Panasonic SDR-S50

Having owned almost every make or format of Camcorder over the past 25 years, (yes, I was a pioneer!) I recently purchased on behalf of a friend, a Panasonic SDR-S50 from Amazon for just under £200. So impressed was I that I decided to buy one for myself, as a back up to my ageing Sony DV (tape based) machine. I was amazed that in the few weeks between my two orders, the Amazon price had dropped to £160!

For the money it's a great camcorder. Easy to operate if you simply want 'point & shoot' simplicity, but with a variety of manual adjustment should you be a bit more adventurous. The picture quality (it's not a hi-def model) is absolutely stunning, even played back on a 50" telly. An 8GB SD flash memory card gives several hours of shooting time (the battery doesn't so you may opt to buy a spare) and the colour display screen makes for easy framing of shots and playback. Downsides: Well, firstly the zoom control is not as 'gradual' as I would like. Even with the lightest of touch, the lens zooms in a bit too quick, though this may not bother most people. The camera only has an output so it cannot be used as a 'go between' to allow for connecting old analogue sources through it and into a PC. Again this won't worry too many users. The biggest downside, especially if you are a beginner, is the appalling so called editing 'Software Suite' which it is supplied with. It uses a very strange logic whereby you basically have to select the parts of shots you don't want, rather than selecting the bits you do. This is quite different to my excellent Pinnacle Studio software which is far more intuitive. You would be well advised to check out alternative editing packages if you are serious about editing your raw footage, but it may be that you get on better with the supplied package than I did!

Overall, a very neat little camera, ideal for holidays and family use. Very lightweight and being solid state, no tape or DVD mechanism to worry about. Highly Recommended.