Panasonic SDR-S100

The Panasonic SDR-S100 uses a Secure Digital (SD) card for recording, rather than tape. This makes the camcorder extremely compact and light, and therefore great to carry around.

Ergonomically, it is initially a little strange to handle because it’s so small. It has a thumb-operated scrollwheel zoom and, although responsive, it’s quite difficult to operate without also moving the whole device.

By using your free hand, it is possible to counteract this motion. You must also use the 2.8in LCD screen as a viewfinder.

The SDR-S100 has a 10x optical zoom to get close to the action and the image stabiliser really helps keep the shot steady at this magnification.

The camcorder also functions as a 3.1megapixel camera, but if you want good photos you should stick to a dedicated digital camera. The still images were OK, but digital noise was obvious and the flash too harsh, although exposure can be altered.

The LCD screen was bright and clear, but has a poor viewing angle. So, although it swivels through 180º, if you hold the camcorder above your head it can be difficult to follow the action.

The 2GB SD card gives just 27 minutes of recording, so you’ll need to buy some more cards (£85 for 2GB). At the lowest quality, you’ll get one hour, 40 minutes.

Video quality in low light was a little noisy, but otherwise OK. What really lets this camcorder down, though, is the back-end effort it needs.

Each time you pause your recording it creates a new file – these then have to be stitched together at the video-editing stage.

Whereas with MiniDV recordings you can quickly transfer all your video in one go, with this camcorder you must be prepared to edit your clips first.

The supplied MotionSD software is adequate, but we’d recommend purchasing a more capable video-editing package.