Panasonic AG-HSC1U

Reviewed by

Ben Wolf

on 02/19/2008

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Page 2

Also somewhat contradictory to its professional orientation, the HSC1U offers a full complement of exposure preset modes: Sports, Portrait, Low light, Spotlight, and Surf and Snow. Miscellaneous features accessed through the menu system include backlight compensation, fader, telemacro (for close-up shots), MagicPix (a low light mode), soft skin mode (lightly diffuses faces), Auto Ground-Directional Standby (pauses recording when camera is held upside down), guide lines, and wind noise reduction.

The mic has five elements, which enables surround-sound recording and an audio zoom capability, both of which might seem dubiously effective because of the lack of physical separation between the mics. More significant audio deficiencies include the lack of a headphone jack and full-time audio meters, both necessities for serious audio recording.

The HSC1U otherwise offers a full complement of ports: AV connector jack, component connection, mini-plug mic input, power jack, USB 2.0, and HDMI. Still photography features including flash, self-timer, red-eye reduction, PictBridge compatibility (for direct hookup via USB to appropriate printers), and the capability to snap stills while simultaneously recording video.

While there are no external manual controls, the HSC1U menu system enables access to a full array of manual functions, including iris, shutter, gain, white balance, mic levels, color bars, and zebra stripes. I will reiterate here that it is essential to make the distinction between the existence of features and their accessibility. In theory this camera has just as many manual controls as full-size professional cameras; in practice, however, it is so cumbersome to access these controls that this camera is, for all practical purposes, automatic. It's like a car with an automatic transmission that can also be shifted manually, but with the gear shift located in the glove compartment.

Fortunately, it the camcorder works pretty well on auto. The autofocus, while sometimes a bit slow, generally locks onto the appropriate subject without hunting. Auto exposure is right on, and auto white balance accurate. Those who are used to tape-based cameras will immediately appreciate the instantaneous response of the record button--there is no lag whatsoever--and it's a joy to be able to instantly summon any video clip with the ease of selecting a still photo.

The 12x zoom lens is a strong point of this camera--sharp and fast (f/1.8-2.8), with good macro capabilities and an effective optical image stabilizer. While the zoom rocker is difficult to manipulate, the zoom action itself is exquisite, offering a wide and fluid range of zoom speeds down to an almost imperceptible crawl. As is generally the case with small video cameras, it would be nice if the wide end of the zoom were wider, but at least a wide angle adapter is available.

The LCD is large, sharp, and bright, and is about as good as I've seen on a camera of this size. Unfortunately, even the best LCD will come up short on a bright sunny day, and that's where you'll really miss a viewfinder.

Considering its tiny onboard mic, audio performance is not at all bad. Sound quality certainly benefits from the flash-card recording, which has no noisy tape drive. Thanks to the HSC1U's small battery, power lasts only about an hour.

In well-lit conditions, the HSC1U produces clean, neutral images that will cut well with higher end cameras (though it should be noted that a great deal of professional HD shooting is done in progressive video, which this camera is incapable of shooting). It also deals quite well with both high contrast and low light situations, both of which are particularly challenging for small cameras. Low-light shots are remarkably noise free. Furthermore, considering how aggressively it's compressing the video, artifacts are minimal even at the lower quality settings. Only in fast pans and tilts of highly detailed scenes could I detect some slight stuttering. At a resolution of only two megapixels, the HSC1U's stills are nothing to get excited about.

Though the single-chip, consumer-oriented Sony Handycam HDR-CX7, also an SD-based AVCHD model, produces sharper video and displays better low-light sensitivity, the Panasonic AG-HSC1U delivers better color. Is that enough to justify a several-hundred-dollar price premium and a "pro" moniker? We're not so sure.