Panasonic NV-GS40B

Panasonic NV-GS40B - My previous Digi Camcorder was a JVC model which I hardly ever used because it was quite bulky. So I decided to upgrade to a new palm sized camera.

All the big names had their own versions under £450 and I tried them out at various retail outlets. I chose the Panasonic because it had a lot of features including snapshot mode on SD memory card and the only difference between the GS40 and the GS50 was a black/white viewfinder and no inputs. This was worth sacrificing because the price difference was significant.

The camera feels comfortable to hold and the buttons are all fairly easy to access. The colour LCD screen is clear and bright, menus are reasonably concise and there are some useful manual settings. The battery life isn't bad either for a digi-cam.

If this was your first digi-cam then you'd be quite happy with the picture quality. But it wasn't quite up to the same standard as my JVC so I was spoilt by that a little. I wouldn't say it was bad, just lacked vibrancy and detail. The sound quality however is disappointing, though you can add an external microphone.

In poor lighting (despite the low light settings on the camera) you will be disappointed with grainy results. Snapshot picture quality on the SD card was about average. I can never understand why this is so with camcorders, I can only assume it's a corner cutting exercise to keep prices down. Interestingly though you can record movies on the card with no tape installed. You can also use the cam as a voice recorder.

I liked the inline remote control, which also features an integrated clip on microphone. The cord was a bit short, but it's very useful for self recording. There is an IR remote control also supplied which has access to just about every setting on the camera.

The screen can be set to act as a lamp, it flips over and shows a bright white screen, which actually works well, though refer to my previous comments about low light recording.

On the whole this was a worthwhile purchase. It is very good value for money considering its list of features and I have used it a lot more as I can drop it into my coat pocket.

For a first time buy, definitely worth it.