Panasonic NV-GS250 or Sony HC96 or Panny NV-GS-300???

Saxon

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Hi,

I am looking for a camcorder to mostly take footage of our toddler and general family holidays etc. I'm quite interested in the ability to film her during winter evenings via indoor house lights so low light performance is important.

I have narrowed the choice down to the following three models and would welcome your advice because I have managed to locate Panny 250 old stock in a dealer and I gather it's better than the 300 in several ways.

In short the differences between them seem to be:

NV-GS250 - £500
Manual focussing ring (not on the new model)
Analogue video in i.e. we can couple it to our old camcorder and copy all the material over
Excellent image quality - better than the Sony in all conditions apart from the dark.
A better user interface than the Sony
Headphone socket so you can playback the sound when on holiday thorugh headphones or speakers
Bulkier than GS300 aned HC96

NV-GS300 £450
Slightly better balance of colour than NV-GS250
The LCD flip out screen is a widescreen one, on the 250 it isn't

Sony HC96 £450
Does have analogue video in so we could copy the old camcorder stuff over
Better widescreen mode than either Panny (less cropping)
Don't really like the fact I will have to carry a docking station around
Seems a bit more plasticky than the Panny but more compact
Better in low light than either panny????

I'd really welcome some advice as I do need to move fast. It's worth noting that I do have a Razzle video capture box so I can get S-VHS off my camcorderto the PC via USB but this has been occasionally problematic - so is analogue video in that important??

I could really do with some advice.

Many thanks,

Jonathan
 
Not being biased or anything :) I would deffinetly go for a Panasonic model .I own two camcorders ,one a Sharp & the other a Panasonic .The Panny is superior to any other model I've owned .The colours are vibrant ,picture is sharp whereas my Sharp model has washy colours and picture looks dull .Infact the sharp is not used at all now .When I buy a new camcorder ,and I have been thinking about a new 3 CCD model , you bet it will be a Panasonic .Told you ,I wasn't biased ..........
 
Hi I own a GS250 for about 12 months, It has worked flawlessley, image PQ is v good (but I have not seen the other model you mentioned). One point is that you state the LCD is not widescreen. Well I do not know the technical def but I shoot in widescreen and the LCD displays all the image recorded, it does have black bars at the top and the bottom of the screen, perhaps the GS300 does not have the horizontal black bars in 16:9 mode but has vertical bars in 4:3 mode. Anyway I would not put this down as a negative as the LCD is perfectly useable in 16:9 mode.

Cheers,
 
Thanks guys for the feedback. I have decided to order the Panasonic NV-GS250 so it should arrive tomorrow. It was a tough decision because I was relatively happy with the quality of image from my old S-VHSC camcorder (also a Panasonic) but the battery didn't seem to be holding charge and it is rather bulky to carry around which tends to detract from taking it on holidays etc. Hopefully the new camera will be more portable and offer good low light performance for indoor shots.

The HC96 was the other camera that very nearly swayed me because of its excellent low light performance and it seems to do so much so well. Lets hope that the Panny lives up to expectations and justifies the premium price. I set out to spend £250 and somehow I've ended up spending £500!!

Jonathan
 

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