The Panasonic HDC-TM900’s 1080/50p recording at 28Mbps bit rate conveys about twice the information of 1080i recording for producing the ultimate in image quality, exceeding even traditional full high definition images. The HYBRID Optical Image Stabilizer is an electrical or optical image stabilization system, which detects subtle blurring by horizontal or vertical entire arm movement and corrects them using lens in optical system and sensor in electrical system. Powerful correction realizes beautiful images even while shooting on move or zooming stills.

The company’s trio of prosumer camcorders, the SD800, hard disk based HDC-HS800 and flash based Panasonic HDC-TM900 provide generally excellent video quality and offer full set of manual controls along with features advanced users looking for. Panasonic has a history of designing and developing stolid prosumer camcorders, which provide excellent performance and video quality, but have functional, unexciting designs. The Sd800, HS900 and TM900 models are essentially the same as their predecessors with quite a few modest improvements and little better video quality. However, they use same trio of lens and sensors and identical body design.

The Panasonic HDC-TM900 and HS900 are nearly identical, while the SD800 is a stripped down version of TM900 with same lens and sensor like other delivering same video. The TM900 is available for the price of $989.99 and comes with built in 32GB memory. The functioning is precise and video quality looks pretty good. It has relatively broad tonal range, though bright highlights tend to clip. In bright light, it produces nicely sharp video and changing white balance setting and then back to automatic typically fixes them. It is terribly small, but that is for accommodating comparatively large barrelled lens.

The Panasonic HDC-TM900 comes packed with 3 x 3.05 megapixel CMOS sensor, ¼.1 inch; 12x zoom lens, minimum illumination of 1,400 with standard, 1.6 with low light and 1 with color night view, electronic viewfinder, 3.5 inch LCD display with 460,000 pixels, 220GB hard disk/32GB flash; manual shutter speed, manual iris, accessory shoe and 5.1 channel microphone output. With dedicated 1080/60p and power button, full complement of connectors and ports live in LCD recess: SDXC card slot, component/AV and mini HDMI output and USB port.

One of the most significant improvements found on Panasonic HDC-TM900 is its bigger LCD touchscreen display with series update, making it comfortable for excellent for framing or touchscreen operation. It remains reasonably visible in direct sunlight and retains small record and zoom buttons on bezel. Standard features on TM900 include Built-in memory (32GB), SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card; On-Screen Display Language: German, English, Italian, French, Polish, Spanish, Netherlandic, Czech, Swedish and Turkish; 1/4.1-type MOS x 3 image sensor; Total Pixels: 9.15 megapixels; Still Image: 7.89 megapixels (2.63 megapixels x 3) [3:2] / 7.59 megapixels (2.53 megapixels x 3) [16:9] / 6.96 megapixels (2.32 megapixels x 3) [4:3]; 35.0-420mm (16:9) [Motion Image] / 35.7-428mm (3:2), 35.0-420mm (16:9), 38.8-466mm (4:3) [Still Image]; minimum illumination: 1.6 lx (1/30 Low Light scene mode) / 1 lx (Color Night View).

Also standard on Panasonic HDC-TM900 include HYBRID O.I.S. [Optical Image Stabilizer]; White Balance: Auto / Indoor1 / Indoor2 / Sunny / Cloudy / White set; Motion Image [50i / 50p] Auto Slow Shutter ON : 1/25-1/8000 / [50i / 50p] Auto Slow Shutter OFF : 1/50-1/8000 / [25P] Auto Slow Shutter ON : 1/25-1/8000 / [25P] Auto Slow Shutter OFF : 1/50-1/8000; 12x Intelligent Zoom OFF; 30x / 700x (maximum value of zoom magnification) digital zoom; Still Picture 14.2 megapixels (4608 x 3072), 8.6 megapixels (3600 x 2400), 5.5 megapixels (2880 x 1920) [3:2] / 13.3 megapixels (4864×2736), 8.3 megapixels (3840 x 2160), 5.3 megapixels (3072 x 1728) [16:9] / 12.2 megapixels (4032 x 3024), 7.7 megapixels (3200 x 2400), 4.9 megapixels (2560 x 1920), 0.3 megapixels (640 x 480) [4:3]; Recording / Playback Mode 1080 / 50p (28Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HA (17Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HG (13Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HX (9Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HE (5Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080); Audio Recording System: 1080 / 60p / HA / HG / HX / HE: Dolby Digital (5.1ch).

