Panasonic SDR-H60 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Nov 18, 2008 1:20 PM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.5)
The one word we have for the Panasonic SDR-H60's automatic controls – fast. Just like our review of the Panasonic SDR-H200, the H60 makes automatic adjustments to exposure, focus, and white balance very quickly. This may not be to the taste of professionals who want gradual transitions rather than sharp snaps, particularly with the exposure. There is no way to adjust the speed of the transitions, of course (only professional camcorders include this, and it's rare even then). Most consumers will probably love the speed, however, so we don't view this as a problem.
The auto exposure is the fastest, as we mentioned. The auto white balance is next, then the auto focus. The higher the zoom power, the slower the auto focus occurred, in our experience. Our lab tests showed that the Panasonic SDR-H60 is definitely no low light power performer, so auto focus is definitely a problem in darker situations.
The camcorder has several one-touch controls to let you have a hand in the video quality without requiring a degree in photography. Some of these, like Soft Skin mode and MagicPix Night mode, are available on the joystick menu. There are several Scene Modes listed in the Admin menu: Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Surf & Snow – useful for difficult shooting environments.
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| The mode dial and joystick. |
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
Panasonic camcorders tend to pack in a lot of great manual controls, though they often come at the expense of complication. Panasonics are not necessarily the best choice for beginners. For instance, the SDR-H60 and its kin offer independent shutter speed and aperture control to get exactly the right exposure and depth of field you want. That's great, provided you know what those terms mean. But if you just want to make the picture brighter and darker, there's no simple exposure control, which you'd find on a camcorder from any other manufacturer.
Ironically, the joystick on this inexpensive camcorder is better-implemented than the joystick on the HD models from Panasonic. On the SDR-H60, the joystick is a mounted on rear of the body, making it perfectly accessible for the thumb. Once you get learn your way around the menu, the interface is quite good. On the HD models, like the HDC-HS100, the joystick is tucked away in the LCD cavity, out of sight and frustrating to access. We think you'll like the H60 much better.
Zoom (4.0)
The Panasonic HDC-H60 has a sliding switch on top to control the zoom. This type of control typically offers a little less control than the mini-rocker switch that Sony, Canon, and JVC offer, but it works well enough. We were not able to achieve more than two zoom speeds, and had a hard time getting a slow crawl.
When zooming, a scale appears on screen that indicates where in the zoom range you are. The exact zoom value is also displayed, making it easy to duplicate a shot later (an important feature for amateur filmmakers).
The Panasonic SDR-H60 features a huge 50x optical zoom. You're probably not going to find a bigger optical zoom in the consumer market. The question is, do you need it? Well, it's not like you don't need it. You can always choose not to extend the zoom all the way out. The only concern is that the further out you zoom, the more exaggerated your shaky hand will appear. Even the optical image stabilization can't do much past 8x-10x. If you plan on anything more powerful than that, we highly recommend setting the camcorder down on a flat surface or using a tripod.
There is, of course, a digital zoom, but you'll have no excuse to use it with such a powerful optical zoom. The digital zoom extends to either 50x or an absurd 2500x.
Focus (4.0)
Making a manual focus on the Panasonic SDR-H60 is easy, at least amongst camcorders of its class, but it's not terribly effective. Push down on the Auto/Manual/Focus switch to activate manual focus. An "MF" icon will appear onscreen. You then simply push the joystick left and right to shift focus.
Easy, right? The problem is that the relatively low-resolution LCD (123,000 pixels) is the only means of deciding if the focus is correct. Panasonic is not the only one at fault here. Almost every standard definition camcorder uses the same ineffective method of focusing. You can resort to it for big focus shifts, but fine focusing is a probably, and you may want to fall back on auto focus at times.
Exposure & Aperture (5.69)
The Panasonic SDR-H60 offers direct control over the aperture. 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. You can set the aperture and shutter speed completely independently, giving you a degree of control that no other consumer camcorder offers.
The flip side of this benefit is that there is no simple method to adjust exposure. The average person does not understand what aperture is, let alone how to adjust it. Sony, Canon, JVC, and Samsung all include a simple exposure or brightness control that allows you to simply hit a plus or minus button to make the picture brighter or darker.
Shutter Speed (8.1)
The Panasonic SDR-H60 offers direct control of the shutter speed, and can be set independently of the aperture. As described above, Panasonic is the only manufacturer to give you this level of control. Shutter speed settings 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 strange that Panasonic does not offer anything slower than 1/60th when most other manufacturers do. The camcorder does offer two low light modes, MagicPix and the "Night"scene mode, though they do not offer a tight level of control. The features are described above in the Automatic Controls section.
White Balance (6.5)
The Panasonic SDR-H60 white balance controls are slim: Indoor, Outdoor, Auto, and Manual. Canon offers more preset white balance settings, but most other manufacturers have the same sparse options. Making a manual white balance is simple. Select the Manual setting, point the camcorder towards your white or neutral grey target, then push in on the joystick. The screen will darken for a moment, and when it comes back, your colors should be correct.
Gain (6.0)
Panasonic is the only manufacturer to offer direct and simple control over gain. Sanyo includes a similar function that increases or decreases sensitivity, but it's measured in ISO numbers, which is more familiar to camera owners than camcorders owners.
The SDR-H60's gain control is measured in dB. Settings range from 0dB to +18dB, in increments of three.
Other Manual Controls (1.0)
Guidelines - If you need help lining up your shot, turn on guidelines. Three horizontal lines will appear across the screen.
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