madgonad

Excellent find! The Best Buy rebate was funded by Best Buy. This one is funded by Panasonic. Now the next question is, how early to get to Best Buy....

The Best Buy website lists the Panasonic GS31 camcorder @ $399.99 with a $50 MIR. If you click the link for the rebate it shows that it expires on 11/23/05. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1099390045613&type=product&skuId=6988432&tab=6&productCategoryId=pcmcat21300050021

The $50 MIR expires the day before T-giving. Oh well.

I looked it up and found this 'feature' to be a source of numerous headaches for older VHS-C era Panasonic camcorders. Dew is normally not an issue for sealed electronics like cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. If you get out of a nicely air-conditioned car into the sweaty July heat of Mississippi the humid air will condense onto any surface that the warm humid air can circulate around. Camcorders are not sealed and it sounds like a theoretically good idea to prevent the tape assembly from running and pushing water droplets into the sensitive electronics. So the warning and shut-down is good because it protects the camera from real damage. What is also being encountered is this circuit becoming locked 'on' and essentially killing the equipment. This is probably a good lesson for all miniDV camcorder users. Throw some of the silica gel packs into the camera bag to head this off.

I wouldn't rush to shout-out the praises of JVC camcorders just yet. They have consistently been rated the most unreliable brand available, while Panasonic and Sony tend to be the most reliable. And I don't know what you mean by dew detection. Most electronics have moisture 'tags' that change color if they have been exposed to moisture. The reason for this is that if you drop your camcorder in the lake and it stops working, the warranty will not cover it. To see what I am talking about look on any cell phone (in the battery area and also on the battery as well) to see one. It will probably be white or pink. The tag doesn't deactivate the device, the device got wet, failed, and the tag will tell the technician why.