Panasonic HDC-HS60

Auto Mode (10.95)

The iA button puts the HS60 into auto mode.

We're happy to see that Panasonic kept around its Intelligent Auto (iA) control system on the HDC-HS60. With the iA controls you can run the camcorder in a fully automated mode, as well as implement features like AF/AE tracking, face detection, and intelligent contrast control. Panasonic didn't make too many improvements with these controls, but it did add face recognition and name display options to the camcorder's face detection setting.

The iA controls are designed well to work with the camcorder's touch-screen interface. The AF/AE tracking requires a simple tap of the screen for the camcorder to track your subject (AF/AE will focus and expose the tracked subject as it moves throughout the frame). The camcorder can maintain a track on a subject that leaves the frame, but only if the subject isn't gone for very long.

We're happy with all of the HDC-HS60's automatic controls with the exception of white balance. The camcorder often had trouble white balancing properly when we shot under halogen bulbs. Outdoors the auto white balance appeared to work fine, but we'd recommend using a manual white balance when you shoot indoors if you can.

	Panasonic HDC-HS60	Panasonic HDC-HS20	Canon HF M31	JVC GZ-HD620
Dedicated Auto Mode	Yes	Yes	Yes (Dual Shot mode)	Yes
Auto Focus	Normal AF	Normal AF	Normal/Instant AF	Normal AF
Spot/Touch Focus	No	No	Yes	No
AF/AE Tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Face Detection	Yes (with face recognition and name display)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Backlight Compensation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Low Light Modes	Colour Night Record	MagicPix	Low Light scene mode	Night Eye Scene Mode
Auto Slow Shutter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (AGC auto)
Scene Modes	Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Fireworks, Scenery, Low Light, and Night Scenery	Portrait, Snow, Sunset, Sports, Spotlight, Beach, Fireworks, Landscape, and Night	Portrait, Sports, Night Scene, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Low Light, Spotlight, Fireworks, Underwater, Surface	Night Eye, Night, Portrait, Sports, Snow, Spotlight
Other Auto Controls	Intelligent Scene Selection	Intelligent Scene Selection	Smart Auto (scene selection)	Auto Record

Zoom (7.15)

The main zoom control for the HDC-HS60 is the camcorder's top-mounted zoom toggle. The toggle is fairly basic and anyone who has used a traditional camcorder before should have no trouble controlling it. This toggle offers variable zoom speed, which means the zoom will be faster or slower depending on how far you slide the toggle.

The HS60 also has two secondary zoom buttons located on the LCD panel. These buttons have been slightly improved over last year's models from Panasonic (they have a raised design that makes them easier to push), but we're still not crazy about them. Zooms are performed at a constant and fairly slow speed when these buttons are used. Whether you use the buttons on the LCD panel or the regular zoom toggle, a small bar and numerical zoom ratio display will appear on the screen during your zoom.

The zoom toggle is also used to adjust volume during playback.

Zoom Ratio (8.71)

The HDC-HS60 has a 25x optical zoom lens, which is very impressive for a compact HD camcorder. The HS60 also has a 35x intelligent zoom, which is different than a regular digital zoom in that it shouldn't result in too much image degradation. We looked at various footage shot using the 35x intelligent zoom and we must say it looks rather good. Still, if you want the best possible image quality you should stick to the 25x optical zoom only.

The camcorder does have two digital zoom settings—60x and 1500x—but using these zoom options will severely degrade the image quality of your recorded video.

Zoom Comparisons
Wide Angle	Mid Zoom	25x Zoom

Focus (4.5)

The HDC-HS60 allows you to adjust focus manually, but the system is poorly implemented. We have never thought too highly of any manual control that must be adjusted using a touch-screen interface. The HDC-HS60, like most mid-range camcorders, has no control dial or ring—all manual controls are set using the touch-screen.

The manual focus is very basic, but we're upset that Panasonic doesn't include any numeric display of focal distances while you adjust the focus. You simply push buttons on the LCD (MF+ or MF-) until you get your desired focus. Panasonic does include a blue peaking feature to assist with focusing, but it got rid of its magnification assist that was featured on last year's HDC-HS20. Frankly, we think the peaking is slightly more helpful, but we would have liked to see both included on the HS60.

Manual focus adjustment on the Panasonic HDC-HS60

Manual Focus Comparisons
Panasonic HDC-HS60 Control Type: touch-screen Focus Assist: peaking	Panasonic HDC-HS20 Control Type: touch-screen Focus Assist: magnification
Canon HF M31 Control Type: joystick Focus Assist: magnification	JVC GZ-HD620 Control Type: Laser Touch strip Focus Assist: peaking

Exposure (6.6)

Adjusting basic exposure on the HDC-HS60 is more of a pain than it should be. Instead of the exposure setting being an easy-to-access option on the camcorder's Function Menu, Panasonic buries the setting on the sixth page of the Record Setup Menu (under the Picture Adjust option). This means every time you want to adjust basic exposure (labeled as brightness in the menu) you have to wade through a number of different menu screens just to get to the option. It is far easier and quicker to adjust the aperture (iris) instead.

