what are your thoughts on it??

I haven't seen one yet, but I've read here and there that it's less of a cam than the GS400. Hmmm, I suspect we'll have to wait 'til late Spring or early Summer before we'll know what's on Pana's plate. ;)

I had the opportunity to review the Panasonic GS300 and GS500 (http://www.pana3ccduser.com/article.php?filename=Review:-GS300-and-GS500-3CCD-Camcorders) 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.

They removed the auto internal ND Guy? How crazy is that - making the cam up the shutter speed rather than keeping it at f/4 and bringing in the ND.

Hi Tom. I trust your spring is going well in merry ol' UK?

Actually, the Panasonics start inserting ND at F2.8, hold the iris, and step insert the NDs up to F8 or so (as best I can tell) before the iris start to get smaller again. But, even without the NDs, the GS300 does pretty well in bright light. I shot some video simultaneously with the GS300 and GS500. A comparison video is linked in my review. Hard to tell which cam is which with good light.

I really wish gs500 can have a xlr plug.

Regards
Leigh

Add a beachtek box and your wish becomes a reality.
http://beachtek.com/dxa4.html

Hi Tom,

Thanks

Regards
Leigh

Add a beachtek box and your wish becomes a reality.
http://beachtek.com/dxa4.html

I've got my GS500 ordered up and I hope to have some input in the coming weeks.