Guy, supervideo is a rumor site, with news thrown in. But Panasonic Japan is supposedly an official site, and there's been some sleight of hand there, too, as far as most Americans are concerned (not to mention all those European Panasonic sites that had outright wrong info and pictures of the gs400 for months). Which is why I'm wondering whether we will be led down the garden path once again re this DVX/GS400 issue. It's amazing how hard it is to come by solid information on a product that is supposedly going on sale in a few weeks. The worst part will be that even after it's actually being sold, information on what is really going on inside the cam will still be shaky.

Yep, you're right. We'll just have to wait until we can test the actual product before we'll know anything for sure. I'm really interested in when Panasonic will finally post info on the new NA NTSC model...

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim :

Has anyone found out yet if there really are some carryovers from the dvx to the gs400 - or is it just advertising by suggestion?


The paragraph simply states that the Crystal Engine is a redesign of the high definition/resolution/image quality (not HD alright) circuit that is employed in pro cameras, in order to adopt it to non-commercial small cams, and that it has been "power-upped" for the GS400.

So that implies our GS100 has the pro element in it, being the very first cam to utilize this so called Crystal Engine.

Independent RGB noise reduction and pixel interpolation as well as the other DSPs have been there before, but probably tweaked a little bit.

Among the so called upgrades to the Crytal Engine, Pany mentions the new 3D noise reduction process, which makes a lot of sense considering the heavily densed CCDs of the GS400. Even with the improved noise reduction, Pany only managed to maintain the same light sensitivity of the GS100. Then there's that simultaneously recording to tape and card which may or may not be relevant at all.

<<<-- Originally posted by Guy Bruner : From what I can gather reading the Japanese specs and all, the improvements over the DV953 are as follows:

• 12X vs. 10X Zoom
  60,000 more pixels in 4:3 video
  271,152 more pixels in 16:9
  Wider horizontal field of view in 16:9
  Pro-cinema Widescreen mode
  3 lux better low light performance
  Improved video processing (Crystal Engine) should reduce low light noise and grain
  4 Mpxl vs. 3 Mpxl stills to SD card
  1.2 Mpxl still to SD while videoing
  High Speed USB (allows real time video to PC)
  Smooth color nightview
  Tele-macro focus
  Power LCD
  Dual function Focus/Zoom ring
  Beauty skin mode

Big functional decrease from DV953, IMO, is the loss of the jog dial and having to use the LCD when in manual mode.

Did I miss anything significant? -->>>



Assuming the 953 performs the same as the MX5000, you should add the following:


Low dispersion Leica Dicomar glass
Bass enhancer
Better LCD (even without activating Power LCD)
Higher resolution VF (123K against 110K)
Faster and smoother tape loading mechanism
More manual picture adjustments
Built in mono mic on the wired remote
Slow shutter speed settings under card mode (1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15)
Continuous photo shooting to card
Quick start
Self-timer

The letters are a little bit too small but that switch below the lens barrel (below the 3 manual function buttons) appears to be the auto/manual slide switch. Hmmm, that I think is a better placement compared to the grip area.

Allan, is it possible that the so-called improved noise reduction would give you a less grainy picture in "color night view" mode, even though the lux level has not gone down? Or is "improved" used generically and not in relation to the gs100 specifically? (Hah! Even about camcorders we get into "parsing" sentences!)

Pany Japan normally does direct comparison with the immediately preceding model (Power Upped Crystal Engine against previous Crystal Engine; GS100 widescreen against GS400 widescreen, etc.) so I think GS100 is the specific reference.

Nothing new is written about the Smooth Color Night Mode so I guess it should be the same as before. No gain, no grain :-)). But who knows. The fact that Smooth Color Night Mode is one of the DSP's contained in the Crystal Engine, it could have been tweaked as well.

Supervideo is now claiming the retail price of the gs400 will be $1199 and that there will be 1000+ US dealer locations. If true, sounds like Panasonic is convinced this cam is going to blow away the competition and will sell in enough quantity to give returns on a lower price. At $1199, Allan, you may have to buy before Christmas (or if the price is higher in Japan, get someone to buy you one in the US)! And we all know what Tommy will be doing.

The question is whether or not N.A. gets the black GS400. :) I wonder if I would purchase a Japanese cam solely for the color... Well history tells me that I bought a Japanese MX1000 opposed to the N.A. DV852 only because of a difference in side LCD (2.5" vs. 3.5"). That and Japanese menus are a great deterent for relatives and friends borrowing your cam.

"Can I borrow your camcorder?"

- "Sure, but its all in Japanese"

"Why would you buy a camcorder from Japan?"

