The Panasonic PV-DV900's construction is ultracompact, allowing it to fit easily in one hand. While its 2.5-inch LCD screen is about average in size, we found it to be more than adequate for viewing our scenes. The eyepiece viewfinder is helpful in bright sunlight situations, but because it displays in black-and-white and doesn't swing up for viewing, we mostly used the LCD screen during our testing.

The Panasonic PV-DV900 uses a jog wheel for menu selection, which is easy to use once you get the hang of it. The menu is comprehensive but does require some time with the manual to figure out. The camcorder control layout is intuitive, with the menu, zoom, and record buttons all easily accessible with the hand that holds the camcorder.

The digital image stabilization works well, especially on high zoom modes. The swivel LCD screen is great for taking video above your head or for including yourself in the picture. The eyepiece viewfinder automatically comes on if you swivel the LCD screen to the front, so both the camcorder operator and the subject can see the video.

The Panasonic PV-DV900 uses MiniDV digital tapes, which fit high-quality video into a tiny format. For the scenes we recorded onto the MiniDV tapes, the color was bright and the picture was very sharp. One of the Panasonic PV-DV900's best features is its ability to dub audio onto a prerecorded tape. In addition to being able to replace the original soundtrack with new audio, you can also layer a new soundtrack on top of the old one--a great feature for adding background music or commentary to your movies.

Overall, the Panasonic PV-DV900 is a great bargain--it offers advanced features and quality that you'd normally find in a more expensive camcorder. --Holly Blumenthal

Pros:

• High-quality digital video and audio
• High-powered optical and digital zooms
• 2-track audio dubbing
• Swivel LCD screen

Cons:

• Eyepiece viewfinder is black-and-white and stationary

The PV-DV900 is long on creative extras. Still camera capabilities, seven fade variations, and eight color tones give you the artistic license to improve your films. An infrared remote allows you to film while you're in front of the camera. Index search and bookmark search features make it easier to find the scene you're looking for on your tape.

Has firewire IEEE1934 interface to interact with the PC. Still shot capability holds up to 700 mid-quality images.

The problem is that the product is not even listed in the Panasonics site oficially, it's been missing between DV800 and DV950 models ( and 910 misses too ). But actually the info exists in the site when you edit the http address and replace the "950" with the "900". I couldn't confirm any problem with the 900 & 910 series but some dealers stopped to sells these models too.

So, go for the 950 which is lot more expensive but a real professional model or stick with the 800 one...


Great Camera   March 11, 2000
 73 out of 76 found this review helpful

There are many different dv camcorders out there for all kinds of budgets. My budget was no too large for my dv purchase, so I shopped around and found the panasonic. I had read both positive and some luke warm reviews of the pv-dv900, but decided to go for it. I am so glad that i did.

I am not a videophile, but the picture and sound i get out of this camera are amazing. It is still better than my old vhs-c camcorder after I dub onto VHS. It is awesome. Haven't installed my IEEE 1394 card yet, so I am not sure about vid capture.

The other reviewer is right about the few differences between the 900 and the 910. The 900 doe not come with the $40 light or the $30 remote control nor does it come with a blank video tape (that seemed kinda cheap to me). The 910 has a color viewfinder and a 3" LCD versus the 900's b/w viewfinder and 2.5" LCD.

I reccomend this camera very highly.


Very good budget DV camcorder   February 24, 2000
 115 out of 118 found this review helpful

The Panasonic pv-dv900 is a very basic DV camcorder. It uses the mini-dv cassette which is supported by many and is probably better in the long run than Sony's Digital 8 which uses standard 8mm for Digital 8 recorders. The picture quality on the Panasonic pv-dv900 is very good. When I first purchased this camera, I tried it out using a JVC mini dv tape and the picture quality really looked bad, then somehow like overnight, it cleared itself up. Its basically the same as the pv-dv910 by Panasonic, except for the fact that it doesn't come with a light, remote and the viewfinder doesn't move up or down. It does have close to a 2" viewable color display on the LCD. The viewfinder (not the LCD) itself is black and white, so its better to use the LCD color display when recording. You can purchase a light or remote seperately. The battery time is about 1 hour and a half. The charging time is close to an hour or a little less. You can ofcourse transfer your mini dv recording to standard VHS using the supplied video cables. It's also IEEE 1394 pc interface compatible but it doesn't come with the supplied cables.

You can also use this DV camcorder to capture still digital images on your mini-dv tape.

Not such a bad camera. If your looking for some basic mini-DV camcorder then this is probably just for you.