Three CCDs used to be the hallmark of professional-grade camcorders. But in 2003 Panasonic started to bring the technology down to models well under a grand. Now, amazingly, you can pick up a Panasonic camcorder with a trio of sensors for under £250 - well into bargain basement territory. The NV-GS230 is a MiniDV model, so is almost yesterday's technology. But if you're still resisting the urge to move up to high definition, or just don't want to spend that much on a camcorder, MiniDV remains a value choice.
Although the NV-GS230 incorporates three CCDs, they are rather small, which will have an impact on low-light performance. Each one is 1/6in and has a gross complement of 800,000 pixels. Panasonic aggregates these together for still images, allowing the NV-GS230 to boast 2.3-megapixels, which provides 1,760 x 1,320-resolution photos. An SD memory card slot is built in for storage.
