Panasonic NV-GS90EB-S Mini DVCamcorder is a compact and lightweight miniDV camcorder that features a powerful 42x optical zoom lens equipped with Panasonic’s Advanced O.I.S. system. Detecting and correcting hand-shake around 4,000 times per second, this high-performance system is about eight times more effective than previous systems and suppresses even tiny amounts of blurring caused by hand-shake. Panasonic’s O.I.S. uses gyrosensors to detect hand-shake and then shifts the lens unit to align the optical axis. Now Panasonic has taken image stabilisation a step further with Advanced O.I.S., a new system that’s eight times more effective than the previous system. Advanced O.I.S. checks and compensates for hand-shake around 4,000 times per second. Because this system is optical, there is no loss of quality.
Images are captured in all of their original beauty. Advanced O.I.S. prevents even the subtle blurring that can be caused by a tiny amount of hand-shake. In an age of large-screen, high-resolution TVs that make every imperfection visible, an effective system such as Advanced O.I.S. is essential. You can also enjoy remarkable 42x optical zoom magnification in a camera that fits comfortably and securely in one hand. Since the zoom is optical, it captures both moving and still pictures with exquisite beauty.
Helpful consumer’s review
Picked up one of these from Argos as no availability from Amazon. To be fair I am very amateur in terms of camcorders and this one was to replace an 8 year old Panasonic GS15 which cost around £650 at that time.
I was very pleased with every aspect of the GS90 (esp joystick control, ergonomics and anti-shake) except the picture quality on playback.
As this is pretty fundamental and I cant live with the grainy images I have taken the camcorder back and have ordered a GS330 (£370ish) instead.
Playback was via a 37″ LCD screen which clearly shows up the picture limitations of this camcorder. Images are esp grainy when shot indoors in dimmer (with lights on) conditions than sunlight.
I suspect picture quality would be on a par with equivalent (sub £200) Sony camcorders. Potential purchasers need to be aware that playing back budget camcorders on large screen TV’s will show up this weakness.
Hence either playback on smaller screens (if you can live with that) or buy a better camcorder (which is what I have elected to do).
