Panasonic HDC-SD60 Digital Camcorder
July 14, 2010 | Digital Camcorder, Panasonic | Comments OffPanasonic currently has a strong position at the top of the HD camcorder market, with recent models such as the HDC-TM700 provides an almost perfect blend of functionality and enthusiastic image quality. But models based on the budget as the HDC-TM10 sacrificed too much to even dominant in their respective price range. In particular, the choice of a 1/6in sensor could serve low-light performance was not quite on a par with the likes of Sony HDR-equipped Exmor CX105E or JVC Everio GZ-HD300.
Thus, for its 2010 range of HD input range, Panasonic has updated the CMOS sensor to a unit 1/4.1in. This week we look at the HDC-SD60, which was published alongside the TM60 and HS60. All three models offer features nearly identical, the main difference between them being the recording medium used. The HS60 capture video on a hard drive 120 GB, and is slightly larger than the other two, which are identical in size. Among these, the TM60 includes 16GB of flash memory, while the SD60 provides not only a single SD card slot, so you must provide your own storage space. Apart from these differences, the video features are the same.
The largest sensor used in the three new models also more than twice the resolution of the previous generation of Panasonic, with 3.3 megapixels instead of 1.47 megapixels. So there is now sufficient resolution for Full HD, and a spoonful of Health interpolation was added to provide digital photos up to 5 megapixels. video recording options remain the same as before, however. 1080/50p mode introduced with the TM700 and SD600 is not present, and Panasonic has not yet added the high rate of 24Mbits/sec data available for the AVCHD format, with both Canon and JVC already have. Thus, the highest quality Full HD mode uses 17Mbits/sec, which represents approximately one hour of footage takes on a 8GB SDHC card
Despite the larger sensor, which is usually accompanied by a reduction in optical zoom for basic reasons, the SD60 actually provides an increase in this area. The telephoto optics has been stimulated to a very respectable 25x, and Panasonic builds on the excess pixels CMOS sensor to deliver an additional iZoom function, which is not accompanied by the usual loss of image quality associated with ordinary digital zoom. This factor takes a huge 35x, which we found very useful indeed for capturing images of the aerial display team Red Arrows flight, for example. [via trustedreviews]
panasonic sdh-60 - panasonic sd-60 -
