Home > Consumer Camcorders > Camcorder Reviews > Panasonic Camcorders > Panasonic MiniDV Camcorders >

Panasonic PV-DV953 Camcorder Review by Robin Liss Published on Jul 15, 2004 12:00 AM

The $1,499 Panasonic 3 Chip MiniDV prosumer camcorder is a wonderfully designed and thought out piece of equipment producing high quality three chip video quality at a very low price. The PV-DV953 gives the you superior manual control options allowing you to tweak the image to your heart's content. The low light performance is good though slightly disappointing. The camcorder offers many prosumer features such as manual adjustment of recording levels and colors bars and besides a few minor flaws matches up and provides fierce competition for other prosumer camcorders like the Canon GL2 and the Sony DCR-TRV950. The camcorder is truly a pleasure to shoot with and because of it's outstanding quality and great price it's the 2003 CamcorderInfo.com SuperCam representing outstanding quality and value.

Video Performance (8.0)
I was very impressed with the color reproduction on the PV-DV953 and the overall video performance in normal and well lit lighting conditions. The PV-DV953 contains three, 1/6 in. 800K CCDs. The three CCDs work wonderfully producing very natural colors not over or under compensating for any one color. When the camcorder is in full auto the colors are not very saturated and a little dull, however you can adjust that using the Picture Adjustment option. The video is very sharp and the camcorder has no problems with grain or speckle (random changes in pixels). The dynamic range of the PV-DV953 is very impressive producing good variance among very dark and very light colors. The camcorder does a very good job with skintones. In auto mode the PV-DV953 does a good job, however with all the picture control options that the PV-DV953 gives you - I was able to tweak out an even better image. The manual control will enable the knowledgeable videographer to make a great image even better. The video quality on the PV-DV953 is comparable to that of the Sony DCR-TRV950 and the Canon GL2 - much more expensive three CCD competitors. I wouldn't say that it is as good as the Sony or the Canon, however the quality is so close that it would take close examination to see a major difference. I am extremely impressed with the video performance of the PV-DV953 - it certainly beats it's competitors in the $1,000 - $1,299 price group - the Sony DCR-TRV70 (Review, Specs, $744.99) and DCR-TRV80 and DCR-PC120BT.

The Front (9.0)
The front of the Panasonic PV-DV953 is largely consumed by it's lens. At the top of the front is the raised stereo microphone. The microphone has a very professional feel to it - it has a strong mesh wire cover and is raised about 1/4 in. above the camera. Above the microphone is the pop-up flash. To the right of the microphone is the small IR receiver. Below the microphone is the lens which has a large amount of plastic surrounding the actual lens, making the lens barrel about 2 in. in diameter. The lens is surrounded by a nice focus ring which instead of being surrounded by small bars has a more patchy pattern on it - making it easier to grip. Inside the lens barrel but below the actual lens is the light sensor for the pop-up flash.

Below the lens on the right side is a hard plastic corner shaped cover. Removing the cover reveals the Microphone in, AV in / out / headphone out / remote and the USB jack. On the other side and in the center is another infrared receiver with a recording tally light.

The Right Side (9.5)
The first part of the right side is taken up by the lens barrel, which extends about an inch and a half away from the camcorder body, providing a nice place to cradle the camcorder in your hand. The focus ring is moved in about 1/4 in. away from the front of the lens barrel. Behind the focus ring, about 1/3 of the way down from the top is a small record button which is wonderfully placed so that your fingers fall on it when you are using the focus ring. A zoom control here might have been useful but it's certainly an addition that I would keep regardless.

Moving onto the camcorder body, first comes the S-Video in / out jack. The S-Video jack is covered by a piece of hard plastic. The rest of the back of the right side of the camcorder is void of any buttons. The majority of the right side is covered by a ribbed grip surface, with a tiny speaker in the center for playback. I like the placement of the speaker on the outside of the camcorder because it allows you to playback and listen to your video on the viewfinder. All of this falls on the wonderful - top loading tape mechanism. I'll mention it again but it's a major relief that a manufacturer finally decided to buck the trend and respect the consumer by putting a top loading tape mechanism on a camcorder. Hidden under the handle strap is a long piece of hard plastic which covers up the Firewire and the Digital Still Picture jacks. I don't mind the placement of these jacks because you are not likely to be using them while shooting - so they won't get in the way of your right hand.

