Take a look on the graphical reaction for GS-400

http://www.kakaku.com/prdsearch/detail.asp?PrdKey=20201010183

Friday GS-100 reappear at one store on Kakaku, the price was 1200 $can

Maybe i will wait for GS-500 or buy a second GS-100 ;-)

hey that is just the begining of the poll. Wait and see after the release. i gues, it will be nice. better than gs100 for sure.
:)

or buy a second GS-100 ;-)

You know mine is for sale.. :)

No, in the beginnining the circle was full orange.

The GS-100 was in the market since 10 july 2003 ( i have one since august).

I think it's normal for people who have already a DV with spec very near the GS-400 to not be impressed by a low featured like that. If only it's was the same price of the GS-100, but it's 800 $can overpriced.

I think the japanese reaction it's a good indication for a future model in Japan. ;-)

Jean, I think Ali meant that its the beginning for the GS400 and any poll isn't going to be entirely accurate since no one actually owns the cam yet.

I think that a lot of GS100 owners will pass on the GS400 because they've already invested in a cam. It was the same for MX5000 owners when the GS100 came out.

I for one think it will be a worthy upgrade since I shoot exclusively widescreen.

As for a GS500? Maybe next year..

Buy two GS-100, it's near the same price, you will have superwide ;-)

I'm not trying to convince somebody GS-400 is worst to buy. I'm already convinced and i'm just happy to see the japanese market it's seem to go on the same pragmatism.

It's evident that Panasonic go on the way of customer frenezy.

At this time i'm happy with the GS-100, i shoot a lot of things and i keep the wisdom of my already satisfaction. ;-)

Buy two GS-100, it's near the same price

The cheapest I ever saw the GS100 was about $1200 and Pricejapan (where I bought my GS100) has the GS400 for $1304 delivered.

In Japan best price for GS400 is 2000 $can
and for GS100 is 1200 $can

Jean, your GS400 price is a little high since Pricejapan.com purchases from Japan.

Wow, where can you get the GS100 new for under $1000USD and in stock?

After translating the page you can see that what they rated poorly were the price, battery life, and portability. The Japanese are crazy about having everything as small as possible (why do you think Sony's PC305 has its feature set and is matchbook style) so portability rating is of course gonna be bad, and we know that's ridiculous. The batteries for prosumer cams are always a dissapointment because after spending all that money, you still need to buy a second one. Price was rated poorly because the GS100 can be gotten for much less over there. Picture quality was rated very well, and everything else was a toss-up...and this is from about 30 unconfirmed users! We'll have to wait a few months for some real feedback.

I was dying to get my hands on this cam, but even though I wouldn't buy the Sony PC305, I would be reserved about dropping the money on the GS400 when another cam was coming out for less with a possible 24p solution.

I was dying to get my hands on this cam, but even though I wouldn't buy the Sony PC305, I would be reserved about dropping the money on the GS400 when another cam was coming out for less with a possible 24p solution.

PC305? 24p? You have my interest but I'm not sure what cam you're talking about..?

Tommy, camcorderinfo.com. Sony's new 350 - just announced. Very interesting indeed.

Rare, but take a look at kakaku : someone this friday saw one demo available for 59,800 Y = 744.558 CAD ;-)

http://www.kakaku.com/prdsearch/detail.asp?ItemCD=202010&MakerCD=65&Product=NV%2DGS100K

It's the first message :

(Ž¿) ‚T‚X�C‚W‚O‚O‰~ 2004/06/25 23:56

Yeah, but thats because the GS100 is being phased out. Pricing is relatively the same for in-production models.

Tommy, camcorderinfo.com. Sony's new 350 - just announced. Very interesting indeed.

Nice little cam! If only it were a Panasonic and 3CCD. :)

Doesn't it make you wonder about the teaser Frank was sent by Pana technical re a possible new Japan-only model? There's certainly room for something between the gs400, say, and the dvx100a, particularly with Panasonic touting using some of the dvx technology in the 400? Could be interesting times...

Isn't the DVC30 in-between the GS400 and DVX100?

Not saying a new cam isn't possible but where would they position it unless its HDV.

