camcorderinfo.com review
 

Camcorderinfo.com's official review of the gs400 is on their site. Doesn't say too much about 16:9. I hope dvspot has more to offer.

Did they actually have one to test?

Yes, Robin said she had it with her last night when she asked if anyone had any specific question before she finished the review.

I am also looking forward to the DVspot review.

If camcorderinfo has it right, then maybe Japan got the stripped version: no mpeg4 shown on Pana Japan site's. Robin said the U.S. version does do mpeg4, but does not offer the WB option for fluorescent lighting. Seems an odd trade-off.

But the Japanese get the black version.

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : If camcorderinfo has it right, then maybe Japan got the stripped version: no mpeg4 shown on the Pana Japan site's. Robin said the U.S. version does do mpeg4, but does not offer the WB option for fluorescent lighting. Seems an odd trade-off. -->>>

Interesting. My GS400 does not have MPEG4 for sure.

Personally, I would wanna have WB option than mpeg4 (I usually converted by the software anyway) and mepg4 option is on my GS100, so turn out to be okay for me.

So does the Japan GS400 have the option to WB for fluorescent lighting? My GS100 does. I agree with you, I'd rather have the WB options. It just seems strange to send out a cam of the quality of the GS400 that can WB except for fluorescent lighting.

hey amigos, you figure ! camcorderinfo.com pulled, as of today, their review on the gs400- they must have been reading our posts !

Just for the record. I used the mpeg4 option on my mx500 and it wasn't worth the trouble. 10fps choppy crap that wasn't worth the time to record it. I was trying to record my sons graduation so I could send it out to the net immediately. I purchased a large (256mb) memory stick just for that purpose.

Waste of time.

As far as I can tell, the gs400 review is still up at camcorderinfo. I'm wondering if they got a prototype that may still be "fixed," or a sample of what will really be on U.S. shelves next month. Lessening the WB flexibility sounds like a step backwards.

Mpeg4 on my gs100 was excellent - but only usable with WMP - not good for a Mac user - never found a way to edit footage, which was a shame, as I would have loved to drop a couple of bits into a larger video, movie-in-movie mode. I sent a sample to an acquaintance who uses the cam - he told me afterwards he had started telling friends not to hesitate to use it. That said, mpeg4 recording capability is not a key feature for me. I'd rather have better resolution and low light shooting capability - and great optical image stabilization.

It was definitely off for part of the day and it looks longer- my imagination ?

For the fluorescent lighting preset, see this thread.

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : So does the Japan GS400 have the option to WB for fluorescent lighting? -->>>

Yes, it does.

Well, then, here we go again. The NA version (and PAL, too, from what the brochure says) are not the equivalent of the Japan domestic version. I wonder why. So many of us who shoot indoors end up dealing with fluorescent lighting at one point or another, and often it's not a matter of choice. Bummer.