Quick Review Camcorders: Panasonic PV-GS35

One of things that was sorely lacking on last year’s Panasonics was a convenient and easy way to access the camcorder’s manual control. It was a shame to have so many options to choose from with a very uncomfortable method of access, namely some buttons on the camcorder’s LCD screen. The new PV-GS35 features a navigational joystick located directly below the user’s thumb, near the record button. This makes handling extremely easy and navigation a cinch. Panasonic has redesigned the menu layout as well, increasing ease of use further. But as much as this navigational method helps the camcorder’s ease of handling factor, its zoom toggle is probably the worst of all the lower-end camcorder models this year. It is not only hard to grip, but even harder to switch directions, control a smooth zoom, or nearly anything else. Sony and Canon lower-end camcorders have better ones.

Let’s talk about manual control–this is one of the strengths of the camcorder. The PV-GS35 includes manual control over exposure (both iris and shutter speed, independently), gain, focus, and white balance. These offerings are nothing new for low-end Panasonic camcorders, but they certainly continue the trend of Panasonic providing much more manual control than any other manufacturer in the low-end market. And with the new navigational system, the PV-GS35’s wealth of manual controls can be accessed easily.

The camcorder’s 30x optical zoom is the focus of much hype. It is unprecedented to have such a large optical zoom on such a cheap, and small, camcorder, and the camcorder is pretty cool when it comes to zooming depth. The only problem is that the zoom, though immense, is hard to control.

The PV-GS35 also ships with a FireWire port, S-Video port, USB port, A/V input/output, and microphone input port. These are basically all you need. You can export video to the computer, view video clearly on a TV, hook up better audio sources, dub from other sources, and transfer footage from old analog camcorders to a computer, all via the PV-GS35.

With all these features and manual controls, you’re probably wondering what’s wrong with this camcorder. What’s the catch? Is the performance bad? Actually, it’s pretty good. Not incredibly good, but both the video and low light performance are of good quality and provide stiff competition to other lower-end MiniDV camcorders of comparable price.

The PV-GS35 is the most advanced of the lower-end Panasonics, and largely includes a microphone input, S-Video port, and a bit more optical zoom over its companions. That said, the other lower-end Panasonics might be better deals if you can sacrifice some connectivity and a few clicks of optical zoom, but other than that the PV-GS35 is a pretty good buy.

Panasonic PV-GS35 Compared to the...

Panasonic PV-GS35 Compared to the...