Review: Panasonic NV-GS80 digital camcorder

The NV-GS80 is Panasonic's latest entry level digital camera and uses familiar MiniDV tapes to record digital, widescreen footage.

When we first picked it up we noticed it was very plasticy and reasonably chunky. The 2.7in widescreen viewfinder is bright and clear and can rotate 270°, which is more than adequate for most users, however, it won't point downwards.

One of the key features the NV-GS80 offers is a 32x optical zoom Leica Dicomar lens. Zooming is very smooth thanks to Panasonic's optical image stabiliser (OIS), which reduces shaking and blurring. The OIS is especially effective when you zoom all the way to 32x.

The NV-GS80 has a single, 800k pixel CCD sensor, which is par for the course in a camera in this price range. The effective pixel count reduces to 540k pixels when shooting in its native 16:9 widescreen mode.

In low-light conditions, video exhibited a lot of noise. Some other budget cameras, including Panasonic's own NV-GS37, have a built-in lamp to rectify this. But in well-lit conditions footage looked clear and vivid - fine for outdoors point-and-shoot recording.

There's a limited manual focus mode, which is controlled by the joystick and fairly tricky to use. It can also, albeit rather awkwardly, record an image followed by seven seconds of audio to the MiniDV tape.

To transfer video to your PC, you must first disconnect the battery to get access to the mini USB2 or Firewire ports. You also have to plug in the power supply, which is a fatal flaw for those looking to edit footage on the go.

We did wonder whether this was due to Panasonic not being convinced battery would last transferring a whole film across. However, battery life was reasonable at just under two hours, with 20 minutes of actual footage shot and the rest with just the viewfinder turned on.

A USB2 port to transfer video isn't common on digital cameras because image quality suffers. Sure enough, quality was significantly worse when transferred via USB.

The NV-GS80 has a series of flaws, which are partly forgiven by an excellent zoom and ease of use. Its £229 price point should have widespread appeal among families.

See also:

Review: Sony Handycam DCR-HC35E

A budget compact digital camcorder that is a true bargain  29 Dec 2006

Review: Canon DC100 digital camcorder

Good for hassle-free video, but quality is an issue  26 Dec 2006

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