Mobility Today has posted a video with a look at the Touch HD. It’s quite short and spends most of its time in landscape. It’s a nice advert but really doesn’t cover too many of the questions we are all asking. Check the link after the break.
Panasonic SDR-S7 Review
Like everything else these days, personal video cameras or camcorders are getting smaller and more convenient to use. We’ve gone from wallet-busting shoulder mounted behemoths of the late 80’s using tape to compact handheld devices that fit in your pocket and which can be had for less than £200. The Panasonic SDR-S7 is a typical example of the new breed of camcorders that have made “home movies” so much more accessible for all of us by being low cost and convenient.
What’s in the box?
General
I’m going to break with convention and avoid describing all the controls in detail as, by their nature, video cameras have a significant number of buttons, controls, menus and doo-dahs to operate them. However, controls have sensibly been kept to a minimum and this is undoubtedly a good thing when I watch how many people struggle with a normal digicam. Suffice to say, ease of use has been designed into the device and I found it remarkably easy to get to grips with without having to refer to the manual. This is a good test of any device and the Panasonic passes with distinction. I’m sure my mum could operate it!
The main control is a rotary switch that selects two operating modes for either motion picture recording, motion picture playback, still picture recording or still picture playback. To the left and above this switch is a menu select, auto-mode select, manual mode/auto-manual focus select and a 5-way cursor keypad for menu selection. On the top of the body there’s zoom-in/out controls and to the front on the right hand side next to the lens there’s a switch that opens or closes the lens cover (there’s no separate lens cover to be lost here – good thinking).
To the rear of the camera body behind a flap there’s a power jack, AV-out jack and USB socket for direct connection to a pc. Next to this is a dual function switch that either activates the camera shutter or starts/stops video filming. Now I realise that might sound fairly complicated, but in reality it’s not and in everyday use there’s only the rotary on/off mode select switch, the shutter release and the zoom controls to bother yourself about.
Panasonic SDR-S7 Specification:
Highlights:
Lowlights:
REVIEW
The Panasonic is an extremely compact device – in the hand with the screen closed it’s little bigger than many current mobile phones.
It’s easy to use and pretty much foolproof. Fold the screen out, power it on by using the rotary mode switch, selecting either video or still camera mode and, depending whether or not you use it at eye-level or waist-level, start filming by pressing the record button on the rear of the camera or the right side. The whole process takes less than 5 seconds with a very impressive start-up time. This reduces the chances of missing film-worthy action and helps to ensure you can capture those entertaining moments. The only potential gotcha here is forgetting to open the manual lens cover. I am sure we’ve all done that before!
There’s a manual focus mode and manual exposure mode that gives more control over the shooting options available, but to be honest that sort of defeats the object of this kind of camera. Its forte is quick operation and convenience so, the best thing to do is leave it in auto, leave the lens cover open, point it at your subject and get on with filming. It’s worth pointing out at this stage that if you are after high-quality footage then you should look beyond this unit. Resolution is 704 x 576 and, depending upon the recording mode used (there’s three levels of compression) you can expect to get between 50 minutes and 3.25hrs of footage on a 4GB SDHC card.
For a budget model the Panasonic copes quite well in low light levels which, is just as well because there is no built-in light. There was some discernible noise, but by the time it’s been mangled by YouTube or other online services it wouldn’t be noticeable.
Shooting with the camera at eye-level is not as natural or convenient as it would be with a more traditional kind using an optical or conventional viewfinder. In fact, I found using it in this manner resulted in wrist strain. However, it excels at waist level filming, which is a good technique to use if you want to remain fairly discrete. I can imagine this camcorder is ideal for parties and it’s the sort of device that I’d like strapped to the side of my motorcycle for a bit of fun.
The 10x optical zoom is fairly modest by camcorder standards – I didn’t investigate the digital zoom as this inevitably destroys image quality and, as a photographer, I am very fussy about that. The limited zoom isn’t an issue though because it encourages the user to get in closer which, almost always results in far better and more personal footage.
As a camera things are not so rosy. The resolution is very low at 640 x 480 making images look grainy and dull so, I would only ever use it in an emergency. There is no built-in flash so, it would only be usable in good light and therefore it’s no better than a very basic phone camera. In fact, you are probably better off using a camera phone. This might sound a bit harsh, but to be fair to Panasonic it’s not intended to be a still camera.
Battery life seemed to be adequate with about 1 – 1.25 hrs use being possible depending upon how much zooming in-out I did and what compression mode was used. It might not seem much, but it’s about par for most DV video cameras and enough considering its intended use.
You can download a sample video – taken straight from the SDR-S7 memory card with this link.
