NV-GS400K Announced on Panasonic Japan Site
 

It looks like a worthy upgrade on paper.

Tommy, it's time to retire your black mamba. Mine too :-))

I wonder how much the street price would be?

Allan, not all the Japanese characters are coming through on my current browser, but am I getting the message that Panasonic is claiming real progressive for the gs400? With the 100k, the word was only used in connection with the still photos, but not so with the 400. If it's real 16:9 and no smear problem...

And, oh, yeah, seems it will come in black, too. Word must be getting out about those crazy Westerners who like black.

Now this is news worth waking up for!

I'll take the black one!

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-...15/NVGS400.jpg

Thanks for the "find" Patricia! I can't tell you how many times I looked at the New Products page on the Pana Japan site!

Yeah, one of my Japanese colleagues said that the pro-cinema mode was described as "progressive pro-cinema." I was wondering the same thing. Or, maybe Panasonic calls frame mode "progressive??" If true progressive, that would be quite a step up over the GS100 and DV953. 740,000 pixels in 16:9 30P...maybe that's how they are doing the simultaneous 1.2 Mpxl stills?

It's exactly the same procinema technology as that of GS100K (frame mode+cinelike gamma+bass enhancer+widemode). The same explanation of procinema is contained in the GS100K page.

16:9 technology and resolution (540K against 740K) have definitely been improved (over the GS100K). It reads good indeed but nothing beats the 1.38MP/1.5MP resolution of the Opturas on this aspect.

More picture adjustment under Advanced Functions: Detail, Color, Brightness, Sharpness

Take note: NEW (the Japanized English word "power upped" was used to describe it) Crystal Engine - (whatever that means).

Has there been any mention of low dispersion lens that reduces chromatic aberration to 1/3 in the English specs (similar to the GS100 and DVC30).

I'd love to get this one..but I'll wait for Xmas or for the price to break the JPY100K barrier, whichever comes first :-). But if I consult with the wife, she'd probably say whichever comes last :-))

Just wondering, what if the special limited edition black is not released outside Japan, what will you guys buy?

Thanks, Allan. If I was going to buy one, I'd opt for the black model. But, I think I'll pass on this one. Not enough improvements, that I can see right now, over my DV953.

What, go back to a silver cam? After the Black Mamba, all the other cams look like they left the factory without a paint job!

I think the increased resolution of 16:9 is worth an upgrade all in itself.

Gently used GS100 anyone?

If only the Black Mamba could get the high resolution widescreen of the Optura Xi. Or the Xi get the picture quality of the Black Mamba. Either way!

Amount of pixels no matter sometimes.
May be someone knows about Sony DSR-570WSP. It has an excellent widescreen quality according its 16:9 CCD. DSR-570WSP has only 570k effective pixels of 616k total.

Mikhail, the DSR-570W has CCDs that were designed for 16:9. I believe its pixels are of a different shape than a 4:3 cam. Maybe someone knows more about this..

Illustration of how the GS400 improves on widescreen compared to the GS100. I hope to have this translated later today.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-...GS400_Wide.JPG

>>the DSR-570W has CCDs that were designed for 16:9. I believe its pixels are of a different shape than a 4:3 cam. Maybe someone knows more about this..<<

The pixels are the same, the shape of the CCD is 16x9 and captures at either 16x9 or 4x3.

Thanks Joe.

Tommy,
Maybe I can help a litte with the translation for the graphic you posted (as given to me by one of my Japanese colleagues). The CCD graphic on the left is GS100 and on right is GS400. The orange caption below the orange 1152x646 says "wide mode." Wide mode on the GS100 is 540,000 pixels and on the GS400 is 740,000 pixels. Note on the GS100 that the 1.04 zoom is not mentioned. There is also no mention of any zoom on the GS400.

The 3 row/column boxes below that are depictions of the TV display and have column labels of (from left to right) Normal, Cinema and Wide Pro-cinema, which are camera modes. I believe the row captions are stretch modes on the TV, but failed to capture that information.

I'm sure Pat or Allan will chime in here with any clarifications.