Panasonic PV-DV400 MiniDV Digital Camcorder
Written: Jul 31 '00 (Updated May 06 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent picture quality, lots of features, convenient, $100 rebate
Cons: High price, remote is "optional", cheap buttons
The Bottom Line: If you buy this camcorder before July 1st, you can get $100 back via a mail-in rebate. Rebate form can be obtained at Panasonic's web site.
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| dkozin's Full Review: Panasonic PV-DV400 Mini DV Camcorder |
Panasonic PV-DV400 digital Palmcorder camcorder is an excellent choice if you demand high quality. Although there are cheaper digital camcorders on the market today, DV400 has more features and is produced by the company that is known for high reliability.
It has 18x optical/300x digital zoom that allows you to use seven zoom speeds. This model also features digital electronic image stabilization in both record and playback modes to remove excessive shaking and movement from previously recorded images as well as while shooting.
Although the digital image stabilization in theory should decrease resolution (the picture should become "grainy"), high-pixel CCD allows to minimize this image degradation.
18x Hi-Definition Zoom
The camcorder has an optical zoom that magnifies images up to 18x by mechanically increasing the focal length of the lens, just like a telescope. You can zoom in for close-ups, or zoom out for wide-angle shots, using any of seven different zoom speeds.
Again, the optical zoom does not decrease the picture resolution, but is limited by camcorder's dimensions and also drains battery power quickly in case of constant use.
300x Digital Zoom
Digital zoom brings objects up to 300x closer by electronically magnifying images. This feature lets you shoot video at greater distances. I think that 300x is more than enough.
The use of digital zoom does not seem to degrade the picture quality significantly.
Dual Digital Electronic Image Stabilization (D-EIS)
The Digital Electronic Image Stabilization allows to compensate for unintentional hand and camcorder movement. D-EIS helps stabilize MiniDV videos when recording from a moving vehicle or while walking.
Dual D-EIS allows you to use this same technology in both "record" and "playback" modes to remove additional jitter from previously recorded video. Digital image stabilization decreases the image resolution and thus should provide worse image quality than the optical image stabilization. But optical image stabilization is more expensive and provides worse results in "stabilization" itself.
The image quality is excellent in both LP and SP modes, and the even the digital zoom does not make it worse. The quality is virtually the same in both SP and LP modes due to the digital technology used to store the information.
This model also offers several digital effects. The "digital mirror" creates a mirrorlike symmetrical image, while "strobe" digitally freezes a series of images. "Mosaic" turns the image into a mosaic pattern, and "slim" expands the image vertically.
The PV-DV400 can also stretch the image horizontally and form multiple impressions of images in motion and gradually fade them out for a "trail" effect. In addition, it also gives you the option of playing back your recording in either color, B&W or sepia.
The camcorder also has an infrared filter that allows you to record video in near total darkness in B&W, blue, or green. The PV-DV400 has a 12-bit/16-bit PCM stereo with two sets of stereo audio tracks (4 channels total), which allows you to add a second track of music.
You can also use this camcorder for still shots, it has an 8 MB MultiMediaCard for this purpose. The PhotoVu Link RS-232C serial cable allows you to connect the camcorder to your PC to transfer your still images to your PC for printing and editing.
IR Filter (0 Lux)
The IR Filter lets you record video in near-total darkness with incredible detail. Images can be recorded in B&W, blue or green. By simply turning on the IR filter, the camcorder uses infrared light to record images in dark settings up to approximately 10 feet away.
PhotoShot™ Built-in Digital Still Camera
The PhotoShot™ feature allows you to use DV400 as a digital still camera by taking still images in 320x240 ("normal" mode) or 640x480 ("fine" mode) resolution. You can store your pictures on either a MultiMediaCard (MMC) or MiniDV tape.
MMC
MultiMediaCard can be used as a "digital film." You take pictures until the card is full, then remove it and replace it with a fresh card. Additionally, you can erase any or all of the images from the card and reuse these "blank spaces".
You can store up to 240 images in "normal" mode at 320 x 240 resolution or up to 60 images in so-called "fine" mode at 640 x 480 pixels on the 8MB Multimedia card.
MiniDV Tape
You can record approximately 1,000 still images on an 80-minute tape in LP mode, and up to seven seconds of audio. Since the MiniDV tape was designed to hold digital video, storing still pictures on it is a natural thing.
The camcorder is quite compact, but convenient to hold, unlike JVC's GR-DVM50U and GR-DVM70U, which have a boxy shape.
Instead of individual VCR buttons, DV400 has buttons located in one line, without any separators, which can be annoying in the darkness. Usually this kind of “engineering” is used to reduce production costs and/or make the device look more stylish. It would be nice to at least have “bubble-type” buttons – the type of buttons JVC GR-DVM models have on their remotes.
Also, the index search capability available only using the optional remote control. I think, the camcorder is expensive enough by itself, so the remote should be a standard accessory.
Rebate
If you buy this camcorder before July 1st, you can get $100 back via a mail-in rebate. Rebate form can be obtained at Panasonic's web site.
I like this camcorder's design and picture quality along with a rich set of features it has. However, it is expensive and has some “features” I don’t like. There are cheaper models, which lack some of DV400’s features, but still provide excellent picture quality. For example, Sharp VL-SD20U (see my review of it).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dkozin
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 in Electronics |
 - Top 10 |
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Location: California
Reviews written: 817
Trusted by: 514 members
About Me:
I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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