Panasonic PV-DV953 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by Robin Liss
Published on Jan 11, 2003 12:00 AM



The PV-DV953 is a revolutionary quality camcorder, breaking the barrier on price for entry level three chip camcorders (the camcorders which produce the best quality image), carrying a low MSRP of $1,499. Panasonic announced the PV-DV953 at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show dropping the price of the model by $1000 from the previous model, Panasonic gave me a first hand look at the revolutionary PV-DV953 at the show. It's an amazing camcorder with amazing features, and withholding judgment on the picture quality, I feel that the PV-DV953 beats the other entry level camcorders from Sony and from Canon. It's really a great buy and I was able to make a lot of quality observations and take some great pictures of the camcorder.

Specifications
The PV-DV950 is a three CCD camcorder. The zoom is 10x optical, 700x digital. The camcorder has a 3.5 in. LCD screen and a color viewfinder. The PV-DV953 includes an SD memory card slot which it can record digital stills at 2048 x 1536 resolution and MPEG video to the SD card. The PV-DV953 has Panasonic's low light shooting Magic Pix and Magic view capabilities - however I was unable to really measure the low light performance of the camcorders in the bright, Las Vegas Convention Center. The PV-DV953 also has a flash that rests on top of the camcorder, behind the microphone. Behind the microphone is a cold shoe (i.e. power is not supplied to device that are attached to it), and finally a retractable viewfinder. The camcorder has a relatively small body with an extended lens, instead of a lens that is contracted into the camcorder body itself as with most camcorders. The camcorder has a top loading tape mechanism which is a necessity for any three chip camcorder. The camcorder offers USB transfer for digital stills, a IEEE 1394 Firewire port, an S-Video port, and a mini audio video RCA output / input port. The PV-DV953 also has a zebra pattern option, which shows you over exposed areas of the picture with a black and white pattern displayed (but not recorded to the tape) on those areas - a professional feature. The RCA mini plug input / output also doubles as a headphone jack which I don't like because it makes it impossible to both give an external feed of the video (unless your using s-video) and audio, while letting the camcorder operator listen to the audio at the same time.

Video Performance
The model I looked at was the final production model of the PV-DV950, so other than video quality (using the new camcorderinfo.com benchmark) and other observations I might make by spending time with the camcorder, this is the final review. I can't really make many judgments about the video quality of the PV-DV953 because although I got to review the camcorder in a controlled back room at the Consumer Electronics Show, I wasn't able to examine the image on an external monitor, only on the camcorder LCD screen. However, on the 3.5 in. LCD, the image did look really good. The CCDs are not actually one Megapixel each, rather each CCD is 800K pixels, however a camcorder engineer told us through interpolation the image achieves 3 Megapixel stills (2048 x 1536 resolution).

Manual Control
The PV-DV953 certainly excels in giving the user the most control over the image they want. Besides having what I think is five auto exposure modes and being able to put the camcorder in full auto, you can control almost every picture element that you would want too. The camcorder allows three different modes of display, however I would recommend choosing the one that shows all the information including tape recording mode, tape time, shutter speed, dB and white balance. Controlling the manual picture functions is quite easy, you press in the jog dial, and the shutter speed appears in green, each time you press the button, the menu toggles down to exposure and then to gain control, each press of the jog dial cycles through the list again. The white balance, exposure, backlight, focus and optical image stabilization toggle on / off buttons are all located on the extruded lens, making them easily accessible when holding the camcorder.

Focus
The PV-DV953 allows you to set the camcorder in manual or auto focus mode. The one mode that it is missing over the competition, is the Hologram Auto Focus on Sony camcorders, which helps for focusing in low light conditions. The ring is quite large and responsive while at the same time it allows you to make minute adjustments to the focus. The button for switching between manual and auto focus is located on the extended lens.
Zoom
The zoom control slightly disappointed me with the PV-DV953. It's not terrible by any means, but it's overly sensitive and it is hard to get a variable zoom speed. I pretty much could get really slow, medium and really fast, whereas with the Canon GL2 and Sony DCR-TRV950 is was much easier to get variable zoom speeds. Of course, this would all be solved if they put a zoom ring on the camcorder or made the focus ring a hybrid focus / zoom ring - switchable by a button like on the MicroMV Sony DCR-IP220.
Shutter Speed
As you rotate the dial you you can increase or decrease the shutter speed, from a maximum of 1/60th to a 1/8000th of a second. It's a system very similar to what Canon uses on the GL2 and the Sony DCR-TRV950 uses, however more picture information is displayed than the DCR-TRV950.
Gain Control
The PV-DV953, certainly beets the all the competition on gain control. Image gain is a way that the camcorder can bump of the brightness of an image in a low light situation, however the more gain you implement the poorer quality the picture, the feature metered in dBs. It's really great, you get six levels of dB (18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3), whereas the DCR-TRV950 only gave you two (and only went up to 12 dB) and the GL2 gave you only three levels (but it went up to 18 dB). It's great that Panasonic has decided to give the user more control over their image, because you want as little gain as possible, those extra levels in-between 0 and 18 allow for more acute picture adjustment.