- "I don't know what I was thinking.. (heh heh)"



I wonder what a Black Mamba goes for used?

<<<-- Originally posted by Patricia Kim : Supervideo is now claiming the retail price of the gs400 will be $1199-->>>

This would be awesome. I will be updating my obsolete ZR20, and I was originally thinking in the DVC30 or PDX10 range. But if all the stuff said about the GS400 is true, I will be happy: wide screen, cinema gamma, frame mode. Features from the higher end cameras are slowly filtering into the consumer end. I can only imagine the cool consumer cameras we'll have in five years.

Plus, as opposed to the DVC30 or GL2, lenses for the GS400 seem to be a lot cheaper and more available. I'm trying to think ahead, and see what I can reasonably afford to add to the system in the near future. That's why cameras like the DVX100 are out, because I could probably scrape up the money for such a higher end cam, but I could never get more batteries, lights, better mics, etc. I would hate buying something where I couldn't afford the accessories.

So far, if I'm reading the rumors correctly, the two biggest minuses to the GS400 (for my needs at least) are possible low-light issues (I shoot mostly suspense/horror/experimental stuff) and the lack of XLR. Plus, it's not as sexy-looking to me as the DVC30.

My fear is that there won't be a U.S. release for the GS400. Keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully, in the next month or so...

Oh, I think they're going to release something this summer. The question is will it be crippled or not.

BTW, the DV953, GS400 and DVC30 have the same filter thread size - 43mm. So, lenses and filters can be shared.

Panasonic has a new ad page up (http://ad.impress.co.jp/tie-up/panasonic-dvc0406/index.htm) with two links (red dots on the right under the first picture on the page) - one to the original Panasonic page cited here earlier and the other to what is supposed to be a review on June 28 of the cam. Just FYI.

Canada Dealers ?
 

If this cam comes to North America, will there be any Canadian dealers ?

the sad truth for Canadians.
 

There should be, but very few Canadian dealers carried the PV-DV953 (MX5). In Vancouver, I was only aware of 1 dealer stocking/selling this cam. Another place would only get one in if the customer made a special order. Another thing, the PV-DV953 sold for about $1000 Canadian more than what it was selling for in the USA, like at B&H. If the GS400 will follow a similar path here in Canada, you will see Canadians once again getting their's from places like B&H. Furthermore, the USA will most likely have these silver GS400s before us.

If the PV version does come stripped, you might as well get Allan to get you a Japanese version, and use the GS PAL manual as a guide.

Buying From B&H ?
 

When buying a cam such as this from say B&H across the border, what is the deal with warranty and such ? Will they honor warranties in Canada or does it have to go back to B&H ? How do these companies in the US treat say a international customer ?

The gs400 is listed (no photo, and with a note that full specs were not available at time of printing) in B&H's Summer 2004 catalog. It's not on their web site yet. You can always ask before purchase about how the warranty would work for your particular situation - just don't ask one of the sleazy dealers, as you won't be able to count on the veracity of any assurances they might give you.

Patricia kim wrote
 

"The gs400 is listed (no photo, and with a note that full specs were not available at time of printing) in B&H's Summer 2004 catalog. It's not on their web site yet. You can always ask before purchase about how the warranty would work for your particular situation - just don't ask one of the sleazy dealers, as you won't be able to count on the veracity of any assurances they might give you."

Best news all day!

Thanks,
Michael

Unlike Canon, you will most likely have to send it to the US for warranty work. However, You can always e-mail Panasonic Canada and askl them. Some Panasonics do come with an international warranty, though. If you do buy from the US, all you pay is shipping, GST and PST. A brokerage fee only comes into the picture when you use the lowest level of shipping.

Panasonic has the GS400 up on the US website for $1499.95. Panasonic Store. However, some of the specs are incorrect.

Wonder if Pana Japan realizes how lame Pana US? I think I even remember someone wanting to get a petition going to try to get Matsushita to upgrade the Pana US web site. Anyway, now Pana US is where the Pana Euro sites were several months ago. That's progress!

Yes, Pat. Seems like Pana US is exhibiting the same pattern as what some of the Panny Euro sites' did when they made public conflicting specs before the actual official specs were released.

Does this mean another long, protracted round of speculation and guesswork about the GS400 NTSC specs? At least we won't have to wait too long (hopefully) as the "release" date is just a few weeks away. whew!!! :)

what is the release date?

Panasonic Japan is releasing a new teleconverter lens for 43mm threads. I can't tell the difference from the picture and the magnification is still 1.4X. It's 2,000 Yen more expensive than the previous model :-(( Model no. is VW-LT4314N-K

I was wondering if that was going to happen. What would be the reasons? The enhanced zoom and different ccd size? Maybe better coating to deal with the light/smear issue? Any guesses?

