Panasonic NV-DS55A

The growth in home video production is astounding. APC has covered digital video editing hardware and software in previous issues (see APC March, page 116, and April, page 99), but the main factor behind the flourishing home video production sector has been the increased availability of high-quality video cameras.
Digital video has particular benefits for PC owners. Rather than relying on expensive video capture cards, most digital cameras allow direct image capture using USB or FireWire/IEEE 1394 connections. The super-small NV-DS55A from Panasonic is the latest entry in this field.
One of the product’s main selling points is its capacity for multiple uses. Apart from recording digital video, it can act as a digital camera, either by capturing single frames of prerecorded footage, or by direct capture while in filming mode. Inadvertent hand shaking occasionally meant it produced poor results, but the option is still useful.
Captured images can be saved to a flash memory card, which Panasonic has named the Multimedia Card. This is very similar to a product available for some time with Sony’s DV range, known as the Memory Stick.
The card supplied with the camera is 4M, which allows you to capture 28 images. Larger capacity cards (8M and 16M) are available. Tying in with the digital media card are optional PCMCIA adaptors and an external Multimedia Card drive to connect via a parallel port. On the test machine, the parallel port already had to deal with a Zip drive and
scanner. Somehow, they all got along fine, once drive letters were assigned to the Multimedia Card and Zip.
The PCMCIA connection is simpler, because Windows recognises the Multimedia Card as a removable hard drive. However, Windows wouldn’t recognise the PCMCIA card holder properly unless the Multimedia card was inserted into it. It was also unclear which direction the card needed to go in. Transfer times were quick — the average picture was not more than 100K in 640 by 480 JPEG format. Unwanted pictures can be deleted, either from within Windows or using the onscreen menu in the camera.
Video filming quality is high. The camera controls are reasonably well placed, especially considering the small size of the camera. The camera comes with a flip-out viewfinder as well as the more usual lens arrangement. One impressive feature is that images can be viewed mirror style if the viewfinder is flipped outwards (so that it faces out from the camera, for viewing and filming yourself at the same time).
The camera connects to external devices (PC, VCR) through a breakout box with options for FireWire, RCA connectivity or S-Video cable. A credit cardsized remote control, ideal for losing behind the sofa, is also provided. The battery uses a recharging unit, which works quickly. About 15 minutes charging will give one hour of battery life. However, the battery life depends largely on the level of film quality you opt for. If you’re willing to sacrifice quality, the battery will last longer.
Whichever way you turn the camera, there are more controls, panels and switches. The onscreen menu selection button was hard to reach when holding the camera with one hand, but every other function, from zooming to recording to picture taking was easy to operate. Zooming is especially well balanced; the camera did a very good job of retaining correct focus even on extreme zoom changes.
Above all, the NV-DS55A is a lightweight camera; it’s just under half a kilo without a tape. It’s not cheap at $3,199 (more if you want the PC extras), but you do get a lot for your money.