Panasonic SDR-S26: Test Footage

The Panasonic SDR-S26 was released around the year 2009 (according to the earliest available reviews on B&H and Amazon).

The video from this camera is not great at all, even for standard definition. It tends to have artifacting, and the low light isn’t exactly stellar in its own right. It’s interlaced, of course, so that adds to the dated aspects as well. The video quality is also weird, being 704 x 480 instead of the usual 720 x 480. From what I understand, this is done to preserve both bandwidth and recording time.

As with many standard definition camcorders of its time, it also has an absurd zoom ratio. The optical zoom can reach 70x, and the digital zoom (which nobody should use) can reach 3500x. Kind of a nit-pick, but the zoom is also quite slow on this camcorder. It could have been faster by the slightest of margins; maybe I’m jaded because I’ve used some camcorders that zoom faster.

I’m not much of an audiophile, so to me, the microphone is just fine. Only problem I’ve noticed is that the louder low pitched sounds seem to cause a whining noise.

This is pretty standard build quality for a late 2000s camcorder, really. The glossy plastic, while being fingerprint prone, isn’t too thin feeling and is of decent quality. It appears to have a sparkly effect to it, and while it’s a somewhat dated design choice, I must say I appreciate attempt to stand out. The button layout is intuitive for the most part, with the exception of the manual controls being a separate button from the Intelligent Auto activation/deactivation (this is actually something that changed in a few of Panasonic’s later models, so it seems they felt the same way). The wrist strap leaves a little bit to be desired, as it’s rather thin and can be uncomfortable for those that have larger hands, it’s reminiscent of the cheaper ones Sony uses on their newer camcorders. It’s also got a manual lens cover, which I used to hate until the automatic one on my HDR-CX130 stopped working.

SPECS:
Recording Format: MPEG2 (Motion Image); JPEG (Still Image)
Image Sensor: 1/8" CCD
Effective Pixel Count: 0.38 megapixels [16:9], 0.29 megapixels [4:3] [Motion and Still Images]
Total Pixel Count: 0.8 megapixels
F Value: F1.9(WIDE)/5.7(TELE)
Optical Zoom: 70x
Digital Zoom: 3500x
Focal Length: 1.5-105mm
Lens Thread: 37mm
Still Pictures: 640 x 480 or 640 x 360
Shutter Speed: Motion Image1/30-1/8000 (Motion Image)
Shutter Speed: Still Image1/30-1/500 (Still Picture)
Minimum Illumination6 Lux (1/30 Low Light Mode), 2 Lux (Magic Pix)
LCD Screen: 2.7" Wide (123,200 Dots)
Recording ModeXP [10Mbps/VBR], [704 x 480]
SP [5Mbps/VBR], [704 x 480]
LP [2.5Mbps/VBR], [704 x 480]
Audio Recording SystemDolby Digital [2ch], MPEG1 Audio Layer 2
Battery : 940 mAh
Weight: 0.5 pounds



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