Panasonic NV-DS27

This NV DS27 Mini-DV Camcorder from Panasonic is a well-featured, nicely presented mini-DV camcorder, especially considering its low price. The image quality of the DV format is good and it also has a 15x optical zoom.

The facility for shooting in zero light conditions works pretty well.

The motion sensor which kicks the camera into record mode when movement is detected is great for recording yourself and setting up tricks if you are that way inclined...

All in all a good piece of kit at an affordable price.

Panasonic Mini-DV Camcorder NV DS27. It took me some searching to find this "last year's model", but I knew it would have a better optical zoom lens than it's newer counterparts; in the end I got it for a reasonable price.

The manual is a bit "Engrish", and attempts to cover the DS27, DS28 (which are, to all intents and purposes, identical, minus the bit of software to enable DV in, which is missing on the DS27 as part of the manufacturer's EU tax loopholes), but also the DS37 and DS38. This leads to many pages describing features that don't apply to your camera.

I have just bought the Panasonic NV DS27B digital camcorder from Amazon, and it has exceeded all my expectations for such a cheap digital camcorder. I have enabled DV-IN on mine very easily... It works a dream connected to my PC using Pinnacle DV Studio.

It works exceptionally well in fully automatic mode, but all the manual overrides are there if you need them. One feature I did not expect was 'motion sensor', where the camera goes into standby mode until it detects motion. It then records until the picture is static again. I have found this brilliant for capturing birds feeding on my bird-table. I am also amazed by the quality of the sound recording.

Do not be put off by the 'tubbiness' of this camera. It is very easy to hold and control. My wife is also very keen on it and is already contemplating her own projects with it.

This review copyright Amazon