Panasonic HDC-DX1

HD home movies

Want your home movies to show individual strands of hair on your head but without the hassle of DV tape recording? Consider Panasonic's DX1.

This modern miracle uses the new AVCHD format to burn 1080i footage to plain old DVD-RAMs, -Rs or -RWs. For playback, slip them into a Blu-Ray player that supports the format.

A standard blank DVD holds less than 15 minutes of 1080i footage. Factor in delays when powering up (15 seconds), formatting (30 seconds) and finalising (15 minutes) and you're looking at the sort of time wasting that would pop a vein in Arsene Wenger's forehead.

You also can't play DVDs containing the footage you shoot on a conventional player. It has to be a Blu-Ray player, which as we all know, are not cheap - Panasonic's own player is a "snip" at £1000 - you can hook the camcorder up to a TV via HDMI or component, though.

It-s a shame that the recording format is so poor, because the DX1 is otherwise a primo bit of kit, packing triple 0.5-megapixel sensors, Dolby 5.1 audio, and a lovely Leica lens. The stabilised, 12x zoom is glorious, the three-inch screen is pin-sharp and the menus are easy to navigate. Daylight footage shows acres of detail and strong colours, albeit with traces of smearing, even at maximum quality.

On the downside, this weighs even more than Sony's AVCHD camera, the 30GB SR1, and although stills are fine, Panasonic should dump the photo flash for a video light, because night-time movies are disappointing.

A classy AVCHD debut for Panasonic, but DVD isn't the right format for Hi-Def. wait for the DX1's hard disk twin, the SD-1, which is due any day now.

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