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Panasonic HDC-HS9 Camcorder Reviewby Michael PerlmanPublished on Apr 7, 2008 3:28 PM 
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.5)
The automatic controls on the Panasonic HDC-HS9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00) are good enough to handle most types of shooting. For the most carefree experience, simply flip the switch in the LCD cavity from Manual to Auto. Exposure adjustments are accurate and fast, taking about two seconds in most instances. Gradual transitions are not the camcorder’s strong points, at least not as much as Sony’s. Also, the dynamic range of the camcorder appears limited. It’s difficult to capture detail in both light and dark areas of the shot at the same time. The autofocus works well in bright light, but lags in very low light.
Panasonic offers a number of simple one-touch tools for making corrections that even beginners can understand. The camcorder itself prompts you when to activate these tools with little on-screen reminders if you turn on the Shooting Guide. Special settings include Low Light Mode (allowing the auto shutter down to 1/30), MagicPix (allowing the auto shutter down to about 1/4 of a second), Soft Skin Mode, Backlight Compensation, Tele Macro, and Intelligent Contract. That last feature, Intelligent Contrast, was introduced in the second-generation Panasonic AVCHD camcorders. It’s supposed to help prevent whites blowing out and shadows losing too much detail in shots where the two are mixed (precisely where we saw problems). When the feature was activated, we didn’t see too much of an improvement.
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The mode dial toggles between the HDD |
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Overall Manual Control (6.75)
The manual control package on Panasonic camcorders used to be one of the most compelling reasons to buy a Panasonic. They offered the most control and most professional-like features. Those days are over, as Panasonic has shifted its focus to creating the most compact frames possible. In doing so, however, it has been surpassed by Canon, Sony, and JVC, all of which offer – if not exactly the same controls as Panasonic – a comparable and appealing package.
This latest generation of Panasonic AVCHD camcorder took a big step backwards when their joysticks were relocated from the rear to inside the LCD cavity, placing them out of the shooter’s line of sight and making one-handed operation impossible. All this was done in the name of size reduction. If that’s important enough for you, so be it. We believe the handling should not have been sacrificed in this regard.
Panasonic’s core strength is that it remains the only consumer camcorder manufacturer to offer independent aperture and shutter speed, along with gain. It also benefits from a simple, clean menu system. However, it lacks a simple exposure tool that beginners can understand – something every other manufacturer addresses.
The zoom toggle
Zoom (6.25)
The zoom toggle is well-positioned on top of the camcorder. We loved the toggle on the HDC-SD9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00), but this is not identical. The size has been reduced slightly and the action doesn’t feel quite as good. It’s a very minor complaint, however.
When zooming, the camcorder provides both a scale to tell you where in the zoom range you are, along with an exact numeral. This is very helpful if you need to recreate a shot later. The slowest possible crawl on the HDC-HS9 is not as slow as the Canon HF10 or Sony HDR-SR12 (Review, Specs, $1399.00) (and presumably other Sony camcorders with an identical chipset and lens).
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The optical zoom on the Panasonic HDC-HS9 extends to 10x, which is more or less the standard for HD camcorders. There has been a trend this year toward increasing to 12x, as sensors have shrunken, mostly with Canon and Sony. The digital zoon on the HDC-HS9 can be set to a maximum of 25x or 700x.
Focus (5.0)
Focus is crucial for high definition camcorders, because focal errors will be much more noticeable with the increased resolution. Unfortunately, Panasonic offers the weakest manual focus tools in the HD market. To activate manual focus, push down on the Auto/Manual/Focus switch in the LCD cavity. The Function menu pops up in the lower right corner of the screen with options for MF+ and MF-. Use the joystick to adjust the focus. Use the image you see on the screen to determine whether focus is correct. Pretty bad, huh?
That used to be all you got with standard definition camcorders. With HD, manufacturers have had to step it up a little. Here’s what Panasonic offers. If you activate a tool in the main menu called MF Assist, every time you make a focal adjustment a small box appears in the center of the screen. Within this screen is the same image you were looking at, but at a 2x zoom. The idea is that if you can get a closer look at your subject, you’ll make more effective focal decisions. This only works if the screen is large enough and of an appropriate resolution, which is not the case here. In fact, the 3.2-inch, 921,000-pixel LCD on the Sony HDR-SR12 is the first LCD we can honestly say we’re satisfied with.
The MF Assist is OK, but pales in comparison to offerings from Canon, Sony, and JVC. Canon’s assist mode zooms the entire screen in and adds “peaking,” a grainy effect that draws out details in an object’s edge. Sony varies its assist functions depending on the model. The HDR-HC9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00) offers peaking. The HDR-SR12 does not, but does include the nice, big LCD. JVC has the best manual focus control. When the assist is activated, the picture is converted to black & white, then colored peaking is thrown on top of that, making it very easy to see the in-focus areas.
