Updated 22 May, 2013, 9:02 am IST

REVIEWS / CAMCORDERS / PANASONIC INDIA PVT LTD

Panasonic SDR-H90

26 Mar, 2010, 12:00 pm IST | by Sandeep Balachandran | Camcorders

With the increasing number of camcorders and with a wide variety of recording formats to choose from, picking up a camcorder that would really suit your need is getting more and more difficult. Now, since they don’t come cheap investing in one that best fits your requirement is the most important aspect to be considered.

The Panasonic SDR-H90 is a small and compact camcorder that measures 2.09 x 2.64 x 4.21 inches in size and weighs approximately 320 g. The camcorder might feel a little heavy – the reason mainly being the H90 is hard drive-based and comes with a decent 80 GB of storage space. At its lowest recording mode the camcorder is capable of recording 72 hours of video while the XP (highest) and SP (mid-range) mode will give approximately 19 hours and 36 hours of recording. In addition the camcorder also comes fit with a memory expansion slot that supports a maximum of 32 GB (SD memory); a thoughtful addition since you never know as to when you might run out of space.

The camcorder comes with the usual 2.7-inch LCD display and is accompanied by a joystick and a menu selection button. The overall design of the device is identical to just about any camcorder. Zooming in/out shouldn’t be a problem as the zoom rocker is conventionally placed. Switching between menus is also a finger away since mode selection dial fits just behind the zoom rocker. However, the battery might look a little too big with its protruding rear but doesn’t hinder the overall usage of the camcorder.

You will find a mic placed towards the front, which is capable of recording in Dolby Digital but at a limited 2 channel mode. Audio recorded is decent but it also tends to pick up ambient noise which makes the overall audio rather muffled – especially when the person speaking is standing at a distance.

The point of concern that needs to be mentioned is the rather absurd placement of the power and USB connector. Both have been placed underneath the battery – an idiotic and absolutely ridiculous place� - thereby forcing you to remove the battery each time files need to be transferred. However, with the battery removed, the camcorder will need to be connected to a wall socket to power it up – now that’s a big pain in the arse especially when the need is only to transfer files.

However with that being said the camcorder comes with a whopping 70x of optical zoom that remains constant at both aspect ratios of 16:9 and 4:3. Complimenting it is the camcorder's optical image stabilizer that does a very good job of reducing camera shake at full zoom.

Menu navigation is a breeze and doesn’t take too long to get used to. However for the first time user things might just seem a little confusing as the menu system is not labelled appropriately. If you are looking for a camcorder rich in features the Panasonic SDR-H90 isn’t the one to set your hands on. Reason being that the shooting modes are rather limited. There is no dedicated night mode that allows you to shoot video in pitch dark environments – a feature that most cameras come with nowadays.

When speaking about performance the overall video quality was not something you can actually brag about. While the overall video quality looks good when viewed on the camcorder it’s definitely not the same when watched on a larger screen. Colors appeared oversaturated and were blown out of proportion. Shooting in broad daylight brought in a decent amount of color fringing and the reds seemed to have more of an orangish tinge while blues appeared too oversaturated.

A part much appreciated was the way in which the camera adjusted itself in most low light shooting conditions. The camcorders focus speed was also considerably good and didn’t leave much to complain about. However the videos did have reasonable amount of noise when shooting under low light conditions.

Overall details were just about average as the video sharpness was rather flat. However the SDR-H90 performed exceptionally well at full 70x zoom – thanks to its superb image stabilization.

The plus point about the Panasonic SDR-H90 lies in its compact size and Optical Image Stabilization. But since the overall video recording only averages out when compared to other competing camcorders I find it difficult to recommend the Panasonic SDR-H90 which retails for Rs. 30,000. At this price there are a lot more other camcorders that will give you a much better value for money with a lot more features and much better performance.

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Compact camcorder , camcorder , panasonic sdr-h90 , panasonic

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