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Guy Bruner · March 31st, 2006, 06:12 AM

I had the opportunity to review the Panasonic GS300 and GS500 earlier this year. The video from the GS500 is equivalent to the GS400. Panasonic did improve the auto exposure control. The GS300 and 500 now up gain automatically to 18dB so you don't have to go into manual to squeeze the last photon out of the light. They also now automatically adjust shutter up to 1/250 second to help with bright lighting. That's important on the GS300 because Panasonic removed the auto ND filters that were on the GS250.

These camcorders are considerably smaller than the GS400 and lack any external convenience operating controls. The joystick menu control on the GS500 is an improvement over the cruciform rocker on the GS400, but that's about all I can say is better. Oh, the GS300 and 500 have anti-ground shooting which is an interesting but not compelling new feature. And, worse of worse, Panasonic removed the AV IN and headphone jack features.

Basically, the new Panasonics are very consumer, point and shoot 3CCD cams. Frank's right. We'll just have to see what Panasonic does to plug the $1000-$2000 hole in their prosumer dike.

March 31st, 2006, 06:12 AM	#3
Guy Bruner Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Ashford, AL Posts: 931	I had the opportunity to review the Panasonic GS300 and GS500 earlier this year. The video from the GS500 is equivalent to the GS400. Panasonic did improve the auto exposure control. The GS300 and 500 now up gain automatically to 18dB so you don't have to go into manual to squeeze the last photon out of the light. They also now automatically adjust shutter up to 1/250 second to help with bright lighting. That's important on the GS300 because Panasonic removed the auto ND filters that were on the GS250. These camcorders are considerably smaller than the GS400 and lack any external convenience operating controls. The joystick menu control on the GS500 is an improvement over the cruciform rocker on the GS400, but that's about all I can say is better. Oh, the GS300 and 500 have anti-ground shooting which is an interesting but not compelling new feature. And, worse of worse, Panasonic removed the AV IN and headphone jack features. Basically, the new Panasonics are very consumer, point and shoot 3CCD cams. Frank's right. We'll just have to see what Panasonic does to plug the $1000-$2000 hole in their prosumer dike.