Panasonic VDR-D250 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by Nick Hyacinthe
Published on Jan 18, 2006 2:00 PM

Intro Performance
Format Tour
Auto / Manual Controls
 Still Features
Handling and Use Audio / Playback / Connectivity
Other Features Comparisons / Conclusion



Automatic Control
Panasonics typically have moderate-to-good automatic controls. On the showroom floor at CES, most of the camcorder’s automatic adjustments performed fairly well and reacted relatively quickly. The VDR-D250 is capable of making automatic adjustment to exposure, focus, white balance, and shutter speed. This model made adequate and intelligent modifications to exposure. The camcorder’s automatic focus responded seamlessly to quick zooming, but seems to lag a bit when reaching full zoom capacity. This is not unheard of; most camcorders suffer such minor hindrances at full zooms.

The Panasonic VDR-D250 offers five Automatic Exposure modes: Spotlight, Sport, Portrait, Backlight, and Low Light. These features are a set of programmed responses, meant to be used in certain shooting conditions. Users can access these features in both still and video mode. Of course, since life and its environments are not tailored to the modes on a camcorder, we encourage you to explore the manual control options.

Manual Control
Similar to past generations, the VDR-D 3 CCD series is equipped with a slew of manual control options, accessed via the black mode switch found underneath the LCD. Flip it to Manual and you’re in business, with control available over focus, exposure, shutter speed, white balance, and gain. The actual manual control adjustments are made with the joystick navigation system that was borrowed from last year’s Panasonic MiniDV line. We like the joystick system over the previous four-way controller.

Zoom
The VDR-D250 has a 10x optical zoom with 700x digital zoom. The camcorder’s menu does not provide the user with varying zoom speeds, as you’ll find on this year’s Canons, but the user has the option of capping the camcorder’s digital zoom capacity at 25x. While the zoom toggle’s location (directly underneath the user’s thumb) makes it easy to access, its design does not provide optimum control. The sliding switch-type, as opposed to a raised toggle, has a greater tendency to rock the camcorder’s body and upset the picture.

Focus
In the VDR-D series, manual focus is initiated by pulling down on the switch in the LCD cavity, marked Auto / Manual / Focus. Two icons – portrait and a mountain – appear on screen. Adjustments are made with the joystick. The user angles the joystick left or right towards the appropriate icon (portrait or landscape) to push focus closer or further away. Similar to most camcorders on the market, this camcorder does not offer any numerical indicators as to where in the focal range you are. Without actual focal length measurements, users are simply making assumptions based on what they can see on the screen or through the viewfinder. It’s not a perfect system, and worse, it appears to be an industry trend.

Exposure
The VDR-D250 offers manual exposure adjustments with true aperture controls, F-stops and all! The 16 manual exposure steps range from f/1.8 (fully 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. By providing numerical values, the user is able to make precise manual exposure adjustments, and not guess the correct exposure by looking at an LCD screen that solarizes when viewed at an angle. We aren’t sure why Panasonic elected to favor exposure with numerical indicators and not focus. But we’re thankful for the aperture control. Most manufacturers offer only exposure value (EV) steps, and even then getting a numerical range of stops is spotty; more often it’s just a plus or minus sign.

Shutter Speed
The manual shutter speed feature presents the user with even more autonomy over the quality of the image. The high-end VDR-Ds offer manual shutter speed control from 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 of a second. Last year’s Panasonic DVD models were not capable of making shutter speed adjustments, so this is a welcome change. The VDR-D series’ top competitors, the Sony DCR-DVD405 and DCR-DV505, do not have manual shutter speed control.

White Balance
The VDR-D250 has manual white balance in theory (at least, it does so according to the specs provided by Panasonic). However, actually locating this option on-camcorder was a different story. At CES on the showroom floor, after several scrupulous searches of the VDR-D250’s manual control menu, there was still no sign of this camcorder’s white balance option. Maybe this was a defect with the model on the show floor, or perhaps the white balance option was put in a highly unintuitive place. It is unfathomable that a Panasonic cam would not include manual white balance. If the VDR-D250 is in fact guilty of this omission, it has failed its lineage and price tag. For fairness, let us (safely) assume that the D250 has the same white balance options as the VDR-D300: manual setting, auto white balance, fluorescent mode, and outdoor mode.

Gain
Manual gain is scarce among DVD camcorders; for example, the Sony DCR-DVD505 has neglected to provide manual gain control. Panasonic, however, has equipped its two high-end VDR-D models with the ability to make manual gain adjustments from 0dB to 18dB in 1dB increments (only every 3 dBs register on the numerical scale). Even though manual gain is a great option—we always like to see as much control available to the user as possible—it has its own pros and cons. Gain amplifies the video signal, making the image brighter, but increasing the noise as well. Use with caution, and experiment before you need to shoot something important.



<< Tour | Still Features >>