saddened and disappointed
 

I'm very saddened that Pana has once again stooped so low, in my opinion. This is no way to conduct business. What am I talking about? No NV-GS100 for us consumers outside of Japan! It was bad enough that North Americans were shutout from the NV-MX3000, and Pana's sloppy firmware coding for the PAL version. Then we had the fiasco with Pana's low light poker styled 1-chip. The Japanese version had the 3.5" LCD, the PAL version had a smaller 3" LCD and North Americans, as usual, got stuck with the smallest, a lowly 2.5" LCD screen! I'm taking about the NV-MX1000 / NV-MX8 / PV-DV852. What other surprises are in-store? Is the new NV/PV GS400 just an updated MX5000? That cam's 2 years old! And do you remember some of Pana's sister's antics? She's no better---which is understandable considering they have the same parent. By the way, Mats_sh_ta is the family surname. What am I talking about? Japan got the "fixed" GR-DV3000 called the GR-DV3500 and we did not. Then Japan got the GR-DV5000 while we only got the stripped down version called the GR-DV4000---did we ever get the GR-DV5000?

Disclaimer: believe only if you're a believer, otherwise chalk it up as one man's opinion. :-))

totally agree mate...

with the size of the ccds these days, sometimes i wonder if these cams are worth the extra cash compared to the single chippers... especially when it comes to low light...

ok heres the funny thing about prices in oz..
i can get a mx500 for $3800rrp.. but i can also get a DVC30 for a lil under $4400rrp (obviously street price will be less) but when you toss the 2 up, $600 is not all that much when you consider the flexibility the DVC30 offers compared to the MX....

I guess Pana ar using the 3ccd's as a selling tool more than a working tool...

its funny that this is the case and always has been the case yet you still keep a great interest in pana. i'm happy with my cam but i haven't really been into it big until recent so haven't had troubles. however we did get the mx-300 so what is there to complain about. we didn't however get the gs-100 and while i am not in the market for one it would definately be nice to have that extra choice. i am happy that we got the dvc-30 and if i wanted to buy a cam at the moment that would be it but for now i am gonna hang in for hd 3ccd then i will start looking again. It must be pana's competitive prices that keep us coming back.

Justin

I'm only saddened and disappointed with what I mentioned. I would still buy a Pana or JVC depending on the model and the price. I just don't want to be cheated with a little 2.5" LCD when the Japanese version gets the big one...among other concerns. Please tell me I have to get a life. :-))

All i know is that i'm totally happy with the choice of going for a japanese gs100, the menus really are a non-issue and i got it for 1500 cdn which i think is a steal.

How is the gs400 inferior to the gs100? It looks about the same to me with boosted still resolution.

The GS400 specs haven't been released yet, so I don't know if it'll be a lesser cam than the GS400. I'm only guessing that the GS400 is an updated MX5000 or perhaps a DVC30 knock-off. When you comnpare the latest GS400 pic from th Pana Spanish site, it very much looks like a MX5000.

hey justin, whereabouts are you mate? my supplier only got their hands on a dvc30 about a week ago... street price of 3700... which isnt too bad..

can i ask, how much did u get yours for?

sorry mate.
i'm from perth but i was just saying that i'm glad that the dvc-30 came to australia. i never actually got one. i have an mx-500 and am very happy with it.

Justin

it IS a good camera.. i use my mx500 alongside the DVX100 and in good light (ie outside daylight) the only way you can tell the difference of the 2 is by the lens size (DVX is MUCH wider) and DOF.. mind you it took me 3 days to calibrate the buggers to work habd in hand.. but n the end, they work beautifully together...
Did a wedding recently and im editing now.. and i actually got confused about which cam filmed what... thats a good sign in my book!

And the MX300 is also a good cam with less LUX requirements than the MX500, but the MX500 has sharper footage, and it is a more solid cam, or so it seems to me.

