Panasonic NV-GS37

The Panasonic NV-GS37E resembles the other models in this line; in many respects they are almost identical, with a pleasing design that makes it easy to handle. This is the entry level model with only y a few buttons conveniently placed. This model has a variable electronic shutter , manual focus, white balance and exposure; a 2 Lux minimum exposure rating when shooting in low-light or even no-light, SIS image stabilisation and a Stereo Zoom microphone. In addition to the connectivity offered on the NV-GS27 model, this camcorder features a USB 2.0 cable, bundled MotionDV Studio software plus SweetMovie Life software to transfer the video to your computer as full-screen DV-AVI or MPEG-4 format for uploading to the Internet or sending movies as email attachments or to mobile devices like iPod Video or PSP’s. There is one FireWire (IEEE1394) output-only connector plus an AV-output connector via a 4-pole AV jack.

This camcorder uses a single 1/6th inch, 800,000 pixels CCD (effective 400,000 pixels for movie making) generates pictures of a good quality for a cam at this price-point. Filming outdoors in bright sunlight, gives the best result in picture and sound; bright colours and good contrast ratio. There appears to little reason to purchase this model over the lower priced NV-GS27 just to have the additional file-transfer and compression software, when the same result could be accomplished by purchasing a FireWire cable and card for your PC. Mac users will have the benefit of FireWire making the USB cable for video transfer useless. However, the NS-GS37E at least provides video that is viewable and performs fairly well in low light making it a decent investment for the beginner videographers looking to purchase at this particular price point.