Panasonic HDC-HS60

Low Light Sensitivity (3.77)

The Panasonic HDC-HS60 didn’t blow us away in our low light sensitivity test, but it did do a lot better than the competition. The camcorder needed just 15 lux of light to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor, which, if you’re keeping score, is half as much light as the Panasonic HDC-TM10 required. This is a noted improvement from Panasonic that we are pleasantly surprised to see. Often, when a camcorder comes along with an increased pixel count we notice a dip in low light sensitivity. Thankfully, this was not the case with the HDC-HS60. More on how we test low light sensitivity.

Unlike most Panasonic camcorders, the HDC-HS60 does not include a 24p recording mode (called Digital Cinema mode by Panasonic). Panasonic strangely eliminated this feature from its whole line of 2010 mid-range HD models (the HDC-SD60 and HDC-TM55 don’t have it either). Usually, a 24p frame rate gives the camcorder a better low light sensitivity and a boost in low light performance overall (such was the case with the 24p modes on the Canon HF20 and the Panasonic HDC-TM10).

Low Light Noise (7.92)

The HDC-HS60 averaged 1.5725% noise in our low light test, which is higher than last year’s HDC-TM10. The thing to look at, however, is how much sharper the HS60’s low light image is compared to the competition (specifically the TM10 and the JVC GZ-HD300). Many times we’ll see a camcorder that measures a very low amount of noise, but its image has almost no detail—this is the case with the Panasonic HDC-TM10 and the JVC GZ-HD300. More on how we test low light noise.

Panasonic HDC-HS60 Low Light Noise Comparisons
Panasonic HDC-HS60 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-TM10 100% Crop Canon Vixia HF20 100% Crop JVC GZ-HD300 100% Crop More...

The HDC-HS60 arguably captured a sharper image than the Canon HF20 in our low light test, but it’s difficult to pick a clear winner. What is obvious, though, is that the Canon HF20 had a lot more noise than the HDC-HS60, and you can even see this noise in the images above.

With its decent scores across the board, the HDC-HS60 is one of the best mid-range camcorders we’ve tested in low light. Its noise levels were never too high and the camcorder retained strong color depth and detail in all of our low light tests.

Low Light Color (6.58)

The HDC-HS60 had an average performance in our low light color test. The camcorder managed a color accuracy of 5.56 and a saturation level of around 68.7%. These numbers are decent, and they do represent an improvement over the HDC-TM10, but they aren’t top-notch for an HD camcorder. Still, the HDC-HS60 had one of the best low light images of the mid-range models we compared it to. More on how we test low light color.

Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Panasonic HDC-HS60 produced a color error of and a saturation level of in our bright light color testing.

If you look at the comparison images below, you can see that the HDC-HS60 has a much better low light image than the HDC-TM10 and JVC GZ-HD300. The HS60 does particularly better than these camcorders when it comes to saturation in low light. The Canon HF20 also has a very saturated image that looks similar to the HDC-HS60, although the Canon’s image is a bit darker.

Even though the color accuracy numbers for the HS60 weren’t great in low light, we are pleased with the camcorder’s performance. Its saturation level was relatively high, which helped the camcorder produce strong, vivid colors in our low light test. As you’ll see in the next section of this review, the HDC-HS60 also kept the noise levels down in our low light test while still retaining a fairly sharp image.