Panasonic punts submarine camcorder
Rambo's camcorder?
Filming during a beach party or on board a boat means placing your camcorder at risk of an nasty H2O overdose. Thankfully, Panasonic has realised that water-resistant cases aren’t always suitable and has created a fully waterproof rugged recorder.
Panasonic's SDR-SW20EB-R: water-, drop- and dust-proof
The SDR-SW20EB-R is sealed against water seepage at depths of up to 1.5m, allowing you to keep rolling whether you’re on the log flume at Alton Towers or thrown overboard from the QE2. Video and still images are recorded onto an SDHC memory card, rather than a hard disk or DVD, which helps to give the camcorder a drop resistance of up to 1.2m.
A 2.7in LCD display folds out from the camcorder’s side, revealing all the dials and buttons necessary to configure the unit. However, a so-called Easy Mode is available to take the confusion out of setting up the gadget, such as adjustments to its 10x optical zoom.
The camcorder also includes a USB 2.0 port for transferring video or still images back to your PC.
Panasonic’s SDR-SW20EB-R is available now in the UK for around £300 (€490/$600).
COMMENTS
Is it worth it?
Panasonic's underwater camcorder is apparently only 0.41 Megapixel at about £300 quid. For about the same cost (possibly less) I'd just use my existing mini-DV camcorder with a water proof case; with the benefits of higher resolution and ability to go a little deeper in water. Probably wouldn't help if I dropped it though. I like some Panasonic stuff, but I question this one.
