Panasonic PV-GS150 Mini DV digital camcorder

General Features
Mini DV Camcorder Features
Digital Camera Features
Software/Computer Information
Warranty Information

General Features

Three-in-One Multi-Cam Camcorder: The PV-GS150 is three cameras in one:

• Digital Camcorder: Recording video onto Mini DV tape
• Digital Still Camera: Recording still images onto SD Memory Card
• Web Camera: Using the camcorder and the Internet to communicate by picture and sound, similar to a videophone

3CCD Camera System: The PV-GS150 features three separate 800,000-pixel CCDs (total) which reproduce color with great fidelity, using separate CCDs for reds, greens, and blues. The effective pixel count for each CCD is 440,000 for video and 530,000 for still photos. This is the same technology used in Panasonic professional broadcast equipment, resulting in 540 lines of resolution.

Lens: This unit features a 7-element, multi-coated Leica Dicomar lens, providing video and still images with a high level of detail and subtlety that produce truly moving images. It has a two-stage neutral density filter for aperture independent adjustment.

LCD Monitor: This unit features a 2-1/2" color LCD monitor for framing moving and still images while recording and for viewing recorded movies or still pictures. It can swing out 90 degrees, and while opened, the monitor can rotate 270 degrees (180 degrees forward and 90 degrees backward). When rotated a full 180 degrees, the image is inverted so it can be properly viewed from the front of the camcorder. The color viewfinder also turns on when the LCD is facing forward. For best viewing, the color and brightness of the monitor can be adjusted.

Recording Media: The PV-GS150 can record video on Mini DV tape and still images on an SD Memory Card. The manual correction specifies 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 MB and 1 GB SD cards.

Accessory Shoe: The accessory shoe supplies power to Panasonic's optional video light (model VW-LDH3) and stereo zoom microphone (model VW-VMH3), available from Panasonic directly.

Image Stabilizer: The Digital Electronics Image Stabilizer helps you obtain clear pictures by compensating for any hand movement that occurs as you shoot video. With Digital EIS you won't have to worry about shaky soccer games or family outings.

Focus: The PV-GS150 lets you focus automatically or focus on your subject manually using the joystick control.

Zoom Function: The optical zoom of the lens magnifies the subject up to 10 times. The digital zoom function is useful when you want to record close-up shots of subjects located beyond the optical zoom range. With the Digital Zoom Function, you can select a total magnification of 25x or 700x. The digital zoom is not active in the Card Recording (still photo) mode.

Soft Skin: When this function detects skin tones, it softens the focus in that area. This helps make wrinkles and lines appear less noticeable and preserves resolution in other areas of the picture. If there is anything in the background that's the same color, it will also be softened.

Tele-macro: By focusing only on the subject and blurring the background, the subject is made to stand out. Zooming in to 10x with the optical zoom lens give the equivalent of being 1.6 inches away, while actually 16 inches away so the shadow of the camera is less likely to effect the picture.

High Speed Shutter: The high speed shutter feature gives the ability to record high speed motion for improved still or slow motion playback. You can rotate the jog key to manually select any of the following shutter speeds for video: 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, or 1/8000. For recording to the Memory card, the same shutter speeds apply up to 1/500, plus 1/30. If you choose not to manually select the shutter speed, the camcorder can automatically a shutter speed for you.

Exposure: Normally the camcorder adjusts the exposure automatically, however, when the situation requires, you can compensate by manually adjusting the iris.

Auto/Manual White Balance Adjustment: When the white balance is correct, all other colors will be accurately reproduced. White Balance Settings include: Auto, Indoor Mode (shooting under incandescent lighting), Outdoor Mode, and Manual mode.

Backlight Compensation: This feature prevents a recording subject that is in front of a light source from looking too dark.

Power Save: When the power save mode is on, after 5 minutes without any camcorder operation, the power turns off. If either the USB or DV jack is connected to a computer the power save function is disabled.

