 What began as an ethereal tryst throughout the realms of innovative camcorder architecture and Manual controls had instantaneously crashed to a tragic halt when we discovered that the Panasonic HDC-HS300's video and photo quality just couldn't hack it. It's a darn shame too because the camcorder is equipped with a killer fleet of image controls, and we had a great experience with its hybrid touch-screen LCD. The HDC-HS300 is also littered with practical ports and rocks a prosumer-like Control dial. We had a blast with the HDC-HS300 out in the field, but when we threw our memories up on the big HDTV screen, we tried to quickly forget them. The Canon HG21 and Sony HDR-SR12 both lapped the Panasonic HDC-HS300 in terms of video quality, but this is not headline news. We've seen Panasonic mashing gears in third place for quite some time now, and perhaps the company needs to scrap the 3 chip configuration in favor of a single mother of a CMOS sensor. The best HD camcorder Panasonic can offer is also a significant chunk of change, so we highly recommend checking out the new Canons and Sonys before a regrettable decision is made. Release: April 2009. Price: $1400.
Pros: Great architecture. Chock full of ports. Enhanced manual controls.
Cons: Mediocre video quality and poor photo quality. Terrible AC adapter and DC input setup. LCD screen is too small.
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74%
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Excellent |
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