editing or emailing. The picture can be in one of the two resolutions: 1280x960 (Fine mode) or 640x480 (Normal mode).
The supplied 8Mb memory card holds up to 30 images in Fine mode or up to 70 images in Normal mode. When you use the tape to store your pictures, the picture gets recorded for 7 seconds with sound.
FireWire
The cam also has a FireWire jack (i.Link, IEEE 1394) to transfer your video to the computer for editing or to another digital camcorder or VCR for editing and making copies.
What’s Included
The DV402 comes with a Li-Ion battery, adaptor/charger, 8MB MMC, remote control, USB cable and software, A/V cable. Previously, the low-priced (relatively) Panasonic camcorders did not include remote control and you would have to buy it separately. Now the remote comes with the camcorder and gives you access to all the features you would have to pay extra for in the previous generation of Panasonic camcorders.
Bottom Line
At less than $750, the Panasonic PV-DV402 is a very good value with its large 3.5” LCD, 1280x960 digital still capability, USB and MMC.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 749
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dkozin
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Location: California
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I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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