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Panasonic SDR-S150   

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By Lori Grunin, CNET.com
Feb 22, 2007

It sounds like the perfect vacation camcorder: Weighs 249g, three CCDs, a 10X zoom lens, 3-megapixel still photos, optical image stabilization, and SD-card recording. And that includes the 2GB SD card and the remote that ship in the box. But while the Panasonic SDR-S150 might seem like the traveler's dream come true, it doesn't really live up to expectation.

Design
I have few complaints about its design, however. Light, compact, and comfortable to hold, the S150 even has a rubber nub at the bottom of its grip that allows you to quickly place your hand without accidentally putting your finger over the lens--a big problem with units this small--though I find frequently that I don't know where to put my index finger while shooting.


Hit-and-miss metering

It also feels surprisingly sturdy and well made. An automatic sensor turns the S150 off when you fold down the LCD. The zoom and navigation controls are easy to operate with your thumb. You connect to a PC via the USB 2.0 port, and a single proprietary-connector multi-A/V cable delivers composite or S-Video output plus audio.

Features
The SDR-S150's modest feature set makes the menus and manual controls easy to understand and navigate. You can activate the wind filter or enable zooming for the mic; choose from among three different recording-quality options--best quality (25 minutes on the bundled 2GB card), medium quality (50 minutes), and lowest quality (100 minutes); jump between wide-screen and standard 4:3 aspect modes; enable the optical image stabilization and digital zoom; and boost the sensor gain for low-light shooting (MagicPix).


Flashy performer, but the flash can be unpredictable

When shooting in Auto mode, your options are limited to backlight compensation, Soft Skin mode, and a zoom macro mode. The Soft Skin mode seems a bit redundant, since the video is never sharp enough to show the kind of detail that makes a mode like this necessary.

Manual options include a few white-balance presets plus custom, shutter speed, and a sort of gain-priority mode--it allows you to boost the gain and automatically changes the aperture to compensate. You can also choose from a handful of exposure presets within the menus: Sports, portrait, low-light, spotlight, and surf and snow.

 
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