Panasonic mercifully avoids bloating the menu system with gimmicks and effects. Instead, efficient controls and short menus provide access to selections such as Backlight Compensation, which does exactly what its name says; Tele-Macro mode, which shoots close-ups; and Soft Skin mode, which will do at least as good a job as the latest wrinkle-reducing snake oil at smoothing out your subjects' complexions. Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, and Surf and Snow modes are also available, along with Low Light and Magicpix selections for shooting in dim environs. Most of the settings available in video-capture mode are duplicated when you're capturing photos. Unfortunately, we didn't find the low-light settings very helpful, since their main capability is to create a slow-shutter effect. However, the little pop-up flash is useful for taking low-light photos. You won't find some of the useful extras available in similarly priced single-chip cameras included with the SDR-S100; for example, there's no infrared mode or built-in light for night shooting.
You'll appreciate this camcorder's MPEG-2 format in playback mode, since it allows random access to your video clips via a thumbnail index. Downloading your footage to a computer is also quicker than it would be with DV video, which has to be imported in real time and is prone to frame-dropping and other transfer errors, although you have to use the included MotionSD Studio software to do it. That's a deal breaker for Mac users, since the software is PC only. If you do use Windows, MotionSD Studio will let you do some basic editing and also archive your videos on DVD. You can use the camera as a Webcam when you're connected to a PC, although its QVGA resolution and 6fps streaming rate won't exactly convey all the subtleties of your physical presence to your interlocutor. The Panasonic SDR-S100 also supports the PictBridge standard for connecting directly to a compatible printer to output stills.
For the most part, the Panasonic SDR-S100 performs the way a camcorder for casual videographers should. Its automatic focus and exposure systems responded quickly to changes in scenery and lighting, and the LCD provided a sharp, bright picture that was viewable in all but very dim conditions. You can take it to its limit by increasing the brightness with the Power LCD button on the camera.
Unfortunately, the optical image stabilization system in this camera turned in a mediocre performance. Our test footage looked jittery in spots, even when we had the OIS on and especially when we zoomed in or panned. We've seen worse, but we've seen a lot better, too.
The top-mounted internal microphone records clear audio from relatively nearby sources in all directions. There's a wind-noise-reduction setting available for improving outdoor sound.
Panasonic may be pushing the envelope with the SD media and three-chip design of this little camcorder, but the SDR-S100 isn't going to win any awards for its average image quality. It's not worse than what you get from most competing MPEG-2 camcorders, but it's not better than what you can pay half as much for in a MiniDV camera either.
Colors in our test footage did look vibrant and natural, thanks, presumably, to the camera's three-chip system. The automatic white balance wasn't quite up to par, though, sometimes producing blue casts in natural light and magenta ones in indoor lighting. Moreover, those three CCDs are all pretty small, and the results are mediocre image detail as well as noise in low-light shots. As the lights get very dim, you won't notice the noise as much because you won't be able to see much at all in your shots. This camera really doesn't make a good nighttime companion, and no amount of manual tweaking improves its low-light performance appreciably. The low-light features available will slow down the shutter enough to let adequate light in, but that's useful only when you're shooting stationary objects, which is probably not very often.
You can set the Panasonic SDR-S100 to record at three different variable-bit-rate, MPEG-2 compression levels, increasing your recording time as the quality level drops. At the highest level, most of the artifacts we saw were the type that make solid colors look blocky and obscure details. How noticeable these artifacts are will depend on the quality of the TV you're watching them on. Motion artifacts were kept to a minimum.
The photos we took with the Panasonic SDR-S100--which are interpolated up to 3 megapixels from a much smaller native resolution--were fine for e-mailing, posting on the Web, or making small prints to stick on the fridge. Our shots won't find their way into any frames or albums though, since they can't compete with what you'd get from a dedicated still camera that costs a quarter of this model's price.
What You'll Pay
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