Product Description

holds at least 15 hours of HD video at maximum quality * holds up to 50 hours of standard quality video * records high-definition AVCHD video to built-in 120GB hard disk drive or optional SD/SDHC memory cards * maximum video resolution: 1920 x 1080 * 3MOS System has separate image sensors for red, green, and blue * 9.15-megapixels total (6.21 effective total for video) * high-quality Leica Dicomar lens * 12X optical zoom (digital zoom to 700X) * built-in flash * advanced optical image stabilization * burst mode takes 60 shots per second * high-speed USB interface *

Product Details

• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: HDC-HS250K
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds
• Display size: 2.7
• Included Software: Yes

Features

• holds at least 15 hours of HD video at maximum quality
• holds up to 50 hours of standard quality video
• records high-definition AVCHD video to built-in 120GB hard disk drive or optional SD/SDHC memory cards
• maximum video resolution: 1920 x 1080
• 3MOS System has separate image sensors for red, green, and blue

Customer Reviews

Great Camcorder, still needs some improvement
I got this camcorder for about two weeks already. It's very easy to start operating it even without reading the manual. The touch screen feature is great! You can basically play on the touch screen and see the difference of the picture quality right on the screen. Here's some of the Pro & Con that I think after playing with this camcorder.

Pro:
-Easy to use
-Great video quality (I hook on my Sony 48 inches 1080p LCD screen, the picture looks great!)
-Picture quality is great too if you got enough light when using indoor (outdoor, no problem)
-Indoor video recording is pretty good using backlight function if indoor light is not enough.
-Outdoor video quality is excellent
-Digital zooming is great (I can basically zoom in and get so detail that I can see the pore of the person's face right across of the street with 3 traffic lane in between it.)
-LCD touch screen is great (you can flip the screen too! You can also use fingernail to touch the screen if your fingertip is too big, the screen don't have any problem recognizing your command.)

Con:
-Not enough battery life (got around 90minutes of recording, good thing is that you can see how much time you got left on the LCD screen for recording so you'll know when you need to charge the battery or switch to power cord or new battery.)
-You cannot charge the battery while using power cord!
-The power cord plug on the camcorder is hidden underneath where you put the battery at, so you cannot use both battery and power cord at the same time (very bad when you try to record using power cord, once you accidentally pull the power cord plug, all of the recording stops, and it takes long time for camcorder to get back to recording and it also causes temporary hard drive malfunction while the camcorder trying to recover what you just record.)
-You cannot turn on the light that came with the camcorder to do the recording (it's use mostly as flash function when taking picture)

So far that's what I thought playing for two weeks (without reading the manual.)

Very good, but: Not as Advertised!
Pros:
Awesome image quality and color. LCD screen surprised me that I could see it in daylight very easily. Touch controls work very well for me using the stylus. My previous two camcorders were Sony DVD. This Panasonic HD blows them out of the water!

Cons:
1) Not as advertised
2) Video editing software is barely adequate, and very spartan in its features.

Summary:
Panasonic, on their own webpage with their own product flyer claimed this camera had Time Lapse capability. It does not! I contacted Panasonic via their customer service asking about this and so far have only received a run around from them! Being directed to a telephone number, which when called inserts you into a horrendous automated system that is extremely difficult to navigate. Once you get to where you can ask for technical assistance, you are put on hold. After 20 minutes I gave up.

It is False Advertising, pure and simple! Shame on Panasonic!

Other than the deceit about the time lapse photography feature I really like this camcorder. The image quality and color are far superior to the two Sony DVD camcorders I had owned previously. The still shot capability is quite impressive also. Certainly not on a par with a dedicated DSLR, but from a point and shoot standpoint the images are quite good. The burst mode, of 60 frames per second is a stunner!

The camcorder is quite handsome in its black and chrome livery. It is small and light, but not too much so. It feels like a quality instrument.

I am quite satisfied with the camcorder overall, and if it actually had Time Lapse as advertised, I would have been thrilled with it.

Verry good oudoor,not good indoor
The video take outdoor is clear and beautiful, It's really HD, I play it on 52 inch television,it's beautiful.Unfortunately, I'm looking for the camcorder with high quality video indoor or low light, this one make me disappointed. It's get grainy with the light indoor, even with sunlight in the room.