Panasonic PV-GS500 1/4.7" 1.07MP 3CCD 2.7" 123K LCD 12X Optical Zoom MiniDV Camcorder

Pros: Its the best camera you can get in its price range. Really good video quality for its price. 3CCD is a big plus. The size is pretty small, small enough to carry around and good enough to have good quality. It has true 16:9 format unlike its cousin, the GS300.

Cons: Kind of a downgrade from the GS400, but you can't find the GS400 anywhere anymore and it costs more. It also has no headphone monitor, but you can mod the AV cable to output to headphones with a 5 dollar converter. It was hard to justify spending 200 dollars more for the GS500 instead of the GS300.

Overall Review: Its not High Def but I didn't want that. I didn't want to take forever to edit a movie on my computer system. (Fairly new, core2duo) The PV-GS500 is a really good consumer camera for people who just need a camera to film really important events. If you're looking to film home made movies without spending an arm and a leg for an expensive prosumer camera, this is a pretty good choice.

Pros: Great optical quality, easy handling, intutive joystick/menu system, near true widescreen, 3CCDs, still camera functions, great fansite (pana3CCDuser.com)

Cons: No headphone jack, no Analoge to Digital Passthrough, Panasonics not known to have best battery duration or low cost, would be nice if the camera came with an SD card

Overall Review: I did lots of research on cameras and I decided that this was the right one for me. It's closest competition for me was the Panasonic PV-GS300, it's younger, cheaper, brother. The 500 has better picture quality and low light (which includes most normal home lighting) and some added features. The biggest drawback for me was the lack of a headphone jack, but using the A/V out cable, and an RCA to 1/8" female adapter, I was able to get some headphones to work. If copying VHS to DVD is important, there are PC cards that can do a much better job then cameras do anyway.

Pros: Small, lightweight 3 CCD MiniDV camcorder with excellent brilliant video quality, decent sound quality, decent still images, Optical Image Stabilization, decent low light performance, easy to use. Good quality camcorder for the price.

Cons: No analog inputs or analog to digital conversion. Manual could be better. Have to open LCD to go to the manual mode.

Overall Review: Battery life with supplied battery exceeds at 1 hour. I like the battery charger setup. Zoom speed can be from very slow to fast, or in between, with a little practice. Joystick menu navigation can be used while using the viewfinder (or LCD). You can take stills while shooting video. Supplied with 16 MB SD card, enough so you can see the still quality. You can transfer the full quality video with Firewire or "High Speed" USB 2. Top loading cassette allows you to leave the unit on a tripod while changing tapes. Sufficient optical zoom. Turn it on, if you left it in the Auto mode begin shooting video, press the still photo button whenever you want a still image on the SD card.

Pros: Lite weight; easy to learn; excellent video quality; great integrated features; takes better 4.0m still pictures than my 3 year old digital camera.

Cons: Zoom is a little touchy and takes some getting used to;

Overall Review: I bought this for my wife for her birthday -- she loves it!! The GS500's ease of use, simplicity, and great quality had her expressing joy with in a few minutes of opening the box.

Pros: Great 3CCD camera at a low price. Shoots decent low-light shots, and really good outdoor shots.

Cons: None so far. Except this cameras version of 0 lux night shot is turning the lcd into a flashlight.

Overall Review: My friends and I got this to replace my old Hi8 handycam. Needless to say, this is a great upgrade. I don't have a working firewire port on my comp so I still use the capture device I had for the Hi8. The video quality is amazing. Of course Newegg's service is great as always.

Pros: I have clear colorfull and stable picture in all usual conditions (room, outside - daylight) . The OIS is amazingly good.

Cons: The DV tape and transfering to computer is anoying. Take too much time. I should wait for HDD version.

Overall Review: Newegg is way too high with price even usual store with electronics is now almost $xxx lower this time i made mistake i bought it here.

Pros: Reviews of video quality are great, unfortunately haven't been able to see for myself.

Cons: Conclusion is that the firewire port on the camera is bad. Straight out of the box. I'm not looking forward to dealing with Panasonic warranty service. I will likely miss recording the birth of my twins waiting for repair. Since researching this problem I see it is quite common, I would recommend purchasing another brand.

Pros: Excellent video quality. Image stabilization better than any other DV camera on the market. Stills O.K. in a pinch. Very user friendly. Set and forget and stil get great video.

Cons: Video transfer software fair and there are no instructions. Stills a waste on this DV camera. No light justa stills flash. That's a BIG minus! No free tape included. Battery life so,so.

Overall Review: Panasonic should not waste electronics on the stills. Needs a bigger and more sturdy monitor screen. Overall, quality better than any Sony or Canon. Too bad ther eis no hard drive version.