Panasonic PVGS120 3CCD MiniDV Camcorder

Rating:
Summary: Its a good Camcorder BUT.....
Review: ...be warned. If you're looking for a camcorder that you can easily download your movies onto your computer so you can create DVD's or movies for sharing across the Internet like I was, THEN KEEP LOOKING. 1st, the camcorder does not come with the cable (1394 Firewire) needed for downloading the video off the camera tape. 2nd, it also does not come with the software needed to support removing the video off the camera. I noticed in another review someone mentioning about the manual being devoted to still pictures - this is absolutely true - to include all the software and cables that does come with it. The funny thing is that it only comes with a 16MB flash card that can only hold like 20 pictures! It even suggests in the manual that you find a third party software on the Internet to help with the video functions! Don't get me wrong, it's a good camera for the value BUT be ready to do your own research on the "How To's" and to be forced into buying additional equipment to really use the features. My final complaint about this product is the lack of technical support. I intended to use the web cam feature also and when I had problems with it and MSN messenger and Yahoo messenger, I found out that there is no on-line documentation or software supporting this camera (yet??,idunno...).

Rating:
Summary: AV-DV passthrough
Review: first of all, let me say that analog-digital passthrough does work on this camera. i have seen many reviews discussing whether or not this model includes this feature. mine certainly does. for some reason, it seems to work better if there is no tape in the camera. however, the video capture is top-notch. (i was just using a mac and imovie, but it should work with most other software as well.)

This is a great camera so far. I ordered a sony dcr-hc40 and was not happy. see my review for that one online at amazon. at any rate, a big plus is that this one actually works. the picture quality is great. i actually prefer the shape of this one to the sony, despite the fact that it is a bit larger. it tends to be easier to hold than the smaller sony.

the only thing i don't like about this one is that it doesn't have night-shot. from what i can tell, only the sonys do. for most people this wouldn't matter that much, but since i am a scientist, i require the night vision for some of my work.

Rating:
Summary: Great video, small and light, but get a spare battery
Review: Have had the unit 6 months, and been through 10 tapes of kids, events, and such. The unit has been flawless, with two exceptions. First, is battery life on the default battery. I quickly determined that a spare battery was needed and picked up the CGA-DU21 which gives me a solid 4-5 hours of shooting time when I combine the two batteries.

The second issue is the button layout on the "folding screen" area. The layout is ambiguous and some more thought should have gone into making those functions usable WHILE shooting (e.g. Fade, date/time stamp, etc.)

The screen is very nice, but has a narrow viewing angle. Low light performance is great and when you have plenty of light, the color is wonderful. I'm very pleased about my purchase. If you plan to use the camera for still digital, you may want to get the unit with the higher res camera.

I also added a 512 MB SD card to it so that I can use this as a digi cam for those times when enlargements aren't likely. The shots make great 4x6 prints even with the lower end unit (1.2 megapixels.) I recently came back from holiday with 2 full DV tapes and over 90 beautiful photographs all from the same camera. The photos aren't anything like my Canon Digital Rebel, but are as good as any point-and-shoot digital camera with 2 megapixels can be.

Another quick point. It's hard to find a point-and-shoot digital camera with a fast lens (usually they are f3.5 or slower) ... but with a digicam, you automatically get like an f1.4 and can take digital stills in very low light (kids on stage, etc)... they are a tad grainy, but when you're out of flash range or flash isn't allowed, it's great.

Rating:
Summary: Great Camera at a Great Price
Review: I just bought this camera, my first experience with a digital camcorder. I read the reviews and was concerned about the reviewer that had the bad customer service experience. But I was told this was the best camera on the market for the money, and I chose to buy this model. I took the camera with me on a trip to Europe, and spent a full week recording the sights and sounds of Lisbon, Portugal. I got the camera home, and in no time at all, without even reading the owners manual, was able to download the captured video onto a DVD media using Pinnacle Studio v 9. It was incredibly easy! The color was spectacular. I am very happy with this camera and my decision to buy this model. I highly recommend this camera!

