Panasonic HDC-SX5 Review

Panasonic have managed to slim down their HDC-DX1 – a little. Panasonic’s latest entry to the highly competitive camcorder market just misses the mark a little in my opinion. It’s all a little wrong. It’s a little too heavy, a little too short on specs, and some of the design features leave me wondering who on earth let this one out of the gate before it was ready.

The battery sticks out of the back of the casing like it’s pleased to see you. And on top of that, Panasonic’s designers chose to hide the DC jack and HDMI terminal INSIDE the battery chamber. What this means is you have to remove the battery to use an external power source or watch recorded images on an HD monitor. Nuts.

Having said all that, the Panasonic HDC-SX5 has a kick-ass lens. Leica make some of the best lenses on the planet, and this ones no exception. Unfortunately, it’s let down by the image processing capabilities and in all tests has consistently been beaten by the competition.

For my money, the Sony HDR-CX7 offers a far better camera in this class, and is cheaper to boot. Back to the drawing board I think Mr. Panasonic.

Get it at amazon.com for around $830