Panasonic PV-GS500 Camcorder Review by David Kender Published on Jun 2, 2006 1:15 AM
Related ArticlesReviews: Panasonic PV-GS320 · Panasonic PV-GS300 Camcorder Review · Panasonic PV-GS400

Still Features (9.0)
A number of still feature controls and settings carry directly over from the manual control and preset shooting mode options provided with the Panasonic PV-GS500 (Review, Specs, $1040). The Still Image mode allows users to produce still images at their maximum size: 2288 x 1728. Users may also choose image size options, which will result in images of 2288 x 1288, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480 or 640 x 360. These formats are selected through two separate menus located within the Basic Menu. The Picture Size menu allows users to select from settings of 4M, 2M, 1M, and 0.3M. In addition to this menu, users will also be able to select whether the image has a High or Normal Picture quality setting and choose to shoot in either a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. Stills for the PV-GS500 are recorded to SD memory card as JPEG images.

The GS500's flash and SD card slot.

Still feature controls are located within the Advanced, Basic, and Joystick menus, in a similar structure and layout to that of the Tape Recording Mode. As previously discussed, users can control image resolution and quality within the Basic Menu and can also shoot in a variety of preset modes. Preset Scene Modes for the PV-GS500 include Sports, Portrait, Low light, Spotlight, and Surf and Snow modes. In the Advanced mode, users can select Burst Mode, Flash Settings, Red-eye Reduction, Flash Levels, and Optical Image Stabilization control. Finally, in the joystick menu, users will have access to White Balance, Manual Focus, Aperture, Gain, Shutter, Soft Skin, Self Timer, and Backlight Compensation controls.

The Panasonic PV-GS500 also includes an in-camera flash, positioned to the left of the camcorder lens when viewing the camcorder from the front. This flash is terribly placed, not only because it impedes the focus ring’s functionality but also because it will cast harsh, unflattering shadows. Taking vertical shots will align the flash in a proper orientation, but remembering to do so or having this frame be feasible is not always possible.

These still features are merely par for a consumer camcorder, and making a good hybrid was clearly not Panasonic's intention with the GS500.

Still Resolution (6.2)
The stills of the GS500 were tested for their resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. The largest still possible, 2288x x 1728, yielded an approximate resolution of 620256.27. The largest 16:9 still, 2288 x 1288, yielded an approximate resolution of 250025.00.

The chart below show how the GS500 fared against the competition. The PV-GS500's stills don't match up to it's video performance.

Still Resolution
Panasonic PV-GS500	6.2
Panasonic PV-GS300 (Review, Specs, $469.99)	7.6
Sony DCR-HC96 (Review, Specs, $516)	10.5
Canon Optura 600 (Specs, $1099)	10.0

Still Performance (6.6)
The PV-GS500 is not a replacement for a still camera; that much is clear. At a max still size of about 4MP, it may seem to match up on paper with a bottom-end point and shoot camera, but the still quality is low. That’s because the GS500 uses interpolation, a process by which each pixel is split in four, effectively quadrupling the number of pixels. But the four new pixels are not capturing any more information than the original, single pixel. The resulting picture is four times larger than it was, but with exactly the same amount of information. A 4MP dedicated still camera would actually capture four times more information, making for a much sharper picture.

The GS500’s 4MP (2288 x 1728) image makes apparent just how little detail the camera captures, and curved lines appear to stair-step. There is a fair of in-camera sharpening occurring, which caused white halos along black/white borders. Significant amounts of blue flared up along contrasty areas with heavy blues (blues, purples, grays). This did not seem to be a result of sharpening so much as bad compression. Color performance as a whole was decent for a camcorder, except for a big drop off in the green saturation levels. The whites were also too bright, and seemed on the verge of blowing out.

The GS300, with a max still size 20148 x 1512, managed to dump just as much noise into its stills as it did in its video. It had nearly identical color performance with the GS500. The GS300 did not seem to suffer the same compression artifacts, but the sharpening was still a little too high in black/white areas.

The Sony DCR-HC96’s stills produced flat color performance compared to those from the GS500. The larger 1/3” chip was able to produce large stills without the interpolation, thus giving their images a much sharper look. Less sharpening in the Sony yielded fewer issues with contrasty areas, and the whites were in a lower, better looking range than the GS500’s.

The Canon Optura 600 produced heavily saturated stills that were pretty far from accurate. That is the only major strike against it. Noise was relatively rare, the picture looked very sharp, and the sharpening levels were remarkably low for a camcorder. There did seem to be some lens drop-off in the lower left corner, something that we did not notice in the video performance.

All in all, the PV-GS500 is no great competitor as a still camera. If you’re a big Panasonic supporter, maybe you should seek out a Lumix (though the noise problems won’t go away there, either).

Still Performance
Panasonic PV-GS500	6.6
Panasonic PV-GS300	6.5
Sony DCR-HC96	7.0
Canon Optura 600	8.5