The Back (8.5)
At the top left of the PV-DV953 is the color viewfinder. I really like the soft rubber eye cup on the PV-DV953. It's not a huge feature that is of much concern but it does make using the viewfinder extra comfortable. I think it's a small anecdote that show's how much thought Panasonic put into designing this camcorder. I also want to note that the viewfinder gives a lot of resistance when rotating up and down. It's really nice because you are not going to knock the viewfinder out of position. To the right of the viewfinder is the battery eject button. To the right of that is the Menu button. Below the menu button are indicator lights which show whether the camcorder is in Camera, VCR or Card Play Back modes. Below the indicator lights it the power dial surrounding a record button. The power dial can either be set to off or on where a spring action allows you to toggle between the three playback modes. To the right of all this and below the viewfinder is the battery compartment, which, with an adapter is also where the AC adapter plugs in.

The Left Side (9.0)
The left side, like the rest of the camcorder is laid out very well. At the front towards the lens, behind the focus ring is a column of buttons. At the top is the Optical Image Stabilization button which toggles between no optical image stabilization, enhanced optical image stabilization which only works with digital stills and normal optical image stabilization. Below the Optical Image Stabilization button is the back light button and below that is the fade button. I wish that the had placed the back light and fade buttons in the back of the camcorder and turned the ones in the front into an extra set of zoom controls. Moving onto the camcorder body at the front is another row of buttons. The first is the shooting mode sliding button which is very solid. The button switches between full auto shooting, manual shooting, and AE lock which locks the manual settings which you have set. The problem with the placement of this button is that when the LCD screen is rotated it covers up the button - it's not a huge problem but if you are shooting at a low angle and you have your LCD rotated up you might cover up the button. This problem is the main reason for a point deduction on the right side. The next button in the column is the auto / manual focus toggle and below that is the white balance button.

The rest of the right side of the camcorder is taken up by the 3.5 in. LCD screen. There are no buttons or features on the outside of the LCD screen though I wish Panasonic had button a tape counter / battery status indicator screen on the outside like is found on the Sony DCR-TRV70. Opening up the LCD reveals a three by three matrix of buttons. Ahead of the matrix is the tape recording mode selector slider. If the slider is on the left video is recorded to tape. If the slider is on the right side the slider is turned into a spring action selector. Each time you slide the selector over (it snaps back with a spring action) the camcorder switches from MPEG4 mode recording to the SD card, Voice mode (audio only) recording to the SD card and picture mode where digital stills are recorded to the SD card.

Behind the tape recording mode selector is a three by three matrix of oval buttons. The top row contains the rewind, play and fast forward buttons. The next row contains the Magic Pix button, Stop / Web Camera button and pause button. The third row contains the tele jump button, title button and multi/ picture in picture button. At the bottom of the inside portion of the LCD is the SD slot which contains a neat transparent sliding blue cover. To the left of the SD slot is a small SD indicator light.

The Top (9.0)
At the front of the top towards the lens is the wire mesh microphone which just feels and looks so professional! Moving back on the right is the black top of the top loading tape mechanism - did I mention that I love that it's top loading? At the back of the top left side is the zoom slider which I feel is really weak compared to the other manual control features of the camcorder. Behind the zoom control is the photo button, and behind that is the ultra important jog dial which controls all the manual picture functions. On the right side of the back of the camcorder, about halfway back from the lens is the accessory shoe which is not hot. Also, here's a useless detail that only I would look at - the zoom control does work when the tape compartment is open - not that I could ever imagine a use for this.

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (5.0)
The Panasonic has perfectly suitable automatic control and gives you a clear boundary between manual and auto control with the button on the front right side of the camcorder. The automatic focus and other picture functions have good enough response times. The Sony 2003 MiniDV line has really redefined automatic control with the inclusion of the touch screen Spot Focus and Spot Metering so it's hard for any camcorder to score very high in this area with out those two features.

Overall Manual Control (8.0)
I am extremely happy with the manual control on the PV-DV953. The inclusion of the picture adjustment (explained in the other functions section) which allows you to adjust the sharpness, and the color saturation put the PV-DV953 over the top. The push button jog dial is a very easy way to adjust the picture functions and the inclusion of real button for white balance is great. The only major thing which I would change in regards to manual control is the zoom control which is noticeably weak.

