The camcorders might look not being appreciated , but they are really important for every camcorders line . Their design is really nice , and are very affordable , everyone can buy one just for a few hundred dollars . But we can’t compare them with the high class models .

The GS80’s simple design , makes it look like almost all the minidv camcorders . It’s easier to use than you thought . With the simple scheme you can record something without touching any button of the menu , it’s very simple , we can all use them . but ,if you really want to see what’s about with the menu buttons , you can use the small joystick set into the mode dial . If you might want to be pro you can also see what’s about with the advanced menu , but here you will find just a few settings of the video .

Like many minidv camcorders, the Panasonic PV-GS80 has some interesting features too . Its 680,000-pixel sensor records about 340,000 pixels at 4:3 and 460,000 pixels at 16:9 (wide-screen) . What you might not like at this camcorder it’s recording higher-resolution wide-screen video and not simply cropping its 4:3 video but it won’t bother you if the both aspect ratios use such a small, low-resolution sensor . With this Panasonic camcorder you can zoom for 32x with optical image stabilization but , unfortunately it doesn’t have Leica original lens , like almoust all the panasonics .The GS80 camcorder really produces nice videos , the colors look very neutral and accurate . But if you would try to see the videos filmed with this camcorder on a very big screen , it would look awful because its standard definition video tends to look blown out and jagged when upscaled on modern HD screens . Even enabling Night Mode or Panasonic’s Best Pix mode yields no significant difference when shooting in the in 50-watt-lamp darkness . If you really want to have plenty of light every time you want try to buy a little bit better camcorder , just spending 40-50 $ more (like an example you could try the GS85) . It’s almost like the GS80 but when you will want light ..you will have it ! . The Panasonic PV-GS80 has a photo button too … but It’s more useless because It caputers a still image and records that still to 7 seconds of video .

All in all the GS80 is a decent camcorder, very good for beginners but if you want better quality in what you bought you should buy a little bit better one .