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Panasonic HDC-SD20 is a new mid-range camcorder excellent for beginners, but with a few features that also more professional movie makers will appreciate.

Overview:
Panasonic HDC-SD20 has a very nice feature called Intelligent Auto mode perfect for beginners. The camcorder also features optical image stabilization system, 16x optical zoom, good color performance, touch screen interface and much, much more.

Panasonic HDC-SD20 pros:
+ Good color performance
+ 16x optical zoom
+ Low noise levels
+ Plenty of manual settings (if not in auto mode)
+ Overall good video quality

Panasonic HDC-SD20 cons:
- Poor focus performance in low lighting conditions
- Rather high noise in low light
- Microphone at the top might easily get obscured by fingers
- Average battery performance

The design:
The Panasonic HDC-SD20 measures 64 x 127 x 67 mm and weighs 272 grams. The front of the camcorder features, of course, the Leica lens, Led light and flash for taking still photos. The right side of the camcorder features only a thin, comfy hand strap, whereas the left side houses the screen chamber and within it the USB and SDHC ports (with covers), and a Fe buttons controlling manual mode, LED light, image stabilization, menu. The back of Panasonic HDC-SD20 features the battery pack, record on/off button, and mode switch for video and stills. At the top of the camcorder you can see the 5.1 microphone, zoom toggle, pre-record button and Intelligent Auto mode button. The bottom of Panasonic HDC-SD20 houses oly the tripod mount and the battery release switch.

Performance:
The Panasonic HDC-SD20 is a very good performer in most respects. The camcorder renders very good color and thanks to some options you can manually adjust color depth. Should that not be enough you can also choose one of the Soft Skin modes to make your life even easier. The Panasonic HDC-SD20 has also very good noise performance, in that it has little noise in most lighting conditions. Yet, the camcorder has surprisingly bad sharpness and in fact worse than any of its competitors released in 2009, like Canon Vixia HF S100, Panasonic HDC-HS300, or Sony HDR-XR520V, but still it performs better that any standard definition camcorder.
The Panasonic HDC-SD20 uses the AVCHD coded which is already quite usual for high definition camcorders. The highest quality setting in this camcorder will allow you to record movies at 17Mbps.

Still photos:
The Panasonic HDC-SD20 can also take 2.1 megapixel pictures. The camcorder comes with a standard set of features for stills like self-times, red-eye reduction and burst mode. Yet, the 2.1 megapixel photos look just average and so we cannot advise their use for various purposes as they seem only useable as an e-mail attachment, but not for print.

Menus / ease of use:
The Panasonic HDC-SD20 is very easy to use as it features a great auto mode which blocks access to any settings in the menus so that you cannot spoil anything and can focus on making movies. It that is not enough, however, the Panasonic HDC-SD20 has also the Intelligent Auto mode which not only makes all necessary adjustments to the image, but also detects faces, selects appropriate scene mode, and contrast.
However, the Auto modes black access to the menus and so if you do want to change something you have to switch the the manual mode. So you cannot change merely the white balance in auto mode – you have to set everything manually.
All in all, he Panasonic HDC-SD20 is a good camcorder for either amateurs who would rely in the auto mode, or for people well-acquainted with all the features. The semi-professionals might have to spend much time learning all the features. But still, the Panasonic HDC-SD20 is worth its price.
Selected Panasonic HDC-SD20 features and specifications: