Panasonic PV-GS320

Panasonic PV-GS320

PV-GS320 Review, by James Galbraith May 21, 2007

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• Latest User Reviews 4 reviews
• Reviewed by: madisonoles

  Duration of ownership: 4 Months

  Strengths: Picture quality, Picture quality, Picture quality... Size is nice too!

  Weaknesses: The zoom is a little hard to control, I would like a mic and headphone jack.

  Overall: If you want to take still pictures buy a still camera. No one serious about still quality uses a camcorder. This camera take great video and is the best camcorder bargain on the market. It has it's negatives but at this price you have to overlook all of em except maybe the zoom.

• Reviewed by: infinitifi

  Duration of ownership: 3 Months

  Strengths: Good video

  Weaknesses: No flash

  Overall: What a disappointment!! I bought this for the superior still picture capability (video and decent stills in one unit). Never thought that it wouldn't have a built in flash. And then, three months and 2 weeks later (2 weeks after the labor warranty expires), the transport mechanism jams.

• Reviewed by: dprozzo

  Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks

  Strengths: Superb video

  Weaknesses: Awkward search and manual focus functions

  Overall: I have purchased this camera and am well pleased, but one feature is missing, and it is one that I miss. During recording, I do a lot of on-the-fly editing, that is taking shots then rewinding get rid of scenes that aren't pleasing, or ran too long. One can't rewind in the record mode with this camera, and it is hard to rewind to a precise spot in the play mode because the search speed is fast. Only with the remote can one search is slow motion. The audio is excellent and I doubt many will miss the external microphone jack. The manual focus is so awkward that I doubt I will use it. However, the automatic focus is excellent. Vista compatible software is available from Panasonic, but the installation instructions are incomplete. Download all of the large setup files 000-007 to that folder. Clicking on the final, crucial, .bat file doesn't initiate a download, rather takes one to another window with the contents of the file. In the same folder, create a .txt file, copy and paste the .bat file contents into it and rename it to something like setup.bat. Now double-click on that and a new setup.ext file is created and it is THAT file you should open to start the installation. http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/soft/download/motionDV60E_LE.html

• Reviewed by: inkmanz28

  Duration of ownership: 1 Month

  Strengths: Picture quality, ease of use

  Weaknesses: Price, No LED light, Nightshot, only 10X optical zoom

  Overall: I'm pretty much just a point-and-shoot consumer, and originally was set on buying the GS85 model, even though I was seriously opting for a Sony model. We had (and still have) a Panasonic VHS-C model which still works great, but is much bulkier than this one. The colors reproduced on a standard CRT TV are just as you see on this camera, which is the best you can get without upgrading to high-definition. I found a lot of complaints when researching similar SONY models, so for the money I highly recommend this model, although, if you're just a "point-and-shoot" person, go for the GS85 model, which is only a 1CCD but 34X optical zoom camera. Hope this helps!

• Reviewed by: gvise

  Strengths: Small and Compact. Great Video at a low price.

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: I purchased this pv-gs320 for my sons wedding gift and video tapped his wedding. The results were amazing. The wedding was outdoors and the recepition indoors and even the indoor video was very good. I used Windows Movie maker to edit and results were fantastic. The audio was good enough to get even the wedding vows. Everyone was amazed at the video quality. Do not hesitate to buy this camcorder for at around $300 dollars you can't go wrong.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Small, light weight, easy to use

  Weaknesses: The Operating Instructions tend towards being difficult to read. A/V cable does not fit the camera. Firewire cable should be included.

  Overall: I will have to use the camera some more and go get the cables that will help the camera work with my TV and my computer. Hopefully, with knowledge and experience, my opinion will change for the better

• Reviewed by: maxkine

  Strengths: High quality lens. Compact size and light weight.

  Weaknesses: SD card compatibility.

  Overall: I bought this camcorder to replace our old 8mm analog camcorder. It is very small and light. Its lens is made by the legendary Leica, one key factor in my choosing it over several other camcorders in its price range. Its user-interface is intuitive. Overall its features seem to be well designed. To my surprise for some reason it does not accept my Kingston Elite-Pro 2GB SD card (it flashes "card error" message whenever I attempt to use or format that card), but seems to work fine with my cheaper Kingston 2GB SD card (I prefer using the Elite-Pro for its higher write speed). Panasonic only certifies and lists their own SD cards for use with the camcorder, so if you want to shop for a 3rd-party SD card make sure that you can exchange or return it just in case.

• Reviewed by: fchatiwala

  Strengths: Amazing Optical Image Stabilization, video colors both indoor and outdoor, and many manual mode features which are not present on most camcorder in this price range. 3.1MP still mode an extra add-on.

  Weaknesses: The lack of a mic jack, headphone jack, flash, video light, LCD panel controls, hot shoe, and control ring

  Overall: Overall it is a decent camcorder. It campares well against Sony's HC-96 which is more pricier. This is a good camera for an intermediate shooter with much more advanced features but still not quite professional grade.

• Reviewed by: aedemo

  Strengths: Small and compactgood quality video

  Weaknesses: no microphone jackshort battery lifeno built in flash

  Overall: I bought this camera for $149.99 before tax. It is a good value for this camera. It is compact and light to bring around to record events. What can you expect for this price. Even with all the shortcomings, for the price, you can't beat it.