Panasonic HDC-HS300 – Hard Disk Based Camcorder
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Has SDHC card slot and hard disk drive for recording, 1080i quality videos, presence of 3 CMOS sensors give good quality video.
Thumbs Down:
Zoom and mode dial switches are very tiny.
Inside the Trunk:
Connection cables – USB cable, A/V cable, Component video cable, infrared remote control, stylus for LCD. Utilities and drivers, Panasonic HD writer AE 1.0.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Panasonic HDC-HS300 is a 1080i resolution camcorder with digital zoom of 700x, 9.15 mega pixels, optical sensor is 1/4.1”, videos are stored in formats of AVCHD, H.264, minimum shutter speed is 1/2 second, maximum shutter speed is 1/8000 second, shooting programs include night portrait, portrait mode, sports mode, night scene, spotlight, low light, fireworks, scenery, sunset, beach, snow. Presets for white balance include sunlight, outdoor, indoor, cloudy. Exposure modes include aperture priority, automatic, shutter priority, program. Flash modes are red-eye reduction, flash off mode, fill-in mode.
Camcorder sensor resolution is 3.05 megapixels, effective video resolution is 2.07 megapixels, effective still resolution is 2.65 megapixels, images are stored in JPEG format. The camcorder is hard disk based with a 120 GB built in storage space. There is also a slot for SDHC storage cards. Image storage resolution options are 640 x 480, 2560 x 1920, 3264 x 2448, 3520 x 2640, 2560 x 1440, 3328 x 1872, 4224 x 2376, 2592 x 1728, 3264 x 2176, 3984 x 2656.
The camcorder has zoom lens – 4 mm – 48 mm – F/1.8-2.8 with focal length 4 mm – 48 mm, lens aperture is F/1.8-2.8, has 12x optical zoom, minimum focal length is 4 mm, maximum focal length is 48 mm, filter size is 43 mm, lens manufacturer is Leica.
Additional features include Dolby Digital 5.1 channel recording, Takes photos while movie recording, Automatic face tracking technology, Backlight compensation, USB 2.0 compatibility, Touch-screen control, PictBridge support, Built-in speaker, Face detection, Direct print, DPOF support. The camcorder has electronic/eye-level view finder with a diagonal size of 0.26 inch, the resolution is 113,000 pixels and has aspect ratio of 16:9. The touch screen is 2.7 inch big and comes with a bundled stylus.
Connectors on the unit include microphone, composite video/audio output, USB and HDMI output. The camcorder is powered by 1250 mAh li-ion rechargeable battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
HDC-HS300 is quite identical to Panasonic HDC-TM300 which had a flash drive inside it. However this product is hard disk based and hence is a bit heavier. Even though the 2 units look quite similar, they have some dissimilarities on the hardware front. Overall, we would say that the HS300 is slim, sexy and would easily fit in to your coat pocket. The camcorder is 2.8 inch wide, 5.6 inch deep, 2.9 inches deep and weighs about 16.2 oz.
Inside Dope:
We don’t know if you would still buy a hard disk based camcorder when there are flash based models around. Flash models are a bit costly however they provide larger battery life and also weigh less because of the absence of moving parts. Hard disks on the other end consume more power and are quite heavy.
The exterior of the device is quite similar to Panasonics flash based TM 300 but we found there were some changes done to the model like a zoom switch which is quite small and hence difficult to use. We loved the zoom button on the TM 300 but this switch disappointed us. The accessory shoe is located at the top instead of putting it on the sides.
We think the video quality of this camcorder is the best that Panasonic has ever made and this model brings the quality on par with camcorder giants like Sony and Canon. The improved video and image quality is due to the presence of 3 CMOS chips which have high resolution capabilities and hence deliver great HD quality videos.
Panasonic has retained the manual controls, something that we are glad with, since it is quite comfortable to use. It also has zoom ring/manual focus which is also easy to use.
We have never been much comfortable with touch screen based camcorders because they are hard to use due to the tiny screen size. This camcorder too doesn’t change things much, it is as small 2.7 inch LCD and you will struggle to touch buttons on it. The bottom of the LCD has controls for white balance, iris and shutter. Apart from the small size, we thought that the LCD was non-responsive to our touches. Make sure you check out the LCD and buy it only if you can handle the tiny size.
Unlike the TM 300, HS300 is a hard disk based camcorder with a spacious 120 GB disk space to store your photos and videos. The device also has an electronic viewfinder also known as eye level view finder. But the manual controls are all housed on the touch screen so you will have to stop shooting, set the controls on the LCD, close the screen and then go back to shooting with the EVF. We thought this was a lengthy process.
Just like most Panasonic camcorders, the HS300 has a full set of ports like mini HDMI, AV out, component out and a USB connection for hooking up the device to a computer to store your videos. Along with this, there is a slot for SDHC cards in case you run out of memory space on the hard drive. Panasonic recommends class four cards for this.
Just like the zoom switch, the mode dial too is a bit small and you will find it difficult to use if you have thick fingers. These buttons have been made smaller in order to make room for the hard disk which hogs quite a lot of space on the unit.
Nitty Gritty:
In spite of the presence of 3 CMOS sensors we will say that the video quality isn’t as good as we expected but Panasonic HDC-HS300 certainly brings the video quality on par with products like Canon and Sony. Buy this unit if you don’t mind the hard disk weight.