Rating:
Summary: Panasonic PV-GS120 Camcorder
Review: I payed for half of my camcorder which came to be about $450 with the extra batteries and wires you needed to get for the camera. I'm only 13 so $450 is a lot to spend for me but it was well worth it. I'll tell you what I wanted to know about a camera in a review before I bought one...
-the zoom is good, not as good as some of the other models in the store but it is also not as shaky.
-it has a zoom mic which allows you to shoot someone talking from far awa distances without them having to talk much louder then usual for the camera to pick up the sound.
-the pictures is what you pay for in a 3CCD camera. there is one chip for red, one for green, and one for blue. This makes the imagery OUTSTANDING.
-The camera is comfortable in my small hands and my dad's big hands... all you need to do is adjust the strap on it for it to fit our hand perfectly.
-i must be honest... the bad things about it is the battery life on the battery it comes with is only fourty five minutes but if you buy an extened battery it is 1 hour and 15 minutes and if you use both that adds up to about 2 hours of filming time.
-I also don't like that it doesn't come with a light but magic pix is sometimes helpful if you are shooting at a still object in the dark but it slows down the pixels so much that if you move it it could be very blurry, still, with a tripod it could be useful.
-i like the easy mini DV format. Some people are now saying that it's beyond in technology but realy... if you want to edit your tape then you have to get mini DV's... they're not hard to use and they are less expensive. You'll have to plan on shooting a perfect film with a DVD camcorder.
-the manuel tells you all of the things hiden inside of your camera like cinema mode, spotlight mode, sports mode, low-light mode so you can use he camera to it's full potential.
-overall i really was very happy with this camera and i am sure i am forgetting something but i hope my review was helpful to you.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly shoddy customer service for a mediocre product
Review: I purchased the PV-GS120 camcorder from Amazon via J&R Music and Computer World on May 1st, so that it would arrive in time for my girlfriend's birthday on May 30th. The camera sat in my desk until I wrapped it a few days prior to May 30th. I gave the camera to my girlfriend a couple of days early, so that we could film our trip to Big Bear. Everything appeared to work fine, and my girlfriend recorded several tapes worth of material before finally deciding to transfer the material to the computer.

I bought a firewire cable, followed the very brief instructions in a manual with scores of pages on the digital camera feature of the camcorder, and lo and behold, I was unable to get the video to transfer. I tried using Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid, Windows Movie Maker, and Pinnacle Studio, and none of the programs recognized the camera, which never appeared in Device Manager in the first place. I bought a different cable, with the same results. So I bought a capture card; nothing. I then took the camera and cables to the Apple store, and the Apple Geniuses were unable to get the Macs in the store to recognize the camera. Finally, I took the camera to work, where I enlisted several of my coworkers to help me try and transfer video via firewire, all to no avail.

I wrote Panasonic via their website in mid June, which provided no number to reach technical support. They didn't respond to the form that I filled out. My girlfriend then wrote them, and they responded to her with a form e-mail three weeks later stating that the appropriate department would contact her. Nobody ever contacted her. She then called Panasonic, but was forced to wait on hold for so long that she had to hang up and return to work. Finally, in mid-August, she was able to reach customer support, who told her that she was contacting the wrong department, and they took her information and told her that someone would contact her. A manager contacted her, and said that he'd send her a form to fill out to evaluate the nature of the problem.

After months of Panasonic dragging this out, I finally called a number listed on a new page on their website today, October 4th. I sat on hold for 42 minutes before speaking to someone. The customer service representative that I spoke to walked through the process of hooking the camera up to the firewire port, resetting the camera, going through menu options, and so forth. Finally, when she realized that none of these options were working, she put me on hold for about 5 minutes, and when she returned she told me to contact the firewire manufacturer, because Panasonic doesn't support the firewire feature. After going back and forth with her for a couple more minutes, I asked her to escalate my call to the next tier of customer support.

I was then placed on hold for about 10 minutes, and I was transferred to another representative who told me that I could send the camcorder to their service center in Illinois, but that the camcorder was no longer under the 90 day warranty, and that I'd be liable labor to fix the camera. At this point, I needed to return to work; however, prior to resuming my project at work, I registered the domain www.panasonichorrorstories.com.

It turns out that there are whole sites that are almost entirely devoted to Panasonic's shoddy customer service, as well as some of their activities which have spun off class action lawsuits. Their customer service is unhelpful at best, and mostly unavailable.

I don't deny that the camcorder may be great, IF an owner can get it to work in the first place. Other than the firewire problem, the camera seems to work fine. But what's the point of capturing video if it's stuck on tapes?

