My New Panasonic PV-GS320 Video Camera
Posted at 8:00 pm. Filed under: Shopping, Gift Ideas, Website Reviews, Technology, Interesting Products
About a week and a half ago I picked up a new video camera from Best Buy. I checked out reviews for about ten different cameras under five hundred bucks and I ended up choosing the Panasonic PV-GS320. It’s a 3CCD video camera and picks up colors like no other video camera I’ve seen for under $500. Circuit City had the GS320 on sale for $369.99, but their warranty price and service is junk. I went to Best Buy and had them do a price match for Circuit City’s price and I got a 4 year warranty from Best Buy for $99. So I got a nice 3CCD video camera, a tall tripod, a carrying case and a 4 year warranty for $540 with tax and all. That’s really the best buy I’ve seen on this camera other than buying it from eBay. The video quality from the camera is even better than I ever expected. I can’t wait until we get some sun light so I can really take it out and see what it’s made of.
Posted at 8:00 pm on Sunday, February 24th, 2008. |
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March 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I ran across your posting on your camera because I was interested in purchasing the same model. How do you like your camera after having a chance to use it some more?
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I love it. The picture quality is the best I’ve seen without going to a high definition video camera. It doesn’t have a built in light, but it’s not really a problem. You can add your own external light using the built in “shoe” mount on top of the camera, although, I haven’t really came across a situation where I needed a light yet. The built in microphone also seems to work great. I couldn’t ask for a better camera for the price. The 3CCD really does make a big difference in colors and overall picture quality. When you really get into it and tweak the settings in manual mode, you will get it looking really really nice, but if you don’t want to bother adjusting settings for different situations, the “Auto” mode still looks great. It’s pretty easy to get the hang of what settings to use in which situations, though. You just have to play with it a little bit and see how different settings look in different lighting and that sort of thing. 2 of my friends have already purchased the camera after seeing the quality of mine. I don’t really have anything bad to say about the video quality on this camera. I recommend it 100%.
On a side note.. I picked up a cheap larger battery for it on eBay for $26.00 with shipping (from eBay seller: power_street ) and it actually lasts and works great and you can charge it using the panasonic battery charger that comes with the camera. You’ll also need a firewire cable for it (under $5.00 with shipping on eBay) if you plan to transfer video to your computer using firewire. A USB cable comes with the camera and it works great. I’ve been using the USB cable and I haven’t had any problems with video quality or dropped frames during the transfer.
No complaints at all. I love the camera.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I have also picked up a pack of Kenko 37mm lenses for the camera which simply screw onto it. It came with a tele lense to increase the optical zoom (so you can zoom in further using optical zoom rather than switching to digital zoom and losing picture quality) and a wide angle lense. I couldn’t be more pleased with the lenses and I recommend those as well. For the pack of the 2 lenses I paid $42.95 with shipping from Adorama.com.
If you’re interested in the lenses, visit Adorama.com and enter KNLS37 in the search box. That is the SKU number for the 2 pack.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Hey great thanks for the information on your experience with the camera. I am going to get me one this week most likely. The only complaints I’ve really seen are the missing mic and headphone jacks and the poor placement of the SD slot and the connection for the DV jack both behind the battery. I have found some sample videos on Youtube and two somehow looked like professional grade videos (Youtube didn’t compress the video to make it look grainy for some reason I think). I have a Panasonic DVD recorder for my tv and it has a DV jack so it looks like I can even record from the camera straight to a DVD if I want to without doing any edits so that’s good to know. I’m concerned about the battery though sounds like the included battery is only good for 60 min at the most? I’ll look for a longer length one like you did. I like the idea about the lens attachments too thanks. Thanks again for all the helpful info. By the way I saw the camera on Sears online for like $349 last night, online only, which is like $100 cheaper than Circuit City and Bestbuy which surprised me.
Thanks!
March 24th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Glad I could help. The placement of the SD slot has not really been an issue for me. Its on the bottom of the camera and out of the way. The DV port could have been put in a different spot, but it doesn’t really bother me. I would use the AC adapter to power it while transferring the video onto the PC anyway to save battery power, so it works out. I can’t really complain about the missing external microphone jack. The built in microphone works great. I really enjoy using the camera.
Here is a clip I recorded at night while it was raining right after I got the camera. It is in very low light. The camera is only shaky due to me pressing buttons and trying out different settings the whole time I’m recording.
http://rapidshare.com/files/92584087/rain_at_night.wmv
I’ll post more videos soon.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I received my camera today and was excited about it until I discovered that the software apparently isn’t vista compatible. I think there is an update to make it compatible however the instructions seem to indicate you install the update on top of the original software. If true thats a problem since the cd won’t install to begin with. Not sure what I can do if it doesn’t work. I guess I can buy some editing software instead that is Vista compatible, I’m hoping the usb driver will connect. I guess you probably have XP most likely?
March 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I was able to get the Vista version on Panasonics site however I was wondering what software do you use or prefer? I tried Windows Movie Maker first before I found this update which I’ve read on posts some people prefer over this software. Just curious. Also, do you know how the video plays on a regular tv if you record in wide screen mode? I have a wide screen tv but was curious how it would look on someone elses tv that doesn’t have wide screen in case they wanted to watch one of my videos?
Thanks.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Yeah, I use Windows XP. My video editing software of choice is Sony Vegas. The software that comes with it works fine for basic editing purposes like cutting scenes and that sort of thing, but I prefer Vegas, it’s got a lot more features and its pretty easy to get the hang of after you play around with it. Widescreen videos play fine on standard full frame televisions. They look just like widescreen movies do, with black bars on top and bottom. I actually film everything in widescreen mode. I hope you’re able to get everything straightened out. It’s a great camera.
You can check out some good video editing software here: http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com. They list reviews, features and everything for the top 10 video editing applications.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hey thanks again for the info. I think I have everything worked out. I need to get a firewire cable, I assume it’s quicker to use that than USB? I have a Panasonic dvd recorder so that also has a DV jack to record from tape directly to dvd if I wanted to without editing.
Do you know how much tape will fit on a dvd? I’m assuming that a 60 min tape would fit on a dvd hopefully do you know if that’s the case if all 60 minutes were used?
Thanks!