Panasonic HDC-HS60

Still Features (9.47)

Panasonic improved the still image capabilities on the HDC-HS60 compared to last year's HDC-HS20, but the HS60 still isn't close to being a good camcorder for snapping photos. The maximum native resolution on the HDC-HS60 is 1920 x 1080 (around 2.1 megapixels), which is far worse than the native resolution of most dedicated digital cameras. Now, the HS60 does have many other photo size options—like its 5-megapixel 2592 x 1944 resolution—but every photo taken by the camcorder that is over 2 megapixels is interpolated.

The built-in flash has three intensity settings as well as red-eye reduction.

Most of the manual controls available in video mode are available in photo mode too, but there are a few extra features that only work with still images. There's a Night Portrait scene mode, a 2 or 10-second self timer, and a built-in flash that has a variety of settings (including red-eye reduction and intensity options). There's also a smile shutter feature that will automatically snap a still photo when the camcorder detects a smiling face within the frame (only works during video recording). Unfortunately, there is no way to adjust the sensitivity for detecting smiles on the camcorder, so be prepared for this feature only to work with big, exaggerated smiles.

	Panasonic HDC-HS60	Panasonic HDC-HS20	Canon HF M31	JVC GZ-HD620
Maximum Native Resolution	4:3 – 1600 x 1200 3:2 – 1680 x 1120 16:9 – 1920 x 1080	16:9 – 1920 x 1080 (interpolated)	4:3 – 2100 x 1575 16:9 – 2304 x 1296	4:3 – 1440 x 1080 16:9 – 1920 x 1080
Quality	Normal, High	Normal, High	Super Fine, Fine, Normal	Fine, Standard
Flash	Yes	Yes	Yes	None
Simultaneous Video/Still	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ISO	No	No	No	AGC on/off
Continuous Shot	Yes (24 or 60 frames/sec)	Yes (24 or 60 frames/sec)	Yes (continuous and hi-speed continuous)	Yes (4 shots/sec)
Bracketing	No	No	Yes	No
Self-Timer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smile Shutter	Yes	No	No	No, but self-timer can be set to go off when new face is detected.

Still Colour (8.82)

The HDC-HS60 did well in our still colour test and the camcorder registered a very similar colour error score to what it earned in our bright light video colour test. The HS60 managed a colour error of 3.97 and a saturation level of 104%. This saturation level is quite a bit higher than what the camcorder scored in our video testing. (More on how we test still colour.)

The still photography colour error map: the length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular colour.

As you can see from the images below, all four of these camcorders were able to capture still photos with strong colours and decent colour accuracy. The JVC GZ-HD620 stands out as the worst of the bunch, but even it did alright in this test.

Panasonic HDC-HS60 Still Colour Comparisons
	the HDC-HS20 records still photos in 16:9 only
Panasonic HDC-HS60	Panasonic HDC-HS20
	the GZ-HD620 records still photos in 16:9 only
Canon HF M31	JVC GZ-HD620

Still Colour Score Comparison		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Panasonic HDC-HS20
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Canon HF M31
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the JVC GZ-HD620

Still Noise (3.55)

The HDC-HS60 had more noise in its still photos than we would have liked. We measured the noise at roughly 0.92%, which is more noise than the camcorder had in our bright light video test. This is also double the amount of noise that the HDC-HS20 measured, although the two camcorders have completely different still image capabilities. (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Noise Score Comparison		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Panasonic HDC-HS20
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Canon HF M31
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the JVC GZ-HD620

Still Sharpness (2.83)

Since the HDC-HS60 has a higher pixel count (and a larger sensor) than last year's HDC-HS20 from Panasonic, it shouldn't be a surprise that it did a lot better in this test. The HS60 managed a horizontal sharpness of 1311 lw/ph with 26.2% oversharpening and a vertical sharpness of 1067 with 7% oversharpening. These are decent scores for a camcorder that takes native 2-megapixel still photos. Still, you are likely to get much better photos from any cheap digital camera—most of which are capable of taking 8-megapixel still photos or higher. (More on how we test still sharpness.)

Still Sharpness Score Comparison		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Panasonic HDC-HS20
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the Canon HF M31
		Compare the Panasonic HDC-HS60 to the JVC GZ-HD620