I HIGHLY recommend against EVER purchasing ANYTHING FROM PANASONIC, because if you even purchase a product, you have no recourse when it doesn't work. They won't replace your product, they certainly won't refund your money, and they'll make certain that you have to wait so long while any claim works its way through their endless obstacles that you ever give up, or your product is no longer under warranty.

-Ryan Cammer
www.panasonichorrorstories.com

Rating:
Summary: After 1 month I love it even more.....
Review: I was like anybody else, which camera to buy? The first thing I did , bought a Pinnacle AV/DV Firewire card and Studio v.9 software package. I have a Nikon D70, so I was looking for a camcorder not a digital camera.
I made my decision the "dirty way": I bought 3 different cameras from 3 different stores (made sure they will not charge re-stocking fee if I return it within 2 weeks) I will not mention the stores, but the cameras were my final 3 after extensive online research. Sony DCR HC40, Panasonic PV-GS120 and Canon Optura 65.
I took all three home, made a 20 minutes movie with each camera: low light, medium light indoors and outdoors, macro, etc... I've uploaded the movies from the camera I took it with, unto Pinnacle Studio v9, and then I burned a DVD of this 1 hour movie.
To make the long story short, I did return the Sony and the Canon, and here is why:
- 3CCD really works, you can't match the color separation, even if the "one" CCD is larger and has more pixels.
- Panasonic's picture quality was almost broadcast quality, vivid colors and sharp edges, Canon and Sony looked like a very good Hi8.
-Canon was horrible in low light, and my palm never got used to it.
-Sony's touch screen is Stupid, why would you wanna use your oily fingers on the screen which you are using to see what are you capturing.
-Sony's night vision shot might work with 1% of the population, I don't really want to look at grainy green pictures.
-Carl Zeiss makes very good lenses, but this Leica is superior to Sony's (notice that Panasonic is using Leica only on their "top" models)If this camera would have a Leica badge on it instead of Panasonic, this camera would be 3 times more $.Please see Panasonic and Leica dicams.
-Set the sound to 16 bit and you will better sound pick up than Sony or Canon.
-Yes, Sony Steady Shot is better than EIS, but I don't have shaky hands, and never use digital zoom more than the 20x.
Few things I would change on the Panasonic:1, The manual focus is weird. 2, use of an internal lense cap. 3, Could use a 20x optical zoom. Other than that, I am very happy with this camera, I've paid $500 at Costco.

Rating:
Summary: Great Point & Shoot With Great Image Quality
Review: My wife & I were looking for a point & shoot with great image quality. After reading a professional review of this camcorder, we found it to suit our needs the best (Capturing important moments for our son, such as birthdays and other milestones - he's 11 mos. old now). We also wanted to capture some lower-light situations such as Xmas tree lighting, and the quality of low-light image was important. The one downside that we found out after purchase was that MagicPix is processor intensive, and frame rate slows down to a crawl. The low-light boost really only affords you the opporutnity for stationary subjects, otherwise the image gets blurred. The up-side is that the low-light boost is pretty remarkable, and the image quality is very, very good. We are also very happy with the sound quality.

I marvel most of all at the size - it fits comfortably in the hand, and weighs only about one pound. I also like the hot shoe for flash, light or sound accessories.

If you have the budget for this camera, it is the best for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Best camcorder under $800
Review: Panasonic out did themselves by releasing two 3CCD camcorders below the $1000 price point (the other being the PV-GS200). No other consumer DV cam boasts 3CCDs, and the difference in image quality really shows. Getting a similar image quality from any other brand of DV cam requires spending at least $1500. The only reason I gave this camcorder 4 stars instead of 5 is because the battery life is far too short. Even with an extra battery, this camcorder beats out everything in the same price range from Canon, Sony, JVC, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Correction to product details as given on Amazon.com site
Review: There is no doubt that this is an excellent camcorder. Compared to PVGS200 Panasonic and going for that one because of few extra features. Worth the extra cost (for me at least). Main reason I am writing this review is because there are few features that are listed on Amazon site for this camcorder but they are not available in this model (they are in PVGS200 model). Here are those:

MPEG4 Movie Recording

MagicWire Remote Control

Built-in Auto Pop-up Flash

Again these features are *not* present in PVGS120 model.