The H60 keeps the flash-memory recording capability of Panasonic's memory card models, and adds a 60GB hard-drive and a shockingly long optically stabilized zoom lens. Its $530 price is dangerously high compared to the quality of the video that this camcorder delivers. Buyers would be paying almost-HD price for a hard-drive they'll most likely never end up using to its full capacity.



The standard definition interlaced video is driven by a single 1/6-inch, 800,000 pixel, native 16:9 CCD sensor. Prone to noise and lacking in dynamic range, the H60's video will not win any awards. On the plus side, saturation is not aggressive, and neither is sharpening. Image resolution and low light performance are mediocre at best.



The MPEG 2 compression at a maximum of 10Mbps is laced with visible image artifacts. The 60 GB hard-drive holds 14 hours, while 3.2 hours can be recorded to a 16GB SDHC card.



Many users will find the wide-angle capabilities of the H60 lacking, with a 35mm-equivalent field of view of 40.9 mm. The 50x zoom lens has a maximum aperture range of f2.0 to f5.0. Unlike the memory card models, Panasonic's HDD-based SD line uses optical image stabilization. Still, a 50x zoom factor is too much too handle for even the best stabilization system. The 2.7-inch widescreen LCD has a 123,000 pixel resolution, and a 'Power LCD' function, which boosts brightness.



Panasonic continues to remain faithful to its habit of providing all consumer cameras with full manual controls. The H60 gains flexibility and value through its fully adjustable shutter speed (1/60 to 1/8000), aperture (F1.8 to F16), white balance, gain and focus settings.



Reaction time is an important part of the flexibility that compact cameras offer, so the H60 has a 'Quick Start' function which promises starting times of 2.1 seconds. This is significantly slower than the SW20's 0.6 second response, enabled by the use of flash-memory.



Panasonic's 'Anti-Shock Shield' protects your recordings with a three step process. A thick gel insulated the hard-drive from shocks. If a falling motion is detected, recording to hard-drive is immediately interrupted (reducing its frailty), but the data flow continues to a memory buffer.



A 'Disc Copy Function' lets you copy data from the internal hard-drive to DVD's, using an external DVD writer (most likely easiest to use with Panasonic's VW-BN1 writer).



The 0.3 megapixel photos will be laughed at by most consumers, given that their mobile phones likely snap photos at 10 times the resolution.



The on-board zoom microphone records stereo audio, and is capable of focusing on sounds that come from farther or closer away, according to the distance to which the visual zoom is set. A noise reduction function rounds out the audio features.



The ports provided on this camcorder are USB 2.0, Analog Out, and AV out.