Headphone Jack: This unit has a mini-jack output for headphones, allowing you to hear the audio as it's being recorded or played back.

Digital Inputs/Outputs: The PV-GS150 has a USB jack (mini-USB Ver. 2.0) and a 4-pin DV jack for digital data transfer to and from your computer. A USB cable is supplied.

A/V and S-Video Output: This unit has a mini-jack audio/video output for use with the supplied A/V cable. The A/V cable has a mini-plug on one end and stereo audio and composite video plugs on the other end. For higher quality analog video output, you can also use the S-Video jack output when connecting the camcorder to a VCR or TV with an S-Video input (S-Video cable not supplied).

AC Adapter/Battery Charger: The supplied PV-DAC14D AC adapter allows you to operate the camcorder on AC current and doubles as a battery charger.

Battery Performance: The supplied CGA-DU12 Lithium Ion rechargeable battery pack requires about 2 hours and 25 minutes to fully charge. You can expect approximately 2 hours 15 minutes of operation from a fully charged battery while using the Electronic View Finder, about 2 hours 5 minutes when using the LCD monitor.

Wireless Remote: The included wireless remote will control almost all of the camcorder functions. The IR sensor is on the front of the camcorder below the lens and the remote's range is approximately 15 feet.

MagicWire Remote Control with Narration Mic: This controller allows flexible placement of the camcorder while maintaining control using the wired remote and is convenient when a Tripod is used. The microphone allows you to add narration while recording is in progress. When the MagicWire microphone is keyed the mic built into the camcorder is disengaged.

Mini DV Camcorder Features

Record Speed/Playback Time: You can record video in two speeds, SP and LP. LP records at 2/3 the speed of SP, so you get longer recording times; however, you can not use audio dubbing with a tape recorded using the LP speed. Picture quality is about the same at the lower speed; it is likely, however, that a tape recorded in LP mode will not play back as well on another Mini DV camcorder. The recording/playback time for the Mini DV cassette types is as follows:

Program AE (Auto Exposure) Modes: You may select automatic exposures under specific recording situations. There are five Program AE choices:

• Sports Mode: For scenes involving quick movements, such as sports scenes
• Portrait Mode: The camcorder will focus on the main subject of the image and leaves the background slightly out of focus
• Low Light Mode: Preserves the mood of dim light settings without altering picture brightness
• Spotlight Mode: Neutralizes the additional brightness created by a spot light
• Surf and Snow Modes: Compensate for excessive illumination from sun glare to produce a clear image

Wide Screen TV: If you will be viewing videos on a wide-screen TV, you can record in the Wide mode, which switches the aspect ratio to 16:9.

Fade In/Out Functions: The fade in/out functions bring images and sounds in and out from a black screen.

Zoom Microphone: The microphone zooms in along with the picture, enabling you to pinpoint distant sound emanating from your subject.

Wind Cut: When recording in windy conditions, you can reduce the audio distortion caused by the wind hitting the microphone by engaging the Wind Cut function.

Blank Search: This helps you locate the end of a recording on a tape quickly.

Variable Speed Search: You can search in either direction for a particular scene by choosing one of playback speeds: 1/5x (1/3x in LP mode), 2x, 5x, 10x, or 20x.

MagicPix Images: When recording video in very low light, you can greatly enhance the picture by engaging the MagicPix function. Because it uses a slow shutter speed, motion jitter will be much greater, so use of a tripod is recommended. MagicPix allows you to shoot full color video in very low light.

Web Camera: If the camcorder is connected to your personal computer, you can send video and audio to the other parties via the web.

Digital Camera Features

Still Photo: You can record digital still images to the SD Memory card in high or normal picture quality. Using a 128MB SD Memory card, the approximate image capacity is as follows:

Quad Pixel Distribution Technology: This technology makes it possible to capture still pictures with amazing mega pixel quality. The tiny 2.5 micron intervals between pixels are shifted by one-half pitch both vertically and horizontally, which distributes them on the CCD with four times the density of previous systems. The result of this interpolation is still photos with the quality of a 2.3 mega pixel CCD using three 530,000 pixel (effective) CCDs.

