I orderd them few weeks ago but I was notified last week that they can deliver the GS400s sometime this week with no delay in delivering.

I will give you the report as soon as I receive them.

By the way, I read some people's posts saying GS400 has true progressive mode, but that is probably not true. Progressive CCD will not be that cheap.

I received them today. I will make some comparison between GS100, DVC30, PDX10 and GS400.

Kaku, could you also post some meaningful still shots please!?
Preferably not only in the 4MP resolution, the 1.2MP or others would be also interesting.

And how about the still shot's longest exposure time? Is it really only 1/2s or can be longer?

Furthermore I'm confused about the MPEG4 recording capability, as for instance the Australian Panasonic site says in it specs that the GS400 has it, but e.g. Germany says it has not. So what's truth? Could you please clarify this?

Thanks a lot!!

Btw. I think I can get my GS400 within the next weeks and hope it's identical to the Japanese version, except the menu language! ;)

Personally, I'm not interested in taking still photos with this camera at all, but for you fellows, I will take some photos. I assume would just need the photos of GS400 and GS100. No sweat.

<<<-- Originally posted by Andreas Winkler : Kaku, could you also post some meaningful still shots please!?
Preferably not only in the 4MP resolution, the 1.2MP or others would be also interesting.

And how about the still shot's longest exposure time? Is it really only 1/2s or can be longer?

Furthermore I'm confused about the MPEG4 recording capability, as for instance the Australian Panasonic site says in it specs that the GS400 has it, but e.g. Germany says it has not. So what's truth? Could you please clarify this?

Thanks a lot!!

Btw. I think I can get my GS400 within the next weeks and hope it's identical to the Japanese version, except the menu language! ;) -->>>

<<<-- Originally posted by Kaku Ito : Personally, I'm not interested in taking still photos with this camera at all, but for you fellows, I will take some photos. I assume would just need the photos of GS400 and GS100. No sweat. -->>>

I also know that the quality of these still shots will not be the same as of a "real" still shot photo camera, but there are some reasons why I think I'll use this feature sometimes:
- I don't own a still shot cam at the moment and have not enough funds to buy it soon (or at least my girlfriend will not agree to "waste money" for two of these "useless things" ;))
- don't want to carry two devices when I travel around by my scooter
- most photo cam's have no image stabiliser yet
- and if they have, then they cost almost the same as the GS400
- the photo quality should be sufficient to be presented on a website or photo VCD/DVD to family and friends
- I don't want to print out any photos

Thanks Kaku! Can't wait to see some nice shots of Shibuya again! ;)

Now I finished giving a seminar to customers about surround sound editing and time for me to play around with GS400.

I went through the whole manual with the cam.
The longest exposure time seems to be 1/2. It does not have MPEG4 recording.

For the vidoe, it does not have slower exposure than 1/60 (oh, no! DVC30 goes lower).

And when you switch the focus ring to be manual zoom, GS400's does not have as good feel as DVC30.

Some quick shots taken on my desktop.

For the stills with low light, both GS100 and GS400 are not impressive as digital still cameras. I will do the same tomorrow with the daylight.

I also took some photos with my Nikon Coolpix 5000 and with ISO switched to 200 or 400, it took fabulous photos under the same condition.

http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/Camcorder_comparison/PhotoAlbum185.html

Kaku, what is your impression of the video quality? Are you getting video as good as posted from the Japanese magazine hosted originally by Guy? Can you offer zip videos on your site so we can download and examine?

Your impressions of the video quality? How does 690K x 3CCD effective 1/4.7" compare to say XL1s?

Pls. indicate your impressions of the video!!!

Thank you!!!

:)

Well, just to add to the nagging, Kaku, may I also ask for your feedback re the noise issue - do you hear zoom/transport noises and does any of this get recorded on the dv tape? (There's an owner over at camcorderinfo who, I believe, said there was some noise recorded to the tape. Doesn't happen with my gs100, so I'm very curious about this.)

http://www.dvuser.co.kr/zboard/data/panasonic/Resize_Wizard_1.jpg

This is a pic taken from my MX5000, so the GS400 should be better than this.

<<<-- Originally posted by Kaku Ito : Some quick shots taken on my desktop.

For the stills with low light, both GS100 and GS400 are not impressive as digital still cameras. I will do the same tomorrow with the daylight.