The PV-DV953 certainly excels in manual control. The controls are well placed, and you don't have to fiddle with any menu functions while shooting. The PV-DV953 allows you to adjust all aspects of the picture manually, with out compromising your ability to continuously record a smooth and steady shot. You don't have to open up some menu and toggle through it to change a function. I would say it ties in zoom, focus, and shutter speed with both the GL2 and the DCR-TRV950, but I feel that the extra steps in the gain giving you more control over picture gain - which is one of the most important picture elements to control in a low light situation - puts the PV-DV953 ahead of the entry level 3 CCD camcorders by Canon and Sony.

Handling
I really like how the PV-DV953 feels in your hands. With the battery which was attached to the camcorder, it felt slightly front heavy however it wasn't a major problem and the Panasonic reps said that it would be shipping with a bigger battery. For stabilization I like to handle a camcorder with my left hand around the lens (to control focus and other front of lens features) and my right hand in the normal camcorder handle on the right side. The PV-DV953 does really well for this style shooting, and feels great in your hands. Panasonic even has a molded rib pattern on the right side of the camcorder which makes it easier to grip. The weight of the camcorder is 750 grams with out the battery, which is heavy enough to keep a steady image, yet light enough that you could handle it for hours without a problem. It's feel lighter, or at least better balanced than the GL2 or the TRV950 for sure. The zoom control is located on the top of the camcorder in-front of the photo button. Behind the photo button is the jog dial which is instrumental in manual control. Of course, the Sony DCR-VX2000 does beat out all those camcorders ultimately in manual control, but it carries a much higher price point.

Optical Stabilization
I also have to hand it to Panasonic in this category. With the PV-DV953 they've introduced a new "Mega Optical Image Stabilization" which is significantly improved, and although it is slight, I do believe is better than that of the Sony DCR-TRV950 and even possibly the Canon GL2, once the king of optical stabilization.

Audio Options
Because I didn't have a manual in front of me, I wasn't able to investigate the audio control which you are given inside the camcorder (for example left right balance or incoming volume control), however the camcorder does give you all the necessary in's and outs. The microphone in jack is located on the front of the camcorder and the headphone jack is located right next to it. I would prefer the headphone jack in the back of the camcorder because you run the risk of your wire falling into the shot of the camcorder, but as long as you watch out for that it shouldn't be a problem. I didn't get to monitor the sound quality and motor noise of the PV-DV953 in a quite enough environment to make any quality judgments, however they did a pretty good job of microphone placement. It's not as great as the GL2, which has an added handle on top of the camcorder where the microphone extends from (this is the best placement I can think of), but it's on the top and far away enough from the focus ring that your fingers aren't going to bump it. Of course, I would always recommend using an external microphone instead of the built in camcorder microphone unless you absolutely have to.

Zoom Controller
The PV-DV953 does come with a standard wireless infrared remote control, as do most camcorders, however, it also carries a very valuable wired zoom, record and photo control. The device, about 3 inches long and about a 1/2 wide, controls all of the above functions. It plugs into the AV in / out port (I really wish there was a separate port for it, that's the only downside) and it can act as a external zoom controller. I think this is an amazing innovation and frankly is a great value. The zoom controller I bought for my camcorder is an invaluable tool because it allows me to place the camcorder on the tripod, and adjust all it's functions using only the tripod handle, never having to touch (and bump the shot) the camcorder. My zoom controller cost around $250 and you can't get them for under $150. The wired remote control, although designed with a pen like clip in the back - could easily be attached to a tripod handle and used as a zoom controller. When the Panasonic reps showed me this I went crazy with excitement. Second to a stable tripod, a zoom controller is one of the best camcorder accessory investments that you can make and - It's an amazing value that they include it for free. It really adds to the idea that the PV-DV953 is certainly the best buy for entry level digital three CCD camcorders camcorders, let a lone one of the most valuable camcorders period.

Conclusion
The PV-DV953 is undoubtedly a revolutionary camcorder. True picture quality greatness is achieved by having three CCDs, each one dedicated to red, green or blue.. Until the introduction of the PV-DV953 you couldn't purchase a three CCD camcorder for under much under $2000 (the MSRP of the PV-DV952, the PV-DV953s predecessor, was originally $2,499). Panasonic is making a revolutionary move by dropping the price of their entry level three CCD camcorder by $1,000 to just $1,499. Besides the price, besides the excellent image quality and the great manual control, Panasonic has made a decision not to include useless features on the camcorder and instead has added a lot of value with the wired remote zoom controller. I still need to evaluate the picture quality, the still image quality and the low light performance, but unless the camcorder absolutely fails in those elements it still remains great. The PV-DV953 is an amazing camcorder at an amazing price and unless the video quality turns out to be absolutely terrible (which I doubt it will considering that the PV-DV952 produced very quality video) I would certainly recommend the PV-DV953 both for feature set and for price as the best entry level MiniDV camcorder - beating the Sony DCR-TRV950 and the Canon GL2 hands down.