Review: Panasonic SDR-S7 Camcorder


With its 1/6-inch CCD, 10x zoom lens and 16:9 widescreen SD memory card shooting, is the pocket-sized Panasonic SDR-S7 way too cool to be called a camcorder?


Panasonic SDR-S7 video camera/camcorder
If you're one of those doubting Thomases who still doesn't believe me when I say that MiniDV and even DVD are on the way out in favour of pocket-sized, "take it anywhere, shoot whatever you fancy" video cameras that record only to solid-state memory cards, then reconsider your thoughts right now.

The simple fact is that by introducing more and more of these small, easy-to-use and highly-portable devices you'll get more and more people shooting and sharing video for the sheer hell of it. A new generation of video-makers don't necessarily want to making deeply-serious holiday movies, complete with titles, mood music and commentary to share with your aunts and uncles on DVD - they're after different pleasures.

Moreover, if you're still of the opinion that the video camcorder should be the domain of the so-called serious user (aren't we all supposed to go about our interests in a serious manner, after all?) then just look at the many social-media sharing websites like YouTube and study what younger people are doing. Pick up Panasonic's SDR-S7 and - once you get over the smallness of its form-factor - and you begin to envisage having fun with it. And if you want to see just how small the S7 is, have a look at this:

S7_Image_1_600

First Impressions


I don't think we need to express much in the way of first impressions, do we? It's not small - it's positively miniscule when you consider how big an equivalent tape-based camcorder would have been a mere 5 years ago. To be frank, this is ridiculous! Hand to anybody who hasn't seen it before and you're almost guaranteed to get a amazed reaction. The words "wow" and "cool" have been heard many times in the course of a single working day here at SimplyDV Towers, and with good reason. It's quite amazing. Beautiful, in fact.

Although, unlike its sister shock-proof and waterproof sister product, the Panasonic SDR-SW20, it won't tolerate being buried in sand or dunked into the swimming pool, the SDR-S7 shares many of its design and operating properties. It's a lovely small palm-sized shape that fits perfectly in the hand, but more importantly it can be tucked away into a pocket or small bag when not in use. One of the things that does catch the eye is the inclusion of a second Record button up near the front of the body on the outside - great for operating with your forefinger when holding in pistol-grip fashion - which is a clear indicator of the uses to which this little marvel is designed. Shoot fast and shoot loose!

Features


Its 2.7-inch wide colour LCD screen opens out to reveal a main function dial offering the chance to shoot and replay widescrren and standard 4:3 ratio video as well as 4:3 ratio 640x480 JPEG pictures. The main power/function dial is there in the inside along with navigation, menu and other buttons, but that's just about the lot. At the offside front of the body, just back from the lens, is a manual lens shutter open/close switch, where there's also the second red Record button. On the back is the primary Record button as you'd expect, alongside a flap which reveals the camera's connections to the outside world - DC power, AV outputs to analogue TV and recorder and USB MiniB socket.

Flip the catch to open to the door on the base of the camera to reveal the slim Li-ion battery and SD/SDHC card slot - both of which slide vertically up into the body. The camera accepts the latest high-capacity SDHC Class 6 cards allowing up to 13 hours 20 minutes' MPEG-2 recording in LP mode on a 16GB SDHC card.

Despite its size and apparent simplicity, there's provision for good manual control over all the main functions, even if the relevant adjustments to Iris (aperture), White Balance and even Focus have to be made using the 4-way navigation dial that sits inside the LCD screen recess. Select the Manual AF/MF button to disply a graphical indicator on screen that enables you to click left or right for "plus" or "minus" adjustments. With this it's fairly easy to achieve quite reasonable adjustments to all the kinds of things that you might be inclined to adjust; even changing focus manually can be achieved even though it takes a bit of fiddle and is best done on a tripod (even a mini one) for best effect. But would you use such a camera on a tripod? Maybe.

The ability to control focus and aperture manually is actually very useful, especially if, for instance, you're pointing the 10x optical zoom lens at a subject for which the Auto circuit has determined an exposure that's just a bit too high; get into the menu and drop it back a tad more for best results. There are now lots of cameras competing in this market, but the ability to take this level of control separates out the good from the average, to say the least!

In playback mode, recorded clips are presented as thumbnail images which are selectable by operating the joystick and selecting by pressing in to play. It's much easier than tape in that you don't need to spool tapes and find those elusive clips - just flip through the thumbnails like you'd search for still photos on a card until you've found the one you want. That's where non-linear, tapeless, video scores over tape-based video formats. Morover, you can trim a scene to cut out unwanted segments - or you could delete it altogether.

