Customer Reviews for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
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Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Model: HDC-HS250K
SKU: 9206995
UPC: 037988983780
This digital camcorder features 3 CMOS image sensors and AVCHD recording to let you capture beautiful, high-quality still images and video.
Average Customer Rating:
4.8
out of 5
(25 Reviews) 25
Rating Snapshot 25 reviews
5 stars
21
4 stars
3
3 stars
1
2 stars
0
1 star
0
96% of customers would recommend this product to a friend
(
24 out of
25)
Customer Reviews for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Review 1 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
it would be great but...
Customer Rating
3.0
Value for Price
2.0
Picture Quality
4.0
Ease of Use
2.0
Features
4.0
the camera works great while you are filming or taking pictures. I was amazed that i could still read the microwave from the living room, in complete darkness! However, the software it came bundled with is absolute garbage. I still havent found anything yet that can import or open the video files for windows or linux. this cam is $800 new, why should i have to spend $100+ dollars on software to edit the video. thats insane. Also you cant drag and drop from the camera, it will be super-compressed and unplayable. it has to be imported by the Cam (mt2s). im seriously thinking of taking it back.
What's great about it: picture quality, touch screen
What's not so great: AVCHD is a pain to work with
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Review 2 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Gets EVERY Moment
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Faith05
from Kansas City,MO
on 03/11/2010
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
I love this camcorder. BUT it does not have night vision for when I want to record my 2 year old sleeping or something like that. But its the best thing I've bought in a long time.
What's great about it: The Quality
What's not so great: No NIGHT VISION
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 3 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Excellent Camcorder
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
After about a month of use, I have found this to be an excellent video camera. It works very well in low-light situations, and the video quality is excellent. The battery life is somewhat short, so an extra battery is a good idea. The software doesn't run on Windows 7 64-Bit, and is not very user friendly, although it works fine for importing video and saving as MPEGs. Great video camera overall in my opinion.
What's great about it: Excellent Quality Video
What's not so great: Short Battery Life, Software not very user friendly
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 4 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Love it!
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
I really love this HD video camera. I didn't know if I would like the touch menu, but it is great and I love it.
I purchased an SDHC Memory Card for it as the primary storage for video and pictures. I use the huge hard drive as a backup if the card gets full. That way I can just pop the card in the laptop or my Panasonic TV to view and edit them.
The file format is M2TS. As such, you will need the latest video editing/playing software or Windows 7 in order to play and manipulate the videos (or use the included software).The included editing software is not very good, but you should expect that. You will also need some horsepower in your PC as dealing with files this large will eat away at your resources. You could always work around it by configuring a "video" hardware profile with minimum resources loaded (you need to be a little tech savy to do this).
THE NOT-SO-BAD:
Battery life is short (1.5 hours of shooting). Not too bad if using around the house or at the game, but if you go on vacation, you may run short. I took it on vacation and had just enough to get by. They sell larger extra batteries!
Software is really lacking but most are.
A litlle slow to power on, but no worse than my old tape camera (maybe faster). 2 second power up. Just know this and be prepared!
This is a great camera, but take my advice; as with any gadget, don't buy it or any camera on your way to "the event." If you want to capture those memories as you intend, have plenty of time to read the manual and get to know it inside and out first. Capture the video in various lighting conditions and play with the settings (don't forget about wind noise reduction). Download it to your computer, make a movie. Then your ready to go!
I purchased an SDHC Memory Card for it as the primary storage for video and pictures. I use the huge hard drive as a backup if the card gets full. That way I can just pop the card in the laptop or my Panasonic TV to view and edit them.
The file format is M2TS. As such, you will need the latest video editing/playing software or Windows 7 in order to play and manipulate the videos (or use the included software).The included editing software is not very good, but you should expect that. You will also need some horsepower in your PC as dealing with files this large will eat away at your resources. You could always work around it by configuring a "video" hardware profile with minimum resources loaded (you need to be a little tech savy to do this).
