Perhaps someone will e-mail Panasonic,

consumerproducts@panasonic.com

to ask them about the North American GS100 (black mamba).

I curious if these 2 models were displayed at the show. No one reported seeing them. If the black mamba isn't coming to N.A., I'm going to be really p_ssed, and perhaps I'll be looking at Sony for my next cam purchase. I can't understand why Pana may stiill be up to their old tricks: what's deserving for the Japanese Market is only deserving for the Japanese Market, and the specialised junk goes abroad for Pana's "special" customers. Wha---? Do they think we are all rubberheads and yoyo's here?

If there's no GS100 I'm glad I went ahead and bought the DV852 in December instead of waiting on the new models--for one thing, they don't say if low light has been improved. Looks like the big deal this year is the Soft Skin detail function (the new Canons have it too), which I guess is good news for people who film a lot of people with zits...

The body certainly looks like that of the GS70 with added pro features. Price should be great though.

It is quite surprising why Pany US is not releasing the exact equivalent of the GS100 Black Mamba. Perhaps later.

Could it be that Pany is actually releasing the upgrade to the GS100 in the US ahead of Japan.

That kind of (smaller) size is certainly what the Japs would love to have.

I doubt it, considering Pana's track record.

I think that you should all forget the fuss. you in us have ntsc as the standard the same as japan so why not just import the camera (at a lower price mind you) and learn the controls. the forums have many times told you how easy it is to navigate the camera. there are only limited things on the outside which wont take long to use and being a mx-500(953) owner there isn't much in the menus anyways that you would use. a lot of the things in the menus have pictures anyway and i'm sure someone out there will provide translations. to me there are a few pro features (all found in the same section) that you might want to use and apart from that can't be too hard. and to answer peoples question about can you use ntsc cameras in pal land. well it depends. if you want inferior quality well then sure. i use premiere and when i have converted footage to ntsc which remember is upsizing not downsizing like the other way, there was noticeable quality loss in the dv format. the way i see with it, even if you do compress it later(to mpeg2) you are best to start with good footage and you will get better results. believe me if i thought i could buy an ntsc camera and get just as good footage i would, i could buy most cameras for one third the pal retail prices if i bought the ntsc equivelant. anyway i hope this was a help.

Justin

there was no mention of OIS though and with only 2 meg still pics it would indicate that the ccds are smaller resolution and hardly an upgrade. i find it hardly likely that it would be an upgrade and reach the us first. clearly most products like this take a while to get out of japan.

It's not that. Pana just doesn't what North Americans to have their flagship cam. We never got the MX3000, nor the NTSC version of the MX350 for that matter. (We did get a stripped down AG-EZ1 once, at thrice the price.) Look it, Pana could have released the GS100 simultaneously last June/July (Japan and North America). Afterall, we both use NTSC.

its seems silly though doesn't it. the thing is the us is one hell of a market to release into and it could make their company one hell of a lot more competitive and would drop the prices for all of us.
there might be possible tax complications though. i know that us trys to limite imports by putting duties on them bumping the price up i don't know but this still shouldnt be as high as it is. it would be interesting if anyone new anything about this
Justin

I don't believe that either. Japan, the USA and Canada's economies are strongly inter-twined when it comes to electronics (whereas the European electronics are hard to come by in North America. I'm only aware of this because I have family ties abroad---so N.A. has better ties with Japan---and I think consumer taxes are much higher in Japan than in the USA---which might make the consumer prices similar---we in Canada can import electronics from Japan with no additional taxes, other than the usual consumer taxes we pay here, GST & PST).

heh guys come to australia. add another six months or more onto the waiting line. although i do believe we got the mx300 and 350. don't know wasnt' following cameras then.

heh anyways whats the big deal take a look here. the advantage of this camera over the 953 is supposed to be low light and slightly better 16:9. just take a look at the low light. it still isn't all that. probably just better filters and less noise.


Justin
u r l = http://www4.big.or.jp/~a_haru/

The manual controls on the GS200 sound like they are more difficult to use now (but still better than GS70 or new GS120), and I wonder if the low light/Magic Pix that the camcorderinfo.com review mentions is only as good as the DV953. No mention of OIS/DIS. But at $999 list price, the GS200 should end being cheaper than the DV953. I guess we'll have to wait at least until March-April to see any tests...

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/panasonic-3-ccd-pv-gs120-pv-gs200-announcement-01_07_04.htm

Singapore is generally quite up in the forefront when it comes to technological releases, Malaysia is probably 1 month slower than Singapore. Can't help you N.A. guys, though, it's PAL-land here.

Na..., I'm holding out for a North American Black Mamba---if she no come, I'll have to jump ship (Sony). :-))

I was just glancing at the pics of the GS120 and GS200 (thanks for the link). They both look like snazzed up GS70s and that could ultimately mean a lack of OIS and even a quality widescreen mode.

So much for my English GS100 manual. :(

Frank, which Sony?