a fine combo
Written: Oct 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ease of use, convenience of two camera features in one
Cons: no really high quality results from either function
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| brak44's Full Review: Panasonic PV-L759 VHS-C Analog Camcorder |
I was looking for a combination digital camera/camcorder for about four months before I finally researched and bought this camera. I have owned Panasonic products in the past with excellent durability and longevity, and so far this one has lived up to my expectations. I have owned it since February, with no problems to report. The digital camera is easy to operate, just move the button to "Camera", point and shoot. I leave it in High Quality picture mode all the time, the Standard mode produced pictures with too much graininess. I have taken as many as 84 pictures in a weekend without running out of room on the 8mb flash memory card. The Digital Photoshot software that came with it for my PC was easy to install, and works well. It doesn't offer any image editing functions, and is a little slow to download the pictures into the PC, but I use PhotoShop to touch up the photos (I'd highly recommend having such a program). It shares the same problems most digital cameras have, it needs a lot of light to work well, works better outdoors than in, and doesn't capture fast-moving subjects well. It does take excellent landscape and architecture shots, and captures some nice colors and reflections. The camcorder is also easy to operate, has better results in SP mode than SLP, and overall does a nice job of any type of videotaping I've tried. It seems to work better with new tapes than old ones (I usually fill up a couple of VHSC tapes, then dub them onto a fullsize VHS tape, then reuse them) . The VHSC format is very convenient to use with the included adapter in your VCR. The built in camera light doesn't seem to help much in low light conditions unless the subject is quite close (say 6m or less). I have had a really good time using this product, my aim in buying it was having a good all purpose camera I could carry to both take video or still digital shots for travelling to amusement parks, car shows, family gatherings, etc. It has performed admirably, but I was prepared for the shortcomings of having all the convenience. It has a very useful and adjustable color digital panel display for use as a viewfinder, viewing photos or video, or editing on the fly, and a built in speaker to hear what you've recorded. No one camera can do everything well, but if you take the Panansonic line for what it is, a good quality camcorder with a built in ability to take pretty good digital snapshots, you won't be dissatisfied. I bought an extra battery from Duracell, which has been useful, but most of the time I don't need it as the battery life is normally two hours of use or more if I don't keep it on continuously or leave the video light on for long periods. If you are looking for a high quality digital camera (say, a megapixel Sony Mavica 900 series) or a high quality camcorder, this is neither. It is a reasonably priced combination that allows you to carry one camera rather than two and achieve decent results from both.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
brak44
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Member: Rich Cook
Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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