Panasonic VDR-D150 DVD camcorder

Posted by T3 Online on Fri 26 Oct 2007

No cassette is an asset with this camcorder.

Panasonic's latest 'corder not only packs an enormous zoom, but it's also impressively skinny, sexy and convenient. It's a prime example of why point-shoot-and-play, DVD-recording camcorders are kicking the butts of their whirring, tape-based rivals - but be warned, there's a price to be paid for this useability in terms of image quality.

The tall, thin camcorder is nicely balanced, with all the key controls falling right under your fingers. Having to push a button to flip out the 2.5-inch screen is annoying, as is the six second wait for the disc to initialise on start-up, but once on, the screen is crisp and colourful, with a joystick-controlled menu system that's as zippy to use as any touchscreen.

All the main controls (aperture, focus, gain, shutter speed) are just a click or two away, although there's nothing advanced in the way of metering or exposure.

Press the zoom button and the tele just keeps going and going, ending at a massive 30x optical magnification. The usefulness of this is questionable though - at 30x, its near-impossible to avoid shaky footage, even with Panasonic's impressive OIS stabilisation system.

Video quality, as usual with DVD camcorders, is a mixed bag. Footage is well-exposed but with mushy detail and weak colours. Noise crawls all over the frame in low light, and the terrible Night View mode is no substitute for a video light, while the stills are worse than you'd get from a decent camera phone. Stereo sound is good, though.

If you want the easiest route to creating and playing back your own movies, or the biggest zoom for your buck, look no further. MiniDV tape models still have the edge when it comes to razor-sharp footage, though.