Okay, A couple of people have mentioned this camera and I've got a question...


why would you pack a lot of features and quality electronics in a camera and then give it the same body as some piece of crap 200.00 video camera that they sell at Wal Mart??? Huh??

It looks like crap. If I pulled that out at a shoot where I am charging a client 200.00 an hour they would laugh at me. I don't care how many brochures I could show them as to how good it is or how much it cost--- it looks like my sister-in-law's handi-cam that she bought at some discount department store for the kid's birthday parties.

geez... I just don't get it.

Kevin,
Why don't you tell us what you REALLY feel?

LOL! naw, I wouldn't want to embarass anyone with an outburst of emotion. ;)

The specs all sound good but you have to admit the body leaves a LOT to be desired if you considered it for any kind of "semi-professional" use. No?

Kevin, the same could be said of pulling out a XL1s for an even higher paying client but I think you're missing the point of these bang-for-the-buck cams.

The compact Panasonic 3CCD cams are not intended for impressing clients but for the price of an upper-end single chipper the GS400 delivers 3CCD color accuracy, optical image stabilization, high quality widescreen, frame mode, and even cine-like gamma. Now you may not like the build quality or looks but I like to think of these cams as being akin to the Subaru WRX. They may not be the most stylish or decked out cars but they deliver punch and plenty of it.

You could get three GS400s for the price of the upcoming XL2 and still have a good bit of money left over. Its not fair to expect performance and build quality to be anything close to the XL2, or any 1/3" 3CCD for that matter.

Thats apples and oranges.

ps - I'm thinking of getting a GS400 but I'm also considering a 1/3" 3CCD for client work. I like to think of it as not mixing business with pleasure. :)

Kevin,
No one ever positioned this cam as a Cinealta, DVX100, or XL2. However, I suspect it has as good a picture as any miniDV cam in its price range. If appearances are more important than the quality of the video, then by all means buy something else. Something heavy that sits on your shoulder or has a 10 lb lens that requires an augmented tripod to hold up. After all, it looks good to the clients. ;-)

Seriously, small cams can produce excellent video even if they don't look professional.

Everybody should take a look at the gs100 (black) at supervideo's site in its super mamba mode. Looks fairly impressive. I have a silver gs100 and with the WA, WA hood, and mike attached, people look at it and say, "Wow, that's some set up" - which it isn't, or I wouldn't be able to manage it handheld. So much for the way it looks issue. In reality, though, since the gs400 is not being pitched to the pro market, I'd really like to see it even smaller, but with improved low light performance. Maybe once SD cards are cheap enough and of large enough capacity, that will happen.

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : Everybody should take a look at the gs100 (black) at supervideo's site in its super mamba mode. Looks fairly impressive. I have a silver gs100 and with the WA, WA hood, and mike attached, people look at it and say, "Wow, that's some set up" - which it isn't, or I wouldn't be able to manage it handheld. So much for the way it looks issue. In reality, though, since the gs400 is not being pitched to the pro market, I'd really like to see it even smaller, but with improved low light performance. Maybe once SD cards are cheap enough and of large enough capacity, that will happen. -->>>

It may be interesting to compare the video quality of GS100K and GS400K. Not mentioned about other features, the CCD size is changed from 1/6" to 1/4.7". Any significant difference due to CCD changes?

Maybe more video clips of GS100K can be kept in Guy's site for others reference. Up to now there are GS400K, HC1000 and Optura 40.

Thanks again Guy. Just one clarification. The samples you put under HC30 folder, those were actually taken using the replacement to the Optura300 which is called IXY DVM3 in Japan. Since I have no idea what the equivalent US model is, I just named it Optura301 temporarily. I didn't write any explanation on that because I thought the upload didn't get through as my PC did not give any indication at all. But it's now clear that some of the samples were actually uploaded. I'd re-send the few samples that are missing tomorrow night. Goodnight for now.

Allan,
I am going to create a separate album for the Optura 30 samples. Upload those to that one. BTW, you can zip up several videos into one file and upload the .ZIP file. The server will automatically unpack the archive.

It would be really sad to make a crappy video w/ a $20,000 cam. :)