Conclusion:
There’s much to like in a package like this. It’s compact, easy to use, convenient and fairly robust. At a push it can also double as a camera. At around £190 plus the cost of a high capacity SDHC card, the price is now within reach of many of us without causing the credit card to freak out. If you’re serious about filming then like most consumer devices you really should look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for something to publish to YouTube, your blog or for capturing little clips for family entertainment then there’s not much wrong with the Panasonic. I can’t see many of us being too dissatisfied with it and I’d be happy with one of these for casual everyday use.
Join me again soon for the next camera in the Camcorder Group Test or head over and look at Part 1 to see which cameras we are including or take a look at my Toshiba Camileo H10 review or Sanyo Xacti HD700 review.
Review by: Nigel
Nokia launched the 5800 XpressMusic touch screen Symbian OS phone today, a mobile device for music that brings innovative new features to the mass market. Delivering on Nokia’s vision to provide the best total music experience possible, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first devices to support Comes With Music, Nokia’s groundbreaking service which offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue. We have lots of videos after the break and I am unimpressed with the OS, check them out and see what you think.
The Glofiish V900 is one of the newest devices from Eten and joins the ranks as one of the few Windows Mobile devices with a built in DVB TV tuner!
I’ve played with a couple of the TV capable devices in the past and have found all of them to be rather disappointing. However, the V900 is somewhat different as the TV tuner actually works. Using it at the office in London I can actually pick up over 50 channels of digital freeview TV. I actually lost the phone for about a day while some of the chaps in the office watched Sky Sports News. Several argued that the V900 was worth its price tag for that feature alone!
John has been using the Glofiish V900 over the past few weeks and his review, which I hope will cover more features that just the TV tuner, will be online shortly.
As always, you can see more of the Eten Glofiish V900 in the unboxing video below:
Eten Glofiish V900 specification:
Posted by: Matt
We have all read recently about Apple’s rejection of the Podcaster application because it was too similar to the core operations of the iPhone firmware, we even discussed this on the podcast, well they have now released it through the Cydia Installer application which you get if you jailbreak your iPhone. Mobile Tech Moment have done just that and posted a video of the application in action which we have after the break.
I’m just heading back from a T-Mobile event in London where we got a chance to play with the new T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) Android phone! Paul O’Brien (MoDaCo) and I managed to find a quiet place to record this video preview for you. It’s a little rough-and-ready as we’d only been given the G1 about 5 minutes before recording but I hope you enjoy the tour nonetheless!
First impressions are that it’s not a bad device considering that it’s the first of it’s kind but does feel a little on the ‘cheap’ side with it’s all-plastic case. Available in both black and white, the glossy white version looks the more classy of the two in my opinion.
The sliding QWERTY mechanism seems fairly robust and snaps open quite urgently as it’s well spring loaded. Unfortunately you will HAVE TO use the QWERTY keyboard for any and all text entry as there’s no on-screen keyboard of any kind. That’s a bit of a shame really.
The screen is of a decent size and well lit. It’s also a capacitive touchscreen which makes it very sensitive and responsive (dare I say ‘iPhone-like’?!) There’s no stylus here!
The built-in camera is just about average but doesn’t have a flash of any kind.
I’ll be back soon with some photos for you.
Posted by: Matt
Tmonews.com have a neat news introduction to the G1.
The fingerprints show up nicely in the light as the iPhone and G1 seem to go head to head on the show however they say that the iPhone’s lack of keyboard is a "big complaint", a statement I think most would disagree with, I know one person in particular. Video after the break.
Steve Trotto over at Mobile Tech Moment has taken a detailed look at iBlogger for the iPhone. This application lets you post to your Blog from your iPhone. With support for many of the most popular Blogs you can’t go wrong with this application if your a keen blogger. Check out the video after the break.
WebMessenger Message Alerts puts you back in control of managing communications on your mobile device by providing powerful rules and filters for your mobile email, SMS Messages and incoming voice calls. Define your own filters using rules that are automatically applied to your incoming incoming E-mail, SMS Messages, and inbound voice calls and be alerted to just what is needed through user defined alerts to include your own MP3 or WAV audio files. Includes custom alerts for low battery and low memory on your mobile device.
To celebrate the launch of the Xperia X1 Sony Ericsson have launched a competition to win an Xperia X1. Sony Ericsson hereby invites you to participate in the “Johnny X – Spot the References to 9” Competition (the “Competition”). As participant in the Competition you have to answer our Competition question and write what you think is the correct answer and you could possibly win 1 of 7 Sony Xperia X1 mobile phones. You can get all the details here.
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