Hi, I'm new to the forums... nice place you have here :)

Anyway I thought I would post about my ever growing failure rate with Panasonics consumer range of miniDV cameras. At my place of work we have near 20 cameras with a varying range of models, some models are better than others. The worst though has to be the Panasonic NV-GS11 closely followed by the NV-DS60 model. Both models suffer from a fault that causes the power light to flash on/off and this causes the camera to stop functioning after roughly 5 seconds of recording. The camera will only come back on if it completely reset with the power being disconnected and then it will just end up doing the same.

I have had a few of them repaired in the past but only to find that the problems will re occur or that a new fault will develop. Other faults with Panasonics include not being able to switch between Camera and VCR mode without problems, not being able to playback tapes and one suffers from recording a white dot in the middle of the screen.

I am rather disappointed at the life span of these cameras some lasting only a year (always ends up being just outside warranty period). I was just curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences or know of any ways of fix these faults without pricey repair costs of £70 - £100 i have had to pay in the past.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi Raymond,

I don't know your case. I have owned panasonic nv-gs400 bought direct from www.pricejapan.com for around 18months. I accidentally droped the camera on the ground twice. Nothing wrong happens. I was lucky :-) I am not heavy user of my camera for minidv tape. Everything works perfect. ;-)

Regards
Leigh

I've owned the PV-DV852 (NV-MX8), PV-DV953 (MX500), NV-GS100, and DVX100A and I never had a single problem.

Of course none of those were as "bottom of the barrel" as the two Pana camse you mentioned...

"I have a high failure rate with Panasonic miniDV cameras, Anyone else ? "

Nup... only on consumer tapes have i had afew dropouts not worth mentioning.. MQs and PQ tapes (knock on wood) havent given me any problems so far..

I have owned 2-GS70's since July 2003 and (with the exception of a few drop-outs) have had no problems with those cameras.

Is the low light on the GS500 better than the GS70?

Yes. The GS500 has the Crystal Engine and the GS70 has the older DSP. Low light images are not necessarily brighter on the GS500 but the images are cleaner.

Thanks Guy. I waited too long to purchase a new GS400. I hope to buy a GS500 from b&h soon. The price sure seems reasonable.

730 for gs500 at newegg, bh wanted 750 i think. new egg is excellent online retailer. great rep. returns are easy if needed.

John, while Newegg is great for PC parts I don't believe they are factory authorized Internet sellers for Panasonic equipment so I would still stick with our sponsor B&H.

wasnt any serious difference in price just 20 or 30 bucks . But as far as being authorized, that is really not a big deal imo. any retailer that is reputable will return your product within 2weeks if it breaks, after that it is panasonic not the dealer that you are ultimately relying on. panny is who pays for the warranty work and you can send it to any authorized dealer to have warranty work done.
bh has 7 day return policy on video products and that is nothing to brag about imo. I think youll have a hard time finding a dissatisfied newegg customer , especially when it comes to returns, on ANY product they sell.
But there are only a handful of reputable companies in the electronic field that I would trust, bh,newegg,mwave,onecall,tigerdirect. if it aint one of them I wouldnt buy a wiring nut from them. and all of them should be pretty close in price on any given day.