Panasonic SDR-S50 Camcorder SD Card, X78 Enhanced Optical Zoom, Wide Angle Lens, iA + Af Tracking and Optical Image Stabilisation – Black
Posted by Notcot on May 21, 2010 in Photography |
- SD Card Format
- 2.7″ Wide LCD Display
- Wind Noise Cancelling Clear Sound
- iA with AF/AE Tracking
- 70x Optical Zoom
Prior to purchasing the Panasonic SDR-S50 camcorder, I’d read a review on another site, where a score of 8 out of 10 marks had been awarded in February 2010.
I promptly ordered the camcorder from Amazon. The battery was very difficult to click into place on the unit, and it took me several attempts to manage to secure it. I then found it extremely fiddly to set up the features, due to the menu jumping from one option to another up and down the LCD screen before I could make a selection. The record button was very awkward to use, due to its location on the right hand side of the unit. When holding the camcorder with my hand upwards through the hand-grip, my thumb was naturally nearest to the left side of the unit. Also, due to my fingers resting on the top of the camcorder, it was very easy to accidentally move the zoom in/out control. I ended up with everything suddenly becoming very blurred and a message displayed on the LCD telling me I had panned out too quickly. When I pressed the pause button during recording, a message appeared on the LCD to indicate it was in ‘pause’ mode, but within seconds, this had disappeared and recording had actually stopped instead. Finally, during playback of a conversation I had recorded indoors, a distracting on/off beeping noise could be heard. This occurred approximately every 5 seconds, and was the sound of the internal mechanism working during recording.
I returned the camcorder to Amazon via DHL, and promptly received a full refund.
I have awarded two stars simply because the camcorder is very small and light in weight. The design seriously needs some attention for future models, and the recurring beeping sound of the internal mechanism during recording needs to addressed.
Rating: 2 / 5
Sorry, I disagree with the previous review…
The battery just clicks into place, it takes 30 seconds to setup and everything is fine…!
If you are on a budget and can’t stretch to a High Def camera this is the one for you. You can get them for around £180 BUT you will need to buy your memory card seperately… don’t forget. A Sandisk SDHC 8Gb/16Gb class 2 is all you need for standard definition and you can pick them up for £10/£20.
It has many good fuctions like the X78 Enhanced Optical Zoom, Wide Angle Lens (16:9), Face Tracking and Optical Image Stabilisation but with full zoom you will need a tripod in my opinion.
Still camera option is there to save carrying two gadgets around but will never replace a standard digital camera.
Best £180 Standard Def camera on the market…
Rating: 5 / 5