Panasonic Announces New Low-end DVD Camcorders

Las Vegas, CES, January 4, 2006 – Panasonic announced a number of new additions to their DVD camcorder line today, including two new low-cost models. The $499.99 VDR-D100 and $599.95 VDR-D200 can write out video to DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM discs.

 

 
The VDR-D100 is the cheapest of the new models at $499.95, and it’s a basic model in a number of ways. The CCD is a single 1/6-inch chip with 640K pixels (340K effective) and a shutter speed of between 1/60 and 1/3000 of a second. It has a long 30x zoom lens which can go up to 1000x in digital mode (although the image quality will suffer significantly). There’s no true 16:9 video mode, although it does have a cinema mode that crops the video for a similar effect. The LCD screen is a 2.5-inch model with 105K pixels, and there’s an S-Video output: a rarity for a budget model. But although it’s a basic model, it’s well priced for a DVD camcorder: Sony’s cheapest DVD camcorder (the DCR-DVD92 (Review, Specs, $365)) is priced at $100 more.

The $599.95 VDR-D200 is based around the same CCD sensor, but adds an SD card slot and the ability to capture still images at a resolution of up to 1640 x 480 pixels. It also includes an LED light and a software package based around DVD Movie Album, and IMX Video CD software for Mac users: a first for Panasonic camcorders.

Neither model comes with an external microphone input: the $899.95 VDR-D250 (Specs, ) is the first model to come with one. Both models do come with what Panasonic describes as one-touch navigation; they claim that the onscreen menus can be navigated with a thumb alone through the joystick on the back of the camcorder. We’ll be taking a closer look at both models soon.