The Panasonic HDC-TM900 adds 5.1ch Surround, Zoom and Focus Microphone; Media Remaining Indication; accessories: AC Adaptor, AC Cable, DC Cable, Rechargeable Battery Pack, AV multi Cable, IR Remote, Shoe Adaptor, USB Cable, Included Software: HD Writer AE 3.0, Lens Hood and Stylus pen. The HDC-TM900 High Definition Camcorder is a high-end HD offering from Panasonic.

$300, you can get it online for less than $230 online.

Pros :

The Samsung Q10 Camcorder is capable of delivering clean and crisp video, and it comes at an attractive budget.

Cons :

The Samsung Q10 Camcorder doesn’t have all that great Optical image stabilization, and you still will be left with shaky footage.

Who is it For :

The Samsung Q10 Camcorder is a perfect camcorder for the parents who want to record the activities of their kids using a camcorder, which is small enough to fit in a purse or in to a coat pocket? The Q10 will also appeal the video enthusiasts who don’t want to carry a lot of bulk with them, but wants video better than a smartphone camcorder.

Verdict :

The Samsung Q10 Camcorder offers a lot for $230, and considering the fact that it can easily fit into a coat pocket or a purse, we have to say that it records really great quality video.

A Detailed Look at Samsung Q10 Camcorder :

The digital camera and the camcorder market around the globe is in difficulty these days, and the simple reason for that being the fact that almost every smartphone comes with a respectable camera or camcorder, which can deliver respectable quality video recording. So, the question is why to carry an additional gadget when you can get a respectable camcorder on your phone itself? If you also are wondering on the same question then let us help you. If you are recording some special moments like the first steps of your baby, then you might not want to use the camcorder of your smartphone, and the simple reason for this is that it’s just not adequate. At the same time you don’t want to carry something that’s really heavy. This is where the need of a camcorder like the Samsung Q10 SwitchGrip Full HD Camcorder comes into play and this is the niche was it actually shines.

The Samsung Q10 Camcorder officially is called the Samsung Q10 SwitchGrip Full HD Camcorder, and just as you we too have a bone to pick with the name of the camcorder. The use of the term “full HD” is deceptive, the reason for this is the fact that it is not the complete resolution of the HDTV format, 1080p. The highest resolution of the Samsung Q10 is 1080i, which is sufficiently good and is about the same as the 720p, but still it’s not the fullest of the HD capability.

Now that we got that all clear lets move on to the second part of the name of the camera that says “SwitchGrip”. This clever feature surely will be a welcome sight for the videographers who are left-hander, or who sometimes wants to change their hands because they go on to awkward positions during recording. This function works using an incorporated sensor, just like the ones that is being used in the smartphones, which figures out in which way the Samsung Q10 Camcorder is being held and then orients the video and viewfinder accordingly. This is also smart enough to sense when the viewfinder has been turned on to face you when you are taking videos of yourself. We think it’s a good move.

Opening up the touchscreen of the camera turns on the camera automatically, and plays a satisfying small musical phrase to remind to open the lens cap of the camera. Even that’s not all that bad, and though we would like to see the lens cap opening automatically, but that easily could have been a cost thought for a camcorder in this price range.

Once the camera has started, you will see a user-friendly menu system of Samsung Q10 Camcorder, which Samsung calls Smart Touch 3.0. The menu system for the camcorder is spread all over the responsive touchscreen, and its worth mentioning that the capacitive touch on the camcorder is the best that we’ve seen in any of the camcorder.

The small overall body of the Samsung Q10 Camcorder is sufficient enough to compel people to carry the camera with them wherever they go. But like all the other small gadgets, this camera also suffers a bit, and the biggest problem this time is that at times it feels as if there isn’t sufficient grip to hold onto. Also the zoom control of the camera could take a tad long to get used to it, and that is because this time it’s not a lever, it’s a ring surrounding the record stop/start button.