Zoom (5.0)
The modest 10x optical zoom combined with the poor zoom control makes zoom the PV-DV953's weak point. The zoom slider offers very little resistance. I could count five variable zoom speeds however it was really hit or miss on which zoom speed I could get. The only zoom speed which I was consistently able to achieve was ultra fast, I couldn't even consistently hit an ultra slow zoom speed - let alone anything in-between. For a camcorder of this caliber, Panasonic should have included a better zoom slider or even a zoom rocker.

Focus (7.0)
The Panasonic PV-DV953 includes the most important feature for focus control - a focus ring. I really like the focus ring on the PV-DV953. The ring has a really great ''spike'' pattern on it so it is very easy to grip. The focus ring isn't to sensitive so it's easy to make very tiny adjustments to the focus. The PV-DV953 doesn't get as high as a focus score as the DCR-TRV70 because it doesn't have a Spot Focus like touch screen focus adjustment feature.

Exposure (Aperture) (9.0)
The PV-DV953 offers around 30 (it's tough to count) steps of exposure from Open to F 1.7 to F16 to Closed. The camcorder provides aperture ratings in F Stops however the ratings aren't given for every step (for some of the steps there is an adjustment it's just not reflected in the F number). You adjust the exposure by putting the camcorder in manual mode and pressing in the jog dial. After pressing it twice the F rating is highlighted in teal on the screen, turning the dial increases or decreases the F Stops. Pressing the jog dial will switch to adjusting the shutter speed. The PV-DV953 also offers a Zebra pattern option which you can turn on or off from the menu. The Zebra pattern superimposes a set of diagonal lines on any areas which are overexposed (the lines don't show up on the final tape, just in the LCD or viewfinder). It's a pro feature that really helps you to tweak out a good image.

Shutter Speed (7.0)
The shutter speed is adjusted by putting the PV-DV953 in the manual mode and pressing in the jog dial button like is done with the exposure control. Pressing it in again switches over the the exposure control. The PV-DV953 has fourteen steps of shutter speed from 1/60th to 1/8000th. I'm pretty happy with the shutter speed and the PV-DV953 gets extra points for not burying it away in some menu.

White Balance (9.5)
The while balance on the PV-DV953 has five modes, auto, manual, indoor, outdoor and fluorescent - a preset mode which most camcorders don't offer. The white balance is set using the button on the right side of the camcorder. I don't think there is any other major way that that white balance on the PV-DV953 could be improved. The fluorescent preset option and the push button control instead of menu control put the PV-DV953 ahead of pretty much every other camcorder in this price range with regards to white balance.

Gain (8.0)
The manual gain control on the PV-DV953 is done through the same push in jog dial method as the shutter speed and the exposure, however you are only able to adjust the gain when the Aperture is set to open. The PV-DV953 offers an impressive 24 steps between 0 dB and +18 dB, although like the exposure the camcorder only notes increases in the dB every three dB steps. Offering so many steps of control and dB as high as +18 is really another great addition that makes the PV-DV953 a prosumer camcorder.

Still (8.0)
The stills on the PV-DV953 were very impressive. Using pixel shifting, the camcorder produces 3 Megapixel 2,048 x 1,496 pixel resolution stills. The quality video produced under normal lighting conditions shines through to the still performance. The colors are vibrant and the stills look really good. The PV-DV953 contains an SD card slot for transferring the digital stills from the camcorder to the computer. The PV-DV953 also includes a 16 MB SD card for saving your digital stills to. Mounted right above the lens is a pop-up flash for extra lighting for digital stills. You can also record MPEG4 video to the SD card.

VCR Mode (7.0)
The VCR mode on the PV-DV953 is plain and simple with no frills. The VCR controls are placed inside the LCD screen. I like that the controls aren't hidden away on a touch screen like they are with the Sony DCR-TRV70.

Low Light Performance (5.0)
The low light performance of the PV-DV953 was disappointing. The video produced under modest lighting conditions, such as one lamp on in a 12 ft x 12 ft room was pretty grainy and not very sharp. The PV-DV953 did manage to produce accurate colors, however the picture was not as impressive as it was under normal lighting conditions. The 1/6 in. CCDs of the PV-DV953 certainly do not match up to the Sony DCR-TRV950 or the Canon GL2 under low light shooting conditions. The Canon GL2 and the Sony DCR-TRV950 both produce much better images with much less grain - most likely do to their larger CCDs. The PV-DV953 doesn't even beat Sony DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 in low light - Panasonic really should have put larger CCDs on the PV-DV953.

