GS250 Owners?
 

Hi! I was wondering if there are some GS250 owners out there that could post some comments/screenshots/video/etc about the camcorder. I've been looking at the GS400 for awhile, but the price hasn't dropped since Christmas. (In fact, it costs more now!) I've seen the reviews at Camcorderinfo.com and DVspot (GS150) but I think their reviews are a bit mediocre.

The GS250 looks like a pretty good camcorder with HQ widescreen, OIS, and all the manual controls the GS400 has. Plus that oh-so-attractive price tag, I'm seriously considering about this little cam for some short films I'll be making.

Thanks!

the 250's wide screen is a crop and zoom not HQ, the Optura 50,60 has hq widescreen like the gs400...with that said the 250 is an amazing little cam...check out this site for many video clips and photos

http://www.pana3ccduser.com/article....0-and-PV-GS250

be sure to check out the forum on that site as well...

That's a great site, but we're happy to host video clips and photos as well.

In other words, if any of our members are interested in helping *this* site become a better resource, all you have to do is participate and join in on the discussions.

Aww man, no HQ widescreen? According to Camcorderinfo.com,

"The camcorder’s Wide mode is the camcorder’s 16:9 mode gaining information at the sides of the image while losing a bit at the top and bottom."

and then the reviewer even said it again in the comments section,

"Wide Mode: When selected, the image, on the 4:3 LCD is widened on the sides, while black bars cover the top and bottom of the screen..."

But I should've read a bit further down since another person said it was a crop and zoom that goes from about 1.3 to 1.

Thanks for the heads up, Robert!

That's surprising, even I thought the 250 had high-res 16:9.

<< the image, on the 4:3 LCD is widened on the sides, while black bars cover the top and bottom of the screen >>

I'm waiting for Panasonic and Canon to follow Sony's lead and make the flip-out LCD a native 16:9 shape so there's no need for letterboxing!

from what i understand -- and i own the camera -- the "cinema" mode is something of a compromise. the "wide" mode letterboxes a 4:3 image while the "cinema" mode captures a full-resolution image (somehow) and just squishes it to 4:3 which is later expanded in capturing. i'm not sure exactly but i thought the cinema mode was a more-hq widescreen.

any vets wanna help out on this? also, how do other cameras other than xl2 which has a native 16:9 CCD capture a hq widescreen if its pretty much impossible to use the whole CCD to capture a wider image.

In the past "cinema" mode has been the low quality 16:9 mode on Panasonic cams. Below are some links on how camcorders achieve widescreen footage with 4:3 CCDs and some examples of particular cams (DV953, PDX10).

http://www.maxent.org/video/16x9.html

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/74415/PDX10.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...Widescreen.JPG