Panasonic HDC-HS250-K Hard Drive High Definition Camcorder (Black)

I got this camcorder for about two weeks already. It's very easy to start operating it even without reading the manual. The touch screen feature is great! You can basically play on the touch screen and see the difference of the picture quality right on the screen. Here's some of the Pro & Con that I think after playing with this camcorder.

Pro:

-Easy to use

-Great video quality (I hook on my Sony 48 inches 1080p LCD screen, the picture looks great!)

-Picture quality is great too if you got enough light when using indoor (outdoor, no problem)

-Indoor video recording is pretty good using backlight function if indoor light is not enough.

-Outdoor video quality is excellent

-Digital zooming is great (I can basically zoom in and get so detail that I can see the pore of the person's face right across of the street with 3 traffic lane in between it.)

-LCD touch screen is great (you can flip the screen too! You can also use fingernail to touch the screen if your fingertip is too big, the screen don't have any problem recognizing your command.)

Con:

-Not enough battery life (got around 90minutes of recording, good thing is that you can see how much time you got left on the LCD screen for recording so you'll know when you need to charge the battery or switch to power cord or new battery.)

-You cannot charge the battery while using power cord!

-The power cord plug on the camcorder is hidden underneath where you put the battery at, so you cannot use both battery and power cord at the same time (very bad when you try to record using power cord, once you accidentally pull the power cord plug, all of the recording stops, and it takes long time for camcorder to get back to recording and it also causes temporary hard drive malfunction while the camcorder trying to recover what you just record.)

-You cannot turn on the light that came with the camcorder to do the recording (it's use mostly as flash function when taking picture)

So far that's what I thought playing for two weeks (without reading the manual.)

I bought this camcorder primarily to videotape my daughter's gymnastics meets. I have recorded two so far and the video quality for those is excellent. The lighting in both cases was bright flourescent lighting like you would find in a high school gymnasium. I made a brief test video in my kitchen at night with just one light on and it wasn't so great. I don't know if this would be a great camcorder for birthday parties and that sort of thing. For that you would be better off getting a camera with 720 HD like the Panasonic DMC-FZ35 for less than half the price. It takes great video in a variety of lighting, but it cannot handle some of the very fast action of gymnastics without blurring. But that's another review!

Pros:

Very large (120gb) built-in hard drive.

Available SD/SDHC memory card slot.

Great video in bright indoor or outdoor light the same video quality as the HDC-HS300 that costs over $1000.

Very easy to use my 8-year-old was taking pictures and videos and playing them back with no instructions.

Video is very easy to import to iMovie '09 on my iMac I just attach it using the included usb cable and a window comes up allowing me to choose the clips I want to import.

The image stabilization works well smooth footage without a tripod.

Zoom is very smooth and adequate.

Great price if you can get it for under 600 dollars.

Display shows how much battery life (in minutes) and how much recording time is remaining.

Cons:

Lacks an electronic viewfinder and an external microphone jack to get those you need the HDC-H300.

Probably not great for low light indoors.

The battery charger/AC adapter are a bit strange but you can live with it you have to remove the battery to put in the AC/Adapter but the battery will not charge while you are using the adapter.

Battery life is not very long (about 90 minutes) and extra batteries are pricey this is the case for most HD camcorders.

Like probably every HD camcorder, the included software is not so great (although I don't need it for my iMac) and you will have to invest in expensive software to edit the video using a Windows PC.

I researched extensively and for my needs this is by far the best camcorder for the price. It would also be great for videotaping any sports, including indoor sports like basketball.

Update: I've been using it for about two months now. When recording indoors (convention centers, gymnasiums, etc.) the video has good resolution, but often a strange color cast, especially at the start of recording. I don't know if other cameras would be better in this kind of light with subjects that are far away.

Buy Panasonic HDC-HS250-K Hard Drive High Definition Camcorder (Black) Now

Pros:

Awesome image quality and color. LCD screen surprised me that I could see it in daylight very easily. Touch controls work very well for me using the stylus. My previous two camcorders were Sony DVD. This Panasonic HD blows them out of the water!

Cons:

1) Not as advertised

2) Video editing software is barely adequate, and very spartan in its features.

Summary:

Panasonic, on their own webpage with their own product flyer claimed this camera had Time Lapse capability. It does not! I contacted Panasonic via their customer service asking about this and so far have only received a run around from them! Being directed to a telephone number, which when called inserts you into a horrendous automated system that is extremely difficult to navigate. Once you get to where you can ask for technical assistance, you are put on hold. After 20 minutes I gave up.

It is False Advertising, pure and simple! Shame on Panasonic!

Other than the deceit about the time lapse photography feature I really like this camcorder. The image quality and color are far superior to the two Sony DVD camcorders I had owned previously. The still shot capability is quite impressive also. Certainly not on a par with a dedicated DSLR, but from a point and shoot standpoint the images are quite good. The burst mode, of 60 frames per second is a stunner!

The camcorder is quite handsome in its black and chrome livery. It is small and light, but not too much so. It feels like a quality instrument.

I am quite satisfied with the camcorder overall, and if it actually had Time Lapse as advertised, I would have been thrilled with it.

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I bought this camcorder for my father, after some extensive research on camcorders this one seemed to be the best bang for the buck. I was considering some Sonys and Cannons, but in the end this Panasonic beat the rest in terms of price and features. For comparison, my aunt bought the Sony camcorder I was considering, and I am glad I didn't go with Sony. The UI was dreadful compared to the Panasonic, and the video quality was noticeably worse. Overall I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.

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Great camera.

Good image quality, HUGE hard drive makes recording easy, the touch screen is very easy to use (no silly joystick to mess with).

I have found that the battery life is better then I expected, the standard battery lasting up to 2.5 hours, though it can drop down to 1.5 depending on how much playback you happen to use.

The only negative I have found with the camera is that the still image Flash does not double as a video light source, so shooting at night will require some type of light source for close up shots (videoing your face at night, for example).

Panasonic does make an add on light source, but it's not cheap ... there are many after market light sources for 20-30 dollars, so that may be the cheapest option.

Happy with this unit and would certainly buy again.