LCD / Viewfinder (8.0)
The PV-DV953 contains a 3.5 in. LCD which is standard quality. The camcorder also includes a color viewfinder. I really wish Panasonic had included a black and white viewfinder on this camcorder however those don't sell very well - although it's an upgrade in my opinion because of the easier control of focus - most users consider black and white viewfinders a bad feature.

Audio (7.0)
The audio options on the PV-DV953 are mixed. The on-camera microphone is good however it doesn't compare to the on camera microphones on the Sony DCR-TRV950 and the Canon GL2. The microphone is comparable to that of the Sony DCR-TRV70. I'm not terribly concerned with the poor performance of the on-camera microphone because I always recommend using an separate external microphone. The PV-DV953 does offer a microphone in port, however the shoe on the camcorder isn't hot - meaning that any microphone would have to be powered through a battery or external source and couldn't draw it's power from the camcorder. The other downside of the audio options on the PV-DV953 is that it doesn't offer a dedicated headphone jack. The AV in / out jack doubles as the headphone jack as it does on the Canon Opturas and ZRs. The PV-DV953 does offer audio dubbing and manual control of audio levels. The manual adjustment of audio levels is really great. Lastly the PV-DV953 will give you live on screen monitoring of the audio levels - a great feature. The manual adjustment of audio recording options and audio save the PV-DV953 from having a terrible score because of no dedicated microphone in jack or hot shoe however the camcorder would be much stronger and could score around a 9.5 if it had those two options.

Handling (9.5)
The PV-DV953 does feel a little heavy though that would be expected with a camcorder of this caliber. It's certainly not designed for one hand shooting. The ribbed right side of the camcorder provides for very easy gripping with your right hand. The extended lens barrel is a wonderful addition that makes cradling the camcorder in your left hand very easy. The placement of the controls is really great as well - the record button on the extended lens, the jog dial and the buttons in the front of the left side are all placed very well. Operating the PV-DV953 is very easy and the placement of all the controls is very intuitive.

Ports (7.0)
The PV-DV953 isn't great on connectivity options. The camcorder offers a dedicated S-Video port, however the Mini AV in / out jack doubles both as the headphone jack and the connector for the wired remote. The PV-DV953 also has a USB jack, a Firewire jack and a dedicated Microphone in jack. The PV-DV953's shoe isn't hot and the PV-DV953 contains no jack for an editing interface like Control-L.

Other Features (9.0)
The PV-DV953 gets such a high score in the other features category not only because it has quite a few other features - but because those features are very useful. Although no camcorder has done so, camcorder's can exceed 10 points in the Other Features category if they offer extremely useful features that go above and beyond the usual.

Picture Adjustment This is a really great feature. Using the menu, you can enter the advanced functions screen. If you scroll down to the Picture Adjustment option and select it a screen will show up which allows you to adjust the picture sharpness and the color saturation. These are nice features which other camcorders in the price category don't offer.

Wired Remote The PV-DV953 includes a wire remote which plugs into the AV in / out / headphone jack. The remote is a really great feature. It includes a zoom controller, a record button and a photo button. It can function as an external zoom controller if you just tape it to the side of your tripod.

Magic Pix Magic Pix is Panasonic's slow shutter speed color low light recording option. I would never really recommend shooting with Magic Pix because the ultra slow shutter speed will make your video unwatchable.

Top Loading Tape Mechanism This is a great feature. Today, in an effort to further shrink camcorders most tape mechanisms are bottom loading. The top loading tape mechanism on the PV-DV953 means you can change tapes while on a tripod - a great time saver and an important feature.

Tele Jump Tele Jump is a neat feature though I don't know if it is that useful. When you press the Tele Jump button (sounds British doesn't it?) the camcorder automatically maginifies the image 1.5 times using the digital zoom. It's kindof neat but it does degrade the picture quality.

Optical Image Stabilization As opposed to electronic image stabilization which uses a little computer to reduce camcorder shake, optical image stabilization uses gyros and optics to reduce camera shake. Two or three years ago you could have noticed the difference between a camcorder will electronic image stabilization and optical image stabilization however now electronic image stabilization doesn't degrade the picture quality so optical image stabilization is pretty useless.

