In this video, baby even said “daddy” several times. Unfortunately, he hasn’t learn to say “mummy”.

Panasonic SDR-H250

I have been using the Panasonic SDR-H250 camcorder for 2 years. This is a great small size camcorder for family use. Sometimes I use it to shoot Dr Lee health seminar for 2 to 6 hours in a day. This HDD camcorder is an upgrade from my previous Panasonic NV-DS65 camcorder with DV tape. I would say the difference in video quality and feature are very significant.

Here’s my review of this camcorder.

I bought this camcorder 2 years ago immediately after its release in Malaysia. The price was RM 2799 at Senheng electrical store for 3 years warranty. Actually, I just finished its 2 year interest free installment, at last!

Panasonic SDR-H250 special features are:

• 3CCD 1/6″ sensor
• Leica Dicomar lens
• 30 Gb Hard Disk Drive (HDD) camcorder
• 10x variable speed optical zoom
• Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
• Crystal Engine image processing

3CCD sensor for superior image

Leica lens, stero microphone and mini light

Superior video

The 3CCD definitely produces superior color compare single CCD. In 3CCD system, there are 3 separate sensors for red, blue and green respectively. This results in more vibrant and true color, closer to what our eye sees. Red is red. Blue is blue. Green is green. When I first saw the video produced by this 3CCD camcorder, my response was “Wow!”

Combining 3CCD, Leica lens and Cyrstal Engine image processing, the produced video looks superior compared to the usual camcorder. Its video is even better than the newer Sony HD Handycam, HDR-SR11. The Sony HDR-SR11 has more features such as High Definition video, touch screen, 12x zoom, 60 Gb HDD and various ports. However, video from its single CMOS sensor cannot match Panasonic SDR-H250 3CCD sensor.

With better looking video, I thought this Panasonic SDR-H250 camcorder captures great photo too. Well, I was wrong! It produces only average quality photo with lots of picture noise even with adequate lightning. So, I don’t use it to capture photo.

The Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system works also well in reducing video blurring due to hand shake. This optical stabilization system is far more superior than the previous digital stabilization system in Panasonic NV-DS65. Of course, using a video tripod is a better choice.

HDD system for convenient media operation

Storage convenience

For normal home use, Hard disk drive (HDD) video storage is the best choice compared to DV tape and mini DVD.

Firstly, the 30 Gb HDD in SDR-H250 can record video up to:

• 27 hours in LP mode (lowest quality)
• 14 hours in SP mode (normal quality)
• and 7 hours in XP mode (highest quality)

Therefore, you don’t have to buy many DV tape or mini DVD disk for long hour shooting. For taking seminar video, you can shoot non-stop for several hours with exernal power supply. But for DV tape or mini DVD, you have to change the media every 1 hour, resulting in unwanted video breaks. Then you have to label each media to mark its content and sequence.

For Youtube video, using LP mode is more than enough. For creating 2 hours video in a 4.7 Gb DVD, you can use SP mode. And XP mode is for creating 1 hour video in a 4.7 Gb DVD. I mostly use the SP mode.

Secondly, you can playback, delete and transfer your video clip easily thanks to HDD random access capability. You cannot do that with DV tape.

Thirdly, transfering video file from camcorder HDD to your computer is lightning fast with USB 2.0.  It takes less than 5 minutes to transfer 2 hour SP video (4 Gb) to my notebook. But for DV tape, 2 hour video takes 2 hours to transfer. Yawn…

Finally, the head for DV tape may get dirty, resulting in incomplete overwriting of previous video data. You may see both new and old videos exist in alternate horizontal lines. In this case, you lose what you shoot. I have experienced this several times with my old DV camcorder.

For HDD camcorder, you just need to be careful not to drop it and damage the hard disk. However, Panasonic SDR-H250 has Drop Detect function that automatically park the drive head safely when you accidentally drop it while recording. This minimizes chance of data loss. Well, I never dropped it in 2 years.

Before buying, I thought the hard disk drive can be taken out and replaced like JVC camcorder. But later I realized the hard drive is fixed inside the camcorder. Anyway, 30 Gb capacity is good enough for me. And whenever I accidentally cut of the power supply while recording, data fragment is automatically fixed when I turn it on again. Neat!

Easy to use control

Auto, manual and focus control, SD card slot and other function buttons

Precise zoom / volume stick, photo capture button and nice recording light

Ergonomic controls

The controls are ergonomically placed and easy to use. Delete button is placed at the lower part to prevent user from accidentally pressing it. I find the joystick control precise and fast to use. It is not too soft and not too stiff. I can easily operate the camcorder with only one hand.