I also took some photos with my Nikon Coolpix 5000 and with ISO switched to 200 or 400, it took fabulous photos under the same condition.

http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/Camcorder_comparison/PhotoAlbum185.html -->>>
Hi Kaku,

I would like to see more video sample from GS400.

Now GS400 video in Guy's site is offline and maybe your sample can give us more video review of GS400.

Thanks!

Thanks for the photos Kaku! But as I can see from the EXIF data you took the photos at 2288x1728 resolution and then downscaled them. Is it possible to see an original unchanged still shot file?
I'm particular interested in different resolution modes to compare. (e.g. 1280x960, 2288x1728...)

Of course some frame grabs out of a video or a short movie sequence would be also interesting, but I guess it's not really meaningful compressed here on the internet.

I went to shoot some stuff today. Now, I'm going to capture them via FCP HD. Took few stills, too, but forgive me because I had to do a lot with video and could not do much stills. Please look forward to the clips.

Hi Kaku - you seem to be the great hope around here in terms of actually reporting first-hand about the GS400 - any comments? What do you think of the video quality? Will you be able to have any clips up soon?

If you see in other threads, the previous clips from the Japanese magazine provided by Allan/Guyare no longer available and they won't be returning for our future enjoyment - so right now, there is very little indication other than yourself as to how the camera is.

Hope you can share with us a quick update soon!

I heard that it looks better than the DVC30 - care to comment?

Thanks in advance, Kaku - great website!

Now I put together the clips of GS100. GS400 and DVC30.

If I make them in MPEG2 ready for DVD, the files will be about 20MB each.
I can also make them available on our quicktime streaming server with MPEG4 format. Sorry, I don't have anything to encode to WMP at this point.
For windows users you can download the latest QuickTime.

Will these be feasible?

fine with me mate, anything will do right now!

4:3 interlaced QuickTime MPEG2 files are posted now. Each is about 20MB.

They are MPEG2, interlaced video files, so the best result, you should burn them on video and watch it on NTSC monitor.

Japnaese NTSC standard is 0IR instead of 7.5IR used in U.S., so you might have to do some adjustment in the white level.

You can find the link from my website. Please do not provide the direct link to the file sharing page because I can't keep track.

Kaku, great footage for the comparison - is that you on the bike? Or were you shooting?

Will now burn to DVD but already on the computer I see a difference between the DVC30 and the GS400 and honestly, there is just something about the GS400 that grabs me more - it's sharper? Also, I like the colour space a bit more - I am not the only one - I showed the clips to my wife who knows nothing about model no's and she also said there is something about the GS400 clip that makes her like it a bit more...

Wow - the GS400 looks to be a great cam!

Thanks for your hard work, Kaku!

Wow!

I spent almost all weekend for this, so I hope these clips are good enough for everyone to see the differences and thank you Mark for your warm comment. I don't get any of these comments in Japan. Doing this kinda thing in Japan makes me an oddball. Japanese don't like to make strong comments in public. They would say things only on bbs like kakaku.com anonymously, so they don't have to be responsible. I mention that before, you should not concern anything written in kakaku.com because of that.
That is also the reason why I provide important posts in English only on my blog because not worth to provide in Japanese. So, I really appreciate your comments about my site and effort. That is my drive to do this.

Anyway,

I would make a post in my blog to explain what I did, but for the interlaced clips, I had my wife Nancy shoot with those cams and Vinten tripod. All cams set at automatic mode, so everyone can see how those cams work under stricktly automatic mode.

I even added some clips from Saturday. 30P on those three cams at 16:9 amd cinelike. Those are anamorphic mpeg2 files to so you can burn them on DVD, too.

I like the control of DVC30 a lot better than GS400. GS400's ring is way too heavy. When you try to adjust using the ring, the whole cam would shake so it is hard to keep the video stable. DVC30's ring is sooo smooth and light. I was expecting that the ring would be as light as GS100. What a shame.

I will sort out my thoughts on my blog, so please check out my blog "SoMuchInLine" time to time.


<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Kubat : Kaku, great footage for the comparison - is that you on the bike? Or were you shooting?

Will now burn to DVD but already on the computer I see a difference between the DVC30 and the GS400 and honestly, there is just something about the GS400 that grabs me more - it's sharper? Also, I like the colour space a bit more - I am not the only one - I showed the clips to my wife who knows nothing about model no's and she also said there is something about the GS400 clip that makes her like it a bit more...

