Panasonic HD HS60 Review

     We all know that Panasonic is one of the pioneer of the HD camcorders and here is now one of them which i will review today.Panasonic seems to be taking a carpet bomb approach to the entry-level HD camcorder market, with the models in the slim range between $500 and $700. The HDC-SD60, TM55, and TM60 are all identical save the amount of built-in memory: none, 8GB, and 16GB respectively; the TM60 is an exclusive to Best Buy. The HS60 includes a 120GB hard disk, and because of that has a slightly different design.   

    Panasonic provides a switch on the back of the camcorder to select among still, video, and playback modes; it's much more convenient than having to go through the touch screen. Next to the switch is the power connector. Along with the power button, a full complement of ports and connectors live in the LCD recess: proprietary video and Mini-HDMI out, USB, and an SDXC card slot. Though everybody's doing it, I dislike the placement of the connectors inside the LCD, since that means it's got to be open while you're attached to other devices, which is just kind of awkward.  

   

    Though it uses the same LCD as its high-end siblings, here that's not much of a problem; at these prices, the small, low-resolution LCD is typical. Panasonic leaves membrane switches for record, zoom, menu, video light, and delete on the LCD bezel. I prefer this approach, since touch-screen-based controls tend to introduce a slight operational delay; you have to wait for the preceding screen to time out, for example, before the menu or zoom controls appear. It's also a more-practical match for the LCD. The zoom switches are a lot harder to get a feel for and operate than the zoom rocker atop the camcorder.

   

    One of the more-notable aspects of these camcorders is performance; it's very good, not just for its class but in general. The zoom switch has a nice feel, and it's pretty easy to maintain a steady rate with it. The autofocus is quite good, both fast and accurate;These models also include a second image stabilization option, in this case Power OIS, optimized for shooting while walking. I found standard and Power OIS reasonably but not exceptionally effective at the camcorder's maximum optical zoom of 25x, but that's typical. The battery lasts a long time, though it's also larger than most so it's not that big of a surprise. 

   

    Video quality isn't quite as impressive, but it's about average for the price class. These models use just one of the small trio of sensors used by their higher-end siblings, and it shows. You'll definitely want to switch from the default 13Mbps mode to the highest quality 17Mbps mode. It's visibly sharper, especially in scenes with lots of activity, with better shadow detail. But it's still soft, with mushy detail in general. Exposures are good, though the video might not look saturated enough.

     If you're planning to edit it rather than just play back on a TV. The low-light video is very noisy, desaturated, and soft. With the video light it's much better, but there are limits to situations where you can use the light. The 640x480-pixel still photos actually look better than any of the other resolutions--quite bright and sharp--but the interpolated 5-megapixel photos look especially overprocessed. 

     My Rating: 3/5