THE NOT-SO-BAD:
Battery life is short (1.5 hours of shooting). Not too bad if using around the house or at the game, but if you go on vacation, you may run short. I took it on vacation and had just enough to get by. They sell larger extra batteries!
Software is really lacking but most are.
A litlle slow to power on, but no worse than my old tape camera (maybe faster). 2 second power up. Just know this and be prepared!
This is a great camera, but take my advice; as with any gadget, don't buy it or any camera on your way to "the event." If you want to capture those memories as you intend, have plenty of time to read the manual and get to know it inside and out first. Capture the video in various lighting conditions and play with the settings (don't forget about wind noise reduction). Download it to your computer, make a movie. Then your ready to go!
What's great about it: Easy to use and great picture. All the basic features in an HD video Camera
What's not so great: Short battery life, software is lackluster, slow startup
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 5 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Best Bang for your buck.
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
Okay, first off let me start by saying I read every review here on Bestbuy.com as well as everywhere else I could find a review on HD video cameras. Overall, this camera was either the highest rated or in the top 3 or so as rated by comsumers....you know, the people who actually use the cameras everyday. With that being said, even the sites that just test cameras to give them reviews gave this camera some pretty high marks, and justifiably so. The only bad points I found were the battery life, some said it took only average pictures and that it didnt have a viewfinder so having the lcd screen on all the time drained the battery. These are all true. But in no way, shape or form do these detract from the incredible value that this camera is. Here is my take on this camera:
Now let me give you some background as to what I was looking for in a camera. I was done messing around with tapes, and had given a sony DVD camera a try (it sucked). I wanted an HD Camera with a hard drive. I wanted something that took good pictures as well, something small and comfortable, not too heavy. Video Quality was probably the most important thing to me, and I wanted it to be good in low light. Lasty and almost equally as important as image and video quality, was compatibility. I had just recently purchased cyberlink power director 8 and wanted something that worked perfectly with that.
These criteria led me to this camera based on the reviews. Battery life wasn't an issue because most cameras didnt seem to get more than 30-45 min more life per charge than this one and I had no problem biting the bullet to get an extra battery......its always good to have a spare battery. I have never used a view finder on a camera I have owned that was equipped with an LCD screen, so that wasn't an issue. I did not need a microphone jack or a manual focus ring around the lense. Everything else fell right in line with what I was looking for.
So here are my findings:
1) Video Image Quality - Excellent. I have zero complaints about the video quality in good light. It could be the best out there for shooting outdoors in the sun. However, I was slightly disappointed with low light quality. This camera has no problem shooting in low light at all, but it does get a little grainy.....which is something I honestly wasn't expecting. One thing to note, this camera does not have a light on it(just an FYI). The camera does a very good job focusing with the intelligent AF. I have seen little need to use the manual focus settings thus far. Detail is incredible, but you have to pan slowly or it gets a little blurry(motion blur). The camera even warns you while taking video if you are panning too fast. That just takes a little personal adjusting and again isnt much of an issue.
1) Video Image Quality - Excellent. I have zero complaints about the video quality in good light. It could be the best out there for shooting outdoors in the sun. However, I was slightly disappointed with low light quality. This camera has no problem shooting in low light at all, but it does get a little grainy.....which is something I honestly wasn't expecting. One thing to note, this camera does not have a light on it(just an FYI). The camera does a very good job focusing with the intelligent AF. I have seen little need to use the manual focus settings thus far. Detail is incredible, but you have to pan slowly or it gets a little blurry(motion blur). The camera even warns you while taking video if you are panning too fast. That just takes a little personal adjusting and again isnt much of an issue.
2) Still image quality - Very Good. One thing I didnt realize is that this camera has a flash. It is somewhat weak, but a flash none-the-less. It takes pretty good pictures for a video camera, probably the best I have seen come off of a video camera. I would say 80-85% of the pictures I have taken were in focus and as good as anything you might get out of a $150 compact 8-10MP point & shoot camera. So you could use this for both if you wanted. You also have the ability to take pictures while recording video without any interuption to the video, not to mention the ability to take a snapshot right out of video you have already recorded.
