Panasonic Full HD Camcorder with 20X Zoom

excellent!

This is a great product for what it is designed to do and it seems that many of the negative reviews are by people that didn’t research their purchase properly. I understand that frustration, but if you know what it can and can’t do before purchasing then you will not be disappointed! Let me give some of the pros and cons to explain what I mean. At the end I have a small explanation of what you can expect for picture quality.

Pros
– Zoom: The zoom is amazing! I shoot most of my videos on a 1.6x crop frame Canon DSLR and there is no lens in the world that will get you 59x optical zoom. That is something like 1650mm equivalent which gives you a tight headshot at 200ft. There are several “Intelligent” or digital zoom options, just disable that from the first day and forget about it.
– Battery/Charging: The battery lasts forever. I’ve done long recordings and I really haven’t hit 50% battery. It is also easy to power off USB (in two different ways: the included barrel plug or micro USB) which means that a cheap battery bank will keep it at 100% power for days.
– Price: At just under $200 this is $50 cheaper that most of the competition (for example the Vixia HF R800). Even for the same price I prefer the Panasonic to the Canon, and I’m an avid Canon DSLR fan!
– Microphone: No, this doesn’t have a broadcast quality microphone. However, it is noticeably better than the mic on my Canon DSLR, especially in the wind. I do wish that it accepted an external mic input, and I’ve listed that as a con. So the quality isn’t great, but since it’s better than a DSLR I have to put it as a pro.

Cons
– Microphone Input: I really wish this accepted an external mic input as most of it’s competitors do. I get that most people buying a cheap camcorder aren’t going to use an external mic, but I would!
– No Carrying Case: Even a simple cloth bag would have been better than nothing, I bought a $10 case that’s a bit too big for it. I wish I had something better.
– Menu Interface: This isn’t a strong point for most camcorders, but this one is particularly finicky with the menus. The low quality touch screen and small icons mean it often takes two tries to hit the right button and the menus are designed someone who has never actually used a camera.
– Live-Video Output: I haven’t even tried this, it uses a mini-HDMI, which is a stupid standard, but at least they include a mini-HDMI to HDMI cord with the camera. There are a lot of other reviews that talk about this… I haven’t tried and I don’t care, but others have issues, so consider that if you care.

A note about video quality:
I’ll start by saying that this is about on par with a good smartphone for video quality and maybe underperforms a flagship phone in low light. In a daylight scene it can be hard to tell the difference between this camcorder footage and a $1,000 DSLR with a good lens! However, as soon as you go indoors the quality of the camcorder footage deteriorates to a barely usable level. It says it is F2.08 @ 108mm and while I don’t think they are lying, the quality of the footage would not lead a person to believe that number…

So why would you buy this!? Why have I given it 5 stars!?
Because a good new DSLR+lens cost 3 or 5 times as much, and this camcorder keeps pace with good lighting conditions.
Because a smartphone is lucky if it can get to 2x zoom without the quality collapsing and this camcorder does 59x and looks great.
Because it is $200 and can get great footage that would be hard to get other ways!

If you want to record indoors/low-light, or need the absolute best in video quality then spend the extra money to get something with a much larger sensor (not really available on any “camcorder”). Otherwise, you’ll love this!

I’ve used this camera all over the world…literally. It has passed the test of recording moving and still images well enough to keep them as memories, but not anywhere near enough to write a good review about. I have used it as both a video cam and a still camera, and found it to have only moderate image quality in either mode. This system seems to use some kind of dithering in image recording, because the “HD” images do not seem that way at all. The zoom is good up to a point, but with this big zoom and small lens, (and small image sensor), loses quality quickly as you zoom. At higher zoom settings it’s extremely difficult to follow a moving subject, and the stabilization is pretty much useless. But for ordinary day to day use: recording my wife’s speaking engagements, making videos of golf swings, etc. it is just adequate. Do not confuse this camera with anything used by professionals…not even remotely close.

I spent hours in stores and online researching a new video camera for my daughter. She’s had them and wanted one with a laundry list of qualities. I couldn’t find one that matched or so I thought. She said this one (and she’s a no filter honest teen) that this is perfect. Perfect sound (I had to listen to a lot of examples :-), photo quality, durability, wi fi connectivity and picture. I asked if she should just use her iphone instead like many reviews said on cameras and she was like nope. She’s one happy, smart tech savvy teen right now. All I’d say is wait for the discounts because they can be huge.

I was looking for a camera that could take videos in low light, and did not switch off after 20 or 30 minutes. This camera is perfect. It creates multiple 20 minute files, but they can be combined seamlessly in most video editing software. If you keep power to the camera, it will record for 6 hours straight, if you have sufficient memory. It also can make stop action videos, take pictures while shooting, and shoot in slow motion.

Excelente cámara de video grava muy bien llego en excelentes condiciones.