digital minidv

I payed for half of my camcorder which came to be about $450 with the extra batteries and wires you needed to get for the camera. I'm only 13 so $450 is a lot to spend for me but it was well worth it. I'll tell you what I wanted to know about a camera in a review before I bought one...
-the zoom is good, not as good as some of the other models in the store but it is also not as shaky.
-it has a zoom mic which allows you to shoot someone talking from far awa distances without them having to talk much louder then usual for the camera to pick up the sound.
-the pictures is what you pay for in a 3CCD camera. there is one chip for red, one for green, and one for blue. This makes the imagery OUTSTANDING.
-The camera is comfortable in my small hands and my dad's big hands... all you need to do is adjust the strap on it for it to fit our hand perfectly.
-i must be honest... the bad things about it is the battery life on the battery it comes with is only fourty five minutes but if you buy an extened battery it is 1 hour and 15 minutes and if you use both that adds up to about 2 hours of filming time.
-I also don't like that it doesn't come with a light but magic pix is sometimes helpful if you are shooting at a still object in the dark but it slows down the pixels so much that if you move it it could be very blurry, still, with a tripod it could be useful.
-i like the easy mini DV format. Some people are now saying that it's beyond in technology but realy... if you want to edit your tape then you have to get mini DV's... they're not hard to use and they are less expensive. You'll have to plan on shooting a perfect film with a DVD camcorder.
-the manuel tells you all of the things hiden inside of your camera like cinema mode, spotlight mode, sports mode, low-light mode so you can use he camera to it's full potential.
-overall i really was very happy with this camera and i am sure i am forgetting something but i hope my review was helpful to you.

Panasonic out did themselves by releasing two 3CCD camcorders below the $1000 price point (the other being the PV-GS200). No other consumer DV cam boasts 3CCDs, and the difference in image quality really shows. Getting a similar image quality from any other brand of DV cam requires spending at least $1500. The only reason I gave this camcorder 4 stars instead of 5 is because the battery life is far too short. Even with an extra battery, this camcorder beats out everything in the same price range from Canon, Sony, JVC, etc.