Panasonic HDC-HS20

Ease of Use (7.25)

For the most part, the Panasonic HDC-HS20 is an incredibly easy camcorder to use. The default settings are essentially an auto mode, which disables manual image adjustments and several other features otherwise found in the menus. Auto mode truly is like shooting on cruise control: you don't have to worry about anything except framing your shot. An optional component of auto mode is Panasonic's Intelligent Auto (iA) technologies (see Auto Mode), which can be enabled or disabled separately from the simple auto mode. In iA mode, the camcorder will employ its Intelligent Scene Selector, Intelligent Contrast Control, Face Detection, and Image Stabilisation in an attempt to make the best video possible. In regular auto mode or iA mode, you can also use the new AF/AE Tracking tool, which will follow the subject you choose on the touch screen, even as it changes location within the frame.

With all of this great technology, more experienced videographers may be disappointed that the iA isn't really designed for them. Auto mode is really the default on the HS20: Manual Mode is more of a special option you can engage by pressing the Manual mode button. What does that mean for manual control users? You can't leave some options on autopilot and control others manually. So, for instance, you can't use the Intelligent Contrast and set a manual white balance—it's one or the other. This makes the camcorder either very easy or very difficult to use. If you're in Manual mode, you're expected to make every single image adjustment by hand. And you miss out on the whole raison d'être behind Panasonic's switch to touch screen:the excellent AF/AE Tracking feature. Furthermore, the idea of making every image adjustment by hand is very daunting for beginners. You can't dip your toe in and try dabbling in more advanced controls; the HS20 is an intimidating sink-or-swim experience.

Whether you're in auto mode, Intelligent Auto mode, or manual mode, there are a couple of other tools to help beginning users. The most useful of these is the information button, which can be activated within the main menu. This button will bring up a tool tip every time you select a feature in the menus. This will lessen the blow of making the switch to full manual camcorder operation, since the tool tip can explain things like Digital Cinema, backlight compensation, etc. Unfortunately, the tool tips don't work with the Function Menu. Options that are only available on this menu (like white balance, shutter, and iris) get no explanation unless you consult the Operating Instructions. Fortunately, the included instructions are fairly comprehensive.

The Info button will activate a helpful tool tip feature.

Another little added feature is the Shooting Guide, which gives the occasional warning message to help you with shooting. We never noticed anything aside from 'camera panning is too fast,' but we suppose that something is better than nothing.
 

Handling (7.0)

The HS20 fits easily and comfortably in the hand. It has the ergonomic advantage of shedding the added bulk of the hard drive, which can sometimes feel awkward underneath your grip. The HS20 has a nice concave curve on the right side and a decently padded hand strap, so you won't have to worry much about taking this camcorder out for a long day of shooting. The zoom toggle rest perfectly beneath your index finger, but the record button is slightly offset to the right—next to the protruding battery. Your thumb might not rest naturally over the button, but it won't have too awkward of a reach either. The battery certainly extends further than it did on last year's HDC-SD9. This makes it a little harder to access the mode/power switch and we would be wary of upgrading to an even larger battery.

The HS20 rests easily in the hand.

The feature that will draw the most attention will probably be the new touch screen operation. There's no joystick, d-pad, or control ring here; all operation is achieved through the LCD touch screen. Supporters will be glad to have an intuitive interface that's quick and simple to navigate. Detractors will bemoan the fingerprinted screen and imprecise manual controls. The touch screen itself is neither the best nor the worst we've seen. Sometimes it was difficult to activate screen options in the far corners and the menus lagged quite a bit. On the bright side, your selected option highlights in yellow immediately after you touch it, so even if the camcorder takes a whilst to respond, you know that you don't have to keep tapping the screen.

It's almost too small—you have to be careful or your pinky might scuff the mic whilst recording.

Perhaps the most frustrating presence on the HDC-HS20 is the two small 'membrane' buttons on the LCD panel. You have to push these buttons harder than you expect. This is a good thing for the Delete button—who wants to accidentally delete a video clip?—but it's a chore for the Menu button. There is no on-screen button for entering the menu, so you're stuck mashing on the physical Menu button. If you're holding the camcorder in your right hand, you can't just use your index finger to push the button. You'll need to pinch the button between your finger and thumb. It's a minor annoyance, but something to be noted if you prefer using your index finger for touch screen operation.

The battery protrudes more than usual.

Stabilisation (8.76)

The Panasonic HDC-HS20 uses an optical image stabilisation system and we found it to work very effectively in our tests. The camcorder reduced the shake by 59% in our low-shake test and by 57% in our high-shake test. These are good numbers, especially coming from a small, light camcorder. (More on how we test stabilisation.)

The video below shows a comparison between footage captured with OIS turned off and OIS on.

For a mid-range camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-HS20 has very good optical image stabilisation. Its shake reduction is almost on par with Panasonic's higher-end HDC-HS300, which also features optical image stabilisation. In comparison, the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 (digital image stabilisation) did barely anything to reduce shake in our test. The Sony MHS-CM1 is not equipped with an image stabilisation feature.

