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Panasonic SDR-H200 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 3, 2007 5:00 PM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.5)
One word describes the auto responses on the SDR-H200: fast. The white balance, the focus, and especially the exposure all worked with great speed for most adjustments. The white balance shifts between indoor and outdoor were quite good. It also handled itself well in mixed lighting, such as shooting indoors near a window, a situation many camcorders have a problem with. The auto focus was great, traversing even the biggest jumps from close up to far away subjects in 1 to2 seconds. What we noticed most was the auto exposure, which was very, very fast. Point-and-shooters are going to love this, because it means less time hassling with the manual controls. Of course, we must make a small concession to the concerns of the pro shooter, who would criticize the adjustments for being too fast. Most pro camcorders produce more gradual transitions. The better models even have the ability to dictate the auto response speed. For consumer concerns, however, the SDR-H200 functions very well on its own in moderate light.
Low light shooting can cause some problems for the automatic controls. Auto focus will slow down, and you may have to employ manual control. At a certain point, the auto exposure will simply conk out because the camcorder has exhausted its ability to gather any more light or even amplify a weak signal with gain. This is due to the small CCD imagers. Many camcorders in this price range, like the JVC GZ-MG555 and the Sony DCR-SR200, have larger imagers that produce better low light response.
The SDR-H200 has a number of one-touch controls that can improve the image quality without you having to understand how or why. However, you will have to read through the manual or use the Info feature on the Joystick menu to learn how to read the menu icons. One-touch controls on the Joystick menu include backlight compensation, Soft Skin mode, MagicPix night mode, and Tele Macro mode. In the Main menu, under the Basic submenu, you’ll find Scene modes, which can be used in specific shooting environments often tricky to properly expose. Scene modes include Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Surf & Snow.
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
Panasonic always packs in the manual controls, though its position as champion has been challenged by Canon in the last few years. However, Panasonic remains the only consumer brand to offer independent shutter and aperture, as well as direct gain control, which is why it has remained the choice for serious, hands-on budget shooters.
Once again, Panasonic has made a gross error in its online specs, duping customers into thinking the SDR-H200 has a manual focus ring. It does not. The manual focus is performed with the joystick, and it’s terrible. Panasonic made this same mistake with the VDR-D310, and though Panasonic was alerted it, it has yet to be corrected.
While the joystick may make for a lame focusing tool, overall it performs very well as the all-in-one interface for manual controls and menu navigation. The rear-placement makes one-handed operation possible, which is always a plus. You might want that other hand to wave people into and out of the shot, hail a cab, or eat a sandwich. It would prove more comfortable for big hands if it had it been positioned a little farther away from the hand strap.
Zoom (6.5)
The zoom control on the SDR-H200 is a raised toggle with a nice, wide grip. It has a very smooth action that actually makes it hard to produce a good crawl. We were only able to find about two zoom speeds depending on finger pressure. Also, if you’re trying for a crawl, the zoom will automatically speed up after 4x. This may be detrimental to student filmmakers who want a good crawl.
When zooming, a graphic appears in the upper right corner of the screen with a sliding scale to represent the zoom range and a numerical value to indicate exactly what the zoom power is. When the digital zoom is activated, the sliding scale does not enlarge. Instead, a portion of the scale appears blue.
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The Panasonic SDR-H200 offers an optical zoom of up to 10x. This is a standard length for camcorders with better imaging sensors. It’s a matter of optics. Larger chips require longer barrel lengths for big zooms. Because keeping the overall size down is a principle goal, the zoom ratio is reduced. Though the individual chips on the SDR-H200 are small, there are three of them, and a prism in front to split the incoming light. That takes room, which costs zoom power. Cheaper camcorders with small chips often puff up the zoom power to make them seem more attractive. Don’t get fooled. You generally don’t need or want it. After 4x to6x, the picture will become too shaky.
The digital zoom is activated in Main menu under the Advanced submenu. It can be capped at 25x or extended to its full (and ridiculous) 700x. Never in a million years will a 700x zoom do you any good. In fact, just pretend we never mentioned it.
Focus (4.0)
Contrary to the manufacturer’s specs published on their site, the Panasonic SDR-H200 does not have a manual focus ring. The ring around the lens of the camcorder is used to open the lens cap, and nothing more.
Manual focus is engaged by pushing down on the auto/manual/focus switch in the LCD cavity. When pushed down all the way, an “MF” icon appears on-screen in the upper left and an “MF +/-” in the lower right. Use the joystick to push back and forth until you like the look. This is probably the worst manual focus control of any manufacturer. Sure, most of them are pretty terrible, but at least JVC and Sony usually give you little icons of a man and a mountain to indicate that pushing in one direction will shift the focus closer and the other far away. With the Panasonic, what do a plus and minus sign mean? This is a problem in conjunction with all the other, normal problems on consumer camcorders. If the LCD is the only means of gauging focus, why is the LCD only 2.7-inches? Why is the resolution only 123,000 pixels? The chances of making an inaccurate decision based on the LCD are high, especially when shooting outside on a sunny day when the screen glares. Whenever possible, leave it in Auto mode.
Exposure & Aperture (5.69)
The SDR-H200, like all Panasonics, offers aperture control independent of the shutter speed. To access the control, called Iris, make sure the camcorder is in Manual mode, then toggle through to the third page of the Joystick menu. Settings include: 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. In between each of these is another increment that is completely unspecified, but it’s doing something. The picture gets noticeably darker or brighter when you hit these halfway-increments. Stranger still, if you do this in Still mode, the information still does not appear in the EXIF data.
While aperture control is great, some beginners have no idea what an f-stop is, let alone how it affects picture quality (Hint: it measures how wide the iris is open. The smaller the number, the larger the opening.). In those instances, it would be great to have a simple exposure or “brightness” control. Unfortunately, that’s not available here, and it’s going to frustrate a lot of newbies. This is all Sony offers, and both Canon and JVC typically offer f-stop control and a simple exposure tool.
Shutter Speed (8.1)
The shutter speed control on the Panasonic SDR-H200 is independent of the aperture, meaning one can be set and locked before you move onto the other control. No other consumer camcorder brand offers this ability. Shutter speed options include: 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, and 1/8000. It’s frustrating that, despite the poor low light performance, Panasonic did not offer a slower shutter speed than 1/60. There are two special night modes, MagicPix and the Night Scene Mode, but those do not offer the same level of control.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance options are located on the third page of the Joystick menu, along with the aperture and shutter controls. The manual white balance adjustment is great and works quickly, but the presets are disappointingly few: Indoor and Outdoor. A more varied list covering multiple color temperatures (such as fluorescent and incandescent) would have been more useful. Thankfully, the auto correction is quite good.
Gain (6.0)
The Panasonic SDR-H200 offers gain control only after the aperture has been opened all the way (f/1.8). The gain can be shifted in 3dB increments from 0dB to +18dB. As with the aperture control, there is a half-increment between each setting that is not reflected in the displayed numerical value, but nevertheless has an effect on exposure.
Gain is a digital signal boost to the information that’s already coming in. This is, in theory, great for low light shooting. The problem with boosting any signal is that you also increase the noise within that signal. The noise produced by the SDR-H200 was not too noticeable in our low light testing, which is great. But even pumped up to the max +18dB, the camcorder still performs poorly in low light.
Other Manual Controls (1.0)
Guidelines - The Panasonic SDR-H200 offers a guidelines option in the Main menu. This creates three horizontal lines across the LCD to help you line up shots. The lines do not appear on the recorded footage.
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