Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic PVGS200 3CCD MiniDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom

To address the concerns of another reviewer about low light performance: cameras work much differently than your eyes. There is no camcorder, even the digital Betacams we use at work that cost tens of thousands of dollars, that will look good in a basement lit with a 100 watt bulb. The other night I tried it in a dim room and was impressed at how good it looked. A little grainy, but again, much better than any other camera in this price range, thanks to the 3CCD's and ability to manually white balance to correct for the conditions.

I've had a couple of good miniDV camcorders, including one JVC model that does well in low light, but the PVGS200 blows them away in performance.

In my opinion, if you want a better camcorder you'll have to look into the $2500+ prosumer models like the Canon GL2 or Sony VX2100.

The GS200 has several features that make it a great first choice for those who want to learn about serious digital filmmaking without having to mortgage the house to try it out. Features like manual control of white balance, iris, gain, shutter speed and best of all, focus, via a focus ring on the lens. Best of all, it has a microphone jack. Invest another $125 in a quality XLR converter like a BeachTek box and you can hook up any professional mic for better control over your sound. The built in zoom mic works well and motor noise is not a concern at all.

The LCD monitor is of high quality, and the overall build quality is good. The chasis is mostly high-impact plastic, but it feels robust. The tape-loading mechanism is very sturdy (much more so than any other DV camera I've used) and loads tapes from the top, which is rare.

The image stabilization is about the same as any other camcorder and should be used as little as possible. Again, no electronic stabilization will work in low light. Use a tripod whenever possible to keep your productions professional looking.

The best part is the incredible color seperation that the 3CCD's provide. All professional cameras use 3 chips to seperate color and the results here are very impressive, even in lower light.

If you're looking to step up to something serious but can't justify spending as much as a down-payment on a car, definitely consider the PCGS200.

I have a Canon $2,500 Canon GL2 camera to compare this to so my video standards are high.

Good controls and ergonomics make it realatively easy to use. The manual is not great, but you won't need it too much because the controls are pretty intuitive. The low light properties are not great. A camera like the Canon GL2 blows it away due to the larger lens and CCD sensors. But with enough light, the video quality is impressive for such a small camera. Good resolution, and fantastic color. In fact, I may like the color of this camera more than the Canon. Beautiful greens.

It works with iMovie on the Mac, except that the scene cut detection does not always come through.

This camera has very good still photo quality for a camcorder. Very good color (probably due to the 3 CCDs). Very little chromatic aberation (purple fringing). Typical for camcorder stills, there is a little bit of visible noise and some of that "video" look.

The biggest suprise was it's macro capability! You can focus just a few millimeters from the lens and get sharp, bright pictures.

Definitely one of the best performers for the price and size.

After a great deal of research, I decided to buy this camcorder. This is really an awesome piece producing vivid and life-like colors. I personally compared videos shot from popular models like Sony DCRHC40, JVC GRD90, Canon ZR90 and Panasonic PV-GS200. The built-in 3 CCDs in GS200 rocks and the difference is easily visible and of almost broadcast quality.

I have no complaints about the image stabilizer. It performs as good as the other make/models I have tested, if not better.

Pros:
1. Video quality & color reproduction.
2. Top mounting cassette deck, easy to use on tripods.
3. No motor noice, very feeble on rewinding.
4. Compact size.
5. 3 CCD technology at affordable prize.
6. White balance and wealth of other manual controls.
7. Focus ring.
8. Battery life.

Cons:
1. Low light performance could have been better. Though Sony performs a little better, Panasonic is just above average under low light. I can live with it though - I wouldn't be shooting my home videos in the dark.
2. Zoom is only 10x. It is sufficient for most of my requirement, but other make/models give longer zoom range for the same price. (I found that at full 16x zoom in JVC, the camcorder shakes badly and becomes almost unusable without a tripod)

I would highly recommend this for anybody looking for a feature-rich, great quality camcorder for around $700.

I just got this so I'll give some first impressions. I'll come back in a month or two to fill in more details.

In short, this is the camcorder you've been waiting for: vivid, almost broadcast-quality home videos. OK, that's assuming you know how to shoot steady and well-framed videos. The camcorder with its three CCD chips gives you the technical superiority over your next-door neighbors, but ultimately if you shoot trash, you get trash. But for those of us who know how to shoot like a pro (e.g., no in-camera zooming, steady and slow pans, no in-camera special effects), the results are simply amazing. If you, for example, are a serious amateur home-movie maker or an aspiring filmmaker, you'll definitely love this camcorder.

Because this is an affordable camcorder, Panasonic seems to have cut a few (minor) corners. Indoor/night shots are no better than the average consumer 1-chip camcorder. Of course if you have plenty of lighting, you'll once again reap the benefits of having 3 CCDs to capture light. But if you just use existing indoor lighting you won't find this working wonders. Also its optical zoom is lower than many newer camcorders. As always, digital zoom is next to useless.

The camcorder is pretty easy to set up and use; no Ph.D. in VCR programming required. For this review I just wanted to focus on its main selling point, the 3-chip video capture system. Other amenities include manual focus, 2MP digital still camera, remote controls, etc. Battery life seems average, after you cycle the battery properly a couple times.

If you want to take beautiful (outdoor) videos and don't have a fat wallet, you should definitely consider getting this camcorder.

NOTE: From what I read, the cheaper PV-GS120 model foregoes the manual focus ring, the wired remote and the flash. I assume that model has the same video quality as the GS200.

Just ordered my Panasonic PV-GS200 and would like to share one issue I found.

During my search for the MiniDV, I read a few reviews and some of them mentioned that this model is pretty much the same as Panasonic PV-GS120 and has a terrible imaging stabilizer. And I also see other postings here and there that they think Sony has the best IS (imaging stabilizer) and Panasonic needs much improvements. Since IS is important to me, I decided to go to a local Fry's to hand test these Mini-DVs.

I tried most of the sub $1000 models in the store including Sony's (like DCR-HC85/65/40, TRV22/...), Canons (only horizontal models like Elura 65/70 and Optura XI and a few others), and Panasonic PV-GS120 and 200. The PV-GS120 has indeed a very bad image stabalizer as I can see the image shaking a lot in the screen. But the PV-GS200 is definitely a much better improvement and not the same as GS120.

Actaully, I tried zoom to very close object, and zoom to very far object, the PV-GS200 beats all Canons and is the same, if not better than, any Sony I tested.

I then go to a 2nd store to test to make sure all PV-GS200 has the same imaging stablizer. In the 2nd store, it still beats all Canon's and in par with any Sony (actually better than some old Sony's).

I don't know why people saying it has a bad imaging stablizer, but you should definitely test yourself.

This is a great model with great functionality.

Eric.