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Panasonic SDR-H200 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 3, 2007 5:00 PM
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Still Features (6.75)In order to access Photo mode, shift the SDR-H200’s mode dial to the camera icon. You can capture JPEG stills in the following sizes: 2048 x 1512, 1920 x 1080 (widescreen), 1280 x 960, and 640 x 480 at either fine or standard quality. Stills can be captured to the 30 GB HDD or SD card. The HDD can hold up to 19,160 images in the highest resolution, or 2,520 images on a 4 GB SDHC card.
Scene modes, guidelines, and optical image stabilization (OIS) are carried over from Video mode, except Photo mode’s OIS features a “mega” setting which increases the effectiveness of the OIS when the shutter button is pressed halfway. The SDR-H200 does not include a flash, but it is equipped with a high-powered video light and the same manual control set found in Video mode.
The only other still feature to be found on the SDR-H200 is the shutter effect setting, which applies a sound effect when the photo button is pressed.
Still Performance (7.57)
Still performance is tested by shooting an industry standard GretagMacBeth Color Checker chart at an even 3000 lux and running those stills through Imatest imaging software to determine color error, noise, and saturation. At best, the Panasonic SDR-H200 was able to produce a color error of 7.93, which was about average for a camcorder in this price range. The noise level was at 1.2875 percent, and the saturation was at 106.6 percent. In order to get the most accurate color, the exposure had to be lowered, which is typical for most camcorders and point-and-shoot cameras. In Auto mode, the camera was shooting at f/2.4 and a 1/60 shutter. We closed the aperture to f/2.8.
To the eye, the still images from the SDR-H200 are just slightly grainy, but the color is good. This is about the same quality we’ve seen with low-end point-and-shoot cameras.
Still Resolution (23.74)
In order to find the still resolution, we shoot an Applied Image ISO 12233 resolution chart and run those stills through Imatest imaging software to determine resolution in line widths per picture height (lw/ph). This test measures the actual resolution of the final image, and not the resolution of the sensor prior to processing. At best, the Panasonic SDR-H200 produced a horizontal resolution of 1324 lw/ph – with a clipping of 2.5 percent and an 83 percent oversharpening – and a vertical resolution of 691.6 lw/ph – with a 4.89 percent oversharpening.
We tweaked the exposure to several different settings, but the Auto mode still produced the best resolution score. Auto adjustments set the camcorder to f/2.8 and a shutter of 1/120. One thing we could not shake was that clipping score. The cause becomes apparent when you look at the image of the chart. Notice the intense sharpening – the white halo effect along the black edges – that is meant to increase the appearance of sharpness. But as a result, many of those pixels in the white area are blown out or clipped. No manual setting seemed to get the clipping under 3 percent.
A 200% blow-up of the still resolution chart. Notice the results of too much in-camera
sharpening - the thick black and white borders a few pixels wide on either side
of high contrast areas.
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