Panasonic HC-X920 review

INS AND OUTS

As you’d expect from this level of camera, the HC-X920 has a sensible complement of connection ports. It has Mini HDMI, A/V outputs, a Mini USB connector for viewing and transferring your footage, but perhaps more importantly it has separate 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks and a hot accessory shoe.

The HC-X920 feels very light, but not flimsy, although we’d prefer a sturdier-feeling touchscreen hinge. We were a little disappointed with some of the switches, as they felt too cheap for a camcorder at this price, as did the plastic zoom lever. We don’t think the HC-X900 is badly made, it just feels a little cheap for its price.

The HC-X920’s electronic viewfinder displays the state of recording, whether or not Intelligent Auto’s enabled, the battery life and the horizontal attitude of the camcorder. It’s handy in some lighting conditions, but the touchscreen will find more use.

The HC-X920’s resistive touchscreen is the same size and resolution as the HC-X900’s, and it’s just as colourful and responsive. Menu options are grouped under three icons marked Setup, Record Setup and Picture, and each option group contains the setting you expect to find there. The menu isn’t graphically impressive, but is pretty quick and responsive.

The battery hangs off the back of the camcorder, so you could replace it with a larger one. The supplied one only lasted one hours and 25 minutes of continuous shooting, so you’ll probably want a backup anyway.

WRAP IT UP

The HC-X920 is compatible with the Panasonic VW-CLTE-H 3D conversion lens. The lens makes the light HC-X920 very front-heavy, and you must compensate for this. The 3D’s not bad, but the effect is subtle and there’s too much crosstalk on objects that are within a metre of the lens. We think true 3D camcorders such as the Sony TD20VE are a better choice if you want to record in 3D.

We don’t like the cheap feel of the HC-X920’s controls, and the Panasonic Image app could be better, but it is a great camcorder at a very competitive price. The Wi-Fi features and larger 3MOS sensors won’t quite have X900 owners clamouring to upgrade after just 12 months, but it’s still a big update and an early contender for camcorder of the year – but we’ll have to see what Sony has up its sleeve first.