Features and Design

I must admit the HDC-SX5 is one ugly camcorder. After recently using very slick-looking flash memory HD models from Sony and Panasonic, this one suffers badly by comparison. The biggest problem is the placement of the battery. With card-based cams, the battery is neatly tucked into the housing—here it sticks out from the back like a sore thumb. If you use the pull-out viewfinder, your cheek rests against it. Good thing there isn’t a logo on the end since your face would get branded! I know the engineers needed room for the DVD drive but I haven’t seen something so poorly designed in a long, long time. When you put your hand into the Velcro strap your thumb rests against the battery which is a bit annoying a first but then you realize it forces it to rest on the record button. I really don’t think they were trying for this result but who knows? The battery also back-weights the unit so it feels uneven. Basically it’s a mess and if this camcorder didn’t offer Full HD, I probably would’ve returned it to sender. I may be overreacting a bit but that’s why I always urge any prospective purchaser of a digicam or camcorder to actually hold the darn thing before you buy—with the battery installed—not just picking it up while it’s attached to a post in a big box retailer. If they won’t do it for you, take your business elsewhere. Let me get off my soapbox and continue our tour by moving to the front so we can get away from the freaking battery (by now you know I really don’t like it).

As always the front of any camcorder is dominated by the lens, in this case a 10x Leica Dicomar optical zoom (700x digital). Don’t bother engaging the digital zoom since the resulting footage is filled with digital noise. It has a twist off ring so you add an optional lens hood or filter. Next to the lens is a flash to help with digital stills since they’ll need all the help they can get as top quality is just 2MP (1920 x 1080 pixels). As I’ve noted many times before, it’s the rare camcorder that takes decent stills and if you can shoot HD video, why bother? Yes, I know there’s always the off chance you might want a still but a 4x6 is about as good as you can get.

You’ll also find a cooling outlet, a recording lamp and the white balance/remote control sensor on the front.

The top is fairly simple with a stereo mic (not 5.1-channel surround) and a hot shoe for connecting optional mics or lights. You’ll also find the wide/tele zoom switch that also acts as a volume control during playback and a dedicated button for taking snapshots.

The right side is dominated by the DVD drive and it accepts practically any type of disk—DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL (dual layer). A DL disk holds up to 26 minutes at top resolution while a 4GB SD card that you can load at the same time records 40 minutes of 1920 x 1080i video. A standard single layer disc holds 14 minutes. The comfortable strap is on this side as well.

Image Courtesy of Panasonic