Portability (8.28)

The Panasonic HDC-HS20 is a highly portable camcorder, both small and lightweight. This isn't the sort of device you want to cram into a pocket, although it will slip into a large coat pocket or the average purse. The buttons and ports are all fairly rugged, so you probably won't need to worry much about damaging it in your travels. You will want to invest in a small camera bag, however, since the automatic lens enclosure feels particularly flimsy. Throwing it loose into a bag with coins and keys just seems like a recipe for disaster.

On the bright side, the HS20 records entirely to SD/SDHC memory cards, which are small, convenient, and highly resistant to wear and tear. Throw a couple cards and the camcorder into a small padded bag and you're ready to go. Just don't forget your spare battery and your power adapter—as always, Panasonic does not allow you to charge the battery and operate the camcorder at the same time (see below).

Battery Life (4.4)

The Panasonic HDC-HS20 had only mediocre battery life, lasting 1hr, 27m, 46s (88 minutes). This isn't great, especially for a flash memory camcorder, which should last longer than a camcorder with lots of moving parts—like a big internal hard drive. Of course, high definition camcorders often sap batteries more quickly than standard definition camcorders, but so far the competition is outperforming the HS20. (More on how we test battery life.)

Battery Life Comparisons

This is particularly disappointing news considering that these Panasonic camcorders will not let you charge the battery and operate the camcorder at the same time. Switching out batteries or changing from battery operation to DC power operation will require you to stop the camcorder and power down, potentially missing your son's dramatic monologue or your uncle's game-winning homerun. Simply put, if you plan on recording for longer than an hour, you will need to be plugged into an outlet the whole time, buy a longer lasting battery, or pick a different camcorder. Some people might be tired of hearing us complain about this, but the fact is that most people buy camcorders for kid's sporting events, school plays, and weddings. The HS20, unfortunately, does not make long recording sessions easy on its users. If Panasonic would move the DC port outside of the battery cavity, we could at least switch batteries without missing any of the action.

You still can't operate the camcorder and charge the battery at the same time.

LCD & Viewfinder (8.0)

The HS20 does not have a viewfinder, unlike its higher-end cousins, the HDC-HS300 and HDC-TM300. This means you'll have to rely on the 2.7-inch LCD for framing your shots and judging manual image adjustments. The LCD resolution is 230,400-pixel, which is pretty much the status quo for consumer camcorders. This is, however, a downgrade from the 300,000-pixel resolution of the HDC-SD9. As with most camcorders, the LCD panel can be rotated up to 270 degrees for multiple recording angles, including self-recording.

The 2.7-inch LCD is a touch screen in the new generation of Panasonic camcorders.

There are two ways to alter the brightness of the screen: choose from one of four Power LCD settings or manually select one of eleven brightness increments. Power LCD (accessible in the Setup menu) lets you boost the screen brightness to +2, +1, +0, or -1. Each of these settings results in a significantly altered screen brightness. The Brightness feature lets you make a small tweak to the brightness. This feature is also accompanied by a Colour adjustment, which offers eleven increments for altering colour density of the display. Just remember that increasing the brightness of your LCD might make it easier to see in bright, outdoor lighting, but it will also drain the battery life more quickly. You should also keep in mind that changing the brightness or colour of your LCD may also give a false impression of what your final footage will look like. We recommend that you leave the LCD in its default settings whenever possible.

One final note: remember that the LCD is your only tool for judging exposure, focus, framing, etc. And since all operations are made via touch screen, you're likely to leave a greasy fingerprinted mess after only a short time using the HS20. If you want to avoid obscuring your image, you'll have to use your fingernail or the included stylus.
 

Menus (4.25)

The menus on the Panasonic HDC-HS20 are fairly straightforward, though not every feature is intuitively located. There are three places you'll have to look if you're searching for a manual setting. First, there's the Function menu, available only in manual mode and accessed via the F arrow icon on the touch screen. This is where you find image adjustments like white balance, exposure, iris, and focus. It's also where you can find backlight compensation, MagicPix, and face detection. Some of these options are doubled up in the Record Setup menu too, but others are only here in the Function menu. Record Setup has a much longer list of features, including scene modes, guide frames, auto slow shutter, and microphone level controls. The video light and optical image stabilisation, however, are nowhere to be found in either of these menus. They appear only as buttons in the LCD cavity. Call us traditionalists, but we just like it better when everything can be found in one menu. Quick menus are great for getting easy access to the most commonly used features, but it doesn't save you much time if you accidentally navigate to the wrong menu.

The Record Setup menu houses a lot of the primary shooting features.		But there are some manual controls that you'll only find in the Function menu.

The third menu is the Setup menu, which comes with the clock settings, LCD adjustments, media options, etc. At least there aren't a lot of surprises here. Everything you would expect to find here is here—this is a fairly standard division for camcorder menus.

The Setup menu has the usual array of administrative functions.

There is one menu feature that beginners will find especially useful: the Info button. Activating Info will bring up helpful tool tips that give brief explanations of each menu item. This will slow your your menu navigation considerably, but it's helpful for understanding the purpose of particular features. We wish the Info feature were available for the Function menu as well, so that beginner users would have tool tips for things like white balance and iris.

The Info button will activate a helpful tool tip feature.