If Sony pioneer in consumer high definition camcorders, JVC and hard drives brought to the masses, Panasonic has focused its efforts on flash memory. The company also made three CCD technology affordable. The SDR-S150 combines in one of those dinky camera that promises the best quality video in a pocket-friendly, even if it does norm rather than the record high definition.

The SDR-S150 is nowhere near as dinky Debian, and the SDR-S10, which set a new standard for tiny, camcorders true. But when it was all one 1/6in CCD, as last week with tastily economic MiniDV offers Panasonic (NV-GS230), the SDR-S150 uses a trio with 1/6in CCD 800000 pixels each. However, unlike MiniDV its stable mate, the camcorder uses interpolation to provide still images of 3.1 megapixels, with a resolution of 2048 x 1512. Even though it is still far from digital camera autonomous current standards, it is quite useful for the occasional failure. The SDR-S150 also uses the optical image stabilization, which is quite rare at this price.

At its top quality XP, the SDR-S150 records video at 10Mbits/sec, with 5Mbits/sec SP and LP 2.5Mbits/sec modes available. When shooting video XP, you can adapt approximately 50 minutes of video on an SD card 4GB. However, only Panasonic includes a memory card 2 GB in the box, so you will almost certainly want to add a bit more storage capacity on price. A map is 8 GB of nearly £ 50.

The SDR-S150 is aimed at the point-and-shoot user. It does not have an accessory shoe or microphone jack. So there will be no chance of adding external audio or a video light. You can plug a headset with the supplied adapter, which connects to the port MULTI (more on that later). Manual focus uses the joystick rather than a more specific goal ring. But Panasonic has a built in lens cover that opens automatically when you enter the film or modes of image recording. Even if there is no filter on the wire coverage, you can unscrew it to reveal a course of standard 37mm. A flash is located above the lens, rising to flick of a switch, but it is very small and only has a range of about 2m.

In Auto mode, you can use the lever to activate the menu TeleMacro, Soft Skin mode Backlight compensation. But switch to manual mode, and more options appear, more than you would normally expect such a point-and-shoot-oriented model. The SDR-S150 offers manual white balance, shutter speed, openness and take control. Options white balance are fairly standard, and include sunlight and tungsten lighting presets, as well as the usual automatic and manual settings. Shutter speed and opening can be modified independently, which is fairly unique among sub-£ 500 camcorders. Shutter Speeds can range from 1/50th to 1/8000th, and the opening of F2 to F16. Even more unique is the SDR-S150’s ability to add up to 18dB gain over a completely open iris.

A few other options are available from the full menu. Here you can find scene modes, including the usual suspects Sports, Portrait, Low light, Spotlight and Surf & Snow. There is a windbreaker to fix the microphone, which counteracts the effects of the airflow noise. The zoom setting mic links to the video zoom circuit which attempts to focus audio recording on the same topics as framing, even if it is only partially successful.

As for the NV-GS230, the SDR-S150 three-chip sensor system returns excellent color fidelity in a good light. Where many consumers camcorders facing saturation to offset a bad color signal, the Panasonic image is much more naturalistic. It is also very low on noise. This pushes the SDR-S150 beyond the single chip SDR-S10, which takes a good video for its size, but does not have the same dynamism.

But also like the NV-GS230, the excellent quality of the image decreases as the light decreases due to the small size of the trio of the CCD. In the kind of lighting you might find in an average living room lit with tungsten bulbs, the SDR-S150 The video is far more colorful faithfully, and the noise is much greater. The general tone is dark, too, although increasingly the maximum gain improves this to the sacrifice of more noise. Dropping illumination to the equivalent of candles makes a huge amount of noise and even less colour, although the SD-S150 beat the NV-GS230.

Being such a small camcorder, the SD-S150 is not quite with the ports blistering. In fact, it consists of only two. The port is home MULTI helmet adapter mentioned earlier, or a break-out cable sports composite and S-video connections, as well as RCA audio stereo, even though all these things are only exit. The other USB port, which allows you to import images from the camera - but you can simply eject the SD card and using a card reader to that too. With the camera running or still picture recording mode, the USB connection can also be used to turn the SD-S150 in a webcam, which is a bonus feature. If you are in video blogging, Panasonic will help move much higher quality video for clients such as YouTube against most USB webcams.

Changing the sequence SD-S150 should not pose any problems, either. The video is recorded using MOD files, which are essentially the MPEG-2. The MOD format has been with us for almost four years, it is now widely supported. We tried Adobe Premiere Elements 3 and Ulead Video Studio Plus 11, and neither had no problem importing and editing files.

Verdict

Panasonic SDR-S150 is a strange beast in the current market camcorder. It packs decent image quality in a small package very convenient, but the high-definition camcorders are becoming more affordable. So far, the HD models using flash memory for storing still a little more expensive, with its own Panasonic HDC-SD5 on cheaper, and it’s always some £ 200 ladies. So for the moment, if you do not have the money or do not want to change over to HD, the SDR-S150 made a choice capable pocket-friendly video filming. But on the days when it is worthwhile to pay over £ 400 for a camcorder SD are numbered.