I thought the dvc30 didn't do 24p? And that it was really being marketed heavily toward law enforcement because of the "night vision" mode - I believe someone even remarked in one of the forums that that's where most of the sales have been?

I think you may have seen a post by our old pal Frank over at dv.com where he said he compared the DVC-30 with the PDX-10 at a camera store and was very unimpressed with the build quality of the DVC-30. He also mentioned the law enforcement thing.

I found his comments curious since a few people around here have specifically mentioned how well built the DVC-30 is....

C'mon guys, most probably none of those who gave their poll have even seen the GS400 in person. Anyway

Low ratings in terms of size is a no-brainer. This cam is HUGE for the mainstream Jap market and that should be a concern for Pany.

Since the GS400 uses the same type of batt as the GS100, certainly battery life s_cks. Buy an extra battery.

Pricewise, kakaku's starting price is higher than JPY160,000. Who's gonna give that a good rating? But for sure, prices will go down to more reasonable levels once this cam is finally out.

I'm quite surprised with Frank's comment on the DVC30 body. It is made with Magnesium alloy die-cast.

The new GS series will certainly be small and cute, Japanese style. They'll be good for tourists and home users. Serious users who wish to do some 'paid' jobs will probably consider else.

I am not saying that the image is not good, but the GS built and features, coupled with smaller batteries and non-ergonomic buttons, well, certainly not for serious shooting.

As for the DVC30, no 24P = not a good cam? For the sensitivity and built (ergonomics and metal frame), I'll say that that's value for money, especially to amateurs who are training for pro shooting. The DVX100 is cool, but pretty costly, too.

Yowch, I've actually seen a few outdoor fishing shows that use compact 3CCD cams. In fact one down in Georgia bought one of my cams and I had one in Florida contact me today about my GS100 or purchasing a GS400.

Not that I'm elevating these little cams above 1/3" 3CCDs (or any cam for that matter) but they do have they place other than birthday parties and trips to the zoo.

Tommy,

Surely I know that. :-) I am actually pretty well paid for the videos that I make out of my 1/4" MX350, which is 3-years-ago technology. I just find that it is pretty pointless to say that comsumer cams can be as good as pro cams and the noise is very low or that teh colour reproduction is very close. Panasonic brought 3CCD to the masses, but the compromise is in the quality of the 3CCD. I still believe in Panasonic for the beautiful skin tones and good value-for-money. But to do anything serious, it'll be at least in the range of DVX100, PD170 or XL-1s. And anything really serious will need those monsters that TV stations are using.

By the way, small batteries and digital stabilisers are pretty terrible, not to mention the lack of dedicated buttons for WB, ND, mic gain, video gain, etc.

Back to the topic, reaction by the public is a good indication of where the next generation of video cams will go, be it cheaper and smaller or larger and more costly. It may well split into more division than pro, prosumer and consumer!

What I said was that the DVC30 looks and feels plastic-like compared with the PDX10. I never said it wasn't good. A large Vancouver dealer told me that all their DVC30 cams have been sold for surveilance purposes so far. Only lawyers and investigators have bought them, and not many have been sold.

"But to do anything serious, it'll be at least in the range of DVX100, PD170 or XL-1s. And anything really serious will need those monsters that TV stations are using."


Hum.... don´t know....

Dogville, Piñero, Personal Velocity, Dancing in the Dark, Jackass, Tape, Everything Put Together, 28 Days and a LOT of other films were shot with PD´s, XL´s and sub-PD´s. Some of those films were big hits and Dogville is a masterpiece.

One of our moderators just finished shooting part 1 of a 6 part TV mini series. All the cams were XL1's, XL1S's and DVX100/A's. Looked pretty good to me on the monitors. Sorry, Yow. :-))

Hey Frank, is there any trailer of those shots for us to watch?

I think the pols on kakaku.com has to be taken with a grain of salt!

I've noticed low grade but well selling stuff often gets very high scores while quality goods tend to have lower scores.
I think that's due to the targeted customers. The second group buyers are more demanding thus often the scores are low.

Recently I bought a heatsink for my PC's CPU which had full marks (from only 6 people though). I didn't like much the performance but it was cheap for what it was supose to do. Later I saw magazine review where this same HS scored almost last.
If I have translated and read carefully the opinions after the kakaku pol I propably wouldn't have bought that HS!

