With other 3CCD offerings from the likes of Sony and Canon, the Panasonic NV-GS400 more than holds its own with a clear menu navigation layout and quality video-taking abilities that would rival most of its competitors. Along with varied manual controls, this camcorder certainly has the hardware to slug it out with even Sony's DCR-HC1000.

Design
The NV-GS400 has a weighty metal body that balances well in the hands. Despite its lengthy body (178mm), it is still surprising balanced for one-handed operation though daintier hands may have to opt for gripping the barrel in addition to the camera body for a better hold. We were impressed by the detailing that went into the design such as the rubberized padding on the top right of the camcorder which sank in comfortably when gripped by our fingers.

Looking straight on at the camera is the Leica Dicomar lens that is topped by a pop-up flash on the front. However, with the microphone positioned to the back of the flash mechanism, we did wonder how good sound pickup would be. There is also an intelligent hotshoe slot for additional accessories like a flash gun or a dedicated microphone when the user feels the built-in options are not enough. But what truly sets this camcorder apart from the typical consumer models is its four-way manual rings on the barrel that provide control over focus and zoom. There is adequate resistance in the rings to provide a feel of precision for that all-important cinematic focusing. We also like the secondary Record button seated on the barrel for easy access by manual operation of the rings.

On the left of the camcorder alongside the lens barrel are the functional controls for the key camcorder operations of White Balance, Focus, Zoom, Shutter and Iris which negates the inconvenience of swinging through the menu for the requisite selections. There is also a hardware switch beneath which controls whether the camcorder is on Auto, Manual or AE Lock mode. On the back of the camcorder is the usual zoom slider switch, shutter button, power on/off switch and menu wheel which sits at a convenient angle for the thumb and fingers to access. We were especially taken with the extra generous 3.5" LCD display which made playback viewing such a pleasure. There is also an extra button on the LCD panel that powers up the LCD panel to a greater degree of brightness when the situation calls for it, such as day bright ambient lighting that would have otherwise rendered the display not viewable though we hold our reservations on how much this luxury will take its toll on the battery life.

For tripod shooting, the NV-GS400 has a top-loading mechanism for easy tape changing while the ports for the Mini-USB, Remote/Mic, AV input/output/headphone are neatly concealed behind a pop-out rubber strip which is located immediately beneath the shutter button.

Flipping up the LCD panel will reveal the range of secondary controls like the Flash and backlight while the pop-up panel which has an opening for an SD card slot also has it own set of button controls that have a directional pad for playback navigation and other functionalities ranging from Soft Skin to Advanced Magic Pix.

Features
The NV-GS400 is certainly in our consideration a manual shooter's dream with most controls being user-configurable. That said, we do not think the camcorder's auto mode is any less significant though it would seem to be squandered if the user does not take advantage of its added tweakable functions.

For shutterbugs, the manual rings are an inspiration, conferring almost SLR controls to the NV-GS400. There are, in fact, two separate bi-directional rings which can adjust anything from the Zoom, Focus, Iris to Shutter. With shutter speeds approaching 1/2,000 second and a 12x optical zoom, the manual rings take care of most adjustments without a hitch.

It is good that Panasonic did not choose to cram every single functionality into the menu itself, instead relegating essential functions to dedicated hardware buttons like the White Balance, Shutter and Focus keys on the side barrel of the camcorder.

Besides the usual plethora of digital effects like Wipe, Mosaic and Sepia, the NV-GS400 also comes with a helpful range of in-camera tools like the Soft Skin function that helps to enhance Portrait shots and the Zebra Pattern which helps to identify potential problem areas that might get overexposed. Covering the basics with the optically stabilized Leica Dicomar zoom lens and the trio of 0.25-inch CCDs, the NV-GS400 is also equipped to handle wide 16:9 aspect ratio videos though the stretched look on the LCD panel does not show otherwise.

Performance
We like the zoom on the NV-GS400 as it works very well whether it is to move at a fast clip or a slow zoom. Though the manual rings are very good for minute adjustments when mounted on a tripod, it proved to be quite a hassle when we tried to do it freehand as the longish form factor of the camcorder made it difficult to maintain a shake-free video.

The manual white balance adjustment is pretty accurate though we would not suggest conducting an adjustment while shooting as the NV-GS400 insists on checking black balance first, which will momentarily cause a blackout on the video. In auto mode, the NV-GS400 has no problems switching focus from distant objects to marco shots and adjust well to different lighting conditions, which makes it quite a good point-and-shoot camcorder, too.

Like most consumer camcorders, the NV-GS400 does not have the caliber to shoot engaging night scenes. The color night view mode lowers shutter speed and increases aperture size to capture more light which typically results in blurry shots unless the user is planning to shoot absolutely motionless subjects. Under 0 lux condition, the NV-GS400 utilizes the LCD display (flipped around to the front and switching the display to a mono-white) to shed more light on the subject, though with the limited illumination range of the LCD panel, it is good only for macro subjects, which at the same time is also lackluster in terms of illumination achieved.

Image Quality
Though we were not expecting much during our night shoot, we achieved quite a credible outing with the NV-GS400 in our street scenes. We had no trouble with speeding objects (cars) as long as there was some ambient lighting.

Yet, without any assisting adjustments during our night street scenes, we had no trouble with speeding objects (cars) as long as there was some ambient lighting and clearly defined videos were not essential.

With still shots, the NV-GS400 did very well without flash assistance, capturing shots that were pretty well-defined with only street lighting as the only illumination. And it was in close-ups that the NV-GS400's manual controls proved its mettle, with the pop-up flash helping to cast added illumination.