3) Compatiblity - Very Good. I have read about other cameras like the sony having problems with video editing software. For me, this camera works great with Cyberlink's Power Director 8. I can even burn my videos on to Blu-ray discs. I added an LG Blu-ray disc drive on to the expansion port of my Computer, which was very simple, and can very easily burn Blu-rays. Just make sure your system is powerful enough . You need to have a pretty decent video card and a good amount of RAM, and a pretty powerful processor( I have an Intel Core 2 Quad, Nvidia Gforce 8500GT video/graphics card (had to update the drivers) and 3 GB RAM with Vista and it is pretty darn smooth with the editing). If you computer is more than 3 years old, I would do some good research on the mimimum system requirements and compare them against what you have before purchasing any Video Editing software( actually you should check that no matter how old your computer is). The camera only comes with very very basic software to pull the videos off of the camera and put them on to a disc, so if you are looking to do anything more than that, you probably want to look into one of the dozen or so other video editing programs on the market . This is often a forgotten step when looking at these cameras. What good is the camera if you can't do anything other than store the videos on your compuer or back up hard drive?
4) The Rest - Excellent. The camera is very easy to understand and operate right out of the box. The touch screen has an information option to help guide you and tell you what each selection does, which is very helpful. It also has a 700X digital zoom, which is fantastic. Image stabilazation is excellent, intelligent autofocus works great, colors are very true. It has a pre-record function that will go back 3 seconds before you pushed the Rec button(like its constantly recording, waiting for you to push the button so you don't miss something). It is very well made, all the buttons function nicely. Cnet said something about the touch screen being somewhat unresponsive in their review of this camera......I have not found that to be an issue at all. The sound quality is fantastic. When watching back on our HDTV in surround, the voices in front of the camera come from the front channels, and the voices behind the camera(like the person shooting the videos voice) sound more like they are coming from behind the camera. Truely fantastic audio quality. I have not tested the audio in the wind thus far, as it is too cold for a lot of outdoor videos. I hope to find that one out soon and post an update if I can. The 120GB hard drive is great, SDHC slot is great, connects to the computer via USB. Comes with component video cables, but you need to buy a mini HDMI to HDMI cable or if you have a HDMI cable already laying around (as I did) Best Buy sells an adapter that is half the price (its a Mini HDMI to HDMI cable thats only 6 inches long). It also comes with a standard rca style set of jacks. The Battery takes 2 1/2 hours to charge from depleted. It will take about an hour and a half of video (90min) That is an average. It is longer(120min) if you were to continuously shoot without powering on and off & on and off. If you buy a back up battery from bestbuy.com, its the exact same battery the camera comes with, just an FYI. Last but not least, it is my understanding that this camera is 1080p. I noticed others were confused on this. I read somewhere that it is true HD at 1080p.
Bottom Line, for the price, this camera cannot be beat. It may not have all of the extra features some of the more expensive cameras have, but the quality is as good as some cameras that cost $300-$500 more. There may be a better camera out there, but it probably is just hitting the market and cost more than $1200. This is definitely, in my honest opinion, the best camera available for under $1000.
What's great about it: Easy to use out of the box, Price when on sale ($799), Great video & picture quality & HUGE 120 GB Hard drive.
What's not so great: Battery is a little short, but most batteries that come with these camera are.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+4points
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Review 6 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great picture and price
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
I do a lot of video of high school sports and the picture is superb in the sports mode. I also like the rapid shot mode in the digital picture mode and the ability to take a photo while shooting video. The remote is great for playback and allows you to take still photos from the video using the remote which is great. It is very easy to use and learn the many functions the camera has. I have had it for a few weeks and have no regrets. The extra battery is worth getting.
My one complaint is the mini HDMI to HDMI cable you need. No one seems to carry it, including BestBuy. Finally found it on the Monoprice site.
