Small, even by camcorder standards.

Has an external battery so extended/high power batteries can be added on. Those Chinese/no-name batteries on Ebay work, just don't expect them to last for very long.

With tape it can offer an hour or more of recording.

Can be had for very cheap.

Can do all the basic functions expected of a camcorder.

It's tape based, and Mini-DV is today equivalent to "standard definition."

Low-light performance is pretty poor, and I questioned how much resolution the sensor had, objects in the distance were distinctly fuzzy.

The light is a bright LED.

The general hassle of using tape. I don't know about you but I've never gotten along with a tape based anything, whether it be VCR's, audio tapes, backup tapes, or these. The time to rewind and read data off, plus the general fragility of tape drives made me shy away until hard drives/flash memory came to the fore.

The PV-GS36 is one of those here today, gone tomorrow type camcorders in a seemingly never ending string of them. It's a basic camcorder, functional but gets the job done, and in the right settings it can do good work.

In mid-2007 (when I got mine) they were everywhere on Ebay as used/old stock. Now they're becoming scarce, and the funny trend happens as availability dries up, which applies to any product, that the prices tend to go up as people imagine they have a collectible on their hands.

Bargains can still be had, however, as the little Panasonic's downfall is only in what it is, a Mini-DV tape camcorder.

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Canon FS-100
A couple of really old VHS-C camcorders