Panasonic SDR-SW21 Shock & Waterproof Camcorder (Orange)
List Price:
Price: $274.85
You Save: $125.10 (31%)
Details
- Records to SD/SDHC homage cards
- 2.7-inch widescreen LCD
- Triple-unyielding waterproof, shockproof and dustproof design
Description
SDR-SW21-D tawny shock and water proof camcorderCustomer Reviews
Returned day after, after viewing video and pictures.I was flustered to have bought this item as I have a Lumix series camera which I have had for almost 3 years now and cannot be any happier with it. I bought this because of it at one's fingertips size and the fact it was waterproof and dustproof and looked tough. Before I used this note, I read all the reviews and then I wanted to see for myself what this was all about. Here goes:
Video function: At the highest placement, video was horrible, it was dark and almost pixel like. It was taken indoors with lots of turn on coming in from outside as it was a sunny day. The picture looked like a conventional rainy day; cloudy, dark and no colors popping out whatsoever. I will not even quote the performance during low light, as it is almost non-existent. It looks like your typical video from a webcam.
Camera use: Out of focus, grainy, and dark. As someone else mentioned, it was like using a cubicle phone camera....so true.
At this point I packed everything up and couldn't on the back burner serve the next day to return.
As far as its water integrity. I did not bother to check, as its performance under stable conditions were horrible. Even if it did live up to it waterproof capabilities, you would still have to live with the rest of its shortcomings, which is everything else. Like another inspect mentioned, Panasonic fell asleep on this product.
I only can give it three stars and not lower, since I did not get to check up on its "water" performance and battery life. I know people take to be these two areas when deciding to buy this product. I myself stopped at the substandard video and pictures.
Drowned
I worked under unworkable once. I took it again and it drowned!!! Not a good camera for underwater, all in all I didnt go under 5 feet.
Unlucky video with any kind of motion
I bought this camera last year and returned it several era later because the video quality was so poor. If you were moving at all while you were shooting, the video it produced was hazy to the point where it make your eyes water to watch it. The shape also made it ungainly to hold. The Sanyo VPC-E1 and VPC-E2 take much better video, but the VPC-E1 I owned crapped out after 13 months and the VPC-E2 crapped out after 4 months. I have owned several waterproof Olympus Stylus cameras and they are a bit more tough, but the video quality isn't great - the colors are a bit dull, but they do a better job with action than this Panasonic! The Panasonic video does have nice color, and the video quality is sizeable if you stand very still or use a tripod...but come on, who can do that all the time? Canon, Fuji and Pentax also rearrange decent waterproof cameras, so consider them as well, however, they are oriented toward still pics, but can take reasonable video. In my notion, NONE of the companies make a truly durable, truly waterproof, digital video camera...yet.
Pocket & Easy Use
Very satisfied with the usability of this camcorder. Trustworthy and rugged with a great picture.
Fun camera. More of a toy, though.
I took this pale water rafting, and it held up like a champ. It doesn't flash very crisp video, and considering the bright sun, conditions were pretty complete, but the results were far from. The thing is though, that doesn't really matter. If you want to launch decent video, buy a decent video camera. This thing, on the other bracelets, is waterproof! And extremely so! I don't know if you've ever been white water rafting, but it can get pretty Draconian, and after getting completely submerged more than once, and bounced around a few times as well, the unit still looks and performs as skilful as new. I'm very, very impressed with its build quality. I give 4 stars because I'm not very impressed with its image value.
If you need something you can abuse, this is your camera; it'll take it. If you need something which will produce impressive video, buy something else. And be prudent with it.
