Panasonic 3-chip palm-size camcorder
 

I'd been wondering if anyone made a 3-chip small sized camcorder. I wanted something small to throw in my camera bag and take on trips. We carry enough gear to squash a pack mule anyway so I wanted to minimize a bit. I didn't want to spend a whole lot on anything "HD" (and even then most of 'em are single-chip).

I looked at all the major players (Canon, Sony, JVC, etc), but found only Panasonic made one. I was even further amazed that it was only $399! Ordered it from THE major online supplier and it came within that week. Used it on our vacation, but didn't get to really see the footage until I got home.

WOW! I can't believe it!! So much clarity and color richness out of something so small. The video sample I'm listing doesn't do it justice, but take a look: http://www.elpilon.com/images/bluebonnets.wmv

My only gripe is they didn't put a mic input (or headphone jack) on the thing. But, for how I want to use it, it's PERFECT.

Does anyone else own one of these PV-GS320's?

IMO the 3CCDs doesn't necessarily make the image better. I have a Panasonic GS70 and its image quality is still about the same as other consumer cameras. Its color resolution is not great (probably due to pixel shifting + heavy filtering), there are still halos around high contrast edges, the colors look a little funky, and it's a little noisy.

You mostly get what you pay for.