Summary: Good Camera for PC's ONLY!!

Comment: I got this camera as a Christmas present and loved it for awhile until my Dell broke and I finally got a new Mac!! I was surprised to find out that that this camera does NOT work with Mac's unfortunately. Now I can't even use it because burning to a DVD and then bringing it into iMovie reduces the quality so much, it's not even worth the hassle. When I used this camera on my dell, it worked perfectly though so no worries there!

Despite it not working on Mac's, I have to say I was NOT impressed with the image quality. The auto focus is constantly searching and the manual focus doesn't work too well. I've used Sony MiniDV cameras and they are SOO much better for image quality. It's a good camera for anyone taking simple video and not taking too much action shots. Okay Camera, but there's better ones for your money out there.

Summary: Do NOT waste your money !

Comment: One star is one too many for this camera. It will only work with RAM discs with frequent errors. Found many errors in owners manual. The drive motor has gone bad and now I have nothing. Panasonic wants $500 to fix it! I don't see myself EVER buying another Panasonic ANYTHING !

Summary: Good Camera, No Support!

Comment: I have had this camera for about a year. I have used to record sports events, home events, etc. I have been satisfied with the recording capability. I did have to upgrade my home dvd player so that I can use the DVD format. I have been able to transfer movies to my PC for professional editing using third party software from Pinnacle and Dazzle. The software supplied by Panasonic for PC operations does not work, period. I have tried to contact Panasonic for support, and have received absolutely no response, not even an acknowledgement. There is no way I can find to replace or upgrade the software, or to get a human to answer questions. Customer support is crucial to me, I will not buy another Panasonic product given my experience to date.

Summary: Iv'e had it for a year and still can't get it to a dvd-r

Comment: These instructions suck! They leave out vital information on procedures (like the exporting and burning onto disks) and then stick it somewhere else in the book. It does not give the "how to" in step by step format. I have had this complicated mess for a year and still don't have it figured out. Recording is a breeze but getting it off your dvd-ram onto your computer is a load of crap and best of all I have yet to find a place that sells the magical dvd-r's that are compatible to this thing. I finally exported my recording from the dvd-ram into the software and now I will have to thumb through these instructions for days to find out the small paragraphs just thrown about in bits and pieces throughout this manual to figure out how to save it to a dvd-r (wherever you find the ones that go with this fickle panasonic camcorder)

Summary: Don't let the DVD name fool you - poor video quality

Comment: This camera uses MPEG-1 compression which is basically VHS quality, not MPEG-2 which is the current DVD standard of choice. Despite high pixel count for still images, MPEG-1 is only 352X240 and it shows. Also, software provided is PC only. Finally, the small (8cm) format discs don't play well in cheaper players. I've had problems where the small disc does not have enough mass to keep the spindle PLL in the player locked so the movie hesitates on playback. Very frustrating. All in all a big disappointment.