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Panasonic HDC-SX5 First Impressions Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Jul 30, 2007 3:00 AM 
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control
To put the Panasonic HDC-SX5 in auto mode, flip the auto/manual/focus switch in the LCD cavity to the Auto position. After a good one half-hour of shooting, we found it to offer the same great level of automatic responses that the VDR-D310 (Specs, $499) and PV-GS320 (Specs, $0) had. The exposure transitions were fast, usually taking about four seconds. As we’d seen before, the auto white balance were more gradual, taking up to 10-12 seconds to find the temperature, then usher it in over the course of 3-4 seconds. The auto focus had an adjustment time somewhere in the middle. It was great when the zoom was only extended a short degree. Once the zoom extended out, auto focus could take much longer.
Overall Manual Control
The overall manual control package is good. Anyone familiar with Panasonic camcorders of the last few years would recognize most elements immediately. In fact, it handles almost identically to all the three-chip camcorders this year, with a few extra features thrown in for good measure (see below in Other Manual Controls).
The menu layout, as with all the 3-chip Panasonic models we've seen in the last year, makes good sense. The core manual controls are located in the joystick menu, which can be called up and sorted through solely by the joystick - that means one hand operation while you're shooting. Options here include aperture, shutter, white balance, and gain, along with Soft Skin, MagicPix, backlight compensation, and Tele Macro. The joystick menu appears as a small icon in the corner of the LCD, and can be angaged while shooting.
The main menu is accessed by hitting the Menu button located on the back of the camcorder. This menu contains all the settings that you wouldn't necessarily need while shooting. This menu takes up the whole screen and cannot be accessed while shooting.
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Three sub-menus in the main menu. |
The basic manual control package includes zoom, focus, independent aperture and shutter speed, gain, and white balance. This is as comprehensive as you can find in the consumer realm. Yes, there are HD camcorders that have a more effective package of manual controls (i.e., the Canon HV20 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $903) or JVC GZ-HD7 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1529)), but Panasonic almost always offers you the most, and they do a damn good job of it. However, some things have changed. The rear-mounted joystick control is well-placed, but smaller than any of their standard def camcorders. The simple equation of “larger equals better” seems to have been thrown out the window here. It didn’t stop us from performing a smooth operation, but it’s notably easier with the bigger joysticks. The position of the joystick does make one-handed operation possible. Most of the key operations can be done solely from the joystick. Options located in the main menu may have to involve your second hand, as you have to hit the Menu button to get there, and the Menu button is a far reach.
The focus control could have been better. There was room for improvement since the HDC-DX1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99), and they only downgraded it more by shrinking the LCD. Overall, though, we’re fairly pleased with the manual control package.
Zoom
The Panasonic HDC-SX5 features a small, raised zoom toggle with ridges along the top for an easy grip. It’s placed perfectly for the forefinger during shooting. This is exactly the kind of zoom control we like to see.
The zoom extends to 10x optical and 700x digital. The digital zoom can be turned off or capped at 25x to prevent complete destruction of the shot. It takes about five seconds to go from 1x to 10x. The camcorder appears to have a good, slow crawl and a fast zoom, but it was hard to maintain a medium speed.
Focus
Of all the HD camcorders out right now, the focus controls on the Panasonic models are the least impressive. Good focus is crucial in HD because your mistakes become so much more obvious. While the focus controls are better than their standard def models, it’s a slim margin. To engage manual focus, push down on the auto/manual/focus switch in the LCD cavity. A blue box appears in the center of the screen, taking up about half the screen. Inside the box is a digital zoom of about 3x – 4x. This is meant to help you see a bit of detail that you can focus on. Actually, adjusting the focus is done by moving the joystick left and right. After a few seconds of inactivity, the blue box disappears. This box does not get recorded to your footage, and will not appear on a TV if you’re hooked up during recording.
A peaking feature could have knocked this control out of the park, but Panasonic does not include one. (Peaking is a feature that artificially colors the in-focus areas in a vibrant color.) Likewise, a manual control ring would have been great. As it stands, this is even worse than last year. Though the resolution of the LCD has increased, the size has been reduced from 3.5” on the HDC-DX1 to 2.7” on the HDC-SX5. That extra size can really come in handy while focusing.
Exposure (Aperture)
The Panasonic HDC-SX5 offers aperture control, completely independent from shutter speed. Panasonic is one of the few manufacturers to offer this control on a consumer camcorder. Usually, you get either an Aperture Priority mode, where the shutter speed is automatically adjusted, or a Shutter Priority mode, where the aperture is automatically selected. There is some lament, however, in the absence of an exposure compensation tool. This control, found on nearly all camcorders, is a simple “make it brighter, make it less bright” tool that complements the point-and-shooter mentality. Aperture and its ramifications on depth of field can be a hard thing to wrap one’s mind around.
The aperture range on the Panasonic HDC-SX5 includes: Open (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. The control is found in the round joystick menu, accessed by pushing in on the joystick.
Shutter Speed
The shutter control, like aperture, is located in the joystick manual control menu. The Panasonic HDC-SX5 has a new shutter speed not found on the HDC-DX1 or the HDC-SD1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99). It now goes down as low as 1/30th, which should help improve low light considerably. Other shutter speeds 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.
White Balance
The white balance settings are the same that you’ll find on nearly all consumer Panasonic camcorders: Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and Manual. These are located in the manual control joystick, making them very accessible while shooting.
Gain
Like all Panasonic consumer camcorders, the Panasonic HDC-SX5 allows you to adjust gain after the aperture has been opened all the way (f/1.8). The gain ranges from 0dB to 18dB, displayed in 3dB increments, making seven steps in all. Between each step, however, is a half-increment that clearly has an effect on exposure, though the digital display of the gain value does not change. Arguably, this makes 14 increments in total.
Other Manual Controls
Intelligent Contrast Control – This is a new feature to the Panasonic line. Intelligent Contrast is turned on and off in the main menu. When engaged, it is meant to prevent lost information in blown-out and shadowy areas. In practice, we did not see a whole lot of difference. It had a small effect on blown-out areas, but almost none on deep shadows if they were too strongly backlit. Intelligent Contrast also seemed to have a strange effect on skin tones, perhaps saturating them. An effect like this negates the best reason to buy a Panasonic, which is the color performance.
Zebra – Located in the main menu, the zebra stripes can be turned on and off, but there’s not much more info available as to what IRE level is set as the threshold.
Color Bars – Color bars used to calibrate your monitor are available in the main menu.
Guidelines – Located in the main menu, the Panasonic HDC-SX5 offers three guideline options. The first creates three horizontal lines, the second adds three vertical lines, dividing the screen into nine sectors. Finally, the third option creates 10 vertical lines and six horizontal lines, making more quadrants than you could ever need to set up a shot.