Wow - the GS400 looks to be a great cam!

Thanks for your hard work, Kaku!

Wow! -->>>

Kaku, thanks for your hard work - the DVD of the GS400 footage is absolutely amazing!!! Great mpeg compression! Wow, talk about really getting a sense of what the new cam can do - am glad you indicated now that you shot on full auto mode - wow, the autofocus response is incredible - I understand your concerns with the ring but in terms of video quality, the GS400 is incredible for the money!

I have old xl1 and I'd say this 1/4.7" cam beats it easily.

The colors are rich and the resolution is incredible - how does Panasonic keep pulling off one small miracle after another?

I will be visiting your site often to see the other clips - burning to DVD is definitely worth the effort, folks! Wow, talk about quality!

Great work Kaku!

Mark,

Thanks. The ones in the woods are interesting, because I shot them at the same time. The focus is auto, but the iris is fixed at what ever it looked good on the built-in LCD monitor. GS100 and GS400 fell in to the same iris (F4.0) and DVC30 was F5.2 or something. I assume DVC30 can take more darkness ( I dont know how to say it correctly). When I play these clips back with my company's Action! Model One 120 inch projector, GS400's 16:9 anamorphic video looked the best, so you can tell it has the best resolution. For regular TV like around 30 inch, they might all look the same.
However, these DVcams are not really feasible for larger screen and I'm hoping that the true progressive cams with hi-res 16:9 like XL2 would be good enough for projector playback.

I shot many more with GS400, so I will post some more good clips during this week.

By the way, the OIS is off on those cams when Nancy was shooting me because the cams were on vinten tripod. Vinten tripod is so awesome, so please be alart that the OIS on Panasonic didn't provide these smooth camera work (as far as the panning). My impression on Panasonic's OIS is not as good as Sony's stabilization.

Where are the links for these video files?

DJ

Where are the links for these video files?

Checkout Kaku's profile for his excellent website.

Kaku, thank you for all your hard work. I have been going back and forth on what cam to get but looks like the GS400 has once again taken the lead.

Kaku, many, many thanks for all your effort. Even though I'm not in the market for a new cam, this is pretty exciting. Now I get to wait one year (hopefully not more) for Panasonic to fix the not-so-great bits you noted about the gs400 (unless the price keeps dropping so much that I can't resist temptation).

How well do you think the gs400 will sell in Japan?

Kaku,
Nice work! Just one note: I can't get the GS100 30P clip to play for me. I tried downloading it twice but decided not to do it again.

The forest shots are interesting. It is pretty clear that the DVC30 has more light sensitivity. But, I still like the GS400 shots. Some of the bright contrast areas, like where your bike and leg are in bright light, bloom out on the DVC30 more than the GS400.

I'm looking forward to seeing the widescreen shots.

Guy, I second your comments re: the forest - man, I can't believe the "feel" of the procinema forest shots - very different from the other footage! Amazing!

Yes, the leg gets blown out - I see this too from the AGDVX100 as well under tricky lighting conditions - I think it's interesting how Panasonic handles "hot spots" by having things go "white hot."

Everyone who can actually burn a DVD from those clips, do it - it's worth testing out. Just the 4:3 60i GS400 clip alone has made me a believer - Kaku, your wife did a fantastic job shooting!

Today I've gone from 95% certain I'm getting the cam to 99% - when you factor price and what you get for the money, I don't think there's a better value. The XL2 may end of shooting noticeably better. But it's way more than noticeably too expensive for my budget.

Way to go Panasonic - you've got a winner here!

My buddy, another videographer, was over today and took the first DVD-RW I made of the footage - now I have to make another one to show someone else!

Kaku, your footage is causing a sensation over here!

Mark

Thanks a lot Kaku for spending your whole weekend shooting and preparing the footage!! I know leisure time is rare in Japan!

No comment to the image, everything is said already.

I'm also sure now to buy a GS400, but still struggeling about the PAL/NTSC issue. Hm, really no idea which model would be better for me, as it seems I could get both for the same price here.

Any news about stripped features on PAL or Non-Japan-NTSC version so far?

Thanks Tommy, however I am lost in that site. Still cant find the footage. Can someone please place a direct link or at least say where to navigate to? Thanks.

