Panasonic VDR-D150 Minnesota

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The Panasonic VDR-D150 is available for around £100 less than the Sony, which is about as cheap as you can expect to find a DVD camcorder. But while you have all the convenience of shooting straight to DVD, the Panasonic can't compete with the Sony in terms of video quality.

Its smaller 1/6in CCD doesn't pick up as much light as the Sony, which means you get far more noise in your video when shooting in gloomy conditions. Even in the sunshine, the Panasonic lacks the sharpness of the Sony, though colours are well captured. An SD card slot has been included for still photo storage as the camcorder can't save stills to DVD. However, with an image resolution of under 1-megapixel, there's no real point in taking photos.

The design is good and a small joystick beneath your thumb controls a well laid-out menu system. It's easier to find advanced options than on the Sony, but lacks the simplicity of a touch screen.

Going steady

The 30x optical zoom would be hopeless without stabilisation, so it's fortunate that Panasonic has provided an optical stabilisation system. It's better than the Sony's electronic system, keeping the picture steady even when zoomed right in.

Audio is provided by a standard stereo microphone that generates a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack. We thought that the Sony had a slight edge in sound quality, but it was minimal. Battery life was excellent however; a stunning two hours in our tests, which is four complete DVD-RW discs.

A similarly specified budget MiniDV camcorder would cost around £250. Having paid the extra to use DVD media, you'd be advised to spend a little more and get a device that shoots good video and takes decent stills, rather than purchase this budget option.CCD1/6in (0.8 megapixels) RESOLUTION 640 x 480 OPTICAL ZOOM 30x MEDIA TYPE DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, SD card EXTRAS remote control quoted battery life 110 minutes size 53 x 129 x 87mm WEIGHT 480g
An incredible zoom, but it's expensive considering the average video quality.

Author: Seth Barton

Panasonic VDR-D150