Bogdan, hopefully it wasn't the Thermalright SLK948U copper heatsink. I've been waiting to buy that one.

As for kakau.com, you can't review a movie until you've seen it and I think the same goes for camcorders.

Tommy mine is copper heatpipe (Zaward) and 30% cheaper than the leaders - you'll be fine with Thermalright !

What I meant for the kakaku pols/bbs is that it's more represantative of the sales and where the mainstream goes.
There are questions and answers and some people are saying things straight (unusual for Japanese) but it's not a real forum to get the better picture out of a product.

Gustavo, not yet. But there are pics. I'll give you the link---let me get it and I'll come back to post it.

http://www.keithloh.com/photos/cstrike/

I was quite impressed with their project.

Is it based on the popular game Counterstrike?

That's what I was told. It was a very professional shoot with some familar faces among the actors. Good stunt work too.

http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/blogstudio/LH20040611105919/2004/7/2/LHA20040702010044/index.html

People probably don't like it because of the size. For me, GS400 is better solution than DVC-AG30 since GS400 takes better wide-screen video and still has multi-function ring. I would order it right away.

Yowch, let me know when the PAL version of the GS400 gets to your neck of the woods. My son has sort of taken ownership of my MX500 and I'm in need of a new one. hehehe.

BTW, I"ve tried several times to email you and got returns. Do you have a new email address? I wanted to fill you in on Sarah.

Hi Joe,

It has been quite some time... I'll initiate with another mail to you.

As for the debate of shooting 'professionally', if making money means professional, then everyone is professional because I have paid $50 to a friend to help me shoot something using a $300 camcorder.

In photography, there is 35mm film and there is large format film. If 35mm can give what large format can give, then the pros are really stupid to walk arround with 20kg large format cameras costing $20,000.

Similarly, why are the TV stations not accepting videos from the PD170 or XL-1s? (Sure, some low budget stations will accept anything).

Let's not kid ourselves, we spend $20,000 on a 50" plasma TV and claim that a $1,000 3 x 1/6" CCD cam with lens of diameter 37mm can do the job! hahaha.

As for movies or hits shot on digital video cams below $5,000, I am pretty sure that the awards went to the story, editing, acting but certainly not any techinical awards. Given better cams and bigger budget, I am sure that the movies may do even better.

Enough my my rants. I am pleased with my cam and the quality that it gives, considering it was only US$1,300 (two years ago). I will not claim that I am professional and I will not send my videos to National Geographic uninvited. If someone gives me $50,000 for new equipment, I will not buy the GS400.

At least some 35mm lenses/cams capture sharp images, as do some consumer camcorders. There's always the poor man's route and the rich man's route. The trick is to choose wisely.

Medium format cameras will give you more resolution/detail than a 35mm camera. However, DV is DV, no matter what the CCD size is. It's all limited to 540 horizontal playback lines.

I talked to the distributor today and tried to place three of GS400K-Ks, but the staff told me the first production will be not enough to cover the hype.

So, Kaku, that means Pana thinks the interest in Japan will be that high? Despite this not being a cutesy pocket/purse size cam? Or does it mean most of the production has been planned for overseas distribution? What's your best guess?

I have been told that the version coming to the US will NOT be black. That should hold down sales here and push them up in Japan when Tommy and everyone else who wants a black 400 buys from Allan.

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : So, Kaku, that means Pana thinks the interest in Japan will be that high? Despite this not being a cutesy pocket/purse size cam? Or does it mean most of the production has been planned for overseas distribution? What's your best guess? -->>>

Pat,

My guess is that they are being careful about the number of production to see how the consumer respond. Japanese summer vacation time is starting now and they were successful making the deadline for sure (though I have not received mine yet). One thing is though, Japanese consumer has not realized the bueaty of hi-res 16:9 and prgressive mode, so GS400 being more expensive, I don't know if it is going to be as popular as Sony camcorders. So, Panasonic maybe looking at exports more seriously?

I was informed that I would receive all three GS400s that I ordered from the first bunch.