Panasonic PV-GS320 Review || Panaosnic NV-GS320 Review
The difference between PV and NV is PV series belongs to US and NV to Europe.
I bought this camcorder a month back and very happy with my purchase....Before buying it i did research for almost a month on whether to go for Hard Disk or Mini DV. I didn’t even think of DVD camcorders bcoz of less time recording and need to replace DVD's frequently.
Along with that i have budget constraints.....where I need to get everything below 500$.
Keeping all these in mind i need to choose a good camcorder which will fulfill my purpose with out losing image quality.
I looked at many models of mini dv camcorder which my friends have and i was not satisfied with the quality of the movie they provided with 1CCD.
So i decided to go for a 3CCD but very few models are having that option. One of them is Panasonic PV-GS 320.
I researched a lot more on the on the net about the reviews and i got a clear review at the following site....
Almost 50% of my knowledge came from this blog
http://typethinker.blogspot.com/2007/04/panasonic-nv-gs320-review.html
You have sections which will explain very clear about each and every topic about the camcorder.
I want to go with some more details about the camcorder which were not explained in the above blog and my experience about the camcorder.
Detail Specs of Panasonic PV-GS320
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?surfModel=PV-GS320&catalogId=13401&cachePartner=7000000000000005702&modelNo=PV-GS320&itemId=105042&catGroupId=25002&surfCategory=Digital+Camcorders&cacheProgram=11002&storeId=15001&displayTab=S
PROS : Very good quality of video, OIS, Manual Iris
CONS : No Microphone input, not impressed in low light (Magicpix), All interfaces behind the battery
I bought the camcorder from Amazon at 407$ along with 5 pack mini dv and 1 head cleaning cassette. The total cost of my purchase is around 430$.
Since i read on the reviews regarding the battery backup ( Its only around 30 mins) i ordered another battery from http://www.fatgadgets.com/ for 20$ including shipping. Name of the battery is DU21 (Panasonic). I ordered on Monday and received on Friday. Luckily i received the battery before my trip as i was planning to start on Saturday morning.
Along with that i bought a camcorder bag for 30$(including shipping) from http://www.provantage.com/ and the name of the bag is Case LogicSLRC-2. I ordered it on Sunday and received by Thursday. It bought this bcoz i want a single bag where i can carry my digital camera and camcorder and lenses. This bag completely fulfills my purpose.
Don’t forget to buy IEEE 4pin-4pin connector - 3 Ft. I bought it from http://www.firefold.com/ for 5$ including shipping.
Iam mentioning all these things in this blog bcoz i searched a lot for the good accessories at low cost and i want to make it easy for you guys.
Performance of the Camcorder:
Very impressed by the PV-GS320's optical image stabilization. The image was steady when zoomed at 10x. As the specs mentioned about 10X optical zoom you can zoom till 25X by losing minimum video clarity. The Digital zoom 700x upto me is not useful bcoz when you zoom at half of its digital zoom capacity its looks grainy. Auto focus was good at this level of camera but not best.
Panasonic does include a useful built-in wind filter and the built-in stereo mic does have an audio-zoom feature.
Bcoz of 3 CCD you the image quality look great and you can see all the colors in the video which you can see by eye.
All the colors produced are bright, crisp, clear and sharp.
Iam not impressed for the quality of the video it produced in low light. The Magicpix mode is supposed to work in very low light mode which helps a bit but it also yields a choppy look. In the manual focus when you select the Night mode, it will record the video as you see with your eye. Even if you use the Magicpix in nigh mode it will not help to provide good videos.
Still images can be captured in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios in sizes as large as 2,048x1,512 pixels. While certainly not as sharp as you'd get from a dedicated still camera, we were impressed with the shots we captured, which were suitable for uncropped 4x6-inch snapshots, though close inspection will reveal noise and plentiful image artifacts. However, given that there's no built-in flash, don't expect to get decent still images if you don't have plenty of light.
All the controls are on the right hand side and navigated thru a single Joy stick. It needs a learning curve and after that it will be very easy to navigate.
I have taken videos in the aquarium and the colors and clarity it produced was amazing. All my friends who were not impressed by my decision of Panasonic camcorder are now asking copy of the video i have taken.
After converting the video from Mini DV to DVD..even in my 27 inch TV the clarity was amazing.
I haven’t tested on Wide Screen and High Def TV. Once i check on them then i will edit the post again with comments. I will upload some of the sample videos for you guys to have a look at the videos its produced.
As i said earlier the battery is very weak and you need an extra battery for the for backup. The battery which i bought came for 1 complete cassette. Means i started using my camcorder from Morning by turning on and off, zooming in and out, trying different options. After doing all that the battery lasted for almost 3 hrs.
Now coming to the main part.. i.e converting the video from Mini DV to DVD. Many people says that its very difficult to convert..Yes it is..if you don’t use good s/w. I have checked the s/w that Panasonic has provided..it first converts the Mini DV into AVI which is a huge file. Upto my knowledge one 60mins cassette needs 20GB. And then after that you need to convert into MPEG using conversion option.
This is a huge process..I agree but if you have good s/w like Cyberlink Power Director and Ulead s/w this process is very easy. Attach your camcorder to laptop and the s/w recognizes the device..click the record button. That’s it... In 60 mins your high quality mpeg video is ready for burning directly.
To complete the video conversion in 60 mins your recording should not be stopped at any place. I.e if you record from starting to ending with out breaks then the conversion will be done in 60 mins (i.e length of recording) . But if you break your recording then the conversion s/w also makes the video into parts, means you need to click on record button every time it stops. It makes you to recording in parts.
I used Cyber link Power Director Trail version for sample conversion...You can also try it and highly recommendable.
If you don't like bothering with fancy controls but can appreciate the value of good image quality, then the Panasonic PV-GS320 may be just the camcorder for you. It does a great job of capturing high-quality video in auto mode and provides just enough manual control to satisfy the needs of beginners and some advanced amateurs.
Some sample videos....
You can download the sample high quality videos from the following link...
http://rapidshare.com/files/52684156/Panasonic_Video_Clips.zip
You migh see some quality loss due to conversion....