Web Camera The web camera option allows you to use the PV-DV953 as a web cam for video chats or streaming video.

Widescreen The PV-DV953 contains two widescreen shooting modes. The first just letterboxes the image with two black bars at the top and the bottom of the image. The second option stretches the picture to maximize resolution. It's nice because you can shoot 16:9 but not loose pixels - however unlike the higher end Sony 2003 models the picture shows up as stretched in the viewfinder.

Color Bars The inclusion of a color bars option on the PV-DV953 is another feature which really makes this a prosumer camcorder. It's great because you can start each one of your tapes off with five seconds of color bars (always a smart thing to do) using the camcorder.

Comparisons (no score provided)
DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 The DCR-TRV70 and the DCR-TRV80 don't offer manual shutter speed control, manual gain control or the ''actual button'' interfaces that the PV-DV953 does. The PV-DV953 offers manual adjustment of audio recording levels and live audio monitoring however the DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 offer a dedicated microphone in jack as well as a hot shoe. In color representation the PV-DV953 blows away the DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 - the colors look much better. In low light situations, the PV-DV953 and the DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 are much closer, with the DCR-TRV70 and DCR-TRV80 taking a slight edge. The DCR-TRV70 and the DCR-TRV80 are solid camcorders however when you bring all the factors together, there is no question in my mind about picking the Panasonic PV-DV953 over the Sony's

Sony DCR-TRV950 and Canon GL2 The Sony and the Canon are much more expensive camcorders than the Panasonic PV-DV953. Both include larger CCDs. The video quality under normal lighting conditions is very close between the Sony and Canon and the Panasonic, with only a slight edge going to the Sony and the Canon. However, in low light shooting situations the Canon and the Sony certainly win. If you can afford it, you are going to get better quality with either the Canon GL2 or the Sony DCR-TRV950 - however the difference is marginal and the Panasonic PV-DV953, for $1,000 less list price provides strong competition.

Who's it For
Try to figure out which section you fit into, and the corresponding comments should help you decide whether or not this is the camcorder for you.

Point and Shooter's (5.0)
The PV-DV953 doesn't contain any features that would make it a good point and shoot camcorder - in fact some users might be intimidated by all the buttons and options.

Budget Consumers (9.0)
If you are a budget consumer, this is probably the best buy on the market in so far in 2003. The PV-DV953 delivers outstanding quality and a truly remarkable price. The manual control offered would only be expected in $1,000 more expensive camcorders.

Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid (8.0)
The PV-DV953's stills are very good and the video performance is very good - making this a great hybrid.

Gadget Freaks (6.0)
The PV-DV953 does contain some 'gadgety' features - though it's a camcorder that is all about shooting quality video.

Manual Control Freaks (9.0)
This is certainly the camcorder for you. Not only does the Panasonic offers manual control over shutter speed, exposure, focus, gain and white balance, they also through in adjustments for picture color and sharpness. Adding to all these great benefits are the fact that everything is controlled with solid, dedicated buttons.

Pro's / Serious Hobbyists (7.0)
The PV-DV953 is a great choice if you are a pro on a budget. If you can afford a camcorder like the Sony DCR-VX2000 you should certainly go with it, however the PV-DV953 will produce excellent results.

Conclusion
When I first saw the PV-DV953 at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show, I was blown away by both the options it offered and it's amazing price. The PV-DV953 was the first three chip camcorder under $1,500 - no three chip camcorder had been introduced below $2,000 before it. Although Panasonic stole some of their own thunder with the introduction the PV-GS70, the first sub $1,000 three chip camcorder - it doesn't take away anything from the great value the PV-DV953 offers. The PV-DV953 does a wonderful job of shooting video. The low light performance is good, though I did hope for better results. The PV-DV953 is truly a superior camcorder. The PV-DV953's video quality, handling and manual control options have blown me away now that I have been able to take a much more extensive look. The fact that you get such a high quality camcorder for under $1,400 makes the PV-DV953 one of, if not the greatest deals in the camcorder market today. Whether you have a budget of $1,500 and are going to save $250 or you have a budget of $1,000 and you need to squeeze in another $250 - get the Panasonic PV-DV953. Because of it's excellence, I've awarded the Panasonic PV-DV953 the CamcorderInfo.com 2003 SuperCam award which is given to the camcorder which we at CamcorderInfo.com believe is the best deal on the market.