RapidFire Consecutive PhotoShot: Up to ten 640x480 still images can be taken as quickly as every 0.5 seconds in the RapidFire mode.

Self-timer: When you set the self-timer, a still picture is automatically taken after 10 seconds and stored on the memory card.

Flash: The built-in flash helps record still pictures in dark places. The useful range of the flash is from 3 to 6 feet.

Simultaneous Recording: When recording video on the Mini DV tape (in tape recording mode), still photos can be captured on the SD card. The size image that's captured is 640x480.

Recording Images From Tape: You can record still images from a tape to a Memory card. When recording from tape, the image size is set to 640x480 and if the video was recorded in 16:9, it is converted to 4:3.

Printing Images: You can select images to be printed, the number of prints and other print-related information on a Memory card. This camcorder supports the Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), which allows you to add printing data to a card and take the card to a photo shop that also uses the DPOF format to have your prints made.

Software/Computer Information

USB Driver: Software for USB Driver allows you to transfer images directly from the Memory Card into the computer.

USB Driver requirements for Windows:

• OS: Windows 98 Second Edition pre-installed (camcorder works with the USB Driver already installed in Windows Me, 2000, and XP)

• CPU: Intel Pentium II/ Celeron 300MHz or higher

• RAM: 32 MB or more (64 MB or more is recommended)

• Interface: Minimum USB 1.1 Terminal

USB Driver requirements for Macintosh:

• OS: Mac OS X 10.1-X v 10.3

• CPU: iMac, iBook or Power Book G4, Power Mac G4, or Power Mac G5

• RAM: 64 MB or more

Web Camera: Using Video Stream Driver, the camcorder can be used as a web cam to send audio and video to other computers via a network or the internet. If it isn't already on your PC, DirectX will be loaded when you install Video Stream Driver. Along with the USB Driver requirements, to use the camcorder as a web cam, the following additional minimum requirements must be met:

• OS: Windows XP Home or Professional (service pack 1 or later), Windows 2000 Professional (service pack 4 or later), Windows Me, Windows 98 Second Edition

• CPU: Intel Pentium III 450MHz or faster/Celeron 400MHz or faster

• RAM: 128 MB or more (256 MB or more is recommended)

• Free Hard disk space: 250 MB or more

• Communication Speed: 56 kbps or faster is recommended

• Interface: Minimum USB 1.1 Terminal

• Necessary Software: Windows Messenger 5.0 or later (XP), MSN Messenger (98se/Me/2000), DirectX 9.0b or later (XP)

• Other Requirements (to send/receive audio): Sound card, Microphone, and Speaker or headphones

MotionDV Studio: MotionDV Studio allows you to capture video recorded on tape or images viewed through the lens. If the camcorder is connected to the computer using a DV (firewire) cable, video footage edited on the computer can be recorded back to the camcorder. MotionDV Studio has the following minimum computer requirements:

• OS: Windows XP Home or Professional (service pack 1 or later), Windows 2000 Professional (service pack 4 or later), Windows Me (using DV connection only)

• CPU: Intel Pentium III 700MHz or faster/AMD Athlon 1 GHz or faster

• Graphic Display: High Color 16 bit (32-bit or more recommended); Desktop resolution of 1024x768 pixels or more to support the overlay

• Sound: PCM sound source (Compatible Direct Sound)

• RAM: 256 MB or more

• Free Hard Disk Space: 640 MB (more is recommended, 1 GB needed for approximately 4 minutes of video)

• Interface: DV (IEEE 1394) or High-Speed USB 2.0

• Necessary Software: DirectX 9.0b or later, Windows Media Player 6.4 or later

Warranty Information

Warranty: The warranty on the PV-GS150 is 90 days labor and 1 year parts, except for the CCD image sensor, which is 6 months.