MX500 review, online at Simply DV... at DVinfo.net
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Old October 31st, 2002, 08:56 AM   #1
Michael Offe
 
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MX500 review, online at Simply DV...

Hi all,
Colin at Simply DV has just put his review of the Panasonic MX500 online...
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/panasonic_mx500.html

Yours sincerely,
Michael Offe,
South Australia.
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Old October 31st, 2002, 10:24 PM   #2
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Good review - he gets into the quality of the cam, comparing it with other cams like the TRV950.
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Old November 2nd, 2002, 08:28 PM   #3
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Personally I didn't think much of that review at all - I was hoping for more, especially on how the OIS has been improved over the MX300 etc.
He places a lot of emphasis on the MX500's stills ability being at pro level - well I would hope it is a huge leap forawrd over the MX300 cos it's 'hi-res' stills are not that high res - the MX300 uses interpolation to increase the res from 680 x 420 up to it's 1152 res or whatever it 'says' it can do and the end result whilst better than 640 x 480 is not what I would call 'hi-res'
I sound as if I am knocking the MX300 hard but not really - I love my MX300 - it's a far better cam than my old TRV900 in just about every way, even it's stills are way better than the TRV900, it's just that I find it hard to figure how a 3ccd cam with 3 x 800k pixels can claim to produce 2048 x 1496 res stills. IMHO, it can't - not without using interpolation. If the 3ccd's are used to capture 800k of R, plus 800k of G and 800k of B then IMHO this is really only equal to a res of a single chip cam of 800k - adding the three ccd pixel count together is cheating and even then only equals 2.4megapixels - where do they get the extra 700k or so from?

Anyway, I guess the 'extra' res of the MX500 whatever it turns out to be will be a bonus when I trade my MX300 for one but that is when I can finally try one for myself to check the important *video* functions of the 'super ois' and it's video quality in general...
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Old November 3rd, 2002, 02:35 AM   #4
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Does www.cameraaction.com.au take trade-ins?

The MX500 does use pixel shift/interpolation for its 3 meg stills, so, although its 3 megs, it still won't be as good as a 3 meg still cam. But who cares! I don't. I'm just interested in its high video resolution, great features and the small footprint!
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Old November 3rd, 2002, 03:37 AM   #5
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Yes you are right Frank - the MX500 is primarily a video cam first and I am sure that it will be good at that if my MX300 is anything to go by so the stills capability is just a bonus for me.
I'm just having a go at Panny (and that review) for pushing it's still capabilites when it probably aint as good as it seems but then I have not yet seen an MX500 personally.
And it's not just Panny that tend to exaggerate, they all do it.

Yes Camera House will do trade ins but you are far better off selling any trade in privately as trade ins are usually the very bottom price - all of a sudden no one wants the old model and what you paid hi dollars for 12 mths ago is now worth less than half that. You can still sell private and not lose toooo much though...
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Old November 3rd, 2002, 03:41 AM   #6
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I really hope the MX500 lives up to it's promise - I have used a TRV950 for a brief while and I can say that I wasn't impressed - it actually lacks some of the benefits of the TRV900 and I owned one of those for four years and was glad to get rid of it, after two lots of reel table repairs and another visit to Sony for new mics.
I can see the MX500 even giving the VX2000 a good run - IMHO that is one very much over-rated cam - very very good in poor light but that's about all you the extra you get for twice the bulk and price over an MX300 or MX500
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Old November 3rd, 2002, 03:44 AM   #7
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Yeah, I should have known that. It's late here. Anyways, the MX500A should be out any day now, Down Under that is. I'm waiting for how much it's going to sell for. In Japan, it goes for about $1450 US.

When Camera Action does get them, make sure you check out the cam and post your findings here. As you know, in Canada you can't buy either the NTSC or PAL version of this cam.
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