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Reviewed by UK Guest, 27th Sep 2005. |
| Review Summary: Best Picture and Sound Quality you can get for that price. |
Overall Score: 4/5
 
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Review: The Panasonic NV GS17B MiniDV camcorder (B // EB) offers a very good picture- and sound quality and resolution. The pictures is clear, the colors are crisp and there is no tape motor noise on the sound recordings. Also amazing is the zoom. You won't find 24x optical and 800x digital zoom for that price anywhere else. The camcorder is very small and with only 410 grams very light. The basic model from Sony is 3 times heavier and twice as big. The NV-GS17 offers many manual setting which is very unusual for a camcorder in this price level.
However there are some cons:
You will be reminded that this is the basic model all the time: No cables delivered (except power supply cables), no CD ( you have to download the drivers), no CF card slot (pictures are saved on the tape), no video light, no recording LED, no sound in port and so on.
Not only I find it incredibly cheap from Panasonic not even to deliver a CD and a cable for the computer connection (what does this cost? 2 Pounds?) , the manual is not even describing the possibility of connecting the camcorder to the PC! They want to keep the buyers of this camcorder as basic as possible, but of course you CAN connect it to the computer. You need a IEEE 1394 Firewire PCI card and a firewire cable (6 to 4 pins). You can get both for under 10 pounds at Amazon.co.uk Marketplace. Many users of the camcorder report problems with connecting via USB cable. I have not tried it myself, because a firewire connection is faster and more comfortable, anyway.
Conclusion:
If you are looking for good picture and sound quality for a low price and if you are able to download and install drivers and if you don't mind to have a basic camcorder without fancy features, go for it!
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Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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4 |
| Review Score: |
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4 |
| Recommended? | |
Yes |
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Digital Cameras