About a year ago I purchased four PV-DV53s.
In that time, two have started eating tapes and
stopped playing, and one has developed a white
spot in the center, which I imagine is some
type of pixel problem, so it's basically not
usable any more for recording purposes.
I contacted Panisonic on this and they said
the flat repair fee would be $150 each, which
I'm not putting into the cams.
So basically only one of the four is still
functoning after a year's time.
I'm thinking about going with some of the
3CCD models.
What has been your experience with the
consumer Pannys regarding how long they've
gone for you without problems? Is my
experience pretty typical as far as how
long they last?
Was hoping for a little better ...

I don't have a lot of hours on my MX300, but so far so good. The 2 DVL9500 JVCs, high-end 1-CCD cams for their day do have a lot of hours on them and so far so good. I think that if you buy at the bottom-end, the reverse would hold true no matter what the brand. However, the lower end Sonys do seem to last and last. I don't have a clue what the new bottom-end Sonys are like. Over the years I've seen both prices and quality go down hill with the lower end stuff. Just compare the older beefy PV-DV953/MX5 with the new plastic PV-GS400. Although the GS400 is a better cam, it's less beef, but then it entered the market at a cheaper price---at least here in Canada.

Well, you ask me, they expect this kind of failure
rate with the low-end cams. I base this on what
they charge for an extended warranty. Don't recall
the exact figures right now, but it is not cheap
(~ $120) to get an extended warranty on a $300
camera. I think that says something right there!

I know of a certain teenager (Alex Knappenber) that easily got his money's worth out of his DV53. That poor cam hardly got a moment's rest but I can't remember much breaking other than a faulty side LCD (probably from use/abuse).

I've owned a handful of Panasonic MiniDVs and I've never had a problem with any of them.

Panasonic MX1000 (aka PV-DV852)
Panasonic NV-GS100
Panasonic PV-DV953
Panasonic AG-DVX100A

Recently I experienced the problem that my PV-GS400's FireWire connection to my laptop was not very stable. The cam often "disappeared" and caused the NLE to crash or at least get some serious problems and made further work without restarting impossible.
I thought it was a cable problem, and so I bought a new one. It worked for a short time. But randomly the same symptoms appeared again.
Since yesterday the cam is not detectable anymore. I also tried my girlfriend's Mac, but the cam was not recognised.
When I took a closer look the the GS400's DV-connector I found that the inner plastic part seemed to be broken somehow. I guess the small 4 pins can't get proper contact anymore. How could this happen?? OK, I often plug in and out the cable there, but nobody really can expect me to leave the cable plugged in there for all the time and never touch it again! IMO this small 4pin connector is a terrible misconstruction on such mobile devices like camcorders. A 6pin FireWire plug would give a much more stable connection and there is enough space for it!
I hope the repair doesn't take too much time, but I'm afraid they'll send it to Japan for several weeks or months. :(
I'm very disappointed to have received another piece of "consumer trash" for this amount of money!
Oh, i forgot to mention that my camcorder was bought around 4 months ago.

Hi Dave,
Sorry to hear your having problems with your dv53's. I've got one that I have used the h3ll out of and all my problems were related to operator error. Recently it has become my second cam, but I still use it for all kinds of personal stuff. Road trips, outdoor events, anything that takes place around animals or little kids ect..

I've got a three chip cam now, but that little panna will always have a special place for me. I am sorry to hear that it is not a universally reliable model.

Andreas, I would send it back for repair. Otherwise your warranty will run out and then you'll have to pay more money if you want to get it fixed.

Frank, yes I will! Today I'll bring it back to the shop where I purchased it. Let's see what they'll say... how long it might take to repair and so on...
Besides this defect I'm very satisfied with this camcorder, but as you said Frank, it could be more "beef"!

I don't know how long the repair job will take. Let us know what happens.

Michael, did you by chance get one of the consumer
3CCD Pannys? I'm wondering if any of them are
as good or better than the DV53 in low light.

Frank, I just brought the cam to repair. The guy in the shop told me usually it takes between 3 days and one week for Panasonic. I hope very much he is correct!