The most delightful aspect of Samsung Q10 Camcorder is its outstanding video quality. In decent lightening conditions, the resolution of the camcorder was clear and sharp, and the colors displayed by the videos were pleasingly saturated. Even in comparatively low lightening conditions the camera delivered respectable performance. In general we will like to say that the camcorder successfully clears all our shooting tests and leaves the smartphone camcorder way behind in competition.

One small issue that we had with this camera was its Optical image stabilization. Though we don’t expect a professional-level SteadiCam in this price range, but the case with this camera was even worst, and it was really hard to find whether there was any image stabilization in the camera or not. So, with a camcorder of this size a tad bit of smoothing definitely would have been a nice issue.

But that’s really a minor flaw and we don’t think it in any case affects our ebullience for this small bundle of joy. We are more than happy to see that the camcorders of modern days have came this far in the past couple of years. The Samsung Q10 Camcorder priced at $300 is a fine example of what modern day camcorders are capable of and we will say that it is a superb bargain for anyone looking for a modern camcorder at affordable prices.

The cost of this camera is $5,850 and you get a Super 35mm sensor which shoots 1080p 60 fps content at 28 mbps quality. The video can be stored either to a Memory Stick or SD card. The manufacturer is offering an option of 128 GB SSD but that will further increase the cost of this camcorder. It is meant only for deep pockets and photo enthusiasts won’t mind paying the extra buck anyways.

The camcorder will be having a three and half inch LCD display. There isn’t the 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens included in the package and you will have to pay an extra $700 for it over the base price. This piece of hardware will be included in shotgun mic and viewfinder tube. We are looking forward to see when this camcorder comes in to the market and will cover a full review of it.

Kodak PlayTouch looks really nice and is an improvement over Zi8 in terms of comfort and size. It feels a lot better too and maybe this is because of the metal casing. It is very small and light enough to fit jacket or pants pocket and this is not unexpected in a minicamcorder. On the top, there is a switch for shooting in to the macro close-ups and also a jack for headphones connections or external stereo mic. It would have been better if the jack was located on the sides but this is not a deal breaker either.

Lens on the Kodak PlayTouch is unprotected and this is typical in minicamcorders. Make sure you keep it clean and safe all the time. Close to the lens, there is mono microphone, IR receiver for optional remote, and record light which blinks red while you record. You can shut off all the operational sounds and lights.

There is a battery compartment cover underneath the lens. It is great that the manufacturer gave a removable battery but I was concerned about the cover which makes some horrible creaking sound when you are adjusting the grip. You need to be careful about this sound or else it may get recorded in the movies as well. This is because of 2 metal clips which hold the cover in its place when you close it. Pushing the clips down in the PlayTouch’s body is enough for stopping the noise but this makes the cover a bit less secure.

One big selling point on the Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20 is the Autofocus because a lot of devices in this category don’t have it. You can shoot any thing right from the whole garden to a tiny flower that is just four inches away. AF isn’t really fast and it gets slower in the low light conditions. The video pulses in and out of focus if your subject is moving a lot. You might not have a problem with it but for me, it was a bit distracting. Also, if you are shooting in total silence, you will hear some ticking sound that is picked up by mono microphone while the device focuses. This sounds bad but most of the minicamcorders cannot focus on anything that is closer than three feet from lens so it is good to have such a feature if you are willing to accept the limitations.

Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20 video quality is quite good for its class. It would be crazy to expect the quality to be on par with a full-fledged HD camcorder which costs much more. there is much more in the video other than a higher resolution and hence if you like shooting full HD videos in great quality, I would recommend you to look elsewhere. There is full HD option here but videophiles will be definitely disappointed by the video quality. The exposure and color is good and the video is not really sharp. I viewed it on TV; things looked painterly and soft.

Apart from the difference in price (which depends on where you buy the product from), there are only a handful of spec changes on the HG20 and HF11. The biggest one is the 60 GB hard drive on HG20 against the 32 GB internal memory on the HF11. For recording time, it is five and half hours to two hours and 55 minutes at the 24 Mbps mode. You can put SDHC cards inside for more memory. However, there are more differences between the HG21 and its sibling the HG20 with a larger 120 GB hard disk and the HG21 also has eye-level viewfinder.