What's great about it: Easy to use and packed with features.
What's not so great: Short battery life, buy an extra. It lasts about 1 and 1/2 hours with minimal zooming.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 7 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great Bang For Your Buck
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
I've had this camcorder for about six months and really love it. Took it on vacation with me in October to WV during the fall colors and got some awesome stills and motion pictures. Since then I just can't put it down. I look for reasons to use it. The colors and clarity this camcorder takes are breathtaking. The stills are better than any digital camera I've ever used. My dad has a 5MP Nikon and this camcorder makes it look ancient. Some critics complain about Panasonic and it's troubles with lighting levels but I have not found that to be the case with this Camcorder. Your going to have that problem with any HD camcorder out there, they all have limitations, but with a little common sence, photographry understanding, and an ability to understand this camcorders features, and in some cases, make manual adjustments, you can get really great shots. That's the thing that sets this camcorder apart from the rest of the pack. You can be a novice and use the auto settings and features or can be a pro and do manual adjustments, or even a combination. Any way you choose your going to be amazed at the results.The flexability and ease of use just puts this camcorder a step above the competitors and you just can't beat the price. The only thing that I find a little weird is that the playback directly from the camcorder is in 1080i with a mini HDMI cable, or using the component and AV cable, and is not in 1080p. And also on that note, one thing that everyone should be aware of is that the model that Best Buy is selling right now is an older model that only records in 1080i. Panasonic now has there new model out (the one I have) which has all the same other features except it now records in 1080p for $899. I see that Best Buy is now selling the old model for $799 and you may be able to get it for even cheaper when they have a sale. Still a great camcorder and one that I feel that everyone should consider purchasing if they are in the market for a HD camcorder. Don't waste your money on an expensive Cannon or Sony that does not have all the great features, not easy to use, no flexability, and cost hundreds more. You just can't beat Panasonics Value.
What's great about it: Excellent Picture & Sound Quality, Lots of Features, Easy to Use, Great Value
What's not so great: Play Back that is directly form camcorder is only in 1080i
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 8 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
I recommend this product
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Sohail
from Phoenix, AZ
on 01/06/2010
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
I reviewed all other brands including SONY, Cannon etc- finally chose this product, as it includes multiple features, including HD, 120 GB HD, remote control, touch screen features and great still camera. Product not very cheap, and picture quality is possibly not the greatest. Overall satisfied and will recommend this product.
What's great about it: Huge 120 GB HD, Remote contol and touch screen features are very helpful.
What's not so great: Probably not the greatest quality pictures. Also not cheap. HDHC not included.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 9 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
First High Def Digital Camcorder we've had
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
We bought ours for sporting events and did have to buy an extended life battery as the battery that comes with it is not enough for a three game basketball tournament. Picture seems good and clear but sometimes colors don't match what we were watching. Could be our techniques though. No matter what you use nothing seems to do well in a gymnasium. We definitely don't know enough about using our camera yet. The camera has a lot of nice features and we don't know how to use them all yet.
What's great about it: Pretty easy to use, used camera the next day. Touch screen is nice.
What's not so great: Would like battery to last longer
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 10 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great camcorder
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
This is my first HD camcorder.It is very easy to use , great picture and video in low light. and it is very easy to download pics and video into computer with the manual instruction. I love it. I don't think the battery time is too short, it can runs more than 2 hrs after fully charged.
What's great about it: You can take video and picture at the same time, easy to use
What's not so great: if you loss/damage the softeware attached,how to watch the video in future??
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 11 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Awesome Resolution
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
This is a gift for my wife for our anniversary, so I have had it hidden in the house without being able to play around with it too much. With what I have done with it and read about it just seems like it has all of the features that I would ever need. I have hooked it up to our 42" HDTV with an HDMI cable and it just looks amazing. Low light recording looks really good, the digital still at 10MP are great, image stabilization, records 5.1 audio... the list goes on. The only downside is the life of the battery between charges is not great at all, and I will be looking into getting a higher capacity battery some time in the future. Overall, great camcorder at a great price!
