Quick Review Camcorders: Panasonic VDR-D300

The VDR-D300 features three 1/6” CCDs, each with 800K gross pixels. This camcorder, along with the D250, are the first DVD camcorders to offer three chips, which filter incoming light into three channels – red, green, and blue – for more accurate color reporting. In bright light, the D300 had an exceptionally sharp picture, particularly noteworthy due to the high compression of DVD. This image looked as good as a top-end MiniDV.

Low light performance was not quite so stellar. While three chips are great for sharpness, they don’t collect any more light than a single 1/6” chip. Chip size is far more important. The D300 maintained a good deal of sharpness, but the luminance dropped off quite a bit. Fine grain noise noticeably went up , most likely a result of a boost in the automatic gain. Fine noise is better than big, chunky noise, but it’s still there.

The handling on the D300 is very good, thanks to the joystick control located on the rear of the body. Manual controls are one of Panasonic’s greatest strengths, and navigating through them with the joystick is a relatively simple procedure. Yes, it might take a few tries before you get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s a powerful tool. Shutter speed (14 increments), aperture in f-stops (14 increments), manual focus, and manual gain (7 steps).

There are also a few quasi-manual controls, like backlight compensation, and scene modes – auto exposure settings for specific lighting environments – like Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Snow & Surf.

Full auto controls are engaged by flipping a small switch in the LCD cavity. The responses are not as good as you’d find on a Sony, or even some Canons, but they suffice. Auto focus was very good, but auto white balance left something to be desired. Learning how to set a manual white balance should be a beginning user’s first task.

Still features on the D300 are very good. Stills can be saved in the JPEG format to SD cards in sizes as large as 2048 x 1512. There are options for a flash, flash levels, red-eye reduction, plus a huge array of manual controls found in video mode. The D300’s stills were very sharp and rich.

We are as surprised as anyone that a DVD camcorder was able to give such an excellent performance. The resolution scores matched that of the best MiniDV camcorders, something that no other DVD camcorder has done. It gives us hope that DVD, a format quickly overshadowing MiniDV, may soon be able to match its performance. DVD compression is still much higher than MiniDV, and not as easy to import and edit on computers, but the gap is shrinking. If you are intent on purchasing a DVD camcorder and willing to spend the money, the VDR-D300 cannot be topped.

Panasonic VDR-D300 THE BOTTOM LINE Rating: 214.88

Likes

-Accessory shoe -Manual controls provide an immense amount of customization -Simple administrative menu structure

Dislikes

-Joystick control doesn't slide through manual options, instead requiring the user to re-activate the joystick for each step of a manual control -Compression levels for DVD camcorders -Poor flash placement to the side of the camcorder lens

Sony DCR-DVD 403 Rating: 210.65	Panasonic VDR-M75 Rating:164.37	Sony DCR-DVD 505 Rating: 215.73	Hitachi DZ-GX3300 Rating:	Panasonic VDR-D250 Rating:
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-Lower street price currently  -Interesting audio options for 5.1 channel   -Proprietary hot shoe for video lights, flash or mics  -Wide angle range of 46 degrees	-Distinctly lower price  -Wider field of view when set to the widescreen mode (although not true wide angle)	-3.5 inch LCD screen  -Audio options that mix audio onto 5.1 channels  -4 in-camera mics should mask recording inconsistencies in comparison to stereo audio  -Better flash placement  -Easy mode   -Widescreen field of view measures 50 degrees	-Lower price range at $799 MSRP -DVD+RW format	-Lower price range
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
-Poor placement of flash to the side of lens  -Video performance  -Thumbnail structure in playback mode for faster scanning -DVD format for recording  -Electronic color viewfinder  -MPEG2 compression	-10x optical zoom  - Mic input  -Non-true 16:9 format -Manual control only exists for white balance, exposure and focus  -Electronic color viewfinder  -DVD format with MPEG2 compression rates  -SD card for still images	-Electronic color viewfinder  -DVD format for video -MPEG2 compression  -Manual control over focus levels  -Manual control over exposure settings  -Manual control over white balance  -10x optical zoom lens	-10x optical zoom lens  -2.7 inch LCD screen  -Electronic color viewfinder  -Manual control over exposure, focus, and white balance  -Mic input  -In-camcorder flash unit  -Thumbnail navigation of menus in playback  -SD memory card for still images  -Manual control over focus, white balance and exposure	-10x optical zoom lens  -Manual control over the same list of shutter speed, focus, gain, exposure, and white balance  -Electronic color viewfinder  -2.7 inch, 123,000 pixel LCD screen  -DVD format for video footage  -SD card for still images  -MPEG2 compression for video  -Cold accessory shoe  -Imager size -Microphone Input
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
-Touchscreen interface and convoluted menu structures  -No manual control over shutter speed or gain levels  -No mic input, only an Active Interface hot shoe  -No memory card option for stills  -Image struggles with sharpness  -Electronic image stabilization	-One chip  -Electronic Image Stabilization  -2.5 inch LCD screen  -No manual control over shutter speed or gain levels  -Manual controls are accessed by opening the LCD, which means users can't use the viewfinder while adjusting manual settings  -Only records in DVD-R and DVD-RAM formats  -No in-camcorder flash	-Menu is navigated through touch-screen interface  -No mic input  -Proprietary hot shoe  -Higher price range  -Manual controls can only be altered when LCD is open  -Sony proprietary memory cards only  -Video performance with overly saturated colors  -Lower video resolution results  -No shutter speed control  -Electronic Image Stabilization	-Manual controls can only be accessed when LCD is open  -No manual control over shutter speed or gain levels	-Electronic image stabilization system  -Lower effective pixel count for the CCD -Lacks the Leica lens found with the VDR-D300