If there's a camcorder that simply screams minimalistic chic, it's Panasonic's SW20. You can sink its small body 5 feet underwater and drop it onto concrete from a height of 4 feet without harming its retro good looks or modern flash memory functionality. It's also dustproof, making this the little camcorder that could film anything, anywhere, unless low-light was involved. The video it shoots is plain bad even by SD standards, but when uploading your globe-trekking adventures or underwater webcasts, the end result will be acceptable. At $340, it's in direct competition with Sanyo's waterproof compacts, but there are too many differences between the two, making the choice a matter of personal taste.



A single 1/6-inch 680,000 pixel, native 4:3 CCD sensor outputs standard definition interlaced video. Video quality is below average for this class, with poor dynamic range and visible noise under any conditions, but no aggressive oversaturation. The SW20's low-light performance is poor, and its image resolution is unusually low.



MPEG 2 compression at 10Mbps causes visible image artifacts. SD or SDHC cards up to 16 GB can be used for recording.



If you're used to shooting video at wide-angle, Panasonic's consumer camcorders are not for you. At a 35mm-equivalent field of view of 43.9-439 mm, the 10x zoom lens does not actually qualify as wide-angle. Its maximum aperture range is a very good f1.8 to f2.4. Optical stabilization, of which an outstanding implementation can be found in Panasonic's MiniDv line, has been replaced with digital stabilization, which further reduces the already disappointing resolution. The 2.7-inch widescreen LCD has a 123,000 pixel resolution, and a 'Power LCD' function, which boosts brightness.



A compact vacation camera can be whipped out at any moment, and it should respond quickly. The SW20 does, with a 'Full Automatic' mode that is consistently fast. Panasonic outfits this model with the whole range of manual controls, which, as usual, is unique and amazing for this price point. There are independent settings for shutter speed (1/60 to 1/8000), aperture (F1.8 to F16), white balance, gain and focus.



Small, 0.3 megapixel photos will be unacceptable for most consumers, whose mobile phones can record at least 10 times that resolution.



A zoom microphone records stereo audio, and is capable of focusing on sounds that come from farther or closer away, depending on how zoomed in the camcorder's lens is. A noise reduction function rounds out the audio features.



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