Is this a decent Digital Camcorder ?

[leeland]

Here is the link on newegg


Panasonic GS15


any info would be appreciated


thanks,

Leeland

 

[Turkish]

only one i found

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Pan...order/display_~reviews

 

[Freejack2]

Found one too.
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/c...5-camcorder-review.htm

 

[Night201]

Seems decent. Just don't use the digital zoom. Panasonic makes great camcorders.

 

[leeland]

Originally posted by: Night201
Seems decent. Just don't use the digital zoom. Panasonic makes great camcorders.

do you mean don't use the digital zoom because it distorts the video image ? or is it for some other reason ?

Also what does this mean ? 680 K CCD

The PV-GS15 has a 1/6 inch, 680K CCD situated behind a 27mm, 24x optical zoom Panasonic Video Lens.

any one explain that to me ?

 

[NutBucket]

680k is the number of pixels.

 

[Koing]

1/6 inch is the CCD size. The bigger the better in general as that produces less noise BUT not a thing you can CHANGE though when looking at 'cheaper' camcorders. Unless you want to get a 3CCD one which will be bigger or more upmarket ones.

680K CCD is the gross number of pixels. The actual amount used is 468K CCD. Well that is if you read the specs a bit closer from the newegg link.

27mm is the lense size at the front. Generally the bigger the better as it will let in more light and be better BUT not be as compact so you get a trade off with these things. Most Sony camcorders perform great in low light conditions and they have their 'night vision (green vision)' shooting mode which is useful up to 5m and you can do night time stuff but you lose detail the further you go out. But imo it is still pretty good. Can read license plates up to 20m away in almost pitch black conditions.

24x is the optical zoom.

DO NOT USE DIGITAL ZOOM. It is a GIMMICK. It just basically resamples the middle section of the image from the CCD and makes it 'larger' thus crating the 'illusion' of a zoom. It is completley CRAP. And by about 10x zoom unless you have steady hands you will get some shake. But this one has an optical image stablisation which will help you out a lot. And up to 14 or 18x or whatever the article said. No way are you going to manage a zoom 20x with just your hands on a small camcorder.

Koing