The Best Lens!

Author's Rating:

Pros: The lens the thing

Cons: Expensive, but 3CCD consumer digital video is still new.

Author's Review
This camcorder has the best lens in this price range. The optical zoom, 20x, (extended to 100X digital) along with the solid optical image stabilization and aberration free L-Flourite technology make this lens, alone, worth the price of the camcorder. The microphone tends to pick up camera noises in quiet settings, and there are no manual gain controls. The noise problem is common to many camcorders with on board mics. If you are serious about the quality of your audio, say for production for resale, you will want to also purchase an XLR and low impedance mics. The XLR unit is a small, camcorder mounted unit that offers level control and inputs for low impedance mikes. The quality of the video that this unit takes is truly excellent. It is about twice as good as what you will see with High8 or SVHS. Your video will be broadcast quality. The GL-1 offers all the usual auto exposure settings, including full auto, aperture priority, shutter priority and more. You can also go completely manual, if you desire full control over exposure settings. Auto focus works well, although you may experience some slight hunting during fast zooms. Not an unusual problem. There is a manual focus ring, but manual focus is servo controlled and not as flexible as true manual focus. It would be worth a FEW extra bucks if they offered true manual focus and/or manual zoom in this camcorder. Those are features that are usually only found in much more expensive camcoders. One of the features I like most about the GL-1 is that it takes outstanding stills, suitable for attaching to e-mail or making small prints. The GL-1 ships with a one hour battery, but higher capacity, 3+ hour batteries are available, some from third parties at much lower prices. All in all, this is a high quality, very flexible, easy to use camcorder. To get the most out of it you will need a fast computer with a fast high capacity (12gb+ free space)hard drive, and an IEEE 1394 card with editing software. Don't rush out to buy the card until you know which software you will use. Some software packages require a propietary card. And check with the software company to see if you need to upgrade your system. Of course you can edit from the camera directly to a VCR, or other camcorder, but the computer method is more flexible, offering transitions, swapping scenes, titling, multiple audio tracks, and much more. Because this is "digital", multiple edits and copies retain the same quality as the original.

As another reviewer pointed out, you can really get taken for a ride purchasing this thing. They are not in the short supply that many dealers would have you believe, and you shouldn't have to wait weeks for one. A common practice is to quote a great price and immediate delivery, then pressure you to purchase unwanted accessories. If you refuse you may be told that they just discovered that they are short on supply, after all, but they have a few "special packages" in stock that are only available with some unwanted accessories, and with high shipping and handling charges. If you get pressured, shop around some more.

Finally, be sure to check out the very excellent web site at: www.GL1-411.com It is filled with good information and links to other sites. Take a look at the Discussion Board, and post any of your questions about the Gl-1, or scroll through the pages to see if it has already been asked and answered.