How many here own a GS100?

[Frank Granovski]

Who here own a GS100?
MX5 or PV-DV953?
MX350?
MX300/0?
Or other Pana hand-held?

[Frank Granovski]

I'll start it off with the MX300.

(Let's see all those Pana, non-DVX owners. Be proud! Be counted!)

PS: :)

[Samuel Raj]

Frank,
For GS 100 , have a look at GS100 owners association thread!

I keep updating !

[Frank Granovski]

I've been doing that...with envy. :)

[Young Lee]

I'm a MX5000 user; my cam supports Bluetooth and has the Skin-Tone feature. :)

[Alex Knappenberger]

I'm currently attempting to save up money for a DV953, does that count? :D

Other then that, I own a el cheapo DV52 ($350), and I should stop talking cr_p about it before it completely dies on me, the LCD already went dead. :)

[Frank Granovski]

Sure that counts. If it's a Pana hand-held, you're in the cult---er, club. :)

[Rick Tugman]

Hey Frank:

I just received the DV953 yesterday. I'm sure you've read that I had been interested in the GS100 but didn't want to deal with the Japanese menus. I also had an order in for the SONY PDX-10, but when the dealers started playing with me and didn't deliver, I said to myself, self.... "why spend that kind of money if you don't need to". I work in television and like good looking video. I easily could have had one of the guys I work with get me to the PDX-10, but it was still would have been about 1850.00 dollars. The DV953 came in at 1200.00.

My decision was quite simple, price point, english menus and duel usage with the 3MP stills. I also had to figure in family members using the camera. Since this is my first camcorder I am willing to deal with a "little" less quality over the PDX-10 and the GS100. This is still an outstanding camera and for the price you can't beat it. I truly would have prefered the GS100, but the only issue for me was the menus.

By the way... I had the camera out tonight at sunset here in Florida. It handled water and the setting sun very nicely. No vertical smear. I can assure you all that the "Gain Up" mode works very well in low light situations. I was in a VERY dark room yesterday where the sun only peaked through the closed blinds.... there was very little light behind me as I entered the room and went around a little nook. The camera handled the lower light very nicely in this mode which also takes you into manual focus automatically.

All in all I think I made the right decision based upon my needs and the usage I'm expecting.

[Frank Granovski]

$1200 US? Who'd you get it from? That's cheap!

For what's it's worth, I still think the DV953 is the best bang for the buck as far as 3-chip hand-helds go...unless you live in Japan. ;)

Here in Canada, they are over-priced, when you compare with what you can get them for in the US and Japan. It's a nice cam. The chuckmeister was right. Enjoy your new cam.

[Rick Tugman]

Thanks Frank..... I too believe it is the best bang for the buck. I really gave a lot of thought and wanted Allen to get me GS100, but it was the language thing that held me back. I can see that I was right because I'm using the menus a lot right now. I'm sure as I begin to memorize the menu locations it will become second nature, but I first had to learn it and think about other people using the camera.

I got the PV953 from Willoughby's Konica in New York for 1199.00.... they played games with me a little with regards to the shipping, but they did deliver what they said they had and they delivered it overnight on their dime. The order I had in for the PDX-10 was for about 1760.00 US and the dealer Central Video said they had it too.... but it never came and then they said it was backordered. I don't do business like that and I will not do business with people like that. As I mentioned, I could have gotten it from a colleague, but rethought the whole thing after these experiences and also reading about the PDX-10 vertical smearing which I didn't see anything about that with the Panasonics. I'm very happy with this decision and believe this will meet my every expectation.

Thanks for the good wishes.

[Young Lee]

$60 cheaper than mine. I ordered mine last year at pricejapan.com. Sure I could've bought it for $1230 if I had paid through Paypal, but I ended up paying about $1260 including Japanese tax and international shipping (since I chose bank wire transfering).

[Bogdan Vaglarov]

Hi Rick,

I'm happy you made your mind finally. I've met you on other forum too so I know your storry. Congratulations on the purchase.

The GS100 for example doesn't have the great Gain Up digital effect which appears to be hidden shutter speed control. From other user I learned it gives you 25 fps - something you can't achieve with GS100 despite it's improved low light capabilities.

Second main point for me is the dedicated mic input and mini system control (you can buy Pana tripod with remote on the handle). I think the last is not valid for the 953.

Because of family shared use I was almost going for GS70 but could convince my wife for the better - GS100 is a little bit bigger. MX5000 was a bit cheaper but already too big. If I work and need 2 point of views I would go not with second GS100 but with MX5000 because the size wouldn't matter.

Cheers, Bogie

[Joel Specter]

I purchased my DV953 for $1,249.95US online at B&H Photo , NY. I used my American Express card with the "Best Value Guarantee" to price match at a lower price($1,099US) at a other store within 60 days. American Express refunded the difference up to $250US.
My final price was $!099US. I have done this before on other equipment.

This is my first camcorder. I was planning on buying a Sony 950(I wanted to start with the best procomsumer camcorder at reasonable price) and was researching thru Google and found your site(via Chuckmeister) among others. I started reading the forums and found your DVi community to be theee best. Finally after a few months I focused on the MX5000 but was unsure due to the Japanese menus. I was going to buy the MX5000 due to your postive comments but then the DV953 was released.

I continue to read this forum and have learned alot.

Thanks very much for the active support of all the members and to you Frank for your hard work to ensure that this forum survives.

Thanks Joel

[Frank Granovski]

and to you Frank for your hard work to ensure that this forum survives.

The only thing I do here is tell jokes. The members do the rest. :)

[Rick Tugman]

Hi Bogdan & Joel:

Just got back into town from a trip to Kansas City so I'm a little late in replying to you.

YES Bogdan thanks.... I'm glad I finally made the decision for the 953. Bogdan I also think I know which forum your speaking about. I only use 2 of them and really like this one more. There is one guy who seems to know his stuff on the other forum and he too was pretty helpful when making comparsions. The Gain Up mode is very nice and it works very well. I also read about it being 25fps on that forum which is a nice thing if you think about it. The size of the camera is a little bigger than I really wanted, but I feel it offers so much more than the GS70. It's all subjective and it's all what your looking for. I too compared size of the GS70 & DV953, but felt the difference wasn't too much. I know the GS100 is slightly smaller than the DV953... I guess Pansanic figured they could trim some unused space from the MX5000. That is one of the things I also like about the GS100.

Joel, I'm interested to know a little more about your AMEX deal. I only use AMEX and that is how I purchased my camera, but I'm so busy sometimes I never look into these deals. I wonder if I can do the same? Congratuations on your camera..... I think you'll be very happy with it. The quaility of this little guy is amazing expecially for the price. Now stop sucking up to Frank (SMILE) - it's bad enough we have to see his jokes here!!!! yuck yuck yuck.

By the way Joel.... I know Northridge very well. I have a good friend who lives there and I too used to live and work in LA. Except I worked on the lot at FOX and lived in Westwood. I miss LA and do get out there every so often with my work. Last time I was there was this past May and I was in Northridge for a little bit. Small world sometimes - or maybe I travel way too much.

Keep the posts coming ... we ALL learn from them and see some jokes once in a while too!

Cheers,

Rick.