Panasonic SDR-SW20

Panasonic SDR-SW20 is an extraordinarily compact camcorder designed especially for underwater use.

Intro:
The Panasonic SDR-SW20 is a camcorder designed for underwater use which features 2.7’’ LCD screen with 123,000-pixel resolution, 10x optical zoom and up to 700x digital zoom and E.I.S. (Electronic Image Stabilization). In addition to that, SDR-SW20 is shockproof for falls from up to 1.2 meters, dustproof and what is most important waterproof to a depth of 1.5 meters.

The design:
Panasonic SDR-SW20 is available in two colour schemes: gray and red. As mentioned before it is very compact – mere 33.8mm x 63.4mm x 115.4mm (1.33in. x 2.50in. x 4.54in.) and weighs more or less 224g (.49 lbs.). It does not have practically any external features and ports as it was designed to be waterproof. This camcorder does not have a hand strap, but a wrist strap which can be worn like a bracelet. At the bottom of the camcorder is a non-upgradeable VW-VBJ10 battery and a SD/SDHC card slot. The Panasonic SDR-SW20 supports SDHC Memory Cards of the capacity up to 16GB and SD Memory Cards up to 2GB.

Performance:
The Panasonic SDR-SW20 has only one 1/6-inch CCD with a gross pixel count of 640,000 (effective pixel count of 340,000 in 4:3 aspect ratio, and 300,000 pixels in 16:9). This assures only standard definition image and unfortunately not of the best quality. The image has rather

poor resolution so if you want to watch it on a HDTV don’t expect miracles. In low light the performance is even worse as the noise gets higher, which is strange for a camcorder designed for underwater use where there is not too much light usually. There are three quality settings in the Panasonic SDR-SW20: XP (10Mbps), SP (5Mbps), and LP (2,5Mbps). Using a 16GB Memory Card you should be able to record approximately 3h 20 min (200 min) in the highest quality. The camcorder has a still shooting mode, but it offers only VGA resolution (640 x 480) and unimpressive image quality, so I do not recommend it.

Menus and manual control:
Although Panasonic always gives you many settings to play with in its camcorders in case of SDR-SW20 the Auto mode does such a good job that you practically do not have to tamper with other settings. But if you do want to use them thanks to clear and logically organized menus you ought not to have any troubles with that.
All in all, the Panasonic SDR-SW20 is clearly aimed at consumers who would like to record many underwater home movies. Out of water its performance might disappoint, but on the other hand what can you expect for the price of less than $400.. And for that price along with Panasonic SDR-SW20 camcorder you get:
- VW-VBJ10 Battery Pack
- AC Adapter
- AC Cable
- AV Cable
- 2-way Hand Strap
- USB Cable
- CD-ROM
The detailed Panasonic SDR-SW20 specs are as follows:

Source: Panasonic.