Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic SDR-S26 Flash Memory Camcorder With SD Card Slot - Black

Amazing value for money and so small for what it offers. Image quality is excellent for a non HD cam and the anti shake mechanism works a treat.

I was a little dubious about how it would get on with replay/editing on the Mac OS. Panasonic UK say very little in their publicity material (except the supplied software is Windows only), but after a bit of digging around on the Net, I found claims you could edit with iMovie - and they're right; plays and edits perfectly!

I'm delighted with this camcorder and wishing for something different, ordered mine in the very smart looking, Champagne finish.

This is a good camera for a first time buyer. It is easy to use,although I find it a little to light.The software will not work with Vista Home Premium,but the Vista Movie Maker is quiet good to use.The lightness of the camera means that for zoom work,you need a tripod or possibly a bean bag.If transfering to a DVD for watching on TV the lens give a very good picture if transfered at a slow rate to the DVD

I've had this camcorder for over a month and it still keeps surprising me how good it is.
some info:
- video is in MPEG2, audio in MPEG1 Layer2 - in a .mod container. I didn't have a problem opening it in any video editing software (I use KDEnlive on Linux and the camera is bundled with VideoCam Suite V2.0, but I've tried others as well.)
- you will need to buy some kind of pouch for carrying the camera; you won't find one in the box.
- I struggled with an SD card before the camera decided to format it. Afterwards, it worked fine. There was no problem with an SDHC card.
- 8GB card will give you around 2 hours on high quality, 3.5 on medium and almost 7 on the lowest settings (can't remember exact figures now)
- don't expect great quality photos - 640x480 is the only resolution you will get on your stills. Video resolution is 704x576.
- camera with a card is recognised as a usb mass storage device and needs no drivers to work with a computer.
pros:
- image stabiliser that will compensate for almost any handshake you throw at it. Even OAPs and children can make great videos.
- variable speed zooming. Depending on how far you tilt the zoom 'rocker', the speed of zooming changes SMOOTHLY.
- 70x optical zoom
- autofocus keeps track of faces and focuses on them (if you enable it)
- allows you to do a bit of manual configuration (colour temperature, aperture, etc)
- fairly neutral representation of colours - no overly saturated american posterlike NTSC colour mode.
- very very small and lightweight
- if you switch it on and just close the display, the camera goes to sleep and you can start recording in about 2-3 seconds.
cons:
- battery. You can't use a larger battery and it only lasts about 45-50 minutes with stabilisation enabled and a bit of zooming. If you use tripod, you can get 1 hour and 10 minutes. Always carry a spare battery.
- 'intelligent auto mode' - if enabled, is happy to change white balance to a 'scarily blueish' mode if you're in shade or try to shoot during sunset. Sometimes it just keeps switching between 'useless' to 'unsuitable' modes and refuses to give you what you need in a given situation. I've had better results with it switched off.
- the ccd sensor is really small (1/8") so the camera performs (slightly) under average in darker scenes.

This is a genuinely good camcorder. If given the opportunity to exchange it for any other standard resolution camcorder, I would still go for this one.

This is the first camcorder I have purchased and I'm absolutely delighted with it.

I was looking for something small and easy to use. It is very light and it couldn't be easier to toggle between video and still photo mode and you can review your pictures in an instant with another turn of the toggle.

I'm looking forward to playing around with some of the extra features but even if I never ventured as far as that I would still be more than satisfied with what I have got.

Excellent product.

This is not an HD camera. HD is fine if you are just going to plug your camera into your HD television but outside of that it is not well supported, yet. I bought the camera to make a wildlife film of the animals and birds that visit my garden. I run a website so I'll need to unload the flies later. The S26 is perfectly good for that. The screen is quite big enough and it fits perfectly well onto a tripod. OK it has a 70 times optical zoom which is way over the top, Panasonics top of the range camera has a 14 times optical zoom, but there is no need to use the whole range. The camera is very light and therefore does not dampen out hand shake so the optical stabilizer is a must if you are going to 'hand hold' the camera whilst filming. As far as it goes it works very well reducing shake quite effectively. The supplied software can be loaded and used by those who have Wndows 7 which is worth knowing. The supplied editting software is pretty basic but it tends to pay for a good video editting program anyway so budget for that if you want to make longer films. Amazon have a seller who can supply very cheap batteries if you want additional filming time but the camera can be used directly from the mains supply indoors. Yes the video does get grainy in poor light, I think this adds to the mood or can be used to that effect, but all video cameras do which is why TV sets are so well lit. If you want to upload directly to You Tube it will take video taillored for that purpose.

What won't it do? Well still pictures are basically a waste of time and you would be batter off using a mobile phone. Unless you are very tidy you will need to download your video onto a computer as SDHC cards are too easy to lose and then, of course, back everything up.

It really is a great little camera for what you pay for it on Amazon. Buy and enjoy