dkwon's Full Review: Panasonic Palmcorder® PV-GS120 Mini DV Camcor...
I've been using a Sony 3CCD TRV900 for the past few years but wanted a 3CCD camcorder that is easier to lug around. Took a leap of faith leaving Sony but I'm happy to report that I haven't been too terribly disappointed. The strength of this camera are the 3 CCDs Panasonic chose to use. For 1/6" chips, they are solid. Good color, good detail and when edited through firewire straight to DVD, the final product is actually better than what I can produce with the Sony TRV900. The camera is not without flaws however.
The white balance really likes to jump around. You literally have to set the balance almost everytime you turn it on (eg. point to white) when indoors and it likes to change with sunlight vs shadows. Annoying but not a problem if you know what you're doing. The LCD screen is only useful if you're looking straight at it and can mislead you if you rely on the LCD to see if you have good lighting, etc. The microphone is not as good as Sony's. Also the mic input is only mono (no big deal as it's easy to make stereo in editing). Forget about manual focus b/c is doesn't work well. Still pictures are only slightly better than the TRV900's 640x480 stills so forget about digital camera replacement!
The worst is the horrible anti-shake since it is digital. If you like to zoom in alot, you will have a lot of shaky video that is hard to correct in editing (I miss Sony's optical steady shot). I use a tripod so I was able to avoid most shakes while zooming but when it was unavoidable, I found that my video stabilizer software in editing treats the footage differently than the Sony (it makes it jerky). And with the Sony, I rarely needed to use the video stabilizer filter in editing. In short, it's hard to stabilize the video.
But for the price (under $500), I am NOT complaining. I really like the camera and believe it has served me better than if I had purchased Sony's PC350 or some other small, but 1 chip camcorder (for a few hundred more). The Panasonic GS120 is light, compact and easy to carry around and use. In addition to good color and resolution, that was important to me. Battery life is good considering the battery is small.
With respect to the criticism about low light capabilities, the camera took great color in the dark when I used my Sony HVL-20DW2 video light with only 1 light on! At the end of the day, good color and clarity is paramount. Everything else can be fixed in post-production. The Panasonic comes through with flying colors (pun intended).
Remanufactured to like-new condition; includes 90-day warranty MiniDV camcorder and still camera with 3-megapixel CCD 10x optical zoom lens (700x digi...More at Amazon Marketplace
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