Panasonic VDR-D210 review

Like most DVD camcorders, the D210 records its video onto 8cm (approx. 3-inch) Mini DVD-R/RW/RAM discs and is also compatible with dual-layer DVD-R discs. On a single-layer disc, you can expect to fit about 18 minutes of video footage in the camcorders highest quality mode. Once you finalize a disc, you can simply drop it in your DVD player and watch what you've recorded immediately. Unfortunately, you must plug in the camcorder to finalize a disc, and you have to remove the battery to plug in the camcorder because the power jack is behind the battery. If you haven't checked the diagrams in the manual before the camcorder prompts you to plug it in, you may find yourself cursing up a storm when you can't find the power jack.

Video from the VDR-D210 is good, but not great. Colors are well-saturated, and the white balance does an adequate job of neutralizing colors under different light sources. While the footage is fairly sharp for a camcorder with a 680K-pixel sensor, there's also quite a bit of noise, even when shooting in plenty of light. Low-light performance in the normal shooting mode isn't very impressive, and the night mode doesn't really help to bring out any detail in the murky footage. MagicPix mode actually does help bring out a little detail in those dark shadows, but because it relies on slowing the shutter speed, video becomes absurdly choppy in dim lighting. Although the D210's autofocus isn't the fastest we've seen in this category of camcorders, it's responsive enough to satisfy most people but fails completely in extremely dim situations, so don't be surprised if you have to use manual focus to get that shot of your child blowing out the birthday candles.

If autofocus is very important to you, you may want to check out the Canon DC100. It has a very impressive autofocus system, and its video quality is about the same as this Panasonic. If you like Panasonic camcorders, you can step up to the VDR-D230 if you want an SD card slot for capturing still images, but since they top out at 640x480-pixel resolution, they're not really suitable for snapshot prints. Stepping up to the VDR-D310 would make more sense if you want to stay with Panasonic's line. Its three CCD sensors can give you better low-light performance, but it also costs a lot more than the VDR-D210, so if you don't want to spend a lot, the D210 might be the camcorder for your budget.