Panasonic SDR-S10 Camcorder Review |

Convergence was one of the buzzwords of the computer revolution. But although camcorders have been able to take photos for years and most digital cameras have a film recording function, no device has really mastered both areas. Camcorders are too big to compete with pocket cameras and cameras are too small to meet the storage needs of video. However, weighing in at under 200g, Panasonic’s SDR-S10 certainly looks like it could be a contender for the Convergence crown.

The SDR-S10 has been widely touted as the world’s smallest camcorder. It owes its small size to the use of SD memory for recording, which Panasonic has favored in its camcorders for a number of years. The S10 comes standard with a 2GB card, but as it supports SDHC Class 2 or higher, cards with capacities up to 8GB and larger sizes are now on the way. Videos are recorded in MPEG2 format with a normal TV resolution of up to 10 Mbit/s. So the included card is enough for 25 minutes of video in the highest XP quality setting, or a more useful 50 minutes in medium SP mode.

However, we shouldn’t get your hopes up so early in the review. The S10 doesn’t come with a megapixel CCD like you’d find in Panasonic’s Lumix range of digital cameras. Instead, it packs a 1/6-inch, 0.8-megapixel sensor. This is perfectly adequate for video, but only captures photos at 640 x 480. So in reality, the SDR-S10 isn’t the perfect crossover device, as its diminutive size would suggest. It’s really only a pocket-size camcorder, although it still offers a healthy 10x optical zoom.

The S10’s form factor is also a bit odd, and we struggled to get used to it. The idea seems to be to hold the camcorder in your hand like a dictaphone, use your thumb to control the zoom rocker and your index finger to control the recording. It’s certainly as operable as that, but it’s a novel approach, forcing you to fire from just above waist height, rather than the head height that most people will be familiar with. We also found this arrangement particularly uncomfortable when taking photos – although this will be a very rare function with 640 x 480 still images. There’s also no lens cover where a built-in would have been appropriate. On the plus side, only a few seconds separate the device from turning on and being ready to record.

The SDR-S10 has a reasonable range of camcorder features. A manual focus mode is available and controlled via the menu buttons, which is fiddly but serviceable. In the default manual mode, you can control the aperture from F1.8 to F16 and then fully close it. You can also add up to 18dB of video gain to a fully open aperture. The shutter speed can be varied between 1/50 and 1/8000 sec in film mode and between 1/500 sec in photo mode. White balance options cover the standard full auto, tungsten, daylight and manual modes. There’s also the usual five program settings for Auto Exposure, including Sport, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight and Surf & Snow. Wind cut and zoom mic audio features can also be enabled.

The manual settings are perfectly adequate for a camcorder of this class, but that’s not enough either. There is a screw attachment for tripod use on the underside, but there is no microphone input, no headphone jack and no accessory shoe. The memory cards also load from the bottom, so if you need to swap cards when using a tripod, you’ll need to unscrew the quick release shoe first.

With its single 1/6-inch sensor, the SDR-S10 would never offer high-end video quality. But we found the results surprisingly decent. In daylight, the colors were true to the original and the noise was not particularly pronounced, even in the SP recording mode. We were also impressed with the S10’s ability to cope in low light, where it opened up the aperture and increased the gain, resulting in some grain, but nothing the average consumer would find intolerable. However, the electronic image stabilization became very sluggish in poor lighting.

When it comes to editing compatibility, the S10 does pretty well too. There’s a proprietary AV jack with breakout cable for composite video and RCA audio connectivity, but USB2.0 is the main interface for connecting to a computer. Unlike most camcorders, you can’t connect the S10 to a PC unless it’s AC powered. This is a good safety measure considering the battery lasts less than an hour. Once connected, the S10 will appear as a removable storage device and its files are easily accessible via drag-and-drop.

The Panasonic saves its MPEG-2 video in MOD format, which we first encountered on JVC’s Everio. While editing wasn’t easy back then, most mainstream apps now support MOD files, so there shouldn’t be any issues with footage from the SDR-S10. We were able to import the files into Adobe Premiere Elements 3 and Ulead Video Studio Plus 11 with no problems. MotionSD STUDIO 1.2E comes for Windows users but nothing for Mac.

The SDR-S10’s size makes it the most pocket-friendly true camcorder we’ve seen. The video quality is still perfectly acceptable for the intended market, although there are insufficient features for the enthusiast. The low digital camera resolution also feels like a missed opportunity to create a killer convergence device, and the 25 minute recording time at top quality settings is a bit paltry too – you’d still only get 100 with an 8GB SDHC card get minutes.

“‘Verdict”‘

However, at under £300 the SDR-S10 pulls off a bit of a coup. Normally you would expect to pay a premium for the gadget desirability of a camcorder like this. But the price is on the lower end of the DV camcorder market. Now that you can pick up 8GB SDHC cards for just over £50, the format is beginning to look like an affordable option. So, for a very reasonable price, the SDR-S10 really is a respectable camcorder that you can carry in your pocket without people asking if you were glad to see it. And it’s waterproof too!

points in detail

• picture quality 7

• functions 7

• value 10

image processor

lens functions

video recording

general characteristics