<<<-- Originally posted by Dave Largent : Michael, did you by chance get one of the consumer
3CCD Pannys? I'm wondering if any of them are
as good or better than the DV53 in low light. -->>>

No, ironically enough, I bought a Sony PDX10, the worst camera in the world for low light. I needed/wanted native 16x9 and I was sorely tempted by the GS400, but it came down to the audio for me... If I had it to do again I'd proabably make the same choice, but there are some serious manuel control issues with the sony that you just dont have with panna cams- at least not in my limited experiance...
If you want a idea of what I'm talking about go over to the pdx board and search for "apeture" or "F stop"....Arrrgh!

micheal, you could have gone for a beachtek adapter if audio was such an issue.

the GS easily poos on the PDX10 in all areas. I used both of them as secondary cameras to the DVX, and to be honest, for the price, the PDX10 just doesnt cut it anymore when i can ge 1.3mp per ccd running at 1/4.7 block with native widescreen.
TO be honest, in VERY good light i even think the GS looks a little cleaner than the XL2, but thats just me playin around with the cameras (i do Pro Video Supplies) on a Plasma screen...

Peter,
Yeah I knew about the beach tech adaptor, but the gs400 was a brand new product at the time of my purchase and I avoid those whenever possible.
Frankly, I'm perfectly happy with the PDX, even if it is inferior to the 400, with patience and planning I can still get stunning video out of it... when I want to "run and Gun" I use the dv53. And if you have to attach an audio adaptor to it, the 400 really doesn't "poo on the pdx in ALL areas" now does it? Furthermore, the pdx10 has a bit more of the aformentioned "beef" and "pro look" than the GS400 and that is worth a bit of cash in and of itself...
Even so, the gs400 in a terrific camera and I'm glad you like yours so much!

Besides, which, I look at all camera/ camera related purchases as part of a series of purchases. Each time I buy I try not only to get a good product, but to learn something for the next time. The pdx is a great teacher.
In 2-3 years I will buy another cam, my time with the sony will prepare me for that purchase in the same way my time with the dv53 prepared me for my upgrade to the pdx10...

Just to put in a good word for my Panasonic 3 chip MX300, which I've used a great deal and which has performed faultlessly for years. Of course it's a pain with its bottom loading and it's low light patheticness, but out there in good light I prefer it's footage to that which I can get from my VX2000 - at least at wide-angle.

I know what Michael Gibbons is talking about (above) because I have been really tough in my reviews of the PDX10, slating it for it's lack of aperture control and lying 'display' in the v'finder. But I'm critical because Sony sell this as a 'professional' DVCAM, whereas the TRV950 gets away with the compromises in my view.

The Panasonic range is really no more truthful when it comes to displaying the shooting aperture on replay of the tape. The MX series all happily claim frames were shot at f11 and f16 in good light, and this patently isn't true. It's just that Panasonic is converting f4.5 plus lots of internal ND into numbers we can understand.

tom.

Just for your all information, I got my GS400 back after 2 weeks repair. A little longer than expected, but the DV connector works fine again! ;)

Yes, I remember Alex K. Does he still post here?

Anyways, I would say I have not at all gotten
my money's worth out of these cams. I would
say each of the four cams has between
15 to 25 hours on it and only one out
of four cams is still useful for shooting.

Michael, did you by chance get one of the consumer 3CCD Pannys? I'm wondering if any of them are as good or better than the DV53 in low light.The answer is yes and no. the older EZ1 was very good in lower light. It had 3, 1/3" CCDs, though, and a low CCD pixel count. Since that model Pana 3-chip cams have become sharper, cheaper and needed higher light requirements. Alex K. hasn't been here for quite some time.Anyways, I would say I have not at all gotten my money's worth out of these cams.Don't buy cheap, lower-end cams, whether they're Panas, Sonys or whatever. There's a reason why they're inexpensive. Buying a cheap cam is like buying a cheap VCR.

Buying a cheap cam is like buying a cheap VCR.

Oh that it were!

In 1999 I bought a top-line Sony VCR, and a *very* budget NEC VCR. in 2000 I bought another top-line Sony VCR.

The 2000 model Sony died after 15 months (warranty was 12) and the 1999 Sony died after three years.

The ultra-budget NEC VCR is still going strong.

I bought the Sony VCRs because I had a great run out of the top-line unit I bought in 1991 -- it lasted 12 years and gave a far superior picture quality.