Apart from the capacity, the difrrence between the Canon Vixia HG20 and Canon Vixia HF11 is that the latter is lighter and smaller at 2.9 inches width x 2.5 inches height x 5.1 inches depth. As opposed to this, the HG 20 is 3.1 inches wide x 3 inches high x 5.4 inches deep and weighs 17.6 ounces. Position for I/O jacks and controls of the two devices are altered as well. The most notable change is that the dial which switches between the video/still playback and video/still record is located on the back of the HG20 and side of the HG11. However, the controls on both the models are easy to operate and big enough.

The function button and 5-way joystick are on the screen bezel. The display is a bit small at just 2.7 inches. The controls are located on the screen instead of below the thumb makes it a bit hard to access the settings and keep this camcorder steady at the same time. Focussing with joystick on the Canon Vixia HG20 can be a pain in spite of zoom-view focus assist.

Canon Vixia HG20 will record the AVCHD video at 24 Mbps maximum bit rate and it can hold about a little less than three hours of video at the lowest setting of 5 Mbps. The device has 5 settings for the quality which I thought was a bit too much.

Instead of the 3 CCDs on the HDR-FX1, the Sony Handycam HDR-FX-7 has three Sony one-megapixel ClearVid CMOS chips having the same sensor technology which is there on the single chip HDR-HC3. Battery consumption on CMOS is less than traditional CCD and the company has rated the battery life of this camcorder at eight hours as compared to the HDR-FX1’s six and half hours. Also noteworthy here is that the sensor resolution on HDR-HC3 is higher than HDR-FX7.

Sony Handycam HDR-FX7 has streamlined figure and smaller body which makes it one amongst the prosumer products. The weight is about 3.3 pounds along with the tape and the 2,00 mAh NP-F570 battery. The cavity inside is bigger than the battery’s actual size and this is because the camcorder can hold a 6,600 mAh NP-F970 battery too which gives you three times the battery life. The battery life is good but you will have to switch off the camcorder while charging it which according to me, is a bit annoying. If you too are annoyed at this, I would recommend you to get a separate external battery charger.

Shooters who are used to midrange camcorders won’t have any trouble while adjusting to Sony Handycam HDR-FX7 it is quite similar to the other Panasonic AG-DVX100B or Sony’s own HDR-HC1. While you shoot at eye level, the right hand will control the zoom and you can also snap still photos from here. The left hand will take care of the camcorder’s weight.

Focus rings, zoom and dial for exposure adjustment is located on the barrel of the lens. I was comfortable while focusing through the ring particularly when I used it in conjunction with Expanded Focus key which falls beneath the left thumb. There is also an autofocus lock which can be tweaked manually and this makes it pretty fast to focus on objects that are otherwise hard to lock.

Panasonic HDC-SD9 records 1080i HD video at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels at a maximum rate of 17 Mbps. This is about two hours of great quality video on a card of 16 GB space. Just like the Canon products, you will need Class 4 or other better SDHC card for the highest quality of video recording.

The performance of the Panasonic HDC-SD9 is quite good. The device can focus and adjust exposure relatively quickly but in low light conditions, the focus gets slower. However, this is not unexpected from a consumer model like this. Image stabilization feature lived up to my expectations but I saw some shake at the 10x maximum zoom. The screen could have been better; the exposure and white balance was seriously misrepresented.

The range of video quality lies from good to OK. Panasonic HDC-SD9 renders saturated colors just as expected from a 3-CCD device. The Exposures looked good but when it is underexposed for preserving the highlights, the things start to look blown out. In bright light conditions, the videos appears a bit soft except when you zoom it all the way. In dim light conditions, it looked overprocessed or as if there was a film put over the lens. Still photos look pretty bad which is no unexpected considering the individual sensor’s low resolution.

