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Panasonic PV-GS85 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Dec 4, 2007 10:31 AM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (5.0)
The automatic controls on the Panasonic PV-GS85 (Review, Specs, $139.96) are par for a camcorder in its price range. The auto focus proved to be quite adept at adjusting to fast changes, though it struggled at times in low light. The auto white balance was fast at times, but took an awfully time in other instances, making it difficult to evaluate. For example, shifting from one type of indoor lighting to another was no problem and was done almost instantly. Shifting from indoor fluorescent to outdoor shady proved difficult, and the OV-GS85 struggled for nearly 15 seconds to find the right balance.
The auto exposure works quickly, perhaps too quickly for some that like a more gradual transition. The auto metering method appears to be center-weighted, meaning that whatever is in the center of the frame gets priority for auto adjustments. We found the PV-GS85 very sensitive in shots with extreme light/dark contrast in the center. In these cases, the camcorder would suddenly jump to too bright an image, then too dark an image.
Like most camcorders, the PV-GS85 comes equipped with a handful of one-touch corrections that help the beginning shooter out. Most of these are found in the joystick menu. On page one of the joystick menu, you’ll find Backlight Compensation, which boosts overall exposure if your subject is too strongly backlit. On page two is Soft Skin mode – color correction for skin tones – and MagicPix – Panasonic’s low light mode.
Scene Modes are located in the main menu. They include: Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Surf & Snow.
The rear-mounted joystick and
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
surrounding mode dial
The overall manual control on the Panasonic PV-GS85 is quite good thanks to the rear-mounted joystick and convenient menu layout. Panasonic always offers a healthy helping of manual controls, including independent aperture and shutter speed, gain, along with a lot of assisted manual controls that were described in the previous section. Panasonics don’t have the most intuitive menu layout, but once you pass the hump of the learning curve you’ll find it the fastest menu of any manufacturer.
One last note: Panasonic has been stating in their online specs all year that most of their camcorders, including the PV-GS85, have a manual focus ring. This is completely inaccurate. We have informed them of the error on multiple occasions, and at this point we can only say that this is straight-up deception. Don’t get fooled, and don’t trust any manufacturer at their word.
Zoom (5.0)
The zoom control is the same found on any of the Panasonic MiniDV camcorders, a flat, sliding switch located on the top near the back. It’s well placed for the finger, but we prefer a zoom toggle with a higher profile, which usually makes fine control a little easier. At best, we were able to get about three zoom speeds. The crawl is incredibly slow from 1x to 4x, which is great and can make for some very interesting looking shots. After 4x, it speeds up incrementally. When zooming, the camcorder gives you both a progress bar to indicate when in the zoom range you are, as well as an exact numerical value.
Zoom Power Ratio (32.0)
The Panasonic PV-GS85 offers a 32x zoom, not the largest value this year, but nevertheless sizeable. When you get down into the lower-end of the camcorder range, where imaging chips are smaller, optical laws allow for bigger zooms in a small body. You don’t have this luxury with higher-end camcorders, where zooms typically peak out at 10x.
The digital zoom can be fully extended to 1000x, or capped at 50x. The latter is not even twice the power of the optical zoom, which means you can safely shoot in that setting (with a tripod, of course) with little distortion.
Focus (4.0)
The focus control, as is typical on most consumer camcorders, is not very good. On all Panasonics, manual focus is engaged by pushing the Auto/Manual switch towards “Manual,” then pushing the switch in that direction one more time towards the “Focus” setting. When this is done, an icon appears on screen with an “MF+” and “MF-.” Toggle the joystick back and forth to shift the focus.
The only means of determining the correct focus is to look at the LCD, which is of a sadly low resolution. There is no numerical indicator as to the focal length, and no tools like peaking or instant zoom to help draw out the edges of objects. Except in problem shots, you’re better off leaving the camcorder to determine the focus automatically.
Exposure & Aperture (5.64)
The PV-GS85 offers direct control of the aperture in true “f-stop” values, but it lacks a simple exposure tool that point-and-shooters would be more comfortable with. Consider Sony and Canon camcorders, which all offer a bare-bones plus/minus control to make the picture brighter or darker. Panasonics, with their independent aperture and shutter speed controls, have more flexibility and precision, but you’ll want to consider the knowledge level of the user.
Aperture settings include f/1.8 (Open), f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.8, f/8.0, f/9.6, f/11, f/14, and f/16. Between each of these settings is a half-step increment.
Shutter Speed (8.1)
The PV-GS85 offers shutter speed control that can be set independently of the aperture, a Panasonic standard that no other consumer camcorders offer. Shutter control is located on the fourth page of the joystick menu. The camcorder must be in Manual mode.
Shutter settings include 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, and 1/8000.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance options are located in the joystick menu along with the aperture and shutter speed controls. The choices are limited: Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and Manual. Both Indoor and Outdoor mode are accurate only under very specific color temperatures that might not match your indoor and outdoor environments. Making a manual WB adjustment is simple: simply select the manual WB setting, push up on the joystick, and wait for the icon to stop blinking. The process takes about 1-2 seconds, and the results were quite accurate.
Gain (6.0)
Panasonic is the only manufacturer to offer gain control on their consumer camcorders. Gain is a digital boost meant to exceed the sensitivity of the imaging system. However, the gain cannot be employed until after you’ve maxed out the analog tools, namely, opening the aperture as wide as possible. To enable the gain, first shift the aperture to the Open position (f/1.8). Gain is measured in dB. Settings include 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9 dB, 12dB,15dB, and 18dB. In between each of these settings is a half-step increment. Be cautioned that as the gain increases, so does the noise, so you’ll want to find a balance. Also, the PV-GS85’s imaging chip is quite small, which means the sensitivity is low. In most low light settings, the gain will be maxed out automatically, so having manual control over it won’t do much good.
Other Manual Controls (1.0)
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