Great camcorder that burns its own CD's
Written: Aug 01 '03 (Updated Aug 04 '03)
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Pros: Great Picture quality
DVD-R plays on MOST dvd players
Light weight
GREAT MEDIUM
Cons: Software is buggy. Wizard doesnt help, you should install ALL programs on the cd.
The Bottom Line: Great buy for someone looking to store and have DVD's of cherished special moments and able to replicate to give to family and friends
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| slayer123's Full Review: Panasonic Palmcorder® VDR-M30 DVD Camcorder |
This is a Beautiful looking camcorder that matches its beauty with brains. The image quality on Fine and XTRA are both great. I couldn't tell how much better XTRA was than FINE. This beauty records on DVD-RAM double sided which can be recorded on 100 thousand. But you will need a DVD player at home of on your CPU that reads DVD-ram. Other option is the DVD-r disk which can be recorded on ONLY once but plays on most all DVD cpu drives and home DVD players.
Best to install all programs that come on the cd with this unit. The wizard is buggy the USB driver needs to be installed a few times at least on my system before it got to work to upload image onto my cpu. I could however in the meantime view the movies using the DVD movie album software on the cd. All in all a great product. Great zoom capabilities, easy to understand features and navigate them. Amazing LCD viewfinder image quality and sound on playback and when recording.
Dim lighted areas as on most home palmcorders is a drop grainy but still good. I am considering the light attachment and an extra batter pack.
DVD-r and DVD ram 2.8 gig double sides 1.4 gig one sided dvd-R disks are 5 and 15 dollars respectively on this website.
http://www.taperesources-store.com/store/products.asp?dept=116
UPDATED 8/4/03
After using this camcorder considerably this past weekend here are a few more helpful details.
The menu features on the camcorder are pretty simple to use. The on screen menu and ease of use is very organized. I didn't need the manual for many options but when I did it was easy to find and navigate.
There are many features of the camera that are very useful such as backlight option when the object in sight isn't well lit it provides a bit of help in this category. The zoom capabilities are quite impressive. You can manually change the shutter rate, light source designation depending on where you are outdoor or indoor, and numerous types of lighting. I tried this feature but for me the automatic feature worked best. But its always helpful to try and then replay the image right there on the LCD screen and see the difference. The LCD screen view finder is amazing in quality, sharpness and size. There is even a volume button on the inside of the LCD screen so playback has the sound level and great quality I might add for this type of onsite review process.
12X optical is terrific but I used the 240X digital and although at MAX zoom its a bit pixilated at about 200X digital is very good. I zoomed in on a mid sized object more than 1/4 of a mile away and it looked very good.
I bought some dvd-r disks and got the opportunity to finalize a disk to use on a friends dvd player. I forgot the audio video cables to directly connect the palmcorder to the TV so I finalized the dvd-r after only 18 min of use (by finalizing you can no longer record on this 1 time disk but need to go through this process to view on a dvd player, you can always view it on the camcorder but not on a dvd player for all to see) and the finalizing process too about 1 minute for every minute of recorded footage. I was concerned as I never went through this process and wanted to show my friends what we shot and it came out very good. It was worth finalizing the cd only after 18 of the 30 min allowed to see how it works. One caveat you must have the charger unit and battery adapter because the unit detects a stronger power supply and the 18 min it took to finalize would have drained my battery. SO I am not getting a camcorder carrying case and extra lithium battery, just on the safe side to protect the camera and have all the cables necessary.
Hope this helps.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 700
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Epinions.com ID:
slayer123
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Reviews written: 1
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