Labs

Panasonic's NVGS70B was a groundbreaking device. Not only was it the first three-chipper for under £1,000, but it also came in a pocket-sized format.

The NVGS120B is also based around a trio of 1/6in 540,000-pixel CCDs. They're grouped together for still images, so these are offered at a reasonable 1,536 x 1,152, for which an 8MB SD card is supplied. However, this resolution is still marginal for printing.

Where the three-chip

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arrangement shows its stripes is video. Colour fidelity was good - both indoors and out - and detail was sharp. Colour reproduction was noticeably better than similarly priced single-chip camcorders. However, there was some over-saturation in brightly lit areas compared to more expensive three-chippers.

There are a surprising number of features for the size and price. There's a full gamut of manual controls including aperture, shutter and white balance. Manual focus uses the fast-forward and rewind VCR buttons rather than a lens ring, though. The AE modes are fairly standard, but there's also 0 Lux Night View, for which the LCD is swivelled to face the subject and becomes a video light. An accessory shoe is provided, plus mic and headphone jacks, but there's no audio level control.

The NVGS120B is the kind of camcorder that the whole family can use but is also a good choice for enthusiasts. It's pocket-sized yet full of features, all backed up by the very good image quality afforded by the three CCDs.