The SDR-S7 offers three recording modes, with the highest setting requiring the most memory card storage. They are:
Other main recording features include 25x and 700x Digital Zoom, SIS electronic image stabilisation, Wind Cut to reduce wind-noise across the microphone, Zoom Mic (to mimic the action of the zoom lens), Auto Slow Shutter for electronic shutter adjustment and Rec Aspect control, allowing users to set the requirment aspect ration of the picture (4:3 or 16:9). A range of Scene Mode selections helps users to optimise the image setting to suit the situation in which you're recording.

The menu options available are less extensive than is available in other higher-specification SD and even AVCHD (high definition) Panasonic models, but even so the level of control over what you're recording or playing back is impressive.

One-Click disc copy


If you fancy making instant DVD copies of some or all of the clips recorded on the SD or SDHC card in the S7, consider using Panasonic's own VW-BN1 DVD burner. This connects direct to the camcorder via the USB 2.0 connection, and uses what's called "USB Host" control to allow the camcorder's menu system to take over the whole process of making a DVD copy. Keep the drive connected to the camcorder whilst viewing the output on a TV (using the supplied AV cable connections from S7 to TV) and you'll have full-screen playback right there on the TV.

Connectivity
Panasonic SDR-S7 with DC and USB connections
Because of the nature of the device, it's clear that you're not going to get much in the way of connections to the outside world.

Open the flap at the back of the tiny body and you'll find three sockets - DC mains (for onboard charging and powering via the supplied AC adaptor), a single multi-way analogue video/stereo audio socket (to which the supplied cable is attached) and a USB MiniB type socket for transfer of movie clips and images to a Windows/Vista and Apple Mac computer.

Clips recorded with the S7 were copied to a Windows XP PC using the supplied MotionSD Studio 1.3E software provided, in addition to Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 and Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0. On a Apple iMac running Mac OS10.5 Leopard, clips were successfully imported into Apple iMovie '08 via the USB connection and also using a separate SD card reader where editing took place without any problems whatever.

Of course, it's also possible to simply remove the SD card and place it into a separate memory card reader for 2-way transfer of files.

Performance


Bearing in mind the target market for this product and the technology employed within it, it's fair to say that the S7 produces very good pictures and sound. Video recordings are made in MPEG-2 format - which is the same format as used in regular standard definition DVD recordings - and its 16:9 widescreen pictures are pretty good considering the limitations. It's funny, but with such a small device that (on the face it) provides few buttons and switches, the S7 ofers a surprising degree of control over the pictures it records. The menu button provides the gateway to a wide range of manual control - and with it the ability to ride the exposure to the point where you can actually get a very good overall image recording. In fully auto, the S7's movie images have a slight tendancy to produce hot-spots in average-light frames, but if you have the patience to dig into the menu system you'll find that it's actually quite easy to control the exposure (along with the other options) using the mini-joystick and on-screen graphical "head-up" display.

Battery life is pretty good, and well up to the kind of usage intended. The slimline VW-VBJ10 Li-Ion battery tales about 2 hours to charge from empty, and from this we were able to get well over the 1 hour 10 minutes quoted by the manual.

Conclusion


On showing the S7 to others, the reaction it invariably gets relates to its size. It really is small - small enough not just to fit in a coat or jacket pocket but one normally reserved for mobile phones and the like. That's because it's really small. I've reviewed several small camcorders (or, perhaps, video cameras is now a better label) lately, but this one really grabs the attention of its target market. Potential users aren't as concerned about its specifications or stated features - they seem to be attracted to just how cool and cute it looks. It's a gadget, make no mistake - and one that's aimed at people on the move or those wanting to grab fun video clips on the spur of the moment. It's small enough and light enough to supplement those mobile phones whose video quality isn't yet good enough for showing on larger TV screens, even if they're great for YouTube and the like.

If there's a downside to the S7, it's that it doesn't offer HD video in the way that its major competitors do. The Sony HGR-TG3 AVCHD model is the most obvious competitor, and it's perhaps reasonable to assume that a Panasonic equivalent will be with us soon, too, but until that time the SDR-S7 will find a rightful home among users looking for a lightweight, highly user-friendly solid-state video camera that requires neither expert knowledge nor a bagful of tapes or DVD discs. With the cost of SDHC memory cards now reducing by the day, it's ideal.

Reviewed by: CB. April 2008.