Panasonic Palmcorder PV-GS500 Mini DV Camcorder

Before getting this camcorder, I talked to my friend who owns a 3-CCD "prosumer" Panasonic PV-GS400 and to a couple of salesmen who seemed professional and honest to me. I also read hundreds of reviews in the Internet and compared video quality of several different camcorders.
I wanted very good quality at a reasonable price.

Everyone suggested that 3-CCD was much better than single CCD, but I was not sure about how big the difference was and I was going to trade the color quality for lower price if color was acceptable and if it allowed me to save a couple of hundred bucks if I chose a single CCD one.

I considered the following storage technologies (in the decreasing priority order):

1. Hard disk drive (HDD)
2. DVD
3. MiniDV

All HDD camcorders available on the market had only one CCD, were missing optical image stabilization and did not have good reviews, so I decided not to waste my time for trying them.

All DVD camcorders I tried (both 1-CCD and 3-CCD) showed rather poor video quality.
When doing test shooting, I checked if I could see separate hairs on the head of a person at a closeup on recorded video. Neither of the DVD camcorders I tested allowed me to see hairs. And in SP mode I was not even able to see flocks, the hair looked like a hat and it was hard to recognize a face if a person was not close enough to the camera. In both XP and SP modes there were noticeable artifacts and in SP the picture was blurred. Formatting a disk took some 10 minutes and finalizing it about 5 minutes. And it could contain only 20 minutes of "high quality" video (in XP mode)! It was just unacceptable to me.

All 1-CCD camcorders (including those claiming color comparable to that of 3-CCD ones) showed unrealistic colors.

PV-GS500 turned out to be something very different. In addition to amazingly natural colors, it gave crisp and stable picture, even at 12x zoom (thanks to 3-CCD technology and LEICA DICOMAR lens with optical stabilization). In the results I specified the score for video quality 4 out of 5 because 5 would mean professional quality. But for a consumer product it's excellent. There is nothing else to say about the video quality.

Nice features include a simple setup menu and a joystick control.

But I want to make it clear: this camcorder will not replace a digital camera. The quality of still shots is worse than what I had with my 2-Megapixel Canon A40 digital camera I bought 4 years ago. Quad-Density Pixel Distribution seems to me a little bit more than an advertising trick that allows positioning this camcorder as capable of 4-Megapixel stills. But I like the possibility to take still shots when taping.

Other drawbacks, in my opinion, are inconveniently placed controls which are hard to operate with one hand (the right one). Palm strap prevents from reaching the joystick by the thumb, and other buttons are hard to reach with both the thumb and the fingers. The camcorder would be easier to operate if the cassette tray were longer (so it would protrude to the rear some extra 10-15 mm).

Also, it is possible to break the hinge of the LCD panel (when it is folded) if you hold the camcorder so that your fingers support the panel. There could be an overhang below the panel (or the panel could fold into a niche).

I would also appreciate an automatic lens cover. It could open when you start recording and close when you stop it. And the cap would not hang on a tether banging at the body and the lens when the lens is not covered (and one would not risk to lose the cap if it's not tethered).

Another nice feature (it is present in the PV-GS400) would be a recording button located in the front upper part of the camcorder (so one could press it with your his/her index finger or the thumb when holding the camcorder as a bowling ball, i.e. from the lower position). Now to shoot from the lower position, you have to use your left hand to press the recording button located on the rear side of the camcorder while holding the camcorder in the right hand.