What's great about it: Plenty of disk space, easy to use, amazing quality videos, 10MP still pictures, touch screen
What's not so great: Battery needs recharging often
I would recommend this to a friend!
-1point
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Review 12 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great choice for us
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: MNsteph7
from Minnesota
on 11/04/2009
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
We searched a long time for a video camera and this camera met all our needs. It takes great still photos as well as video and it's easy to use. Great camera!
What's great about it: very easy to use, great picture quality
What's not so great: No problems so far!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 13 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great Video Quality
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
3.0
I have been using this camera for almost 6 months and I like the quality of the image which is the most important thing. And I also like the fact that I can transfer video via USB. Image is incredible when shooting at highest resolution.
I do have a few dislikes:
1) If you are connecting your camera to a TV and have to use your battery, you have to keep the camera monitor on too, and this will run down your battery faster.
2) It doesn't have a viewfinder and you have to use the camera monitor. This runs down the battery again.
3) Bigger battery will cost you about $130
4) Can't charge battery and run the camera on power at the same time.
5) Still a good camera and I would have bought it again.
I do have a few dislikes:
1) If you are connecting your camera to a TV and have to use your battery, you have to keep the camera monitor on too, and this will run down your battery faster.
2) It doesn't have a viewfinder and you have to use the camera monitor. This runs down the battery again.
3) Bigger battery will cost you about $130
4) Can't charge battery and run the camera on power at the same time.
5) Still a good camera and I would have bought it again.
What's great about it: Image Quality
What's not so great: Power / battery setup
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 14 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great camcorder
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
5.0
We were upgrading from a Hi8mm camcorder about 9 years old. A Best Buy employee gave us a heads up about this model 2 weeks before it was to arrive. We waited for it to arrive and it looked great. Priced fairly high, we had to wait a while for it to go on sale (I never pay full retail and the store would not give me a discount of any sort) and purchased it when it finally went on sale. Well worth the wait. Very easy to use, but has many optional features we have not yet explored yet. We hardly use our digital camera any more, as we can bring one device anywhere we go. You can even take a picture while you are shooting video. A little trouble at first getting it to sync with our Mac, but once learned, it is fairly quick. Sound quality is great and the ability to change the microphone settings helps.
The battery is okay, but not nearly adequate for extended periods of recording. Not even Panasonic offers an extended life battery yet. The model is too new. If you need to power up quickly and take a shot, you'll need to wait a few seconds. It is a bit slow to start up, and since the battery life is short, you really can't keep it in sleep mode without the chance of running the battery out.
We've never been disappointed with any Panasonic products. They still continue to put out solid electronics across the board.
What's great about it: Large hard drive, high def camera and video, basic ease of use
What's not so great: Power up time, Battery life and lack of larger capacity batteries
I would recommend this to a friend!
-1point
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Review 15 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great HD Camcorder
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
3.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
I recently upgraded from a MiniDv camcorder to this Panasonic and as far as picture quality goes all i can say is amazing. I have recorded several soccer games at dusk and the camcorder performs flawlessly with good picture quality and coloring. I hooked the camcorder directly up to my 62" HDTV when i got home and the picture quality was better than some programming i get from Dish. The standard battery will get you about 90 minutes of recording and unfortunately it takes 150 minutes to fully charge; I would strongly recommend purchasing a second battery. The software works well for capturing the video from the camcorder to your computer but forget editing after that. First it cannot clip the video in multiple segments to produce your own highlight reel. When you cut the video it takes several minutes each time running a 3.2Ghz Dual Core CPU and an overall conversion from M2TS to MP2 would take the better part of the day.
What's great about it: Amazing video Quality and Easy to Use right out of the Box
What's not so great: Video editing software lacking.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 16 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Great camera. Amazing HD Video!
