Cameras: Panasonic SDR-SW20 Camcorder – 69

Panasonic will seduce you with its new Lucifer-red SDR-SW20, an impact-resistant and waterproof video camera with a size and shape that will make you want to take it everywhere.

For those who like to fiddle, the SW20 lets you adjust the shutter speed and iris (aperture) to control depth of field and blurring of a moving subject. It also allows you to manually adjust focus, but it does a marvellous job of auto-focusing even in low light, so you may never need to select this option. Control freaks will enjoy being able to set the backlight button or take advantage of the low light setting when you strike dark lighting situations. If your girlfriend is conscious of how sharp the Panasonic lens is, then she may enjoy the soft skin setting that softens the image in a flattering way. To round off the creative experience you can even fade in and out to give your film some professional polish.

The screen is a delightful 2.7 inches in 16:9 format with 123,000 pixels (a few more pixels wouldn’t go astray) that twists out from the body but doesn’t spin forward for those of you who like to video blog or include yourself in the action. It does rotate 90° up so you can shoot from a low perspective and then through 90° down so you can hold the camera above your head for a high viewpoint – ideal for those moments at the rugby when you get stuck behind a group of extremely tall Neanderthals who insist on standing every time their team scores a try.

It runs on Lithium-ion battery and uses SD or SDHC cards for recording. You will want to invest in an SDHC card, and the bigger the better. I loaded a 4GB card to get 50min of (XP) high quality recording or 1hr 40min of standard recording. The handbook warns of dramatic loss of quality when you drop to LP, so don’t!

FRASER KITT

Details

Specifications

Effective Pixels: 800k
Lens: 10x optical zoom
Viewfinder: None
LCD Monitor: 2.7-inch (123,000 pixels)
Shutter: 1/25 sec – 1/350 sec
Iris: f1.8 – f2.4
Mic: Stereo (with zoom function)
Shooting Modes: Auto, Sport, Portrait, Low Light, Spot Light, Back Light
Media: SD or SDHC
File Format: MPEG2
Batteries: Lithium-ion rechargeable
Dimensions: 33.8 x 63.4 x 115.4mm
Weight: 224g

Pros

Waterproof to 1.5m
Zoom microphone
Beautiful slim design and big screen
Second record button at the front of the camera

Cons

Requires bags of memory and expensive SDHC cards to work best
No internal memory

Verdict

An ideal companion when you hit the slopes or take to the Gulf in your yacht

This article is from Tone issue #69.