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Home » Cameras » Camcorder » Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof Camcorder » Video

Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof Camcorder video review

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The SDR-SW20 has few competitors. In fact, its main opposition will be a regular camcorder with a waterproof casing accessory, which is unlikely to be as small and convenient. Even FlipVideo's Ultra is around the same size with its watertight attachment, albeit lighter. So this is a unique product. Its image quality is far from perfect, particularly in low light, but at under £250 the SDR-SW20 could even be considered as a second camcorder for more adventurous shoots. It's great value, and we hope Panasonic also considers one of its more high-end models for the tough treatment - a waterproof HDC-SD9 would be pretty awesome. Read full review

Overall

8/10

Write your own review

By James Morris
Reviewed 19 July 2008
Updated 26 May 2011

Price as reviewed

£249.00

  • Review
    • 1: Panasonic SDR-SW20
    • 2: Panasonic SDR-SW20
    • 3: Panasonic SDR-SW20
  • Video Review
  • User Reviews
  • Comments
  • Specs
  • 10 Photos
  • Reviewed by James Morris
  • 19 July 2008
Read the full Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof Camcorder review
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Awards

  • Recommended by TR

Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof Camcorder details

Value
9/10
Image Quality
7/10
Features
7/10
Overall
8/10

Price as reviewed

£249.00

Manufacturer

Panasonic

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  3. Samsung HMX-H200

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    Samsung adds new sensor technology to improve image quality, but still keeps the emphasis on value.

 

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YousufVadachia

8:16 PM on 21 July, 2008

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Interesting review, but I was wondering why you guys do not include a short video clip with your video camera reviews just so that we can get a decent idea about what you mean when you describe the video quality as "good", "fair" , "poor" "better than XYZ..." and so on. What do you think?

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ThePope

8:24 PM on 21 July, 2008

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Far from the worst suggestion I've ever heard, Yousuf :)





It's not something we can do straight away (unless you want to see horrible YouTube video quality) but it's certainly something for the future. Nice one.



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Hans Gruber

5:23 PM on 5 September, 2008

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Prophetic words! Love the underwater shark and diver scene. Made me chuckle.

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James Morris

10:02 AM on 15 September, 2008

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;^> See the lenghths we go to at TrustedReviews to bring you the very best in content? That shark was a very dangerous animal, and we risked life and limb to record its actions.

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SusanHarrison

5:44 PM on 7 October, 2008

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Hi, I have a pansonic SDR-S10 and love it, however would like to upgrade to a camcorder which can give sharper picture quality but I don't want to comprimise on size of camcorder as I love the S10's unique compact desgin. Can you tell me if the SW20 can offer what I am looking for? Cheers

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Mervin

11:15 PM on 25 November, 2008

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I am new to the camcorder world, but I am absolutely fascinated by this waterproof model. The only thing that is bothering me is the low dept to which you can take it. Do you know when the second generation is comming out and how deep will it go?

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DylanSlater

1:36 PM on 5 February, 2009

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Can you capture footage directly into your laptop??





Would this be via Fire wire or USB??

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James Morris

1:25 PM on 12 March, 2009

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If you hooked up to a PC via USB, you would leave one of the waterproof doors open, so you couldn't shoot underwater.

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JodieLewis

9:31 PM on 13 May, 2009

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I bought this especially so I could take it scuba diving and I followed all the instructions but ended up sending it back to the place I bought it from because water had got in it. Apparently it s a common fault. The under water recoring quality was good but the still picture quality was terrible. We used it as a camera to save taking two cameras around with us but deeply regretted it because our photos are really dissapointing when printed. We swapped the camera for an alternative after it took a staggering 11 weeks to get repaired. Overall a bad experience

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James Morris

11:27 AM on 4 June, 2009

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What was the known fault? I wonder if it has been fixed in the new model, the SW21.

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