Exposure & Aperture (5.64)
As mentioned earlier, Panasonic does not offer a simple “up/down” exposure tool that novices can easily understand. Instead, you have independent aperture and shutter speed controls – great for the experienced shooter, and important for anyone to learn, but not the best entry-level feature.
The aperture is adjusted by pushing in on the joystick and calling up the Function menu. Aperture is referred to as “Iris.” Settings include f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.8, f/8.0, f/9.6, f/11, f/14, and f/16. In between each of these increments is an unwritten half-step.
Shutter Speed (8.1)
The shutter speed controls are located next to the aperture controls on the last page of the Function menu. Settings include 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, and 1/8000. If you’re shooting in 24P Digital Cinema mode, the 1/60 speed changes to 1/48.
If you turn on the Auto Slow Shutter feature in 1080/60i mode, 1/30 option is added to that list. If you’re in 24P Digital Cinema mode, a 1/24 setting appears.
Making changes to the shutter and aperture is easy, but we’d like to see more slow shutter speed options. When shooting in moderately low light, there’s a big difference between 1/15 and 1/30, but this camcorder will never give you that choice. The Canon HF10 gives you options for 1/8 and 1/15 in 1080/60i, and 1/6 and 1/12 in 1080/24P. JVC does not have aperture control on its HD Everios, but the manual shutter speed goes as low as 1/2 of a second. Sony never offers manual shutter control.
White Balance (5.5)
There are four white balance options on the Panasonic HDC-HS9: Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and Manual. If this is your first time with a camcorder, you’ll need the manual for some consultation, because the onscreen menu doesn’t tell you what these options are in plain text. Instead they rely on icons, a remnant from the bad old days of its previous menu system. The number of preset options here is far from thrilling, but it’s not unusual.
Making a manual adjustment is quite easy. Scroll over to the proper icon (a rectangle suspended over two squares) and push up on the joystick. The screen goes black for a second, and when it comes back, your colors are adjusted. We really like it when there is an obvious adjustment lag time. It’s reassuring that you did the procedure correctly, and not every camcorder gives the same guarantee.
Gain (6.0)
Panasonic is the only consumer camcorder manufacturer to offer gain, and they offer it in every camcorder in the lineup, which is reassuring for those with a smaller budget. Gain can only be modified after the aperture options have been exhausted, meaning the Iris value must read “Open” (f/1.8). Once this is done, you can play with the gain. Settings include 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15dB, and 18dB. Like the aperture control, there is a half-step setting between each of these that is not reported in the on-screen data display.
Gain is useful for low light shooting, but the small sensors on the Panasonic HDC-HS9 are small enough that they often peak out too early. In 60 lux, we found the auto gain had already been pushed to +15dB, which didn’t give us much more room for adjustments.
The gain function in action
Other Manual Controls (6.0)
At first, it might seem like a great idea to shoot your movies in the future color standard – you’re future proofing, right? Not quite. Each camcorder we’ve tested produces different results when played back on an non-xvYCC display. Sony seems to simply disregard the extra information. If you record a clip in xvYCC, then shoot the same thing again in the standard color gamut and play them both back on your old TV, you won’t see much of a difference. With the Panasonic HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9, the image is completely oversaturated. If you want to shoot in Digital Cinema Color, you must have an xvYCC-compliant HDTV.
To further complicate things, you can shoot Digital Cinema Color in a 24P frame rate, but you can’t shoot 24P in the standard color space. And if you don’t own an xvYCC-compliant TV, that means you’re probably never going to use the 24P mode. Too bad for you. Too bad for us all.
Tele Macro - This feature is for shooting small objects in great detail from a distance. When activated, via the Function menu, the zoom is automatically extended all the way.
Guide Lines - This creates lines on the screen to help you arrange shots. There are three settings. Horizontal draws three lines across the screen. Grid 1 makes two vertical and two horizontal lines. Grid 2 creates a lot of lines, breaking the screen up into a tiny grid.
Zebra - Zebra is a tool to help keep your exposure levels in check. There are two settings here, 70 and 100. These correspond to IRE levels. If an area of your shot exceeds either 70 IRE or 100 IRE, depending on the setting, that area will be filled with black & white moving stripes.
Color Bar - This option allows the camcorder to output seven full field color bars to help you adjust your monitor.
Shooting Guide - The Shooting Guide is a cool new feature for select 2008 Panasonic camcorders. When activated, it creates pop-up messages on the LCD screen that tell you if it detects a potential problem, and offers a tip on how to correct it. There are a limited number of errors it can detect. The implementation is rudimentary, but it seems the start of a great idea.
The Shooting Guide doesn’t make the corrections for you. Instead, it’s teaching you how to spot problems for yourself – training you to be a better shooter. In a few years, Panasonic could find a way to draw this out into a full-on interactive camcorder experience.