I'm not holding out much hope for a big breakthrough with the GS400, although Panasonic has the technology to do it. In fact, I'm hearing some good things about what JVC is about to do with small chips. I think that the major manufacturers underestimate what the consumer wants by shooting for the lowest common denominator. They certainly have let marketing drive technology with all the tradeoffs that combination generates. Oh, well. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised.

Frank, you have a life...Panasonic camcorders :-)).

Ditto here Frank.

What am I supposed to upgrade to?

Frank,

The battery for the gs400 seems to be the same one that's gs100 compatible. Is that an indication that the gs400 might be a gs100 successor?

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.p...uct_Id=3974359

Also, the weight at 680g is much closer to the gs100 (650g) compared to the approx 760g for the mx5000/953.

Just a thought.

I don't know. it has been my impression that JVC make promises like this for marketing. aparantly the hd-10 single chip camera has 1ccd and uses RGB filtering which is suppose to produce footage as good as 3ccd but from what i have seen this cam lacks saturation so i really do wonder about what JVC promises. Just a thought

Maybe, if the GS400 is also released in Japan, and there are no other "Japan Only" 3-chip surpises...I would guess.

With all those available info about the GS400 from the US and Europe and not a single one from Japan, it makes me wonder if it's the Japanese market's turn to be saddened and disappointed.

On the other hand, judging from the few pictures of the GS400, I am not sure if that kind of body design and size would click in the mainstream Japanese market. It looks big, heavy and pokerish.

Ahhh, finally a man's cam. Let's just hope the CCDs are man-sized as well. :-))

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : Ahhh, finally a man's cam. Let's just hope the CCDs are man-sized as well. :-)) -->>>

Rumor says the CCD size is 1/4.7". Suppose the GS400 has the same crystal engine like GS100, better lowlight video is expected with larger CCD.

Again, rumor still. Just have to pray Pana won't follow the trend of shrinking CCD size.

1/4.7" CCDs from Sony?

...better lowlight video is expected with larger CCD.

That, in my observation is no longer true in consumer cams.

Many people wondered when it was reported that the GS100 (1/6") equalled if not bettered the PC330 (1/3") and OpturaXi (1/3.4") in low-light...and it actually does.

I honestly think that were seeing some larger CCDs (1/3.6") just to counterbalance the glut of pixels and I agree that low light performance is not getting better.

Large 1/3" CCDs and low pixel count (340k) is what made the VX2000 so famous for low light work.

Ok, ok, ok. Here is my new optimistic prediction:

The GS400 will share the same chassis as the DVC30.
Here's how the 400 will differ from the DVC30:

GS400 - 1/4" CCDs with 1 Mpxl each ~900K effective for video
GS400 - 7 lux
GS400 - HQ widescreen mode (no resolution loss)
GS400 - 12X 43mm zoom lens
GS400 - dual use zoom ring (manual zoom and focus)
GS400 - no IR night shot
GS400 - no removable mic/handle
GS400 - no Pro Cinema mode (but will have 1/4 up to 1/60 variable shutter)
GS400 - no XLR connectors
GS400 - announced at NAB but not available until late July

How's that Tommy? Trade up?

I'll have to go with the rumored 1/4.7" 1.07MP CCD.

3 x 1.07= 3.21 x 1.25 (AXIS - Advanced Pixel Interpolation System of the Crystal Engine) = 4.01MP

Min Lux Rating: 12 (same as GS100) or 10 (same as the 3000) Lux. Sony Japan hasn't been able to reduce the light sensitivity of their Jap models equipped with this CCD from 15 Lux (I don't believe in Sony US rating of 7 - sorry). The Crystal Engine can probably improve it a little.

If it has the Crystal Engine, it will most likely have Procinema. Procinema is one of the DSPs included in the Crystal Engine. Reason why the 200 and 120 do not have Procinema (despite having Crystal Engine) is because they do not have frame mode. Why they don't have frame mode - I don't know - probably to save on cost.

GS series cams are all compact bodied (GS100 being the biggest so far). Thus, I don't think the GS400 will share the same chassis as the relatively bulky DVC30.

I'm just guessing.