I watched the videos of the Panasonic HDC-SD9 on Sony KDL-46XBR4 HDTV and also on PC through InterVideo WinDVD while reviewing. There were video problems in almost every editing package that I used in my labs while testing. I eventually had luck with Ulead VideoStudio 11.5.

As a camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-SD9 is good camcorder but there are some issues with the software and I will update this review if the manufacturer solves it in the future. I was concerned with the video quality and the inconsistent performance. If you are willing to spend more, I would recommend you the Sony Handycam HDR-CX7 or any of the recently launched Canon Vixia models.

Though the Panasonic HDC-SD9 is a nice little camcorder, between the software issues–I’ll update when they’re resolved–and the inconsistent performance and video quality, I think you’ll probably be happier in the long run by spending a little more for the competing Sony Handycam HDR-CX7 or one of the aforementioned Canon Vixia models.

Maybe the goal of JVC is just to upsell customers. There are ten HD models offered for less than $800 and four of these are quite identical for price of $400 and $550. Three of them are flash based and differ just by the internal memory and the fourth has an 80 GB hard disk inside. It can also take microSD cards instead of standard SDHD/SDXC cards. JVC’s lineup is quite confusing even for people like me who have been following technology for a lot of years. You might think that the HD320 and HD300 are sibling camcorders to HD320 and HM300 because of their name but they are not.

On the bright side, the JVC Everio GZ-HM340 is smallest and lightest camcorder I have ever seen for this class. The body length is about a large palm; the hard drive based model is a bit wider and longer. This will make it easy for people with large hands to shoot videos. The body is made up of shiny plastic material but it still feels well constructed.

Underneath the door, there is a pair of SDHC card slot on the right side. The devices which have internal memory, come with just a single slot. This card location is good and it is better than other designs I have seen. The USB connector too is properly located and it shares spot above battery along with power input. On the front, there is a grip strap level which can also be used as a wrist strap. On the top, there are photo shutter and zoom switch controls.

In the LCD recess, you will find recording and playback controls, power button which cycles through the different info screens, and Upload button for uploading clips to YouTube with PC. I didn’t like multiple duty power key as you can easily hit it accidentally. On the recess, there are three connectors – Mini-HDMI out, AV and component.

There are three buttons on the bezel of the screen and two of them are fixed – Menu and OK. The other three are sensitive to the context.

Panasonic HM-TA1 records videos at VGA resolution at 1080p and 720p resolution at 30 fps for both. iFrame format of Apple is also available here. It is smaller than HD and records at 960×540/30p at 24Mbps. This format is made for iMovie although you can import standard HD MPEG-4 format in to iMovie.

The TA1 can also be used as a Webcam and you get to choose from three resolutions – 640×480, 160×120 and 320×240 resolutions. Skype is also included as a unique feature here but the application is not preloaded on the device, it has to be downloaded from Skype separately. Also, you will need something to make the camcorder stand especially when it is connected to a computer.

One reason why these camcorders are famous is because they come built-in with sharing and editing software. This makes it really easy to get the clips from the device and then put them on the video sharing Websites. The manufacturer has given a Windows only application called HD Writer PE 1.0 which is an off-the-shelf software. It does all the essentials like simple editing and organizing, sharing and playback. But sharing is limited to just Facebook and YouTube. The link for the uploaded clip can also be sent through e-mail. I found the interface a bit boring, there are words used like ‘Execute’ for the traditional ‘Start Upload’ function. Sharing does seem like a chore.

The overall performance and the video quality of the Panasonic HM-TA1 is quite good for such a device. At 720p and 1080p resolution, the videos looked pretty good on an HDTV. The exposure is quite accurate and the colors too are vivid and bright. The EIS or electronic image stabilization keeps the video smooth with very little visible judder for panning. The subjects have the right amount of sharpness, they are not oversharpened. The video in low light conditions is not as good, there is yellow blotching with plenty of noise. This is quite similar to the dim light processing that we have previously seen in still cameras from this company. The built in LED light illuminates the dim light scenes but you will have to stay close to the camera and it also feels brightness seems too much sometimes. There is a 4x digital zoom but it degrades the video quality. Finally, the camcorder lets you shoot in white and black and sepia and you can also apply some skin softening to get better results.