Panasonic HDC-SD100 Camcorder Review

Automatic Control (6.5)

Auto focus probably saw the best implementation, as the SD100 adjusted focus quickly and accurately, even in low light. Exposure was also quick and accurate when shifting between highly contrasting environments. When slowly panning across areas of high contrast, the auto exposure staggers a bit from one level to the next, but it's easier to get a smooth transition here than with the manual controls. Finally, white balance was probably the most finicky of the lot, sometimes creating strangely balanced coloration. We regularly relied on the manual white balance to get the best shot.

The HDC-SD100, like Panasonic's hard drive model, also includes an additional auto mode, called Intelligent Auto Mode (iA). This mode, rather than making individual automatic adjustments to color, exposure, etc., will automatically select one of a handful of scene modes. The camcorder will select Portrait, Scenery, Spotlight, Low Light, or Normal, then enact a series of subsequent adjustments. The adjustment is made within just one or two seconds and usually seemed to be appropriate for what was being shot. However, we found the SD100's regular auto mode to be just as good, making iA mode an unnecessary addition.

In addition to the straight-up auto mode, there are a couple features that give you one-touch control without having to delve into full manual operation. One group of these is accessed via the Joystick menu. These include Backlight Compensation, Intelligent Contrast Control, Face Framing, Soft Skin Mode, MagicPix, and Tele Macro. Buried within the Administrative Menu, you'll also find a number of scene modes to choose from while in manual mode: Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Fireworks, and Scenery.

All of these effects and modes should be seen as aids for capturing the shot you want quickly. In many cases, we found that they were not substitutes for manual adjustments. Options on the Joystick menu, especially, were very limited. They serve their purpose, but can produce mediocre results if you are relying on them too heavily. We recommend using these options as guides to help you learn how to set up the shot manually.

Overall Manual Control (8.5)
There is one feature on the Panasonic HDC-SD100 that we love above all others: the addition of the multi-function ring. This smooth, finely tuned control makes for seamless focusing and also allows you to adjust zoom, white balance, shutter speed, and "Iris" (a combination of aperture and gain).

Unfortunately, Panasonic still has some kinks to work out in the ring's implementation. Switching between the ring's many modes is unintuitive: pushing down on the auto/manual switch will toggle the default function of the ring between manual focus and manual zoom. To access white balance, shutter speed, and iris, the user must push the Cam Function button, then use the ring to choose the right function, then hit the Cam Function button again. The desired function can then be adjusted with the ring. This process would be better controlled with a joystick—if only Panasonic had placed the joystick on the back of the camcorder, rather than buried within the LCD cavity.

There is an added annoyance of the placement of the flash for still photography, which is nestled up against the right side of the ring. It isn't a deal-breaker, but from time to time it gets in the way of operating the ring. (For instance, if you have to constantly reposition your hand on the ring, it's more difficult to get a smooth zoom.) The ring also works better for some functions than for others—see below for details—and is, unfortunately, the only way to adjust these settings.

The Panasonic HDC-SD100's exciting new multi-function ring

Zoom (8.0)
The HDC-SD100 offers two methods of controlling zoom: the traditional wide/tele zoom toggle and the multi-function ring. No matter which method you use, the LCD screen will provide information on the current zoom ratio, as well as a slider bar to indicate your position in the entire zoom range. Both tools are helpful for duplicating shots, but are not precise measurements—there are several possible zoom positions within a single zoom ratio. It's unfortunate that the slider bar doesn't track smooth, continuous zooming.

Of the two methods for controlling zoom, we actually prefer the traditional zoom toggle. The toggle is located on the top of the camcorder where most index fingers will naturally rest. It is a horizontal slider, but quite responsive. It can be tricky to find the nuance required for the slowest zoom speed, but once you hit that position, zooming is smooth and continuous. The texture on top of the toggle ensures that your finger remains in the appropriate position.

The ring, on the other hand, makes long, smooth zooming a bit trickier. The placement of the flash is unfortunate, especially for users with slightly larger hands. It means that you'll do most of the ring adjustment with your left thumb, while your left index finger stays fixed in position atop the flash. Many camcorder and camera users will be accustomed to using both thumb and index finger to rotate the ring. On the SD100, this simply isn't possible.

This drawback is in addition to the relative inaccessibility of the zoom function. To use the ring for zooming, you'll have to switch off Auto mode (and Intelligent Auto mode), then toggle the Auto/Manual switch to select zoom instead of focus. If you have been using the ring for other manual adjustments, push the Cam Function button, then select "Return" from the menu. If the LCD reads "MZoom," then the ring is set to zoom. If the LCD reads "MF," you'll need to toggle that Auto/Manual switch into zoom mode. The process is a bit unwieldy and it seems a shame that you can't use the ring to zoom when you're in Auto mode (or Intelligent Auto mode).

