Customer Reviews

Panasonic PV-GS31 MiniDV Camcorder w/26x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Panasonic PV-GS31 is an excellent camcorder to learn the basics and capture excellent digital video. It had exactly what I needed: a light for night shots, LED screen, and a great zoom feature for close-ups. It transfers well to the computer to upload the video I take on the MiniDV tapes. But make sure you purchase a firewire cable (4 pin to 4 pin) and have software like Intervideo DVD creator or Windows Movie Maker to take advantage of video editing. It's a good buy without the features you don't really need!

If you're looking to take good pictures, don't rely on the Panasonic camcorder. Instead, go buy a tiny digital camera with at least 5 megapixels. This camcorder can take pictures but they're less than 1 megapixel, which equals poor quality pix.

I purchased this camcorder with a lot of hesitancy because of the reviews it received here on Amazon, but for the price I got it for, it was hard to refuse.

First, the camera is very lightweight and sturdy in construction. If handled delicately, I don't foresee any spontaneous operational issues appearing. If you drop it and kick it around, then sure, it's going to break and not function correctly.

I am very pleased with the quality of film that it has produced. I am an amateur photographer and videographer, and I have no complaints personally about this particular model. It functions well in all light, and I was especially impressed with how it did in low-light. I found that reading the manual thoroughly and understanding the cameras functions helped me immensely to avoid problems.

Overall, I am pleased with it and am glad that I chose it. I have full faith in this camera, and that is why it's going to be used on an Alaskan cruise, and to film my wedding this summer. It's a great camera for the price.

Now, I do have a couple of rants about it.
- When in a specialized mode while filming, the display is very slow. So I haven't been able to have "real time filming" and when I am shooting something, and I see it on-screen, it's already happened and something else is going on.
- The camera does not come with any extras, which meant that we had to run to the store to get the Mini DV tapes required to start using it immediately.
- The BIGGEST issue that actually caused me a lot of frustration and anger was that with this camera you CANNOT transfer your film to your computer through USB. With my other cameras, I have always been able to transfer all digital images (movies and stills) over USB. Not with this. You have to have a special cable (Firewire 4 pin to 4 pin) AND you have to have the port for it IN your computer. Most average computer users do not have this port (I have a new Dell Dimension) So, I have to go and buy the Firewire port ($14.99), open my computer case and physically install the hardware. The firewire cable itself is really inexpensive. For someone who doesn't know about computers and needs this port, it could honestly cost you quite a bit to have it installed for you. It turns into a lot of hassel, which isn't very appealing for todays technological consumer.

Overall, I rate it a good camera for the money, but I do not like the issue with the firewire cable.

Read some positive things about this line that led me to believe that maybe our modest video needs could be served with a "budget" level video camera. I was wrong.

As others have mentioned, this camera is nearly useless indoors. All we wanted to do was shoot some video of our newborn baby. The problem is, newborns aren't in the mid-day sun, outdoors, much. Tried video during the day -- indoors -- very mediocre. In the evening, in a lit home, horrible. This camera is also very slow to focus when using in "auto" mode, and there's minimal steady-shot capabilities here too. So you get a shaky, pixellated, out of focus, dark video all the time.

I came to the conclusion anything I shot with this was going to turn out frustratingly poorly, except in absolutely optimum light conditions. Despite my limited use for the camera, it had to go back. Having no video camera it seems is less frustrating than having one you wish was better. I concluded I had no choice but to add more to my video camera budget and get something that might actually give me some useable video.

It is a very good budget buy for family movies. Sharp picture, no motor noise. Nize zoom (and mic zoom too!). Fit well in the hand. Few complicated functions, you may need the manual in the begining if you want use them. You can record more than 60 minutes with the standart battery. It would be nice if they had usb and firewire cables in the package, but you can find them really cheap on the net. The battery indicator may be improved. Overall, for 300 usd after the rebate it is a very good buy. Better night shots comparing to Sony, no motor noise comparing to JVC and lighter than Canon.

I bought this camera as a replacement to a Samsung SCD535, which I used for about two days before I realized that I just couldn't stand it. The Panasonic PV-GS31 is like a dream.

If you want professional, TV-show quality pictures all the time, get a $1000 camera. If you want a camera that works well both indoors and out, is easy to use, and affordable, this is a good candidate. Someone seriously into video would be disappointed, but for the casual hobbyist, this is quite a nice beast.

I have had few problems taking pictures indoors, even in rooms with one fluorescent bulb and darkened windows. You just need to fiddle with the settings a little... Night mode is your friend in some cases. Even without nightmode on, there is very little in the way of noise.

