Panasonic HDC-HS20

Motion (7.6)

The default recording setting on the Panasonic HDC-HS20 is to shoot at 50i, which produces pretty much what we've come to expect from a mid-range high definition camcorder. The motion is smooth and crisp, but only compared to lesser camcorders. When you watch the video side-by-side with a high performance camcorder like the Canon HF20 or Sanyo VPC-HD2000, the Panasonic just can't keep up. There was tons of trailing, especially on the high-contrast black and white pinwheel. Even the water and the train looked a bit choppy. The embedded videos here have been heavily compressed by YouTube; they'll only give you a general idea of the motion produced by each camcorder. The HD versions of these videos—although also scaled down and compressed for YouTube—will give you a better idea of how the camcorders truly capture motion. (More on how we test motion.)

The HDC-HS20 does have a 'Digital Cinema' mode, which is Panasonic's equivalent of a 25P video setting. Unfortunately, the 25P on the HS20 is blurrier than the equivalent setting on other models. The Canon HF20, in particular, looks crisper and smoother in its PF25 setting than the HS20's Digital Cinema mode.

The Canon HF20 has two different frame rate options: 50i and PF25. All three frame rates look good on the HF20—better than the HS20 by a fair margin. The Panasonic simply doesn't have the sharpness needed to keep up with the higher-end Canon. There was definitely some noticeable blur in the HF20's motion test, but we see that in every camcorder when recording at 50i. And if you want smoother video, you can always use the PF25 frame rates, which look better than anything offered on the Panasonic (as long as you're okay with the slower, film-like aesthetic). For detailed video, distinct lines, and strong colours, the HDC-HS20 is easily outmatched by the Canon HF20.

The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 was a surprise performer in the early rounds of our 2009 testing. It's the first consumer camcorder to offer a true 60P frame rate option (outputted to 50P for PAL playback) and the video looks great. There was significantly less blurring and ghosting compared to all the 50i video we've watched, including the Panasonic HDC-HS20 and the Canon HF20. It did have a bit less sharpness than the competition from Canon, which came out in some of the finer details—like the lines of the coloured pinwheel.

Motion on the Sony Webbie HD MHS-CM1 looked surprisingly good, especially when compared to other budget 'YouTube' camcorders like the Kodak Zi6. The 30P recording (outputted as 25P for PAL) was fairly smooth and detailed. Thanks to a considerably sharp image, the video on the CM1 actually showed more detail than the Panasonic HDC-HS20. Just comparing the words on the digital read-out or the red lines on the passing train, it's clear that you'll get a lot more information out of the Webbie. The quality of the motion itself, however, is up for grabs. There are plenty of people that prefer the slow film-like aesthetic produced with 30P video, but we prefer having the ability to record at 50i as well. The 50i video looks more natural, and if you want less motion trailing and compression artefacting, the Panasonic comes out on top. You do lose some detail to the inferior sharpness, so you'll want to spend some time watching video from the two camcorders to decide which you prefer.
 

Video Sharpness (7.97)

For the most part, we've been seeing significantly higher resolutions across several manufacturers this year. The Panasonic HDC-HS20, however, is the exception to the rule. It produced a horizontal sharpness of 450 lw/ph (line widths per picture height) and a vertical sharpness of 600 lw/ph. While the vertical sharpness is about on par with the performance of last year's Panasonic HDC-SD9, the horizontal sharpness is significantly worse this time around. What's more, this is easily the worst sharpness we've seen on a 2009 high definition camcorder. (More on how we test video sharpness.)

Video Sharpness Score Comparisons

You can see the effect low sharpness has on the captures taken from bright light footage and low light footage, the still photography performance, and the YouTube video above. Essentially, the Panasonic HDC-HS20 is better than what you'll get with a standard definition camcorder, but not as good as what you'll get from most other high definition camcorders.