Panasonic HM-TA20 review: Panasonic HM-TA20

Panasonic's first attempt at a minicamcoder, the TA1, was a mess. The video quality was OK, but it offered no advantages over competing models, had mediocre editing and sharing software, and felt cheap considering its near-$170 price. That's not the case with the Panasonic HM-TA20.

7.4

Panasonic HM-TA20

The Good

The <b>Panasonic HM-TA20</b> has a comfortable, rugged design, easy operation, and just enough features to keep it competitive.

The Bad

For a rugged minicamcorder, the TA20's screen and lens are largely unprotected. It has a narrow lens, and there's no 720/60p resolution option.

The Bottom Line

As rugged minicamcorders go, the Panasonic HM-TA20 is very good and definitely deserves consideration.

A waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof update to the TA1, the TA20 fixes much of what was wrong with the first-gen model. Mainly it's just a better design with more-useful features and easier operation due in part to a large touch screen. The embedded software is still a bit lacking compared with what competitors like Kodak include, but it's no longer the worst I've seen. You're paying extra for the durability, too, so if you don't need it there's a nonrugged version, the TA2, available for about $30 less.

The TA20 is waterproof to 10 feet (meeting IEC standard 60529 IPX8, so my guess would be that's only for up to 30 minutes) and dust-resistant (IEC standard 60529 IPX5). It's also shockproof (MIL-STD-810F, Method 516.5) meaning that it's capable of surviving a drop of up to 5 feet. However, this is for a drop onto plywood; just because something is rugged doesn't make it indestructible. In fact, there's nothing shielding the screen or lens from damage, so you still have to be careful about scratches.

There are three doors--two on the left, one on the bottom--concealing the TA20's ports and card slot. All of them have rubber seals on the inside to keep out dust and water, and they are bigger than I'm used to seeing on rugged cameras. Plus, the two doors protecting the headphone jack and Mini-HDMI port and the pop-out USB connector have double locks on them to prevent accidental opening. The card slot has just one lock, but since it's on the bottom, it's less prone to slipping open when you grip the device. The battery is sealed up inside, so although it's protected, it can't be swapped out.

Despite being slightly bigger than competing models, the TA20 is comfortable to use and easily slips into a pants pocket. The bumper around the outside edge adds some grip. The only physical controls are the large record button below the screen, and power and screen lock buttons on the right side. Everything else is handled with the 3-inch touch screen, which is fine because really there's not a lot to do.

You only get about the top third of the screen for framing your video, which is a shame given its size. The rest of the screen is taken up with a zoom slider for the digital zoom and playback, mode, and menu icons. The mode options are just videos, photos, and audio recording; there's a very good stereo microphone on top for linear PCM recording. Menu options are nearly as limited. For playback, you can view videos horizontally and when you do you actually get more options, such as tagging clips for uploading to Facebook and YouTube, grabbing stills from video, and trimming clips.

The TA20 can record at four different resolutions: 1080/30p, 720/30p, 480/30p, and 540/30p. That last one is the Apple-developed iFrame format created to simplify editing and online sharing, but the results are undesirable for anything else. The one resolution the competition offers that's not here is 720/60p for smoother video of fast-moving subjects, and it's really missed.

The video quality and overall performance are very good from the TA20, but not exceptional and no competition for a full-fledged camcorder. At 1080p and 720p resolutions, the movies are enjoyable to watch at small sizes on a computer screen, but at larger sizes you'll notice they're somewhat soft and lacking in fine detail. However, colors are bright and vivid and exposure is good. The electronic image stabilization seems to help with hand shake some, but don't expect it to be rock-steady if there's a lot of movement. As is typical for minicamcorders, you'll also see judder when panning as well as motion blur with fast-moving subjects.

Low-light video isn't as good, with a lot of noise and artifacting. A built-in LED light in front can help illuminate dimly lit scenes, but it's really only OK for about 2 feet in front of the camera despite being blindingly bright. There is a 4x digital zoom should you want to use it, but it does degrade video quality and it's a bit jerky; use it sparingly. Panasonic includes the capability to shoot in black and white and sepia, and to apply skin softening with nice-looking results.

Lastly, as with most pocket video cameras, still photos are not great. They're on par with camera phone photos, so suitable for the Web, but not as good as photos from a good point-and-shoot.

Though it's not the easiest piece of software to work with, the embedded HD Writer PE 2.0 is sufficient for getting your videos off the camera and uploaded to YouTube and Facebook.

A big part of why pocket video cameras are popular is the embedded editing and sharing software that makes getting clips off the device and onto video-sharing sites easy. Panasonic's Windows-only software is called HD Writer PE 2.0 and is basically an off-the-shelf package. It does the bare minimum of things such as organizing and simple editing, and playback and sharing is limited to YouTube or Facebook. (However, once a clip is uploaded, you can choose to attach the link to an e-mail.) The interface is boring and uses words like "Execute" instead of "Start upload." It seems improved over the previous generation of the software, but it's still nothing that's going to make you buy a Panasonic over another brand.

One thing that might sway you to the TA20 is that it can be used as a Webcam. Once it's connected to a computer, you have a choice of accessing its files or using it for something like Skype. The TA20 can stand on its own (the TA1 couldn't), but Panasonic also includes a mini-tripod.

Conclusion
The Panasonic HM-TA20 is a huge improvement over the company's first-gen minicamcorder. The video quality was already decent and that stays the same for the most part; it could be better with moving subjects, but it's otherwise average for this class of minicamcorder. The real improvements are in design and usability, so if you're looking for a simple shoot-and-share minicamcorder that can take some abuse, the TA20 is worth considering.

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