The guy in the Sony service center told me that "they don't make them like they used to" and that new models are all about bullet-points on brochures rather than actual picture and audio quality or longevity.

*THAT'S* why I bought an MX500 rather than a Sony and it's a decision I've yet to regret.

Hey, I just thought about something. Regarding
my two Pannys that stopped playing, and
are sometimes pulling tapes out when
they are ejected, is it possible that this
could be due to problems with the batteries?
What symptoms might onw see when a
battery starts to fail. How long do camcorder
batteries usually last?
These are the original small batteries
that came with the camera a year
ago.

I doubt very much that it's a battery fault. They should last 6 or 7 years without too much trouble, but they only have so many charge / discharge cycles built into them, then they fail.

The camera will sence the cut-off voltage point and shut down, leaving enough juice to eject the tape. Unless of course the shut-down is caused by battery failure rather than discharge.

tom.

I've run one cam on A/C and it worked properly.
We'll see how it goes with cam 2 on A/C.

Regarding my third one that developed a
large white spot (?hot pixel), Pan said
there is a flat rate of $150 to fix these
cams. If I send in the one with the bad
pixel, what does anyone suppose Panasonic
will do with it? Will they fix it
for the flat rate? Do they actually
have repair technicians replace the
CCD?

Well, I went to see if fresh batteries might
help anything and have found that
one of the two cameras that was eating
tapes has now also developed a bad pixel,
too. A big white one near the center of
the frame. So that makes 2 of the 4
cams getting bad pixels in a year's time.

Last year I bought a Sony 1CCD off
ebay and within hours of using it
it also developed a bad pixel.

It's one of those things you think always
happens to the other guy. Three cams
with bad pixels in one year!

Hmmm. That is unlucky. I've been shooting a lot lately with my very very old JVC DVL9500s, and some with my fabulous Pana MX300---lots of Yashica Electro pics as well. I don't know..., they just keep on ticking and ticking and ticking. The only trouble I have is that every night I've got to charge up all these batteries.

If you've had 3 bad Pana's, you should contact Pana and b_tch and scream and write letters....

Interesting read on dead/stuck pixels.

Click here (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5579493.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed)

I disagee the issue related to Panasonic consumer camera.

I bought a gs400 camera last year and I accidentally droped the camera on the ground. The drop height was around one meter. Surprisingly that my gs400 survived that and no harm was done. I think that I was very lucky. I heard that someone dropped sony hc1000e IIRC, and damaged the touch screen. I did not put my gs400 heavy use, till today it seems works fine without the famous tape noise problem.

By the way, does anyone know if I damage the camera by accidentally drop it, will it be covered by contents insurance?

Regards
Leigh

Well, you know, my pixels are white, rather than
black, so (from what I know) these are called
"hot pixels" -- if they were "dead" they'd be
black, I gather. At any rate, I bought these
cams a year ago, and 2 out of 4 have developed
these pixels in the center of the recorded image,
which, for me, renders the cams useless
for any furthur use. (Like I said, these spots
are recorded to tape.)
I actually do like the Panny cams -- nice low light -- and
what other 1CCD cams are around with 1/4" CCDs.
I just wish Panny would agree to fix even one ...
They say they have a $150 flat fee to fix
cams but would they replace the CCD if one
(large) pixel goes bad?
Like I've said, I bought 4 of the DV53 cams because
I was impressed, and I would hope Panny
would atleast want to help me out in some
way on this.

I'm going to try to fix the bad pixels myself. I
have read on a website that rumor has it, if you put
a cam in a plastic bag and then put it in the
refrigerator overnite, that this could fix bad
pixels.
Anyone else tried this?
I guess you don't have to freeze them
but you have to get them below 40 degrees
for 24 hours.
A long shot but ...

<<<-- Originally posted by Dave Largent : I'm going to try to fix the bad pixels myself. I
have read on a website that rumor has it, if you put
a cam in a plastic bag and then put it in the
refrigerator overnite, that this could fix bad
pixels.
Anyone else tried this?
I guess you don't have to freeze them
but you have to get them below 40 degrees
for 24 hours.
A long shot but ... -->>>

Tell me the result

It sounds so fun 8 )

Regards
Leigh

Well, I took both cams out of the refrigerator,
and the result is ... NO CHANGE. It didn't
help at all.