Panasonic NV-GS120

Posted by T3 Online on Wed 31 Oct 2007

Three CCD light sensors, and a whole lot of Panny for your money

Lesson one at magician school is that three is the magic number. Lesson two is all about turning people into frogs, and lesson three is that you should never lock yourself in a Perspex box above London for a month. Panasonic got kicked out of Hogwarts after lesson one, so the new GS120 camcorder can't transform mates into amphibians, but it is pretty magical, considering it's the cheapest movie camera on the market with three light-capturing CCD sensors.

All camcorders split up the light they record into three colours - red, green and blue - and three-CCD cameras have a separate sensor for each frequency, giving cleaner, brighter colours than single-chip models. So why don't all camcorders have a trio of CCDs? For a start, squeezing three sensors into today's tiny models is difficult (read: expensive), and there are also some technical drawbacks. One large CCD will be better at gathering light in dim conditions than three small ones, and should record sharper, less noisy footage.

Panny hasn't taken any risks getting data to the sensors on this model, using a stabilised 10x zoom lens that boasts Leica branding and a generous f1.8 maximum aperture (good for low-light shooting and avoiding blurred shots). All this technology fits comfortably into a lightweight body with a 2.5-inch LCD screen. A mode dial keeps operation simple, and there's a Quick Start button that has this unit ready to shoot in just 1.7 seconds. Both autofocusing and zoom are fast and silent, although the auto white balancing can take a few seconds to sort out the colours properly.

There are some great features on offer, including manual exposure options and a Soft Skin filter to smooth away pimples without compromising colour or clarity. While the menu system is easy to understand, complex functions such as manual focus are a pain to use without a jog-shuttle dial. Daylight shooting delivers everything you'd expect from a three-CCD camera - glorious, crisp colours, loads of detail and confident exposure.

The 1.7-megapixel stills are well exposed, but suffer from some ugly digital artefacts and a dollop of grainy noise. And shooting indoors or at dusk is definitely one of this 'corder's weak points - there's no fl ash or video light, the night mode sucks and using the reversed LCD screen to cast a faint glow in darkness just smacks of desperation.

For the money, this is a pretty amazing camcorder. Just don't go expecting the quality or flexibility of a more expensive three-CCD model.-