Panasonic SDR-S150 Best Price, Review, Compare

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

Product: Panasonic SDR-S150

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I have been using this camera for several weeks in lots of different conditions: indoors, outdoors, action, stills, etc. Overall, it is a astronomical camera if you are looking for favorable video performance, acceptable mild performance for a video camera, no tapes, and an incredibly dinky size which truly does fit in your pocket.

I have not had any of the dim video issues mentioned above.

I have owned many previous miniDV cameras including a JVC, Canon Elura, Panasonic 3CCD, and Sony DCR-PC1000. To my view, the video this camera produces video as ample as the others in terms of sharpness and color accuracy. I tested it side-by-side with the Sony (the most current model of those shown), and it performed about the same to my watch as the Sony with video, although color was a petite more factual on the Panasonic, and the quiet images were noticeably better. I was concerned about getting an MPEG2 camera thinking the compression would cause artifacts and have difficulty with action video. I have had no problems with either.

The steady reason I tried this camera is that all of the above cameras have broken after a couple years of exercise due to a broken tape handling mechanism, and I was thrilled about the understanding of a tapeless camera! The battery lasts mighty longer due to not having to drive a tape, and the startup time is stout since it doesn't have to win the tape across the recording heads after you switch it on. I also hold no hard drive for durability and battery life issues, and none of the hard drive cameras are even stop to this in size.

Now the trade-offs you invent with this camera. At first I view it didn't go very wide-angle which was disapponting (44mm 35mm equivalent, I consider? ), but I tested it side-by-side with the Sony and it was nearly identical, and I never noticed lack of wide angle on the Sony. Also, the MPEG2 format is a bit of a wound. I spend Final Nick Screech and iMovie on a Mac, and neither reads MPEG2 directly. That said, there is a free utility which seems to be very splendid called Streamclip, or you can purchase a $20 add-on for your QT player to play and convert MPEG2, but it's level-headed an extra step in the process. I hold that Premiere does not help it either. Unbiased be aware that it's not as compatible with as many editing apps as ubiquitous miniDV and a conversion step is required.

The only other camera I seriously considered (after ruling out tapes and hard drives) was the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1A, which is also an SD-based camera. Despite having a 5MP serene image resolution, most video reviews for it were extremely negative. Some surmised that this is really a peaceful camera at the core, marketed as a video camera. Furthermore it does not have optical image stabilization, which I assume a near-must for such slight cameras if you want serene video. It does indeed report in HD, but at least one review said the video quality was abominable enough that it didn't really matter. It does indeed picture in MPEG4, though, which is natively read by iMovie.

So if you don't mind a significantly larger camera and tapes, there may be more compelling options like the Sony HDR-HC3 which records in HD, or perhaps one the hard-drive models. But if you're looking for a tapeless video camera, and especially an SD-based one which takes truly high quality video, this appears to be the only staunch choice out there at the moment (Nov 2006) .

After reading the reviews here and at [...] on this baby, I was a miniature cocerned about its low-light and indoor performance. Let me be the first to say that my fears were largely fraudulent.

Yes, if you film in very obscene light, it will darken many colors. But we're talking 60 lux, which is the roughly equivalent to the light set aside off from the candles of a birthday cake. Impartial preserve the lights on when your kid blows out the candles, and viola! Seriously, I have had absolutely no problems with it filming too black indoors, outdoors, or even when I film local bands playing in dusky bars.

The reason I wanted to try this camera was because it is the only flash-based camera that is receiving even mildly sure reviews. I do not want a tape mechanism that will crash, nor a fragile hard drive that cannot be aged in many film-worthy conditions (consider snow skiing, as the drive mechanism will freeze up on you in very frigid weather) .

As I said, I was skeptical when I purchased it, but no more. The videos are far better than any other camcorder I've owned. My last was a Canon ZR 50 mini DV, and this camera takes VASTLY proper videos than that one.

The four stars is only because of the mpeg2 format this records to. I have a mac, so editting requires that I convert to DV with streamclip so that imovie can import the movies. Mainly, I unbiased don't edit my home videos so that hasn't been a pickle. But if would have been nice for it to be an easier option, and it could have been if they encoded to mpeg4 with h264 and mp3/aac, which appears to be the next standard.

If that concerns you, or if you want HD, you might wait until the Panasonic SD1 is available because it records in AVHDC which is a develop of mpeg4. Of course, imovie doesn't yet befriend that either, so you may have to wait until iLife 07 to really consume it.

In parting, I will also mention that the size of this unit is absolutely improbable. I no longer fear lugging around even my smallish mini DV camera. This thing literally fits in my jacket pocket, so I ruin up filming a lot more than I did with previous cameras. If you're looking for dinky, flash-based, and favorable quality video, salvage this camera, you'll worship it.

Panasonic SDR-S150 is a fantastic camera.

I am extremely overjoyed with it - and recommend it to everyone.

Popular Mechanics magazine has named it the best in its class - and I completely agree.

I bought mine in the demolish of September of 2006 and was using it every day for the last 10 months.

The sales person at J&R store has recommended it to me, based on customers feedback - and I am grateful to him for worthy advice.

The camera makes very decent videos.

Excellent optics, 3-CCD, and apt image stabilization do their job.

The videos are shining, sound is proper.

But most well-known for me is how easy it is to work with the camera and with the video clips once you made them.

One can consume the cable and software provided with the camera, but I like things simple. I grasp the SD card out, insert it into a $10 USB card reader - and copy the files onto my computer with the mouse. Then I rename the clips - I change extension MOD into MPG.

These clips are in just mpeg-2 format, which is the same format as

in regular DVDs. So many DVD players will natively play those clips without any editing or converting. Also on most computers you can simply double-click on the clip to fabricate it play. If not - you can dowload one of the many free or low-cost software players. I like the VLC player (impartial google for vlc player) - it is available for both Window and Mac and it is free.

I made our grandmothers very contented. I burn a collection of video clips of our baby on a regular CD (yes, CD, not a DVD) - and mail to them. They can play those video clips on a computer or on a DVD player (portable Phillips is a well-behaved choice) .

The camera is very easy to operate.

The built-in battery lasts for ~ 70 min (spend a spare one or spend an included power supply if you need more) .

Camera also makes decent level-headed photos.

I have many more expensive cameras at home (photo and video), but I found that once I bought this camera I spend it almost exclusively. Partly becase of ease and convenience.

With this camera I don't need mammoth disks, powefull CPUs, lots of RAM, or hours of video editing. It makes your video production very easy and fun.

Camera comes with its fill editing software. But I recall to employ Adobe Premier Elements ($99) . There is also some respectable software for Macs. So I can easily do videos with titles and menus, or execute mp4 or flash videos for iPod or web.

Cons:

1. No input for external microphone. But the built-in stereo microphone is very obliging - I tested it by making a recording of a concert violin - and then extracting the audio and analyzing it using Adobe Audition software. The recording is very well-kept, because there are no motors in the camera.

2. The compression artefacts can be visible when you making snappy movements with the camera. This is rare, though.

Camera can be mounted on a standard tripod.

It is very light and tiny.

Overall - I really luxuriate in it.

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