Zoom Power Ratio (12.0)
The Panasonic HDC-SD100 has a 12x optical zoom, a good improvement over the 10x optical zoom from last generation's HDC-SD9. There is also the option of expanding the zoom range up to 30x or up to 700x using digital zoom, but since this significantly degrades video quality, we're happy to see that this setting is turned off by default and is buried in the Administrative menu.

The Panasonic HDC-SD100 zoom toggle is surprisingly responsive—perhaps a better choice for zooming than the ring.

Focus (7.0)
Manual focus can only be controlled using the multi-function ring, but the ring works great once you've figured out how to get it going. As with all ring functions, you'll have to turn off both auto mode and Intelligent Auto (iA) mode to access manual focus. Once in manual mode, the Auto/Manual toggle can be used to switch between Zoom and Focus. If the LCD reads "MF" on the left side of the screen, you're all set. If you've been using the ring for other manual adjustments, you need to press the Cam Function button and select "Return" from the menu. Again, this isn't an intuitive process.

While focusing, the HDC-SD100 offers the same excellent assistance tool that we saw on the HDC-HS100. Called "MF Assist," it is turned on by default and we recommend you leave it on. With focus assist enabled, a blue box will appear whenever you're in Manual Focus mode. The box will display a zoomed version of the center of your screen, allowing you to better focus on your subject. We found this to be very handy, but it can be turned off in the Administrative menu.

Using the ring for focus is an elegant process, far better than the joysticks or touch screens seen on the competition. It allows you to make very fine adjustments or smoothly transition from one focus to another. Combining this with the MF Assist tool makes for a robust manual focus experience.

Exposure & Aperture (8.11)
Simple exposure adjustments and direct aperture control are both possible on the HDC-SD100, though each is implemented differently. Exposure is available under the "Picture Adjust" option in the Advanced tab of the Administrative menu. For such a straightforward concept, we were surprised to see the option so thoroughly buried in the menus. Even beginners would have no problem understanding the idea of exposure (or "brightness," as JVC calls it), but we doubt that many beginners would go through the 14 button presses needed to access the Exposure option.

For more savvy users who might plumb the depths of the SD100's menus, adjusting the exposure is a simple affair. By default, the camcorder is set to an exposure of "zero." Accessing the exposure control will bring up a slider that can be adjusted to any integer from -5 to +5. This is very similar to the feature on Canons, except that Canon gives you more increments (up to 23, as opposed to Panasonic's 11 increments) and Canon makes it much easier to access (just 3 button pushes instead of Panasonic's 14). It seems that exposure would be a simple feature to add to the multi-function ring and we hope that Panasonic does so in the future.

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Aperture, referred to as "Iris" by Panasonic, is one of the features controlled via the multi-function ring. When you've exhausted your options for aperture by bringing it to a fully open position, you can further boost the exposure by increasing gain (explained in the Gain section, below). The Iris control can be accessed by switching into Manual mode, pressing the Cam Function button, and selecting Iris from the menu.

The tools Panasonic gives you to help in adjusting aperture are surprisingly robust. On the left side of the screen, you will find the shutter speed, aperture, and gain, all next to a live histogram, which gives a very convenient overview of exposure for the entire shot. In the center of the screen is a small square, which indicates the luminance for that portion of the shot in a percentage from 0 - 100%. To our knowledge, the Panasonics of this generation are the first consumer camcorders to implement what is, essentially, a built-in light meter. If you find them distracting, the histogram and luminance meter can be turned off.

The aperture range includes: f/1.8 (Open), 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.

The iris control in action. Aperture is shown in the
lower left above the gain level.

Shutter Speed (8.1)
Shutter speed can be independently adjusted by the multi-function ring. As with the Iris control, to access shutter speed, you switch into Manual mode, press the Cam Function button, and select shutter speed from the menu. The default shutter speeds available 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. We found the ring to be an accurate and responsive method for selecting shutter speed.

There are also two settings that can open up a slightly wider range of options for shutter speed. Turning on Auto Slow Shutter (in the Administrative menu), will provide you with additional option of a 1/30th shutter speed. Switching to 24P Digital Cinema mode (also in the Admin menu) will add 1/48th as an option. If you have both Auto Slow Shutter and 24P Digital Cinema mode activated, you can access the lowest possible shutter speed of 1/24th.

White Balance (5.5)
White balance is also adjusted via the multi-function ring. Switch into Manual mode, press the Cam Function button, and select White Balance in order to access a variety of pre-programmed white balance settings. Options include: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Indoor 1 (incandescent), Indoor 2 (color fluorescent), and Manual.

The manual white balance manages to be simple without being intuitive. This is the only setting controlled by the ring that requires you to hold down the Cam Function button. The entire process involves switching to Manual mode, pressing the Cam Function button, selecting White Balance from the menu, pressing the Cam Function button to confirm, using the ring to dial up the Manual setting, then holding down on the Cam Function button while the camcorder performs the manual white balance. If this sounds confusing, imagine if you were a beginner trying to perform a manual white balance for the first time.

