Panasonic HDC-HS100

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/camcorders/0,39029967,49299178,00.htm

Reviewed 3 October 2008

Reviewed by Rich Trenholm

The Panasonic HDC-HS100 is available now for as little £610 online, which we think is pretty reasonable for such a feature-packed model. It's a three CMOS model, or '3MOS'.

Design
The HS100 is the standard barrel-shaped form factor, with a chunky grip on the right side reminiscent of DVD models. Although it's nicely contoured to the palm, the area where your fingertips rest is smooth rather than textured and could be a bit grippier.

The 69mm (2.7-inch) 16:9 LCD screen flips out and twists over for self-portraits. It packs an impressive 300,252-dot resolution. Closing the screen puts the camera into stand-by, flip it out again for quick start-up when you're ready to shoot. You can switch easily between the LCD screen and electronic viewfinder, with diopter to help you focus on the image in the EVF.

The controls are easy to follow, with dedicated buttons for intelligent auto (iA) mode, pre-record function and menu, image stabilisation and a button for copying from hard drive to memory card located in the screen well. Also here is a flat four-way joystick for navigating menus. It has plenty of travel but feels a little flat and wobbly to us.

As well as a 2.7-inch LCD screen, the HS100 boasts an electronic viewfinder

Connections are split between the screen well and battery well. A sliding cover in the screen well conceals component and AV/audio connections, while a small hatch pops open to reveal the SD and SDHC card slot. The HDMI and USB sockets are concealed beneath the battery, which must be removed and the camera connected to the mains to transfer and view footage. This is to ensure the battery doesn't die mid-transfer, but it still feels slightly weird and means you pretty much have to be at home with all the right cables to transfer, or watch your video -- more likely when you're out and about.

The 12x optical zoom can be controlled with a rocker switch by the first finger of the right hand, or with the left using the manual lens ring on the Leica Dicomar lens. A quick push of a switch at the front changes the lens ring to manual focussing, with the centre of the frame magnified onscreen for fine adjustment. Cleverly, the ring can also scroll through a short shooting menu, and adjust functions such as shutter speeds.

Our only complaint about the lens ring is that it is partially blocked by the lamp, so if you're using finger and thumb to adjust, the amount you can turn is restricted. Another concern is that the accessory cold shoe's tethered cover doesn't do a very good job of folding out of the way, so some accessories may not fit.

Features
The HS100 substitutes CCD sensors for three 1/6-inch CMOS imaging chips. Each sensor absorbs red, green or blue, giving greater image detail than a single sensor. Each sensor packs 610,000 pixels. Video is recorded in AVCHD format, at full high definition 1,920x1,080 resolution.

The HS100 packs a large 60GB hard disk drive, which stores just under eight hours-worth of HD footage. It records at a very high 17Mbits/sec data rate. Footage can be copied to SD or SDHC card for easier sharing.

The manual lens ring gives quick access to zooming, focussing or adjusting some shooting options

Other features include optical image stabilisation, face detection and microphone input. The HS100 also captures JPEG stills, but only up to 1,920x1,080 resolution. That's 2.1-megapixels, making it suitable for screen grabs rather than replacing a stills camera.

Intelligent Auto mode handles all the thinking for you, and has a dedicated button. Another button activates the pre-record function, which saves video before you press the record button, so you don't miss anything.

Performance
The HS100 takes a good six seconds to start up and be ready for recording, with an onscreen egg-timer as it reads the disk, even if it's empty. Keeping the camera on standby leads to instant start-up by flipping out the screen. This will affect the battery, however.

The picture looks great, with rich colours and plenty of detail. We were untroubled by jaggies or artefacts in decent lighting, and diagonal lines rendered cleanly. The jury is still out on 3MOS as opposed to 3CCD or even one larger CMOS, but we were pleased with the results from the HS100.

iA Intelligent Auto mode detects the scene in front of the camera, switching between landscape mode and so on, activating portrait mode and face recognition if it spots a face. We found this to be pretty reliable. Low light mode activates in darker conditions, but it doesn't prevent a noticable gritty texture to video.

Conclusion
The Panasonic HDC-HS100 ticks just about every box for a camcorder. It's compact but still grippable, while boasting a roomy hard drive. It sports a number of high-end features while still being a piece of cake to operate and benefitting from effective automatic modes. We love the manual lens ring, with its clever range of functions. Above all, image quality is great. Other options include the Canon HF10 or Sony Handycam HDR-SR11, but you won't regret opting for the HS100.

 Edited by Marian Smith