This was a great camera while it worked. One day the power didn't come on despite a full battery. There is no way to eject the tape with the power off. It costs almost as much to repair it as to buy a new one - but in order to get your tape out ( assuming you were taping something important - like in my case a graduation) you have to send it in for repair and hope they return it.

This is a very poor design. When I researched the web for a way to take the tape out, it appears that this is a fairly common problem. The camera worked for around 18 months.

I have used this on interviews for my class projects, carried it around and took video of birds at a wildlife refuge and this camera has really performed.
The microphone picks up sounds really well. On interviews I didn't need an external mic, though there is a plug in for one. I even used it to record a particular bird at dawn one morning. The sound came through very well.
I like the fact I can record in wide screen or regular. The battery lasts for several hours of recording and recharges quickly.
The picture quality is excellent with the 3 chips. I'm not used to using a screen for photography of any kind, and with this one I can use the view finder. It's very light and easily carried on the strap around your neck.
Great camera, great price.

The main reasons I bought this (now discontinued) model are: it has 3 ccd chips (great for color and detail, especially outdoors), it's size and feel, and the fact that it has an accessory shoe and mic input.

I use it for family videos, and for short videos for our church's youth group. The clarity is great, and the sound is good for such a small camcorder. The backlight compensation feature works great! Battery life is about average for the industry, I recommend buying a bigger Energizer brand battery.

The only gripes I have are: it doesn't have a true night-vision like Sony's Handycam, and you can't shoot in true widescreen (though there is a "widescreen mode", but it loses resolution.

Bottom line: the best features for the lowest price I could find on the market. Too bad Panasonic has discontinued this model, and replaced it with a 1 ccd model without a mic input!

The camera is a great camera.it is one of the best kind of camera in its level.Everything is great in that(perfect picture and easy to work) but in that package as I saw in amazon add, the remote suppose to be in the package and comes with it but it won't and there is not remute in that package and it is kind of cheating...be careful about this product if you think whatever has written comes with package but not.

I haven't decided if I want to return this camcorder yet. I got sucked into the 3CCD thing after reading a lot of great reviews. But honestly, I'm not seeing a huge difference in quality compared to the older technology. Also, i'm struggling with lighting. Indoors, the picture appears too dark. I'm considering purchasing a light, but I'm not happy about it, but it tends to distract the people you're shooting. I'm going to play around with it for a little while longer and see if i can find a different setting that works, but I doubt it because I've already read the manual.