Panasonic VDR-D310 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Jul 16, 2007 8:48 AM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (6.5)
The Panasonic VDR-D310 has excellent automatic responses to changes in focus, exposure, and white balance. This, combined with its excellent manual control set, may be reason enough to buy it. Of course, it has its hang-ups, but they seem to be few and far between.
The automatic control is engaged via the auto/manual/focus switch in LCD cavity. The auto mode in Panasonics is not quite as idiot-proof as Easy mode on Sony camcorders, but it’s not bad. Absolute beginners can have a hard time navigating the menu, but the intuitive design reveals itself soon enough. A full report of the menu can be read in the Menu section later in the review.
The automatic focus is works very well, which is good, because like the PV-GS320, the VDR-D310 does not have a very good manual focus control. One feature in particular that we appreciated was that the focus never showed signs of breathing – that steady in and out of focus that can happen sometimes. The VDR-D310 can either find the focus or it can’t.
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The VDR-D310 mode dial and joystick |
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In the administrative menu (hit the Menu button to get there) you’ll find a number of Scene modes (sometimes called AE or Program AE settings). They include: Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Surf & Snow. For some reason, scene modes is one of the few options that cannot be accessed while in Auto mode. For that, you have to flip the switch to manual.
Overall Manual Control (6.75)
The Panasonic VDR-D310 has the same great pedigree of manual controls that you’ll find on all the Panasonics: manual aperture, shutter speed, gain, focus, white balance, and a collection of one-touch controls. Not all of them are as well-implemented as they could have been, but together they make the VDR-D310 a powerful tool.
First, we want to make an important correction to the official documentation from Panasonic. Despite what the VDR-D310 product page states, this camcorder does not have a manual focus ring. We’ve informed Panasonic about this well before publication. Hopefully it gets fixed soon. The reason we want to state this so clearly is that the manual focus control on the VDR-D310 is bad. There’s nothing new or different about it; it’s just the same old bad it’s been for a while. You only have the clarity of the image on that low-res LCD to gauge focus. And we don’t know about you, but we hold Panasonic up to a higher standard than that, because they set the bar in the first place.
The joystick does most of the manual control work, and it functions quite well. The important controls you want during shooting are instantly accessible by pushing in on the joystick, bringing up the “manual control joystick menu.”
Zoom (6.5)
The zoom toggle on the VDR-D310 is a raised toggle, the kind we like to see. The placement could have been better. As it is, the toggle falls under the middle finger instead of the index finger. Even so, the design beats out the flat, sliding switch found on the PV-GS320 for one primary reason – silent operation. The on-board mic will not pick up the sound of raised toggle. The internal movements of the lens are also very quiet, assuring no disturbances in the audio track.
When zooming, a progress bar appears in the upper right corner of the screen to let you know where in the zoom range you are. The camcorder also displays the numerical value of the zoom power (1x, 2x, etc…). When the digital zoom is engaged, a portion of the progress bar is given over a blue area that indicates digital territory. Think of it as a warning system. Don’t stray too far in the blue or your image quality will be lost.
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The optical zoom on the VDR-D310 extends to 10x. The digital zoom must be activated in the admin menu. It can be capped at 25x or 700x. For best shooting practices, even 25x is a little too far. We recommend leaving it off altogether, or personally limiting it to 15x.
Focus (4.0)
The Panasonic VDR-D310 does not have a manual focus ring, despite what some official literature might say. The focus control is does have is pretty sorry. To activate it, press down on the auto/manual/focus switch located in the menu. An “MF” appears onscreen and the joystick is shifted left of right to adjust focus. That’s all you get. The focus must judged entirely on how the image appears on the small, low-resolution LCD. This is a weak control, and is best left to emergency use only.
Exposure & Aperture (5.69)
The Panasonic VDR-D310 has no exposure compensation control, which may be a little scary for newbies. Instead, you have the far more powerful (and more complex) independent aperture and shutter speed controls. The aperture, called “iris” in the menu, is accessed by pushing in on the joystick to bring up the manual control joystick menu.
The maximum aperture on the VDR-D310 is F/1.8. 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. You can clearly see the result of this increment lightening and darkening the picture, but there is no onscreen display that pinpoints what the setting is. Altogether, that is an awful lot of settings to work with. Once the aperture is opened up all the way, you can access the gain up to 18dB. The one drawback here is that the low light performance is not very good, so you’ll burn through the gain pretty quickly.
Shutter Speed (8.1)
The shutter speed controls work just like the aperture controls described above. Open up the manual control joystick menu and use the joystick to toggle through the shutter settings. They 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.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance settings are also located in the manual control joystick menu. The number of options here is slim: auto, manual, indoor, and outdoor. The auto controls, as we already mentioned, are quite good. The manual white balance adjustment also looked good, though testing under tungsten lighting at 3000 lux showed a slight skew towards green.
Gain (6.0)
The Panasonic VDR-D310 offers manual control from 0dB to 18dB in 3dB increments. Like aperture, there is a 1/2-increment between each of these settings that is not acknowledged in the onscreen display of gain value, but clearly has an effect on exposure. Gain cannot be activated until the aperture has been opened all the way (f/1.8).
Other Manual Controls (1.0)
Guidelines - In the admin menu, under the Basic tab, you’ll find a Guidelines option. When activated, this creates three evenly spaced horizontal lines across the LCD to help you frame your picture to the rule of thirds.
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