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The Panasonic HDC-HS20 is one of the three entry-level camcorders which
Panasonic introduced earlier this year at the CES. This is a hybrid camcorder
which has 16 MB buffer and a healthy 80 GB HDD. If you still fall short of
memory, you can plug in an SD card and keep rolling!
Looks are identical to those flash camcorders which are aplenty in the
market. There is a 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD on the left while other controls are
intuitively placed at a position where they fell right under the hand. On the
top are the zoom and record controls, while on the left edge is the Intelligent
mode button and Pre-rec button. Other than that, everything else is done with
the 2.7” touchscreen LCD, which is tiltable (180 degrees towards the lens and 90
degrees backwards).
Panasonic has intelligently incorporated a decent array of modes and
features. It comes with an optical image stabilizer and 16x optical zoom.
Intelligent Auto mode when switched on will automatically change focus and
exposure settings according to the ambient light. You can even select an area or
a face on the LCD via touch, and the camcorder will automatically adjust the
focus and exposure around that point. Great feature for users, isn't it? Another
good addition is the LED light, which helps when you have to shoot in dimly lit
environment but it is only effective upto a certain distance (not more than a
couple of feet).
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It records in AVCHD format and its 80 GB memory is good enough to record
footage of over 10 hours in top quality (HA) mode which records at
17 Mbits/sec. If you reduce quality, you'll be able to store more. The quality
of videos and stills was good. You get natural colors and sharp contrast. A
Xenon flash helps brighten up the stills considerably. Overall, a good camcorder
with some intelligent features. A larger capacity hard drive would have better
justified the price (Sony's full HD camcorder XR500E with 120 GB HDD for Rs
50k).
Panasonic HDC-HS20
Rs 49,990 |
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Pros
Full HD, 80 GB storage, Xenon flashCons
Weak LED light
Sold by
Panasonic India |
Specs
1.47 MP CMOS image sensor, 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD, 16X optical zoom,
Optical image stabilizer, HDD (80 GB), 5.1 surround microphone, supplied
remote control, 360 grams
Verdict
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