Exposure control on the Panasonic HDC-HS60

Exposure Control Comparison Panasonic HDC-HS60 -5 to +5 (11 increments) Panasonic HDC-HS20 -5 to +5 (11 increments) Canon HF M31 -11 to +11 (23 increments) JVC GZ-HD620 -6 to +6 (13 increments)

Aperture (9.5)

The HDC-HS60 has full manual aperture controls, but the option is labeled as iris control on the camcorder. The only strange thing about adjusting the aperture (iris) on the HS60—and every consumer camcorder from Panasonic for that matter—is that there are multiple increments in between each f-stop that the camcorder displays. This means you can press the buttons to change the aperture two or three times before the displayed f-stop actually changes. We don't like this setup as it can create confusion as to whether any adjustment has actually been made, but we give Panasonic kudos for including so many f-stop increments.

Aperture control on the Panasonic HDC-HS60

Aperture Control Comparison Panasonic HDC-HS60 Manual Aperture: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.3, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.8, f/8.0, f/9.6, f/11, f/14, f/16 Panasonic HDC-HS20 Manual Aperture: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.8, f/8.0, f/9.6, f/11, f/14, f/16 Canon HF M31 Aperture Priority Mode: f/1.8, f/2.0, f/2.4, f/2.8, f/3.4, f/4.0, f/4.8, f/5.6, f/6.7, f/8.0 JVC GZ-HD620 None

Shutter Speed (10.0)

The HDC-HS60 has the same shutter speed options as last year's HDC-HS20, which is to say quite a few different settings. The only downside to the HS60's manual shutter speed options is that the camcorder doesn't offer many slow shutter speeds below 1/60 of a second. You can set the shutter speed to 1/30 of a second manually, but you may only do so if the auto slow shutter feature is turned on.

Shutter speed control on the Panasonic HDC-HS60

Shutter Speed Control Comparison Panasonic HDC-HS60 Manual Shutter Speed: 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, 1/8000 Panasonic HDC-HS20 Manual Shutter Speed: 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/120, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/750, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, 1/8000 Canon HF M31 Shutter Priority Mode: 1/2, 1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/25, 1/50, 1/120, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000 JVC GZ-HD620 Shutter Priority Mode: 1/2, 1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/50, 1/120, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000

White Balance (9.0)

The HDC-HS60 has a few white balance preset options as well as a manual setting that is easy to use (it's the same "one-push" white balance setting that is found on most consumer camcorders). We don't like the icon-only display used by Panasonic when you select from the HS60's white balance presets, however, as some of them are a bit difficult to understand. Descriptive text is always a better idea than an inscrutable icon.

You can also make manual adjustments to the colour tone on the HDC-HS60 by using the WB Adjust option (found in the Picture Adjust submenu). The WB Adjustment goes from -5 to +5 with the negative values producing a redder tone and the positive values giving the image a blue tint.

White Balance options on the Panasonic HDC-HS60

White Balance Control Comparison Panasonic HDC-HS60 Sunny, Cloudy, Indoor 1, Indoor 2, Manual, WB Adjust Panasonic HDC-HS20 Sunny, Cloudy, Indoor 1, Indoor 2, Manual Canon HF M31 Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Manual JVC GZ-HD620 Fine, Cloud, Halogen, Manual

Gain (4.0)

Manual gain control is tied to aperture control on the HDC-HS60 (as it is with all Panasonic camcorders). So, to adjust gain you must first open the aperture all the way. This limits the flexibility of controlling gain on the camcorder, but it is still a good feature to have. As we saw with aperture control, the HDC-HS60 appears to have multiple increments of gain adjustment located in between the displayed increment on the camcorder.

You can only adjust gain on the HS60 if the aperture is fully opened.

Gain Control Comparison Panasonic HDC-HS60 Only with aperture fully open: 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15dB, 18dB Panasonic HDC-HS20 Only with aperture fully open: 0dB, 3dB, 6dB, 9dB, 12dB, 15dB, 18dB Canon HF M31 None JVC GZ-HD620 Auto Gain Control (AGC) on/off

Colour & Image Controls (7.5)

Colour/Image Control	Description
Soft Skin Mode	This mode will soften skin tones, although it does so very subtly.
Digital Cinema Colour	Allows the camcorder to record using the xvYCC expanded colour gamut. You'll only notice a difference if you view the video on an xvYCC compatible television.
Intelligent Contrast	Corrects exposure levels on images with both dark and overexposed portions.
Picture Adjust	This submenu has options for adjusting sharpness, colour, brightness (exposure) and WB adjust. The menu is buried so it takes a little while to get to it, but the options located here can be very useful.

Other Manual Controls (2.0)

Control	Description
Guide Lines	There are three options for displaying guide lines on the HDC-HS60: as three horizontal lines, a 9-sector grid, or a 60-sector grid. The lines assist with framing only and they won't end up in your recorded footage (although you can turn them on during playback if you wish).
Tele Macro	Allows the camcorder to focus on extremely close-up subjects. The focal distance is roughly 1cm to 1m, and the camcorder zooms in fully when the feature is engaged.

Manual Controls Summary
Control	Panasonic HDC-HS60	Panasonic HDC-HS20	Canon HF M31	JVC GZ-HD620
Focus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Exposure	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Aperture	Yes	Yes	Aperture-priority	No
Shutter Speed	Yes	Yes	Shutter-priority	Shutter-priority
White Balance	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gain	Yes (with aperture opened fully)	Yes (with aperture opened fully)	No	Auto Gain Control on/off