DJ

DJ, look on the right side of the first page under the "Recent Topics" heading. The first one, 7/25/04, has the link for the GS100, GS400, and DVC30 video clips.

Thanks, got it now.

DJ

I figured out how to make better download page so I will work on it.

how is about something like this.

http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/blogwavestudio/LH20040611105919/LHA20040726115115/index.html

Only the top item is fully explained right now. Also, few of the information is not quite accurate. I will work on the rest later today.

Ok I have downloaded the files, however the file extensions are such that the media player will not recognise it. How do I play these files?

DJ

<<<-- Originally posted by David Jonas : Ok I have downloaded the files, however the file extensions are such that the media player will not recognise it. How do I play these files?

DJ -->>>

You would get the best result if you can burn them as DVD.
Otherwise, how about QuickTime player?

The file extensions I am getting is "m2v-binhex". Is that what I should get?

DJ

<<<-- Originally posted by David Jonas : The file extensions I am getting is "m2v-binhex". Is that what I should get?

DJ -->>>

maybe you have to unstuff first?

David, you have to unzip the file. Then you get an m2v file. I use PowerDVD to view m2v files.

Thanx to Kaku

Ok got it now. Not familiar with those mac type files. had to download stuffit (first time I heard of it). Will burn to DVD and report back.

DJ

<<<-- Originally posted by Ahmad Khalil : David, you have to unzip the file. Then you get an m2v file. I use PowerDVD to view m2v files. -->>>

Definitely unzip it first. WinZip handles bin-hex zips fine. I then extracted the file, and then I simply renamed the .m2v extension to .mpg. It played just fine for me on Windows Media Player.

already unzipped and playing. Just want to see it on NTSC monitor.

DJ

<<<-- Originally posted by Andreas Winkler : Thanks for the photos Kaku! But as I can see from the EXIF data you took the photos at 2288x1728 resolution and then downscaled them. Is it possible to see an original unchanged still shot file?
I'm particular interested in different resolution modes to compare. (e.g. 1280x960, 2288x1728...)

Of course some frame grabs out of a video or a short movie sequence would be also interesting, but I guess it's not really meaningful compressed here on the internet. -->>>

Andrea,

I posted some photos on my blog for you. Take a look.

<<<-- Originally posted by Kaku Ito : <<<-- Originally posted by Andreas Winkler : Thanks for the photos Kaku! But as I can see from the EXIF data you took the photos at 2288x1728 resolution and then downscaled them. Is it possible to see an original unchanged still shot file?
I'm particular interested in different resolution modes to compare. (e.g. 1280x960, 2288x1728...)

Of course some frame grabs out of a video or a short movie sequence would be also interesting, but I guess it's not really meaningful compressed here on the internet. -->>>

Andrea,

I posted some photos on my blog for you. Take a look. -->>>
I just checked the photos and it seems that photo taken by GS100 has better sharpness and color.

Thanks a lot for posting the photos, Kaku!!!

<<<-- Originally posted by Tony Leung :
I just checked the photos and it seems that photo taken by GS100 has better sharpness and color. -->>>

As I can see from the EXIF data the white balance was set manually on the GS100, while the GS400 was set on automatic, right?! Maybe that's what causes the different colors!?

For the sharpness... hmm, I guess both cam's were not mounted on a tripod. So maybe Kaku was just lucky to get a clearer shot with the GS100!?

In general I think both cams are not comparable to real still cams and the photos still look like video somehow.

No problem Andreas,

I did not even check how I shot these photos, because I was in rush. Right after this, we had to take off to do shooting at the park before the sunset. I will do a better one next time.

As someone else mentioned, GS400 does not seems to have overly edge enhancement. It looks more natural. I did not set them on tripod because I thought the MEGA-OIS thing gives me a lot more steady shot, but I guess not (lol).

GS400 or other interlace CCD would never be comparable to digital still camera because there would be slight time difference to get full pixels from two groups of fiels, I am correct? So I would figure cams with progressive CCD would have better result. I have Nikon Coolpix 5000 and it is small enough, I can't get away from shooting stills when I know Coolpix can take photos at this (http://homepage.mac.com/kakuito/Photomenu.htm) quality.

Kaku, why post the bin-hex files? They are 50% larger than the raw .jpg files.

they are originally jpeg, but when I copy them form OSX, it seems automatically become bin-hex. I will figure it out later.