Maybe it has front filter threads? :-))

Ha! Not that I'm discounting it entirely - but the one for the gs100, while unthreaded, has a protruding edge that serves as a hood, which is a concession of sorts, I guess.

Well, there may be trouble in fantasy land. The review of the gs400 which was scheduled originally for 6/28 and then moved to 7/5 is now overdue. (By my world clock, it's 7/6 now in Japan.) It's my understanding that the Japanese are notoriously "jikandori" (on time), so... Could it be those ccds?

You mean the ad-impress report? It's out but as expected, the contents are the usual good stuffs and praises, most of them already explained in Pany's website, with some sample frames and stills. Don't expect any beef from ad-impress (that phrase should speak for itself :-)). It is a tie-up.

A few interesting comparisons were made with the GS100. There's one for HQ widescreen mode, 1.04x vertical magnification is reported to be gone for the GS400.

Who's the reviewer? I couldn't figure out from last year if it was anyone of any note in Japan.

Writer is Nobuyoshi Kodera. He has a long career as technical director and editor for TV programs, commercial and promotional video.

I think there is always an accompanying (promotional) write-up from Impress Corporation for every major cam release. So if you want to know more of the beef, better wait for actual user's reactions or more objective reviewers.

BTW, GS100's advantages over the GS400 (there are ne?)

1. MPEG4 recording to card. Personally, I haven't actually used the MPEG4 mode of the black mamba but I don't see any reason why such feature has to be removed.
2. 540 lines resolution under OIS compared to 510 for the GS400. Hmmmm.

Relevant?

I simply cannot understand why LANC is not available in Pany's flagship models. I personally would prefer that over many of the features of this cam.

>>>1.04x vertical magnification is reported to be gone for the GS400.<<<

Huh? Why?

Because gone is the vertical resolution loss (digital zoom) that MX5K and GS100 exhibited under widescreen mode :-)

If you remember, the GS100 is claimed to have something like 28% higher resolution than MX5K under widescreen mode because the initial area captured is wider and the final digital zoom to achieve 480x720 is less (at 1.04x)?

I have used mpeg4 on the gs100, and the only reason I wouldn't dig my heels in and rebel that it's gone is that I'm a Mac user and Pana was using Windoze mpeg4, totally uneditable on a Mac. Otherwise, the quality was, in my view, excellent, especially as the sound quality available from the gs100k was preserved. (Yes, you've all heard about my mpeg4 WMV files which I refuse to dump even though I am helpless to edit them.)

LANC I don't pretend to understand, but it seems that the tripod Pana tries to sell with the cam has something resembling this, or no? So maybe they're just trying to sell the more expensive item? (I have actually been thinking of getting one of those tripods.) Of course, since they don't sell major accessories in the US, once again, lame.

So the does the news about lesser resolution and change in vertical magnification mean there really were problems with those new chips and the lens? (I remember Frank saying at some point that's what had been intimated to him.) I'm still suspicious about vertical smear given Tommy's experience with those chips in the PDX10.

I mean the GS400 has higher resolution widescreen mode compared to GS100 :-)

Okay, now that sounds good. Means Tommy has more incentive to buy one - and let the rest of us know how the water feels! (I think I'm waiting for next year's model, though. It's bound to come with that long-desired coffee cup holder.)

I'm sure Tommy will be the first to get one, and the first to let everyone know what the cam is all about. However, I'm sure Pana isn't going to shoot their foot in the Japanese market. (That's why Tommy's going with the black one.)

Patricia, if you attach that shoe adapter thingy, it can be easily modified to hold a coffee cup :-))

Out of the topic, has anyone seen that Sony HC1000 in person? That cam is SMALLER than I imagined. Rumor has it that it is not selling as well as expected, hence prices in Japanese discount stores have dropped to as low as JPY114,000. It's not even 1-month old.

That Sony is not out yet in these parts. From the pics, it's an ugly fat thing. It looks like NASA's space shuttle, except that it doesn't fly. Gone is the PDX10's decent viewfinder, by the way. Hey! Allan! What's going on over there in Japan? Has Saki sales increased lately?

You can see the NV-GS400K [black Professional ;-) style] at
http://www.pricejapan.com/PriceJapan_com.htm

Allan, the problem with the shoe adapter thingy is that you have to take it off in order to access the tape compartment. Not good. I would probably spill coffee in the compartment.

The photo of the HC1000 on the camcorderinfor site shows it in what looks like black. Are all the models black? Any feedback on the features other than size and professional color? (Maybe it's too small to be a "professional" size and it's black, so the ladies won't buy it as a purse cam?)