The image stabilizer can be a little unsteady zoomed in really close, but it doesn't seem like this is a terribly unusual problem in any camera.

The camera is lighter than the SCD535 I had previously, and feels good/fits in my hand.

I chose it over the JVC GR-D270US because it is supposed to be slightly better in low light. I chose it over the Canon ZR200 because I heard Canons frequently had motor noise. And the Samsung was just awful.

The controls aren't terribly intuitive, but they're not bad to learn and are accessed similarly to each other, so it's not like it's a horrible task to remember how to do things.

You do need a firewire port, and cord to upload video to your computer. The camera has a four pin port. USB in this model is only for uploading stills. I haven't tried the still photo mode yet, but honestly, I love my still digital Kodak camera, so I probably will just use that when I need a good quality photo.

All in all, pleased with the camera. It's a good idea to get a replacement battery, such as the ER-C535, or CGA-DU14 as Panasonic puts a cheap battery with a short life on the default model.

I bought this camera for its great price, good reviews, and overall reputation as a great camcorder for the novice shooter. I returned the camera after three weeks, however, due to abysmal low light performance among other things.

The catalyst for purchasing this camera was the impending birth of our first child. I took the camera to the hospital and filmed some of the labor/delivery and follow up. Unfortunately, when we returned home to view our footage, much of it was grainy and plagued with shadows and silhouettes.

The camera does include a light and a MagicPix option, but unless you're using a tripod, you're bound to end up with a strobe-light effect (Perfect for recreating "Thriller music videos," but not much help otherwise.)

I also found the image quality with the GS31 to be fairly lackluster and pixilated. Granted, you get what you pay for, but I was really taken aback that my 1992 camcorder shot much better footage.

That being said, the camera did a lot better in good/outdoor lighting (albeit still somewhat pixilated), and the zoom is incredible. The camera is very light and smaller than I anticipated.

In the end, I returned the camera in favor of a more significant investment (...)

I will say that Amazon did a great job with customer service throughout. Also, if you do buy this camera, make sure to buy the DV cable (firewire for Macs) through Amazon or some other online retailer. (...)

We returned this video camera due to video picture quality. The camera requires a lot of light to have a decent video, even after changing settings, the video had a "grainy" look. We just needed something basic to replace our 10 year old video camera and thought this would work, but the picture was worse than our previous camera. Purchased the PV-GS65, next model up with 3CCD's and love this model. As a matter a fact we still had the GS-31, used the same tape, shot the same footage, and reviewing the two different shots, the GS-65 did 100% better.

The camera has a great feel in your hand, although the menu button can be difficult to press.

I bought this about 3 months ago. I primarily use it to record my son's hockey games. The zoom is quick and the footage comes out good. It is very easy to use, lightweight, and the audio is good. The still pictures are only 640 x 480 which is ok but it isn't for making any keepsake photos. Had I known how useful the still photo feature was I would've bought a camera with higher quality stills. It gave me a warning that the head needed to be cleaned which was a bit surprising considering how new it is.

It does upload video through the usb cable. Download the drivers for webcam on the site and get some video capture software. It seems to be restricted to 15 fps with the webcam drivers, even though it records video at 30 fps.

Has a suprising number of features, and deals well with low light/indoors if you read the manual and use the appropriate settings.

The reason I don't give 5 stars is that the manual is not clear about how to transfer video to your computer. The manual only has instructions for the PV-GS35 model, and indicates with that model you can use either a USB or IEEE-1394 cable for that purpose.

It turns out you can transfer from the PV-GS31 to your PC, but you can't use a USB cable. You have to buy your own IEEE-1394 cable (as indicated by another reviewer). (Note you also have to buy your own USB cable if you want to use it as a webcam).

I quickly returned this. Nearly all videoa I take are indoors with the kids in the evening. All lights in house are on, but of course it's not as bright as a sunny day. The video looks great in the LCD monitor, but once it's on TV or computer.. yuk!! grainy and pixelated, washed out colors. All the grainy junk makes the video look flat somehow. Terrible. My old analog Panasonic takes much better indoor video than this. I now understand why other camcorders advertise features like "3D Noise cancellation" and "Low light boost", etc. My advice, spend the extra bucks and get one of those cameras if you're going to shoot indoors, because the quality with this is just ugly.

Couple other things I didn't like about it: it has a lenscap, and the USB/firewire connections are blocked by the handstrap, so you have to loosen the handstrap nearly all the way to get at those ports.

The best thing is its joystick navigation thingy. Navigating menus and doing VCR operations in playback mode is a breeze. Wish all cameras had this.