Panasonic Replaces Popular PV-DV953 with PV-GS400 3 CCD 4.0 Megapixel Camcorderby Robin LissPublished on Jun 30, 2004 4:45 AM |
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Panasonic today announced the PV-GS400 3 CCD MiniDV camcorder. The PV-GS400 is the latest in Panasonic's popular line of consumer models, which dedicate one image processing chip to red, green, and blue. Outputting 4 Megapixel stills, the PV-GS400 builds on the high resolution stills of its predecessor the PV-DV953. These are the highest resolution stills of any standard style camcorder. The announcement of the PV-GS400 is big news for Panasonic and its release has been highly anticipated for more than six months, especially after the PV-DV953's extremely strong following.
Panasonic first broke into the consumer 3 CCD market with their revpolutionary PV-DV953, which broke the $2,000 price barrier for 3 CCD camcorders with a $1,500 price tag. 3 CCD camcorders have long been desired by consumers because of their superior color reproduction over most consumer DV camcorders which have 1 CCD. All professional camcorders include 3 CCDs. Panasonic soon followed the PV-DV953 with a sub $1,000 3 CCD camcorder. In January of this year, Panasonic introduced their second generation of consumer 3 CCD camcorders at the Consumer Electronics Show, the PV-GS200 and PV-GS120, priced at $1,000 and $800 respectively. The PV-GS400 replaces their original 3 CCD consumer model, the PV-DV953 with a retail price of $1,500 as well.
"The new PV-GS400 is the only 3CCD digital camcorder to incorporate a 4-megapixel still camera -- the highest resolution of any consumer camcorder on the market," said Rudolf Vitti, National Marketing Manager, Panasonic Optical Group. "For the first time, there's a camcorder to meet the pro-sumer's demand for the most advanced digital imaging technologies and top-of-the-line features for both video and still image recording."
Although the PV-GS400 is the highest resolution standard style camcorder, the Samsung Duo Cam SC-D6040 has higher resolution stills at 4.1 Megapixels and thus a slightly higher still resolution than the Panasonic. The Duo Cam has two CCD's one for video and one for still.
The PV-GS400 includes three 1/4.7 in. CCDs, which are larger than the 1/6 in. CCDs which were included on the PV-DV953. The larger CCDs will likely result in improved video and low light performance over the PV-DV953. The 1/4.7 in. CCDs are the largest of any found on the Panasonic low end 3 CCD camcorders. These are similar in size to those included on prosumer 3 CCD camcorders, which sell for much more, including the Sony DCR-TRV950. Many users complained about the low-light performance on the original PV-DV953, and the Panasonic press release specifically mentions that the three CCDs will produce vivid colors in low light.
We do not know how many effective pixels each CCD has for video. Panasonic implements a pixel shifting technology to combine the pixels of each CCD for still pictures, giving a reported pixel resolution of 4.0 Megapixels. The 4.0 Megapixel stills are now the highest resolution stills of any standard style digital camera on the market (the Samsung Duo Cam just slightly beats it), with the Sony DCR-PC350 which was announced yesterday producing 3.0 Meagpixel stills. We do not know what size MB SD card the PV-GS400 includes, however we do know it has a pop-up flash.
The PV-GS400 includes an upgraded zoom with 12x optical compared to the 10x optical included on the PV-DV953. The new camcorder also has a manual focus ring and optical image stabilization.
The PV-GS400 includes a Magic Wand remote which connects to the camcorder through a wire and is capable of controlling the zoom, toggling the record and has a microphone for dictation. The camcorder also includes a wireless remote, however the wired remote can be used as a zoom controller that typically costs $200-$300.
The PV-DV953, which PV-GS400 replaces, was met with huge amounts of industry praise when it first hit the market, both for its price and the features made available. This publication rated the PV-DV953 as the best value available on the market. Similar praise followed with Panasonic's introduction of this year's 3 CCD camcorders the PV-GS120 and PV-GS200. Those two models have been selling very well, and have gotten praise by many publications including the New York Times for delivering quality color reproduction to consumers in sub $1,000 price points. Panasonic has been able to capture a large portion of the hobbyist and prosumer camcorder market by introducing the first affordable 3 CCD camcorders.
Panasonic Europe and Japan announced the PV-GS400 on June 17th. When they announced the new camcorder they also announced a black version. CamcorderInfo.com is presently unable to confirm with Panasonic US whether or not there is a black version of the PV-GS400 in the US. The European version of the camcorder will be available in July, however there is no additional information availabile from Panasonic US.
After repeated attempts, no one at Panasonic who had information on the PV-GS400 could be reached in time for the printing of this story. The product manager for the camcorder was in meetings all day and as a result we do not have much information on the new model. For such a highly anticipated release, it is odd and disappointing that no one could be reached at Panasonic who had anysubstantive information on this model. Although we don't know when it will be available, Panasonic did say the PV-GS400 will cost US$1,500 when it hits stores.
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PV-GS400 |
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Added / Upgraded |
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12x vs. 10x optical zoom |
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4.0 vs. 3.0 Megapixel Stills |
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Maintained |
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3 CCDs |
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3.5 in. LCD Screen |
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Manual Shutter Speed, Aperture, White Balance, Focus Control |
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Pop-Up Flash |
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Focus Ring |
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Magic Wand Remote |
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