The zoom stick responds softly and accurately to your command. You can even zoom in or out at different speed. In video playback mode, this control stick acts as volume control. The rectangle light turns orange color in video shooting mode and turns blue color in video playback mode. I like the way it dims in and out.

Flipping the LCD screen open exposes other less used control such as:

• Auto, manual and focus slidder – Use manual to set brightness, white balance or focus manually
• Reset button (never use it)
• SD card slot
• DVD copy button – Activates installed DVD program in your computer (never use it)
• PowerLCD plus botton – Toggle LCD brightness (hardly use it)
• Light – Cycles between light on, light on with extra sensor sensitivity (for very low light condition but with jerking video) and light off
• Speaker – Don’t be fooled by this tiny speaker. For many times, I thought there’s a bird in my house or my phone rings when the sound is actually from this speaker.

Setting interface

Recording interface

Playback list

Playback interface

Intuitive user interface 

This Panasonic camcorder has intuitive and easy to use interface. The joystick acts as the main control. You can perform most function by moving the joystick up, down, left, right and press it. You only need one hand to perform most task.

The simple and useful guide at the bottom lets you know what action you can do with the joystick and other function buttons. I can easily use it without reading the guide book.

It is worth mentioning that the joystick is quite precise. Direction and pressing action are differentiated nicely. It clicks when I wanted to press it. And it moves to the side when I wanted to use its directional function. I seldom get it wrong, unlike certain joystick in mobile phone.

Panasonic SDR-H250 - highly recommended compact camcorder

Ergonomic and precise controls

Clean design and simple to use

Improvement area

Panasonic could have make this camcorder even better with several improvements. Firstly, I find is very troublesome to transfer video files to computer. Since its USB port is blocked by battery, I must switch to external power supply in order to set up the connection. Here is what it looks like.

Messy wire for computer connection

The Sony HDR-SR11 handycam can do this with battery power. So this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Secondly, this Panasonic camcorder uses hexadecimal folder system. Determining which folder is newer can be quite confusing. However, you can solve this by sorting the folder by date with your computer.

Overall, Panasonic SDR-H250 is a solid, neat and functional HDD camcorder that produces good video quality for home use. If your budget allows, you won’t regret buying it.

Here are two videos showing baby laugh out loud when we play with him.

Right now, our baby is used to having people hugging him and playing with him. So it is very hard for us to let baby on his own. We have cultivated this habit for baby since he was small. And we can hardly change it now.

I know some people would let baby on their own since small. They would avoid hugging or carrying baby around. They would also avoid playing or talking with baby. They only do 4 things to baby: feed her, bath for her, let her poop and let her sleep. This frees them to do their work. So if you’re a busy person and need to take care of your baby, remember to follow this method.

However, I wonder whether this is good for baby’s growth in the long term. For my wife and me, we seem to have no choice now. Baby’s habit has been formed. So we have to keep ourself busy with baby. Anyway, we try to let baby become more independant whenever we can.

Baby singing again

Our baby is 4 months old now. Time flies. Now baby can turn around on his own. So we have to be extra careful watching him. He starts to grab thing with his hand. And he can grab our finger until no blood goes through.

Here is another baby singing session with daddy’s help. This time, the tempo is faster. Even baby finds it funny himself.

Baby singing

At 3 months old, our baby starts to scream instead of cry. Even our neighbour besides and in front of our house could hear baby screaming. Sometimes he tries to talk and sing with the vocabulary only he understands. Here are two of his singing videos.

This is the video of baby singing while pooping.

And this is baby advanced singing session, with mummy’s help of course.

• baby is hungry
• he wants to burp
• his diaper is wet
• he poops
• he is uncomfortable, too hot maybe

The following video shows how loud our baby can cry.

Sometimes, our baby is gentler. After having some milk, he may feel not enough. So he tries to ask for more milk in a polite way. Note his mouth expression…

Are you afraid of having a baby? I hope not!

What they need are your understanding, care and love. After all, they are still a baby.

Dr Lee explained clearly what you must know about diabetes in his recent health talk. He came to Kluang on 6th February. And I shot the whole health talk using my Panasonic SDR-H250 camcorder. It took Google Video 5 days to encode this 2-hour video!

If you can understand Chinese, I highly recommend you to see through this video. Dr Lee gives the best health talk I’ve ever seen. I hope to include English subtitle in the future.

If you’re interested to purchase this or other Dr Lee health talk DVD, just let me know by leaving a comment.