Panasonic VDR-D300

VDR-D300 - DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, LCD 123,000 pixels, Stereo, USB 2.0, SD Design of Panasonic VDR-D300
The VDR-D300 is Panasonic’s top-of-the-line DVD camcorder, a 3-chip model with excellent specs and features. At $999 (MSRP), the D300 is a strong competitor for best DVD camcorder of year, going head to head with the Sony’s offering, the DCR-DVD505. Just what makes the D300 so good? Read on and find out.
The VDR-D300 features three 1/6” CCDs, each with 800K gross pixels. This camcorder, along with the D250, are the first DVD camcorders to offer three chips, which filter incoming light into three channels – red, green, and blue – for more accurate color reporting. In bright light, the D300 had an exceptionally sharp picture, particularly noteworthy due to the high compression of DVD. This image looked as good as a top-end MiniDV.
Low light performance was not quite so stellar. While three chips are great for sharpness, they don’t collect any more light than a single 1/6” chip. Chip size is far more important. The D300 maintained a good deal of sharpness, but the luminance dropped off quite a bit. Fine grain noise noticeably went up , most likely a result of a boost in the automatic gain. Fine noise is better than big, chunky noise, but it’s still there.
The handling on the D300 is very good, thanks to the joystick control located on the rear of the body. Manual controls are one of Panasonic’s greatest strengths, and navigating through them with the joystick is a relatively simple procedure. Yes, it might take a few tries before you get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s a powerful tool. Shutter speed (14 increments), aperture in f-stops (14 increments), manual focus, and manual gain (7 steps).
There are also a few quasi-manual controls, like backlight compensation, and scene modes – auto exposure settings for specific lighting environments – like Sports, Portrait, Low Light, Spotlight, and Snow & Surf.
Full auto controls are engaged by flipping a small switch in the LCD cavity. The responses are not as good as you’d find on a Sony, or even some Canons, but they suffice. Auto focus was very good, but auto white balance left something to be desired. Learning how to set a manual white balance should be a beginning user’s first task.
Still features on the D300 are very good. Stills can be saved in the JPEG format to SD cards in sizes as large as 2048 x 1512. There are options for a flash, flash levels, red-eye reduction, plus a huge array of manual controls found in video mode. The D300’s stills were very sharp and rich.
We are as surprised as anyone that a DVD camcorder was able to give such an excellent performance. The resolution scores matched that of the best MiniDV camcorders, something that no other DVD camcorder has done. It gives us hope that DVD, a format quickly overshadowing MiniDV, may soon be able to match its performance. DVD compression is still much higher than MiniDV, and not as easy to import and edit on computers, but the gap is shrinking. If you are intent on purchasing a DVD camcorder and willing to spend the money, the VDR-D300 cannot be topped.