Panasonic further complicates the process by depicting all the possible white balance settings via icons, with no text. Users will have to intuit what the universal symbol for "manual white balance" might be. Considering you are only using the ring to scroll through six options, we think this feature could just as easily have been left inside the menus, where a joystick and text descriptions could have helped make this feature more accessible.

Gain (6.0)
Panasonic is the only manufacturer of consumer camcorders to offer a manual gain control. As mentioned above, gain is part of a larger feature called "Iris," which combines aperture and gain to give the user greater control over the light in their footage. Unfortunately, combining these two features into one means that you can only increase gain once the aperture is fully opened—you won't be able to increase depth of field and gain at the same time. You won't find this kind of limitation on pro camcorders, but it's meant as a protective measure to prevent the user from making their footage too grainy.

Despite the minor limitation, it is nice to have gain control. The live histogram and luminance tools are available and in very dark scenes (where one would usually want to boost gain), you'll want the aperture fully opened anyway. Available gain settings include: 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15dB, and 18dB.

The iris control in action. Gain is shown in the lower left
and can only be increased once the aperture is fully open.

Other Manual Controls (9.0)
The Panasonic HDC-SD100 has a handful of features that either give you additional manual control over your footage or serve as guides when making manual adjustments.

Sharpness - This generation, Panasonic has given you the ability to make fine adjustments to sharpness. As we mentioned above when describing exposure control, Panasonic does not make it easy to access these "Picture Adjust" options (sharpness, color, exposure). Delving through the menus with 12 button presses will get you to the sharpness control. Here, you'll find a slider from -5 to +5 (with zero being the camcorder default). Each increment effects a very subtle shift, but videophiles will likely enjoy this additional level of control.

Color - Also included among the buried "Picture Adjust" options (see above) is a new feature for shifting color—saturation or "depth of color." This option is 13 button presses away, but well worth the trek. Under most conditions, we found the HDC-SD100's processor to produce an unnaturally saturated image. The Color option will give you a scale from -5 to +5 (with zero being the camcorder default). Bringing it down to -2 or -3 will give your footage a softer, more realistic color balance. Unfortunately, if you already have to scale down to achieve realistic colors, you don't have much room for muting colors further.

Exposure Guides - The Panasonic HDC-SD100 offers three tools to help balance the exposure of your shots. Two of these are only available in Manual mode: the live histogram and luminance meter. By default, these tools only appear whenever you are manually adjusting the aperture or shutter speed via the multi-function ring. In the Administrative menu, however, you can adjust these tools to appear at all times. The histogram helps you determine how much of your shot is in brightness, shadows, and midtones, while the small meter in the center gives you a luminance value from 0 - 100%.

These tools can be used in conjunction with (or in lieu of) the Zebra tool, which creates scrolling "zebra stripe" patterns in areas of the shot that are overexposed. This option can be turned on or off through the Administrative menu; it is also available only in Manual mode. While the zebra tool is certainly functional, we were disappointed to see little flexibility—Sony camcorders, for instance, offer the option to set the threshold of the zebra patterns to 70 or 100 IRE. On the Panasonics, the threshold value is unknown.

24P Cinema Color - This is very nearly a great feature. Panasonic allows you to record in a 24P frame rate, which sounds good in theory. Unfortunately, the 24P footage doesn't look very good. For one, you can't record in 24P without also engaging the Cinema Color feature, which we found to oversaturate many colors within a given scene. (See Video Performance section.) You can try to compensate by lowering the color saturation in the Picture Adjust feature, but that won't solve the other significant problem with 24P mode: trailing and stuttering ruin anything but the slowest moving scenes. However, if you are shooting a slow-moving scene and you like the oversaturation, this mode lets you record in 24P and take advantage of the expanded color space. (See below.) 24P Cinema Color mode can be activated in the Record Setup tab of the Administrative menu.

Digital Cinema Color - If you want to use Panasonic's Cinema Color mode, but without the trailing and stuttering of 24P video, you can activate Digital Cinema Color from within the Advanced tab of the Administrative Menu. This setting offers you the option to record in xvYCC color, which is the emerging color standard for high definition television. In short, it's a wider, deeper color space. Unfortunately, only the more recent HDTVs support xvYCC color, so chances are you won't get the true benefits of this feature.

Also, as mentioned above, Digital Cinema Color seems to do more than expand to xvYCC color—many colors in your footage will appear to be oversaturated. You can compensate slightly by adjusting color saturation in the Picture Adjust feature, but we're not sure why compensation is required at all. Other manufacturers, like Sony, produce camcorders capable of xvYCC color, but color saturation remains unaffected—non-compatible displays simply discard the extra information.

Guidelines - This feature creates lines on the LCD or viewfinder (and not on your final footage) to help you line up your shots. There are three options: the Horizontal setting creates three horizontal lines. Grid 1 splits the screen in thirds both horizontally and vertically. Grid 2 creates a bunch of vertical and horizontal lines to create a big grid with about 60 squares.