Rating: Summary: VERY GOOD, BUT LIMITED Review: This is a great camera for fun. It starts up slow, but you can get used to that. It takes good pictures, that I can set as a background on my computer. The video-making is ok, but it is limited. It has a very slow frame rate, making the video move strange, but for its size, it's not so bad. The recorder is good, but I am still trying to figure out how to transfer it on to my computer. I am not sure what program can read .vm1 (the file type for recording on this camera), but I know that I do not have it, this is very frustrating. It works as an mp3 player very well. It never skips, so it functions very well at that. The best part about it is it's size. It is so small that it can fit behind a business card! It can fit in my pocket, so I can bring it wherever I want to.
Rating: Summary: Buy one of these!!! Review: This is a great camera. It is small enough that you can take it anywhere and not feel like your having to keep up with it. The memory can hold a lot of photos- way more than other cameras on the market. The price of the camera is great considering all the different functions you get. The "I couldn't drive fast enough" guy is totally wrong. Pointing out the obvious--the camera is not for professionals. If he wanted a top of the line camera, video recorder and MP3 player- then it will cost you way more than $300. This camera performs all of those functions very well- but is not professional grade. It is for people that want an inexpensive way to make the transition from their non-digital camera and old video recorder. It saves you from carrying all that equipment on vacation.
Rating: Summary: best GIFT ever Review: this little wonder has it all in it. The length of the movies are incredible, the quality for such a tuny warrior is very good in comparison. I will buy another one.
Rating: Summary: Panasonic Ewear, New and Compact Review: This product is one that's going to be on my wish list. It's wonderfully put together. Still camera, video camera, digital music player, and voice recorder are all smooshed in this product that's as tall as a business card! Although it's costly, mostly because it's new and very small, I think it would be a great buy.
Rating: Summary: I returned after owning for 30 minutes Review: This product was a major letdown. I knew I wasn't getting an amazing camcorder with its small size, however I can see no evident use for such a piece of garbage. I bought it under the assumption that I would get some enjoyable use out of it with no real professional expectations; the MP3 playback was to be a mere bonus. The highest video quality was extremely choppy and of poor resolution. Theres a reason why the list price of this model is about [money] and can be found for less than half that at most retailers. I feel stupider for having bought it. Don't be deceieved by its stylishly small exterior and cool look. The menus and buttons were extremely hard to navigate and use, making quick recording all but impossible. This is not even of entry level camcorder quality. Better video can be found from a low end webcam 5 years ago. Even in the best lighting, it seemed as though I was filming at night. None of this was an exaggeration, I just dont want anyone else to waste their money and time. Hopefully some day in the future, Panasonic will be able to intergrate good video recording in such a small size, but definitely not today.
Rating: Summary: I couldn't drive fast enough to return this product Review: To get straight to the point, there are two very serious flaws with this product:g 1) Unbelievably bad picture quality. Now, my expectations were low to begin with as the rated resolution for video was only 320x240. For my purposes, this was acceptable. The problem is, you only get this resolution when the subject is NOT MOVING!!. Because of the way the devise compresses the video, 320x240 is the MAXIMUM resolution. Even slight movement by the subject cause such a low quality picture that the entire face of a subject becomes total blur until movement stops (like a very low quality streaming video). I would estimate the practical resolution to be about 75x60. Nowhere in the specs do they mention that the rated resolution is a theoretical maximum!! 2) The format for the video is ASF. ASF is a PROPRIATARY microsoft format. When I couldn't find any software to convert this format to a standard format like AVI or MPG for burning to video CD, I did a little research. It turns out that microsoft has threatened to sue anyone who creates software that converts this format. The only software that ever did was Virtualdub, but the feature was quickly removed once they were contacted by MS lawyers. (The story is all over the web). So, even though its your video, MS thinks that you might be trying to bootleg it so they prevent you from converting it. The bottom line is that the video you create with this unit is dead. You can't do anything with it except watch it on you PC. No DVD's. No Video CD's. No editing. The worst part is that the specs just mention MPEG-4 video, without stating that MPEG-4 is the codec, not the format (big difference. comercial DVD's for example use a mpeg-2 codec, but the format is encrypted and secure). It appears that the media companies are so committed on secure formats that they even feel threatened by a device like this. Go figure. If you have a use for this thing even with these limitations, please post your review. I'm curious how someone could be happy with it.
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