Panasonic Cuts MiniDV Down to Three

 

“The high definition revolution is spreading very rapidly around the world,” said Atsuya Makita. Panasonic, one of the world’s largest HDTV manufacturers, knows this better than most. A little less than two months ago, Panasonic finally entered the consumer HD camcorder market with the HDC-SD1 and the HDC-DX1.

 

Today’s announcements were certainly less exciting than November’s news, but they illustrate that Panasonic is clearly following industry trends and stepping back from MiniDV. Last year, the company announced six models in the MiniDV format. This year, that number has been cut down to three. But, on the plus side, all the MiniDV camcorders offer optical image stabilization.  All three new models will be in stores in February 2007.

 

"The big story here is extending the benefits of Panasonic's advanced Optical Image Stabilization technology to customers shopping for camcorders in the entry level market segment," said Rudy Vitti, Panasonic's national marketing manager for camcorders. "O.I.S. eliminates the deterioration and unnatural artifacts common with electronic stabilization systems by cancelling hand-shake effects before the image reaches the CCD. With it, we have managed to increase the zoom range of several of our models to 32x while obtaining smoother, more stable images than ever before." Vitti also noted that the OIS is completely functional in still picture mode as well as video mode.

 

While the addition of optical stabilization to the entire Panasonic MiniDV line is welcome, it's a shame that this technology finally becomes universal just as MiniDV camcorders are being phased out. Also, it seems somewhat anachronistic to be putting such a prosumer feature on these lower end camcorders at the same time features like microphone and headphone jacks are being stripped off.

 

At the top of the line, the PV-GS320 combines a 10X Leica Dicomar ED lens and a virtually light-loss-free 3CCD imaging system to produce superior detail rendition, greater color accuracy, and enhanced depth, according to Panasonic. The PV-GS320 also includes optical image stabilization, 3.1 megapixel still picture recording onto SD Card, 2.7" wide LCD, one-touch navigation and joystick control, high-speed shutter (1/60-1/800, tape mode; 1/30-1,2000, card mode), and the Motion DV Studio and Quick Movie Magic software applications. 

 

The PV-GS85 features optical image stabilization, 32x optical zoom, 3.1 megapixel still-picture recording onto SD Card, 2.7" wide color EVF, one-touch navigation and joystick control, and high-speed shutter (1/60-1/800, tape mode; 1/30-1,2000, card mode).

 

The cheapest new MiniDV model the PV-GS80 features Optical image stabilization, 32x optical zoom, 2.7" wide LCD, one-touch navigation and joystick control, and high-speed shutter (1/60-1/8000).