Panasonic PV-GS300 Camcorder Review by David Kender Published on Feb 21, 2006 3:00 PM
Related ArticlesReviews: Panasonic PV-GS320 · Panasonic PV-GS500 Camcorder Review · Panasonic PV-GS400

Still Features (9.0)
The Panasonic PV-GS300 (Review, Specs, $469.99) allows you to capture stills to SD card in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios at various resolution sizes. All photos can be captured in either normal or high quality. In 4:3 mode, resolution sizes include 2048 x 1512 (3.1MP), 1600 x 1200 (2MP), 1280 x 960 (1MP), and 640 x 480 (0.3MP). In 16:9 mode, still resolution choices include 2048 x 1152 (2.4MP) and 640 x 360 (0.2MP). All of these choices are made in the administrative menu, accessed by pushing the Menu button on the rear of the camcorder.

All of the same manual control options you know and love from video mode can be found here as well: iris, shutter speed, gain, white balance. You also get all the same automatic controls like Tele Macro and scene modes. Some of the controls are modified in still mode, however. The lowest shutter speed setting is now 1/30, and the highest is 1/2000 of a second. Aperture, white balance, and focus are the same.

There is a burst mode on the GS300, referred to in the manual as a RapidFire Consecutive Photoshot, but you must be in the very smallest resolution settings – 640 x 480 or 640 x 360 – to use this feature. It can take up to 10 stills at 0.5 second intervals. If the shutter speed is reduced to 1/30, the interval speed increases to 0.7 seconds.

There is a flash located in the front of the body, to the right of the lens. The flash can be set to on, off or automatic. It can also be adjusted to three brightness settings, indicated in the administrative menu as a lighting bolt icon with -, +, and ±0. The GS300 also comes equipped with a red-eye reduction feature, which causes the flash to go off two times prior to image capture.

Still Resolution (7.6)
We tested the GS300 for its still resolution by taking stills of a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running the stills through Imatest imaging system. All stills were shot in the maximum setting of either 2048 x 1512 (4:3) or 2048 x 1152 (16:9). In 4:3 mode, the GS300 produced an approximate resolution of 762050.75 (with an average of 0.69% clipping). In 16:9 mode, the GS300 produced an approximate resolution of 478577.0 (with an average 0.82% clipping).

Clipping occurs when in Imatest an image is has too much contrast. It can affect the accuracy of the score. We increased the luminance multiple times in order to avoid the error, but it did not help.

Still Resolution
Panasonic PV-GS300	7.6
Panasonic PV-GS250 (Review, Specs, $1299.99)	5.9
Canon Optura 60 (Specs, $649.99)	7.8
Sony DCR-HC90 (Review, Specs, $629) (Review, Specs, $629)	5.9

Still Performance (6.5)
Though the PV-GS300 offers a number of resolutions for its stills, high resolution doesn't mean that pictures will look very good. And to be honest, they don’t. The stills, as you can see, are entirely washed of color. It bears so little resemblance to the quality of the video performance that it seems to come from another camcorder entirely. In all fairness, the processes by which a camcorder processes stills and videos are totally different. But if they’re going to offer still functionality, they should do it right.

The sharpness of the photos is just fine. There is plenty of detail and clean lines. But the color balance seems way off. This was taken in full auto, which adjusted to F/2.8 and a 1/06 shutter speed. But even at this level, the whites are close to blowing out in certain areas, and the picture is devoid of color saturation. All around, a poor performance.

Still Performance
Panasonic PV-GS300	6.5
Panasonic PV-GS250	6.5
Canon Optura 60	6.5
Sony DCR-HC90	7.0

By comparison, the GS250 looks very similar. There is a little more blue present, and the picture looks slightly darker. If possible, the Sony HC90 looks even duller. There is a strong push in grey and yellow at the sacrifice of every other color. The Optura 60 was also dull. In fact, holding the GS300 up against the competition almost makes it look good. But it’s not. This is no substitute for a dedicated still camera.