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Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof Camcorder Review
| Author | James Morris |
| Published | 19th Jul 2008 |
| Manufacturer | Panasonic |
| Price | £216.52 (Exc VAT) |
| as reviewed | £249.00 (Inc VAT) |
| Latest Price |
| Features | ![]() |
| Image Quality | ![]() |
| Value | ![]() |
| Overall | ![]() |
The SW20, however, does differ from the SDR-S7 in order to suit its intended usage whilst swimming. For instance, there's an Underwater mode that's activated by pressing and holding the Underwater button. This alters the colour settings to compensate for the effect of shooting through water rather than air. It also filters the audio to counteract noise from the lens control motor during autofocusing, which will be picked up in water due to its greater carrying abilities for high-pitched sound.

Being a Panasonic camcorder, the SW20 has a comprehensive set of manual features, readily accessible using the cursor wheel under the LCD panel. First, you need to press the Manual AF/MF button. One touch enables manual iris and shutter, and a second one toggles manual focusing as well. Getting a sharp focus manually is a little tricky using the cursor wheel, but the other manual options will be welcome. You can vary the iris all the way from F16 to F1.8, or F2.4 when zoomed in. Once the iris is fully open, up to 18dB of video gain can be added on the top - something no other manufacturers offer in their consumer camcorder ranges. The shutter can also be varied from 1/25th to 1/8000th sec, independently of the iris, which is also fairly rare in consumer camcorders.

There are a few other sundry settings available. Even in auto mode, you can call up backlight compensation and a colour night view mode, which simply drops the shutter speed so you can pick up a picture as low as 2 lux. But motion becomes very blurry, and you can't use it at the same time as Underwater mode. Finally, the soft skin setting detects skin tones and softens the focus in those areas accordingly, to even out any blemishes. Delving into the full menu reveals a quintet of scene modes, including Sports, Portrait, Low light, Spotlight, and Surf & snow.
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James Morris said on 12th March 2009
Jodie Lewis said on 13th May 2009
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.... more
James Morris said on 4th June 2009
What was the known fault? I wonder if it has been fixed in the new model, the SW21.
stephncei said on 27th September 2009
To Jodie Lewis...the camera is only designed to withstand a depth of 1.5m, not for scuba diving. I have found the camera a great basic point and shoot camera. The picture quality... more
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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.