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
I spent weeks researching HD camcorders to replace my Sony DCR-SR200, and clearly chose a winner. The HD video is absolutely amazing!! The still image quality seems to vary. Sometimes it is pretty good, at other times not good at all. I had hoped to replace my Sony Cyber-shot with this device, but find myself still carrying two cameras. The touch screen is not as responsive as my Sony camcorder's and certainly lacks compared to an iTouch. So far none of these issues have negatively affected my experience.
If you are considering an HD camcorder, definitely take a look at this one. You cannot go wrong with it.
What's great about it: Easy to use, amazing video quality, huge hard drive
What's not so great: Battery life, touch screen response, no Mac software, still image quality
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 17 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Amazing Picture Quality
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
If you've been using any of the DVD/Chip-based storage camcorders you will find the increase in video quality with this camcorder to be drastic. I have a 1999 Sony digital 8 camcorder which produces good video quality and one of the newer Sony DVD/Memory Stick "hybrid" camcorders which sucks.
The jump in video quality was stunning. I did some test recordings and burned them onto DVD-R media. When I played them back on our LG BD370 and Sony bd550 bluray players both times even my wife's jaw dropped. It's hard to use the other two camcorders now (especially the DVD based one) after using the new Hi Def model.
Our TV's are only 720p and this camcorder is capable of up to 1080i so I can't wait to play these back on a 1080p TV.
Right now it's on sale for <$800 and since I paid $900 for it Best Buy refunded the difference. But I would have gladly paid $1300 for this camcorder.
I know that even at $800 it's a large chunk of change to spend at one time but if you don't mind paying it you will NOT regret it.
The jump in video quality was stunning. I did some test recordings and burned them onto DVD-R media. When I played them back on our LG BD370 and Sony bd550 bluray players both times even my wife's jaw dropped. It's hard to use the other two camcorders now (especially the DVD based one) after using the new Hi Def model.
Our TV's are only 720p and this camcorder is capable of up to 1080i so I can't wait to play these back on a 1080p TV.
Right now it's on sale for <$800 and since I paid $900 for it Best Buy refunded the difference. But I would have gladly paid $1300 for this camcorder.
I know that even at $800 it's a large chunk of change to spend at one time but if you don't mind paying it you will NOT regret it.
What's great about it: Beautiful Video, Nicely Built, Made in Japan Rather than China, etc.
What's not so great: No Viewfinder, No dedicated Manual Audio Record Level Control on Outside
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 18 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
Best Camera ever created!
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Anonymous
from Florida
on 08/13/2009
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
5.0
This Camera is great! I used it for the first time when I got back from Iraq, and I loved every second of it. It has a great zoom, and the High definition is outstanding! the only thing that bothered me was that I couldn't figure out the software that it came with, I don't know if I have the right hardware to complete an HD DVD though. Other than that, I bought an extra battery, and a stand, I highly recommend! Overall, this camera is a one of a kind, especially for this price!
What's great about it: Awesome Quality, feels like you are actually reliving whatever you recorded!
What's not so great: Short battery life, and can't figure out how to burn to a HD DVD.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 19 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
I highly recommend this camera if you have childrn
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Pauly0914
from Dallas
on 07/05/2009
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
This camera is the right camera if your a parent. It is good in light and indoors. My wife likes the fact that its light weight and user friendly. I looked at every camera in the store, this is definately the best deal.
What's great about it: very clear, user friendly and a touch screen makes it easy to use
What's not so great: battery life is short, buy an extra
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 20 for Panasonic 8.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder w/120GB Hard Drive and 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black
panasonic hdc hs250k camcorder
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Andy101
from battle creek, mi
on 06/29/2009
Value for Price
5.0
Picture Quality
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
BestBuy offers best price for this camcorder. It has many good features, such as 1080p quality video... You have to pay a lot more to buy other brand camcorders with same features. What I am not happy about my purchase of this product is that I have to buy a mini HDMI to HDMI cable (1080p quality) from a different store.
What's great about it: features
What's not so great: I have to buy accessories from other store
I would recommend this to a friend!
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