Panasonic PVDV402 MiniDV Multicam Digital Camcorder w/ 3.5" LCD, IR Remote & 8MB SD Memory Card Electronics

Average Rating:

Alas, you can only upload 3 minutes of movie at a time!!! There are a myriad of other restrictions on this as well, which makes this less than we had hoiped fror. In retrospect, the 202 camera would have done the job

Build quality is acceptable, but certainly not up to rough usage. (On mine, the glued on microphone cover plate is starting to loosen due to exposure to damp). The swivel LCD is of sturdier construction than most.

Ergonomics are well thought out, with most buttons easily reachable and sufficiently sized for most hand sizes. The wheel control does require some dexterity to operate successfully - but this is not used during recording, so will not interfere with your results. The controls you need during "action" are conveniently located, and conducive to good results. Some familiarization with the zoom control is useful to make best use of the variable speed feature. The camera is lightweight and small enough to fit in your palm, but is not of the ultra-compact variety that becomes a pain to operate. Personally I find this to be an almost ideal size for a cam-corder for practical purposes. But I guess that depends on personal preference - and exactly who you wish to impress.

Video picture quality is excellent under ALL lighting conditions. And I do mean ALL lighting conditions. The zero luminance feature does work well, and will provide monochrome video even on the darkest most starless night - although the edges will not be as well lit as the centre of the picture. Daylight and lit room recording is superior to most other camcorders in this proce range, due to the better than average resolution of the CCD (see the specs page).

The included light attachment works well for frontal illumination and is sufficiently strong for most indoor use situations - it will even work well out of doors for distances up to 10-15 yards.

Despite the claims about interpolation, picture quality for still photography is not good enough, and compares favourably only to sub-megapixel dedicated stills cameras. (Which means, it's pretty unacceptable for most audiences). The pictures are grainy under all lighting conditions and zoom levels. If you wish to take acceptable still pictures, get a dedicated camera, or get the Sony DCRPC101, which seems to do a somewhat better job.

The 10X optical zoom is good but competitors offer better zoom levels, and this is vital if you expect acceptable picture quality at high zoom levels. Of course, the better than average CCD does make up for it to a certain extent, and you will find that picture quality is (for video) is good up to around 50X digital zoom. (Which is similar to models with better optical zoom capability and poorer CCDs). Beyond that level, the picture becomes very grainy, although it can still be useful for zany antics like reading fine print in phone books at 20 paces. Just don't expect it to look good on your TV screen when viewing such recordings.
The image stabilizer works reasonably well up to as much 200X zoom. Even more, if you don't have really shaky hands.
Sound quality is acceptable for making great home videos, but if you want to capture fine nuances of musical performances, don't even dream of trying to do it without a professional external mic. The built in mic produces an only slightly "tinny" sound, and with shielding can be surprisingly immune to wind noise. I have not found mechanical noise from the camera to interfere much with the recording - except under very demanding conditions.

The USB interface works well enough for transferring still pictures, but for transferring video to your PC you will want to make use of the firewire (IEEE1394) connection. The included transfer and editing software is rudimentary at best. You would be well advised to invest in some additional gear of your choice in this respect. (And believe me - the results can be very worthwhile, if you are prepared to spend some quality creative time with your software. Note: a capable PC or Mac is essential) I have used this on a wide variety of different PCs with different specifications. I have had few compatibility problems... although it failed entirely to work with one particular IEEE1394 card. This may happen, but such cards are low end quality - just get different one. I have not seen it failing with any notebook computers.

The 8Mb Memory card is sufficient and nice to have - you will need it for capturing the odd still. Anyone who is into capturing thousands of stills should not be using this camera anyway.

Battery lasts about 40 minutes with average use. Only about 25 minutes if you are using the light attachment. A second battery may make a good investment.

You may definitely wish to supplement and leverage your investment with some optional attachment lenses - to make up for the somewhat sub-par native optical zoom facility.

In summary:

The camera has a few drawbacks as noted, but if you can live with those, you will have an excellent set of features, you will find that it can probably do most of the things you want to do home video-wise, and it will do those things at a quality that will frequently amaze your friends who opted for different brands!